Summary

• Ancient Egyptian texts represent the literary soul of one of the world’s oldest civilizations, spanning millennia of spiritual, political, and cultural evolution.
• From the monumental Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts to the poetic literature, magical spells, and Hermetic philosophy, these writings were more than documentation—they were the voice of gods, the path to immortality, and a mirror of Egyptian society.
• Recorded in hieroglyphic, hieratic, and later demotic and Greek scripts, these texts guided the dead to the afterlife, preserved mythological narratives, outlined medical and mathematical knowledge, and captured moral teachings.
• Whether inscribed on tombs, coffins, papyrus scrolls, or temple walls, each line was a sacred tool, aiming to sustain order, ensure eternal life, and unite the mortal with the divine.
• All these texts form a profound testament to the intellectual and spiritual depth of ancient Egypt.

Ancient Egyptian Texts can be seen as the recorded historical and cultural heritage of the ancient Egyptian civilization that was cultivated over thousands of years. Egypt has developed one of the most incredible collections of the earliest literature in the history of mankind that was written in hieroglyphic and hieratic in the late 4th millennium BC during the final days of predynastic Egypt.

The texts contain several magnificent facts, stories, hymns, words of wisdom, funerary rituals, and spells that was seen as the words of the gods and goddess of ancient Egypt which opened a gate revealing a civilization’s quest to bridge the mortal realm with the divine, to navigate the treacherous waters of the afterlife and to harness the very forces of magic that course through the ever-growing veins of existence.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This information does not seek to degrade or insult any religion. All the information is based on historical evidence, any similarities that you may find with your own faith or religion are from the figment of your imagination.

Sacred and Religious Texts Across Dynasties

Religious texts from each era derive their names from the primary surfaces on which they’ve been preserved, a classification established by contemporary scholars. The ‘Pyramid Texts’ from the Old Kingdom (circa 2686-2181 BC) were inscribed onto the walls of burial chambers within royal pyramids. ‘Coffin Texts’ predominantly appear on coffins from the Middle Kingdom (approximately 2025-1700 BC). The ‘Book of the Dead’ encompasses compositions primarily discovered within books, specifically papyrus scrolls, placed within ancient Egyptian tombs. Beyond these core collections, various other religious texts exist, encompassing rituals and offering formulations on coffins, stelae, and other artifacts.

The Pyramid Texts spells of Ascent the Stars

The Pyramid Texts are the oldest religious writings globally, which constituted the main funerary literature of ancient Egypt. They were inscribed on sarcophagi and pyramid walls during the 5th and 6th Dynasties of the Old Kingdom (2613-2181 BCE) at Saqqara. These texts were intended to assist deceased pharaohs in their journey to the afterlife, employing spells and incantations to liberate their minds and souls from their bodies and aid their ascent to the heavens known as the field of reeds.

These texts reflect the Egyptians’ deep belief in an eternal existence alongside their gods, encouraging a profound attachment to their homeland. Even for those dying within Egypt, the transition to the afterlife was seen as a significant change. The Pyramid Texts assured that gods remained present, guiding the soul safely to its everlasting abode.

They were prepared by ancient scribes and ancient Egyptian priests who provided deep insight into the lives and personalities of the kings they were created. They also contain references to various gods and goddesses and offer guidance on the soul’s journey through the afterlife. Over 200 deities are mentioned, which include Ra and Osiris. The ultimate goal of the Pyramid Texts was to attain eternal life in the “Field of Reeds,” which is a divine realm mirroring earthly existence but without suffering or death.

The texts of the ancient Egyptian pyramids are composed as “utterances,” or “Spells” meant to be chanted aloud like in a choir. They invoke powerful deities such as Thoth, Osiris, and Horus to aid the king, using symbolic moments from mythology to convey concepts of order and harmony. The sun god Ra is frequently mentioned, ensuring the soul’s continued comfort. The texts also introduce the notion of Osiris as the ruler of the dead and the concept of judgment in the Hall of Truth. The spells in the Pyramid Texts are up to a thousand, which are divided into three categories, which are known to begin with “Dd-mdw” or “words to say”. Various types of rituals were conducted for the deceased.

Offering Rituals involved short spells recited while presenting offerings to the deceased, referring to them as “Osiris” and offerings as the “Eye of Horus.” These spells contained wordplay related to the offerings and aimed to “open the mouth” of the deceased, restoring their senses and abilities in the afterlife before making offerings.

Resurrection Rituals were longer texts found in burial chambers and antechambers. These were recited to separate the soul (“ba”) from the mummy, allowing it to lead a dual existence. The soul would be a spirit (“akh”) during the day, interacting with the living, and at night, it would join the deceased on a different plane.

Personal Spells were located in various tomb areas and were spoken by the deceased’s soul during its nightly journey towards rebirth at dawn. Originally in the first person, these texts were often adapted to the third person in each tomb, replacing pronouns with the deceased’s name. These texts were crafted by priests of the Old Kingdom to guide kings’ souls safely through the afterlife, reassuring them that death was a natural transition. Some utterances invoke gods to comfort the soul, while others assure that the soul has safely arrived in the afterlife. The deceased’s journey involved facing dark spirits, judgment by Osiris, and passing through challenges to attain eternal joy.

The most famous image in the Pyramid Texts depicts the soul’s journey using vivid metaphors, emphasizing the soul’s ascent to the heavens with the help of various deities. The ship of Ra, associated with the sun which played a crucial role in this quest. The Pyramid Texts also introduce the concept of judgment by Osiris, with the heart weighed against the feather of Truth. While the Pyramid Texts provide the initial mention of Osiris’s judgment, the idea is further developed in later texts like the Book of Coming Forth By Day, also known as The Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Funerary Texts guides to the Afterlife

In the Second Intermediate Period, funerary texts were divided into distinct groups. The prominent “Book of the Dead,” known as “prt m hrw” or “coming forth by day,” contained around a hundred personal spells (“chapters”) from earlier sources like the Pyramid Texts and coffin texts. These spells were written in cursive hieroglyphs on papyrus with accompanying vignettes.

The ancient Egyptian funerary texts comprise a collection of religious manuscripts employed in ancient Egypt, primarily to ensure the preservation of an individual’s spirit in the afterlife. These texts evolved over different eras: commencing with the Pyramid Texts during the Old Kingdom, progressing to the Coffin Texts in the Middle Kingdom, and eventually culminating in various books, most notably the Book of the Dead, during the New Kingdom and subsequent periods.

In the Old Kingdom, the funerary texts were exclusively reserved for the king. Towards the end of this era, these texts began appearing in the tombs of royal consorts. In the Middle Kingdom, the Coffin Texts constitute an assortment of ancient Egyptian funerary incantations inscribed on coffins, originating during the First Intermediate Period.

Almost half of the spells found in the Coffin Texts can be traced back to the Pyramid Texts. During the New Kingdom, several significant funerary texts emerged, including: The Book of the Dead, The Amduat, The Spell of the Twelve Caves, The Book of Gates, The Book of the Netherworld, The Book of Caverns, The Book of the Earth, and The Litany of Re.

Following the Amarna Period, a fresh set of funerary texts came into use, centering on representations of Nut, the goddess of the sky. These texts depict the nocturnal journey of the sun through Nut’s body, culminating in its rebirth each morning. Starting with the tomb of Ramesses IV, two of these Books of the Sky were typically positioned side by side on the ceilings of royal tombs.

The texts included: The Book of Nut, The Book of the Day, The Book of the Night, and The Book of the Heavenly Cow. During the Late Period, the Books of Breathing gained prominence as important funerary texts. In the Ptolemaic period, the Book of Traversing Eternity became notable in the realm of funerary literature.

Papyrus Texts the Embodiment of Egyptian Thought

The term “papyrus” refers both to the material itself and to documents written on its sheets, often rolled into scrolls. These documents are known as “papyri,” have historical significance, and are named after discoverers, owners, or keeping institutions. All ancient Egyptian papyri are known to be well-known individual manuscripts scripted in hieroglyphs, hieratic, demotic, or Greek. Papyri are known to be filled with highly important facts which are known to come in the nature of Biographical, Drawings like Cartoons & Maps, Funerary like Books of the Dead, Literary Texts like Tales & Poems, Official Records, Correspondence, Contracts, Religious Myths, Scientific, Mathematical, Medical, Teachings, Instructions, and more.

These documents provide crucial insights into various aspects of ancient knowledge, including the sole surviving copy of Menander, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, medical and surgical treatises like “Papyrus Harris I”, the Ebers Papyrus and Edwin Smith Papyrus, mathematical texts like the Rhind Papyrus, and folk tales such as the Westcar Papyrus.

Literature Texts Stories of Men and Gods

Literature texts in ancient Egypt varied in many types and branches, for example the genre of “tales and stories” is notably underrepresented in the surviving literature of the Middle Kingdom but, in Late Egyptian literature, “tales and stories” constitute the predominant portion of extant literary works, dating from the Ramesside Period. During the Middle Kingdom, significant narrative pieces include works like the Tale of the Court of King Cheops, the Story of Sinuhe, King Neferkare and General Sasenet, The Eloquent Peasant, and the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor. The New Kingdom era adds to this corpus with narratives like the Tale of Two Brothers, The Taking of Joppa, the Quarrel of Apepi and Seqenenre, the Tale of the Doomed Prince, and the Report of Wenamun.

Moving into the 1st millennium BC, stories written in Demotic include the Famine Stela, set in the Old Kingdom but composed during the Ptolemaic dynasty, along with short story cycles from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. These cycles transform renowned historical figures like Khaemweset (Nineteenth Dynasty) and Inaros (First Persian Period) into fictional legendary heroes. In contrast, Late Egyptian stories often feature divine protagonists and mythological settings, showcasing a divergence from the focus on historical figures seen in other narratives.

The “prophetic texts” genre in the Middle Kingdom, also termed “discourses,” “dialogues,” “laments,” and “apocalyptic literature,” includes compositions like the Prophecy of Neferti, the Admonitions of Ipuwer, and Dispute between a man and his Ba. This genre emerged without an Old Kingdom precursor and didn’t produce original works in the New Kingdom.

However, during the New Kingdom in the Ramesside Period, works like the Prophecy of Neferti were frequently copied. A resurgence of Egyptian prophetic literature occurred during the Ptolemaic and Roman eras, highlighted by works like the Demotic Chronicle, Oracle of the Lamb, Oracle of the Potter, and two prophetic texts focusing on Nectanebo II (360–343 BC) as a central figure. These reflective discourses are categorized alongside the wisdom literature genre of the ancient Near East, along with “teaching” texts.

Wisdom Texts teachings and Dialogues with the Soul

Wisdom literature fell under the category of sebayt, which means “teaching” as the whole point was means for spread enlightenment. This genre thrived during the Middle Kingdom and gained canonical status in the New Kingdom. Prominent compositions within this genre encompass the Instructions of Kagemni, the Maxims of Ptahhotep, the Instructions of Amenemhat, and the Loyalist Teaching. Hymns like A Prayer to Re-Har-akhti (circa 1230 BC) exemplify the admission of transgressions and the plea for clemency.

A significant portion of the extant wisdom literature from ancient Egypt centers around the concept of the afterlife. Some of these compositions take the form of dialogues, such as The Debate Between a Man and his Soul from the 20th to 18th centuries BC. This text features a Middle Kingdom man bemoaning life as he converses with his “ba,” or soul. Additional texts offer diverse perspectives on the existence after death, encompassing the rationalist skepticism of The Immortality of Writers and the oscillating tones of hope and doubt found in Harper’s Songs.

Coffin Texts Democratizing Eternity

The Coffin Texts date to (2134-2040 BCE), which consist of 1,185 spells and religious writings inscribed on coffins to guide the deceased in the afterlife. They include the Book of Two Ways, offering maps of the afterlife and safe routes to paradise. These texts are significant in revealing the transition between the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period in Egypt’s culture and religious beliefs. The text served to provide for and safeguard the deceased, with a significant focus on the general Judgment of the Dead that all deceased individuals underwent.

Derived from the earlier Pyramid Texts (2400-2300 BCE), the Coffin Texts influenced the Egyptian Book of the Dead (1550-1070 BCE). They were inscribed on wood or papyrus coffins using an early form of Middle Kingdom, often in cursive hieroglyphs or hieratic script. Written mainly during the First Intermediate Period, they reflect the shift from a strong centralized government to regional autonomy, fostering cultural and artistic growth.

The democratization of the afterlife was driven by the Osiris myth, where ordinary individuals could achieve eternal life. The Coffin Texts reference various gods, especially Osiris, in spells that prepared the soul for its journey and judgment. The spells, painted on coffins, helped the soul recognize itself and its path in the afterlife. During the First Intermediate Period, simpler coffins replaced elaborate sarcophagi. These were painted with text and images illustrating the person’s life and guiding them in the afterlife. The Coffin Texts gave way to The Egyptian Book of the Dead in later eras, which continued to serve as a guide to the afterlife.

Magical Texts Egypt’s Magical Spell Scripts

Guidelines for religious and magical rituals were frequently recorded on papyri like the Book of the Dead, serving as instructions for those responsible for conducting the ceremonies. These ritualistic documents were primarily archived within temple libraries. Additionally, the walls of temples themselves were engraved with these texts, often accompanied by illustrative depictions.

Unlike the papyri used for rituals, these inscriptions weren’t instructional in nature; instead, they symbolically preserved the rituals, even if practical enactment waned. Magical texts similarly detail rituals, although these rituals were integral parts of spells employed to achieve specific objectives in daily life. Despite their practical purpose, many of these texts initially originated in temple libraries but eventually spread among the general populace.

Hermetic Texts the Realization of the wisdom of the Gods

Hermetic writings, or Hermetica, are attributed to the Egyptian god Thoth, known as Hermes Trismegistos in Greek. These works, written in Greek and Latin between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, encompass two main categories: “popular” Hermetism involving astrology and occult sciences, and “learned” Hermetism addressing theology and philosophy. Emerging in the diverse Greco-Egyptian culture of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, these writings reflect a shift from traditional Greek rationalism to a blend of science and religion during the Hellenistic era.

Hermes-Thoth, along with other deities and prophets, offered divinely revealed wisdom amid this changing landscape. Initially focused on astrology and ancient Egyptian astronomy, the writings later expanded to cover medicine, alchemy (notably the “Emerald Tablet”), and magic. The concept of cosmic unity and interdependence was central to the occult sciences, emphasizing practical application based on divine understanding of cosmic elements. Hermetism parallels contemporary Gnosticism, seeking human deification through knowledge (gnosis) of the transcendent God, the world, and humanity.

The theological texts, notably the Corpus Hermeticum comprising 17 treatises, blend Egyptian roots with Greek, Eastern, Platonic, Stoic, and Neo-Pythagorean influences. Arabs played a significant role in nurturing Hermetism and transmitting it to the Western world. References to Hermes Trismegistos are frequent in late medieval and Renaissance literature.