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We often forget that ancient Egyptian religion existed for more than three thousand years. Even with this conservative chronological estimate, that tradition remains older than many of the current historical traditions. Our knowledge of Egyptian religion has tended to be built around the specific interests of some archeologists and a romanticizing of an eternal and mystery-bound Egypt. Nowhere has this been more apparent than with the Egyptian "Book of the Dead." Erik Hornung's new book, "The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife" goes a long way toward beginning to correct and to inform our understanding of one aspect of religion in ancient Egypt. Dr. Hornung's book focuses on simple, clearly written expositions of the amazingly complex and prolific corpus of Egyptian writings know collectively as the "Books of the Netherworld." One of the most important and useful contributions of this book for both secondary teachers and students occurs on the first pages. These pages are spent giving us the English language translations of all the books of the Egyptian afterlife presented in the book. This is an enormously useful contribution. For those who want to follow a more in-depth study of the scholarship and writing on these texts he provides in the back of the book an excellent, standard academic bibliography with citations from journals and from sources in French, German, and English. Immediately after the list of translations at the beginning of the book, Hornung gives a concise introduction that explains that the "Book of the Dead" has held the public's and the publisher's fascination for several generations, but this text does not by any stretch of the imagination amount to the only, or to the most important, or the most interesting of the books of the afterlife. In fact, the "Book of the Dead" was a collection of spells "concerned with practical assistance regarding the journey to the afterlife and the deceased's stay there (xviii)." What makes these collective "Books of the Netherworld" more interesting than the "Book of the Dead" is their "detailed descriptions of the hereafter (xviii)." Moving chronologically, Hornung begins his discussion with the Old Kingdom (2705 - 2180 B.C.E) "Pyramid Texts." His establishes a pattern here that he follows throughout the book. With each text he begins his discussion with a "Sources" section that tells the reader where the evidence or copy of this text came from, moves onto a "Research" section that quickly details the history of the scholarship on the text, follows with a discussion of the "Structure and Language" of the text, and ends with a discussion of "Content." His order and sequence of presentation and length are just right. You are never given more information than is helpful for a sound, basic understanding of the text. Each text is supported by a variety of illustrations for further clarification. The result is a user-friendly academic book. He moves then to a discussion of the Middle Kingdom ( 1987 - 1640 B.C.E.) "Coffin Texts" and to the New Kingdom (1540 - 1075 B.C.E.) "Book of the Dead." The majority of the book is then taken up with a discussion of the many New Kingdom "Books of the Netherworld." "These are the first religious books that are not ever-changing collection of spells, as the Book of the Dead still was; instead they have permanent, unchanging content. Additionally, their pictures are not separate vignettes but rather constitute, along with the text, a solid unity (26)." He then moves readers through an explication of texts that moves for example from the "Amduat" to the "The Book of Gates" and the "Book of Night" to the "Litany of Re." The focus of these journeys through the dark realms of night and of death is the journey of the sun and its regeneration and rebirth. Within this rich and complex imagery of the journey to the land of the midnight sun there is simultaneously depicted the journey of the soul in death, through the cosmos, through the interior of the sky, and by implication through the human soul. This is a book that belongs on your bookshelf. User friendly and accessible, the book goes a long way toward clarifying our understanding of ancient Egyptian religion. As one of the leading scholars of ancient Egyptian religion Erik Hornung a number of books useful for both teachers and students. For an excellent introduction to Egyptian ideas about God see his Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many (1996). Recent publications include History of Ancient Egypt: An Introduction (1999) and Akhenaten and the Religion of Light (1999). © Tom Collins RSiSS 1999 Return to Ancient Middle East resources |
