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The Egyptian Book of the Dead (The Papyrus of Ani)

Ancient Egyptian funerary texts · tr. E. A. Wallis Budge · 1895 · 177,104 words

The Papyrus of Ani, the finest copy of the Egyptian “Chapters of Coming Forth by Day”: hymns to Ra and Osiris, the weighing of the heart, the negative confession and the transformations of the soul, with Budge’s long introduction.

Editor’s note: this book reflects the racial and cultural assumptions of its time, which Olytis does not share. It is offered for its historical and spiritual content.

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Introduction (part 1)

The Versions of the Book of the Dead

The four great Versions of the Book of the Dead.

The history of the great body of religious compositions which form the Book of Dead of the ancient Egyptians may conveniently be divided into four of the periods, which are represented by four versions:— 1. The version which was edited by the priests of the college of Annu (the On of the Bible, and the Heliopolis of the Greeks), and which was based upon a series of texts now lost, but which there is evidence to prove had passed through a series of revisions or editions as early as the period of the Vth dynasty. This version was, so far as we know, always written in hieroglyphics, and may be called the Heliopolitan version. It is known from five copies which are inscribed upon the walls of the chambers and passages in the pyramids of kings of the Vth and VIth dynasties at Sakkâra; and sections of it are found inscribed upon tombs, sarcophagi, coffins, stelæ and papyri from the XIth dynasty to about A.D. 200.

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Contents

  1. Preface
  2. Introduction (part 1)
  3. Introduction (part 2)
  4. The Legend of Osiris
  5. The Doctrine of Eternal Life
  6. The Egyptians' Ideas of God
  7. The Legend of Ra and Isis
  8. The Abode of the Blessed
  9. The Gods of the Book of the Dead
  10. The Principal Geographical and Mythological Places in the Book of the Dead
  11. Funeral Ceremonies
  12. The Papyrus of Ani
  13. The Book of the Dead
  14. Plate II
  15. Plate III
  16. Plate IV
  17. Plates V. and VI
  18. Plates VII.-X
  19. Plates XI. and XII
  20. Plate XIII
  21. Plate XIV
  22. Plate XV
  23. Plate XVI
  24. Plate XVII
  25. Plate XVIII
  26. Plate XIX
  27. Plate XX
  28. Plate XXI
  29. Plate XXII
  30. Plate XXIII. and Plate XXIV
  31. Plate XXV
  32. Plate XXVI
  33. Plate XXVII
  34. Plate XXVIII
  35. Plates XXIX. and XXX
  36. Plates XXXI. and XXXII
  37. Plate XXXII
  38. Plate XXXIII
  39. Plates XXXIII and XXXIV
  40. Plates XXXV. and XXXVI
  41. Plate XXXVII
  42. In the British Museum (part 1)
  43. In the British Museum (part 2)
  44. In the British Museum (part 3)
  45. In the British Museum (part 4)
  46. In the British Museum (part 5)

About this edition

Source: Internet Sacred Text Archive · gutenberg.org

Public domain: Public domain worldwide (1895; Budge died 1934).

What’s included: Budge’s introduction and his translation of the Papyrus of Ani (1895). Hieroglyphic text, transliteration, plates and footnotes are not included.

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