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Looking for Ancient Egyptians Books

Stanyon

WWMRD?
The Egyptian Book of the Dead is pretty interesting, the one I used to have had it in English and had the hieroglyphs on the opposite page.
 

Curious George

Veteran Member
I think that @gnostic, @1137 , @crossfire and @sayak83 might be able to help you. There are older members but I don't recall if any of them ever posted a list of books relating to Egypt and Egyptian afterlife. If they aren't around often, then you won't be able to ask. It might be a worth a look with the search feature though.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
This is a bit different but Initiation by Elisabeth Haich which includes a past life as a priestess of Ra in the time of Ptahhotep. I found it interesting but am not 100% convinced.
 

gnostic

The Lost One
I think that @gnostic, @1137 , @crossfire and @sayak83 might be able to help you. There are older members but I don't recall if any of them ever posted a list of books relating to Egypt and Egyptian afterlife. If they aren't around often, then you won't be able to ask. It might be a worth a look with the search feature though.
Thank George for alerting me on this thread. I'd be happy to help out.

To @The Great Wanderer:

If you want to read funerary literature, which include ascension and afterlife, there are 3 main texts:

  1. Pyramid Texts (PT), Old Kingdom, 5th and 6th dynasties. These are found in some inside chambers of pyramid walls, and only reserved for the resurrection for kings and queens. The focus on the Afterlife is centred around the sun god Re (Ra), and ascended kings become crewmen to Re's Solar Barque, a boat that sail across the sky, as the Sun.
  2. Coffin Texts (CT), Middle Kingdom, 11th, 12th, 13th dynasties. The texts are often written on the panels of the coffins, and sometimes on the walls of the tombs, if they can afford tombs and coffins. Here, like the BotD, the resurrection and afterlife focused the religion around Osiris instead of Re.
  3. Book of the Dead (BotD), New Kingdom to the Late Period, there are actually a number of different surviving papyri written for different deceased people, dedicated to rulers, governors or ordinary subjects (eg Hunefer and Ani both of 19th dynasty; Saite Recension, 26th dynasty). What are interesting about the BotD, is that pictures are drawn, to depict what happen before, during and after Judgment of the soul (ba).
Here are some of the translations that I could find:

Pyramid Texts:


Faulkner, Raymond O. (1969; new edition on paperback), The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, Oxford University Press

Allen, James (2005, Kindle), The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, Society of Biblical Literature

Coffin Texts:

Faulkner, Raymond O. (2004 edition; older 1977 edition in 3 very expensive volumes), The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, Aris & Phillips)​


Book of the Dead:

Faulkner, Raymond O., and Goelet, Ogden (2015), The Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Book of Going Forth By Day: The Complete Papyri of Ani, Chronicle Books

Faulkner, Raymond O., and Andrews, Carol (1990) The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, University of Texas

Budge, Ernest Wallis, and Romer, John, The Egyptian Book Of The Dead, Penguin, 2008 (first published in 1899)​


If you want other Egyptian texts on Egyptian myths (eg creation, destruction of mankind, Ra and Isis, Legend of Horus of Behdet, etc)

Budge, E. A. Wallis (revised 1994, also available in Kindle; originally published in 1912), Legends Of The Gods: The Egyptian Texts, Hieroglyphic Texts and Translations, Dover​

I hoped any of these help, Wanderer.
 
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gnostic

The Lost One
Oh, BTW, The Great Wanderer. I would recommend books by Faulkner over Budge.

And some books are more expensive than others, even though they were translated by the same people. It depends on the publishers and editions.

For instance, one of the translations to Coffin Texts, I had paid under $105, and this same edition is been sold from $400 to over $1000. I don't know why it varied so widely in price.

My recommendation is to avoid the Coffin Texts. Try the more affordable Pyramid Texts or the Book of the Dead.
 
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1137

Here until I storm off again
Premium Member
Thanks for the alert. Main ones are being covered well, let me give you some nice Set-specific works many more. If you're confused why I'm connecting Set to the afterlife then these books are for you :)

Seth God of Confusion by Herman Te Velde.

Images of Set by Joan Lansberry.

Set the Outsider by Don Webb and Judith Page.

The Conflict of Horus and Set by Griffiths.

The pyramid texts.

Gods of the Egyptians and Egyptian Religion by E.A. Budge.
 

1137

Here until I storm off again
Premium Member
Oh, BTW, The Great Wanderer. I would recommend books by Faulkner over Budge.

And some books are more expensive than others, even though they were translated by the same people. It depends on the publishers and editions.

For instance, one of the translations to Coffin Texts, I had paid under $105, and this same edition is been sold from $400 to over $1000. I don't know why it varied so widely in price.

My recommendation is to avoid the Coffin Texts. Try the more affordable Pyramid Texts or the Book of the Dead.

Free Pyramid Texts :) - Pyramid Texts Online
 
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