The Egyptian Book of the Dead
2.0 Stars
9-20-2024

Moderately amusing, but ultimately not very enlightening. This book covers the funerary chants of those OG furries, the Egyptian priesthood. A person is supposed to learn these chants and rules in order to do well in the Egyptian afterlife. A few brief issues; it seems like a great deal was lost in translation over the last 4000 years, it seemed like the person going into the afterlife (Ani) was the worst sort of preening asshole (sorry to speak ill of someone who died 3000 years ago, but I have to speak my truth Ani), and most of the chants are repetitions and variations on simple and boring themes (I'm noble and great, give me stuff in the afterlife, smite my enemies).

Now the moderately amusing parts:
- The complex elements of a human being:
There is the physical body (khat),
the physical heart (ib, they considered it the home of the mind/intellect),
the name (ren, a person's individuality),
the shadow (shut, almost Jungian, it is related to the individuality but can act and move separately),
the life-force or spirit (ka, stays on with the corpse and can be nourished by offerings),
the soul (ba, takes the form of a small bird and can return to the realm of the living during the day).

Mummification was suppsed to be a way of transforming these elements so that they could continue to live on and partially function after death. This more enduring hybrid form was called a "sah".

- "I fly as a hawk, I cackle as a goose; I ever slay, even as the serpent goddess Nehebka". Inspiring!

-"I behold Ra who was born yesterday from the buttocks of the cow Meh-urt; his strength is my strength, and my strength is his strength." Seems like a backhanded compliment.

- "The third pylon, which is guarded by a man headed deity..." (you know it's gotten bad as a furry and you've explored too many possibilities when you have to describe something as a man with the head of a man)

- Ammit the Devourer, answering the question of whether a dog would wear pants like this or like this .

- Grant thou to me a place in the underworld near unto the lords of right and truth. May my homestead be abiding Sekhet-hetep, and may a I receive cakes in thy presence." (they were very focused on making sure they had tiny cakes in the after life).

- As an example of the lost-in-translation aspect, here's a representative passage: "Behold, thou gatherest together the charm from every place where it is and from every man with whom it is, swifter than greyhounds and fleeter than light, [the charm] which createth the forms of existence from the mother's thigh and createth the gods from (or in) silence, and which giveth the heat of life unto the gods. Behold, the charm is given unto me from wheresoever it is [and from him with whom it is], switfter than greyhounds and fleeter than light." This reads like one of my high school Latin translations, i.e. it's not really understanding something essential to the message. Whether that's because of cultural drift or a failure of translation, either way as a reader today and I'm not really getting the full meaning of what the Egyptians were trying to say.