The "other" funerary books

[Ishtara]

Em hotep!

As of late I am finding myself increasingly fascinated by the lesser-known funerary books such as the Book of Gates and the Book of Caverns.
Resources may not be as abundant for these texts as they are for the Book of Coming Forth by Day or the Amduat, but it looks like Touregypt.net has some interesting information.

If anyone has studied these texts before, I would be very interested in starting a discussion about them. There are so many layers of meaning that I could definitely use some help with them! :graduate:

[Ahautenites]

I haven't studied any of the funerary texts yet. I bought the Faulkner (I think... I'm having a brain cramp) translation of the Book of Coming Forth By Day, but I'm a loser and haven't read it yet.

I'm interested in learning more about the Book of Gates. There was mention of the ones who guard the Gates and it was intriguing. (Then again, I'm morbidly amused anytime someone has "Eater of the Foulness of His Hindquarters" for a name.)

Hemet had an interesting thread Inside The Court on the House's website. It was about the Duat and Amenti and Iarru/A'alu. But that was a while ago. I think, more recently, someone asked a question about whether the children of Netjer will all be doing exactly the same jobs in Amenti that we do here. Gods, I hope not. I don't want to do this job for the rest of this life, never mind in the afterlife.

[LadyCelt]

I thought those were in the Book of the Dead. Maybe I'm wrong

[Ishtara]

The "Book of the Dead" is another name for the Book of Coming Forth by Day. This book is derived from the early Pyramid and Coffin texts.

The Book of Gates and Book of Caverns are, I think, contemporary to the Book of Coming Forth by Day, but distinct from it.

There are many other funerary books, like the Amduat, the Litany of Re or the Book of the Celestial Cow. I was thinking of trying to study them in chronological order, starting with the Pyramid texts, but the Gates and Caverns ones really fascinate me. I cannot even tell exactly why. Maybe it is the profusion of strange, strange creatures depicted in them...

Nefer Ses', I am with you on these, erm, attention-grabbing names! Same thing with the Negative Confessions: some of the epithets are... interesting, to say the least! :lol:

[Ishtara]

[One month of fruitless searches later...]

OK, I was not able to find any in-depth online resources about these texts, but someone recommended the A. Piankoff translation and I am going to order it.

I will update this thread when I receive and start reading these books and maybe we can get a conversation going then :)

[Ishtara]

The Piankoff book has not arrived yet, but last week I found "The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife" by E. Hornung at the library. I am only halfway through; if the whole book is as well-written and informative as what I read so far, I will have to add it to my collection!

Would anyone be interested in my posting some information about the various Books of the Afterlife? Maybe we can start a little study group if there is enough interest.

[I am still hoping that one day we will have a Kemetic CoT class, but in the meantime we can always try and break it down into smaller, more manageable chunks :) ]