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Legends of the Gods The Egyptian Texts, edited with Translations
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134 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1912
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About the author
E.A. Wallis Budge
1,347 books158 followersSir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge was an English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near East.
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September 1, 2021Too much to mention right now, but if you think Deism (that “the Most High exists but is removed from men to the point of almost Atheism”) is just a quaint theory from the 1700’s AD, that would be a far reaching mistake. It’s appearantly not just Advaita but a very Egyptian notion, found taught in these ancient pyramid texts translated.
Like all compass directions of Archaic Culture’s I have studied, they speak of The One co-existing with something else eternal, and in such and beyond such (pan-en-theism not pantheism, atheism or theism).
Such then is removed from man; and many powers/forces/gods lie between by the time one reaches this earth in its own days.
The tail end of such godship dovetails into some sort of devolution resulting in at last, after some more divine sorts, our present squirrulous man form.
So, here in this work of the Egyptian pyramid texts directly translated - just like every other work vastly before 1K BC in truisms from every compass direction - we have neither Atheism, Theism, Pantheism, strict polytheism or Mother Nature Only reductionism (more a cainanite thing a bit though) taught.
Rather, and this is a bit wordy, but it and all Archaic Cultures - I have found - taught the same:
“poly-pan-en-Theism.”
Such is the fullness.
All else after knowing, feeling, this awhile...starts to look like people decrying: “my left hand exists therefore right hands cannot ever exist!” And another: “ockham’s razor, I simply can resolve all with my right hand most simply and my right hand exists therefore left hands must not be real.”
It’s all just people taking one aspect of the fullness out of context and batting it like a bat against the other aspect of the fullness.
There is the Most High, there is the All, there are powers/gods, there is man.
But once one loses the grandeur of the Scale/Ladder, then one is wandering around myopically, quite unmythologically, laterally picking up parts and only seeing parts of parts. And thus Kali’s little chaotic ones are many afoot...
“Those wandering around in the underbrush say there’s no path to the Mountain; oh...and no Mountain either.” - Rumi
This teaching taught by the Egyptians and revealed in this translation of them by the wonderful Budge is the greatest aspect to this book here, but many mysteries in it indeed.
Like all compass directions of Archaic Culture’s I have studied, they speak of The One co-existing with something else eternal, and in such and beyond such (pan-en-theism not pantheism, atheism or theism).
Such then is removed from man; and many powers/forces/gods lie between by the time one reaches this earth in its own days.
The tail end of such godship dovetails into some sort of devolution resulting in at last, after some more divine sorts, our present squirrulous man form.
So, here in this work of the Egyptian pyramid texts directly translated - just like every other work vastly before 1K BC in truisms from every compass direction - we have neither Atheism, Theism, Pantheism, strict polytheism or Mother Nature Only reductionism (more a cainanite thing a bit though) taught.
Rather, and this is a bit wordy, but it and all Archaic Cultures - I have found - taught the same:
“poly-pan-en-Theism.”
Such is the fullness.
All else after knowing, feeling, this awhile...starts to look like people decrying: “my left hand exists therefore right hands cannot ever exist!” And another: “ockham’s razor, I simply can resolve all with my right hand most simply and my right hand exists therefore left hands must not be real.”
It’s all just people taking one aspect of the fullness out of context and batting it like a bat against the other aspect of the fullness.
There is the Most High, there is the All, there are powers/gods, there is man.
But once one loses the grandeur of the Scale/Ladder, then one is wandering around myopically, quite unmythologically, laterally picking up parts and only seeing parts of parts. And thus Kali’s little chaotic ones are many afoot...
“Those wandering around in the underbrush say there’s no path to the Mountain; oh...and no Mountain either.” - Rumi
This teaching taught by the Egyptians and revealed in this translation of them by the wonderful Budge is the greatest aspect to this book here, but many mysteries in it indeed.
February 7, 2017
الكتاب ممتع جداً، والشرح سهل وبسيط..
احببت فراعنة بلا معرفة مسبقة والآن عشقتهم ❤...
احببت فراعنة بلا معرفة مسبقة والآن عشقتهم ❤...
September 28, 2018
The title implies a resource of legends of Egypt, but this book is more a study of a few creation legends and an introduction to your basic lineup of "usual suspects."
I recommend looking into a more comprehensive text. This book is basically a bone dry review of a handful of stories and adulation of early "scholars" who removed the materials from Egypt for their personal gain and glory.
Look for something less congratulatory of grave robbing linguists and with more actual content, if you want to read about the gods.
I recommend looking into a more comprehensive text. This book is basically a bone dry review of a handful of stories and adulation of early "scholars" who removed the materials from Egypt for their personal gain and glory.
Look for something less congratulatory of grave robbing linguists and with more actual content, if you want to read about the gods.
June 22, 2023
This was my first time reading Egyptian myths which did not come described in either textbooks, of the sort given to children, summarized, or in academic articles and books; which is to say, this is my first time reading Egyptian myths straight from the source. Lots of curious things were learned which I did not quite knew, or if I did, then I had to experience them proper through primary sources to actually understand.
So, first of all, the translation: this is the classic E.A. Budge translation, which is to say, as all E.A. Budge translations it's not so good as is well known, though it must be said that Budge, if inaccurate, nonetheless had an eye for the "literariness" of his Egyptian translations, above all in the Book of the Dead. At the same time, this is a bilingual edition, and comes with the hieroglyphs! Meaning you can just read the originals, if you know how to read hieroglyphs!
Reading the hieroglyphic origins, multiple times Budge's translation seemed seriously questionable to me, very likely simply because of the olden age of the translation (to be frank, the material here is so archaic when considered literarily that it being translated in KJV Bible-style English is hardly a distraction - more on this later) which was still in the first few decades of Egyptology, the first wave of translations on this material; but other times I saw Budge repeating the same line, when the hieroglyphs said something quite different, which made me seriously raise my eyebrows at Budge's very base choice.
That said, the inclusion of the hieroglyphic originals here is a great boon to this edition for those of us who want to seriously challenge themselves, as finding these online can be something of a pain.
Now, onto the material itself.
Above all, what I learned is that written mythological storytelling in Egypt was, above all, functional (much like the famous statues/art), rather than literary, because none of the works included in this collection are told in a fashion that implies they were meant as literature in any way (and keep in mind, I am a fan of Bronze Age literature lol, one of my favorite works of fiction ever is the Babylonian anti-epic Poem of Erra, the "quirks" of early written literature, like the famous repetition that comes from oral inheritance, etc, is hardly strange to me), and many of them are either explicitly and clearly of a functional purpose (the legend of the death of Horus largely revolves around real-life spells against poison of reptiles and scorpions, to be recited by the reader, with the myth being almost a framing device - it was certainly not intended as a work of literature) or aren't explicitly so but Budge, in the introduction, explains why it was so and thus inadvertently explains its non-literary character, i.e. the myth of Khnemu and the seven year famine, which, as Budge explains, was no doubt written by the priests of Khnemu's temple themselves to come up with a reason as to why they should receive funding for their temple again, lest Egypt fall into terrible famine once more, hence its lack of literary qualities, and why the taxes that were paid in the mythology history of the legend are so incredibly detailed.
Another comment is that, to those who haven't studied Egyptology at all, and don't know much about ancient Egypt's religious history, then it should be noted that a lot of what Budge writes we now know more about, and even an amateur like me can tell. Per example, several of the tales where Set appears as the antagonist, were very clearly about Apep originally - Budge misidentifies Set as "the god of Evil", an outrageous mischaracterization of a complex deity, and a definition that fits Apep (who was nonetheless not exactly a "god"), but one that comes due to the aforementioned early period in which this was written, but then, why not write an updated intro to avoid misinforming the reader!!
I could tell it was originally Apep because I know Apep's forms and shapes, his attributes and characteristics (Budge says that Set was called "the Roarer" because his roar was heard over the whole Duat - not a characteristic of Set for most of Egypt, but of Apep), and I know that Set was originally a purely protective deity, was then increasingly villainized as the Horus cult grew in popularity as Set was the antagonist in the Horus myth, but remained essential in the vital, nightly defeat of Apep, and then finally, after the foreign conquering of Egypt, who made Set their god, Set was finally just equated with and replaced Apep itself, when it used to fight it. This text is evidently from this period - but of this, Budge knew nothing; maybe couldn't know because not enough scholarly work on the history of Egypt had been done.
Overall, not exactly the best reading material, nor was it even meant as such, either by the Egyptians or by Budge and co (who says outright this is meant for the student of Egyptian to challenge himself to read texts in hieroglyphics), but it is deeply fascinating and interesting, and I would recommend it, though likely Miriam Lichtheim's three-volume anthology Ancient Egyptian Literature is much better fit for those who want to follow the development of Egyptian literature. Likewise if you want something not so,,, thorough, there are collections of actually, genuinely literary texts from Egypt, such as the famous Tale of Sinuhe - see the Oxford collection The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, 1940-1640 B.C., or the Penguin collection Writings From Ancient Egypt .
So, first of all, the translation: this is the classic E.A. Budge translation, which is to say, as all E.A. Budge translations it's not so good as is well known, though it must be said that Budge, if inaccurate, nonetheless had an eye for the "literariness" of his Egyptian translations, above all in the Book of the Dead. At the same time, this is a bilingual edition, and comes with the hieroglyphs! Meaning you can just read the originals, if you know how to read hieroglyphs!
Reading the hieroglyphic origins, multiple times Budge's translation seemed seriously questionable to me, very likely simply because of the olden age of the translation (to be frank, the material here is so archaic when considered literarily that it being translated in KJV Bible-style English is hardly a distraction - more on this later) which was still in the first few decades of Egyptology, the first wave of translations on this material; but other times I saw Budge repeating the same line, when the hieroglyphs said something quite different, which made me seriously raise my eyebrows at Budge's very base choice.
That said, the inclusion of the hieroglyphic originals here is a great boon to this edition for those of us who want to seriously challenge themselves, as finding these online can be something of a pain.
Now, onto the material itself.
Above all, what I learned is that written mythological storytelling in Egypt was, above all, functional (much like the famous statues/art), rather than literary, because none of the works included in this collection are told in a fashion that implies they were meant as literature in any way (and keep in mind, I am a fan of Bronze Age literature lol, one of my favorite works of fiction ever is the Babylonian anti-epic Poem of Erra, the "quirks" of early written literature, like the famous repetition that comes from oral inheritance, etc, is hardly strange to me), and many of them are either explicitly and clearly of a functional purpose (the legend of the death of Horus largely revolves around real-life spells against poison of reptiles and scorpions, to be recited by the reader, with the myth being almost a framing device - it was certainly not intended as a work of literature) or aren't explicitly so but Budge, in the introduction, explains why it was so and thus inadvertently explains its non-literary character, i.e. the myth of Khnemu and the seven year famine, which, as Budge explains, was no doubt written by the priests of Khnemu's temple themselves to come up with a reason as to why they should receive funding for their temple again, lest Egypt fall into terrible famine once more, hence its lack of literary qualities, and why the taxes that were paid in the mythology history of the legend are so incredibly detailed.
Another comment is that, to those who haven't studied Egyptology at all, and don't know much about ancient Egypt's religious history, then it should be noted that a lot of what Budge writes we now know more about, and even an amateur like me can tell. Per example, several of the tales where Set appears as the antagonist, were very clearly about Apep originally - Budge misidentifies Set as "the god of Evil", an outrageous mischaracterization of a complex deity, and a definition that fits Apep (who was nonetheless not exactly a "god"), but one that comes due to the aforementioned early period in which this was written, but then, why not write an updated intro to avoid misinforming the reader!!
I could tell it was originally Apep because I know Apep's forms and shapes, his attributes and characteristics (Budge says that Set was called "the Roarer" because his roar was heard over the whole Duat - not a characteristic of Set for most of Egypt, but of Apep), and I know that Set was originally a purely protective deity, was then increasingly villainized as the Horus cult grew in popularity as Set was the antagonist in the Horus myth, but remained essential in the vital, nightly defeat of Apep, and then finally, after the foreign conquering of Egypt, who made Set their god, Set was finally just equated with and replaced Apep itself, when it used to fight it. This text is evidently from this period - but of this, Budge knew nothing; maybe couldn't know because not enough scholarly work on the history of Egypt had been done.
Overall, not exactly the best reading material, nor was it even meant as such, either by the Egyptians or by Budge and co (who says outright this is meant for the student of Egyptian to challenge himself to read texts in hieroglyphics), but it is deeply fascinating and interesting, and I would recommend it, though likely Miriam Lichtheim's three-volume anthology Ancient Egyptian Literature is much better fit for those who want to follow the development of Egyptian literature. Likewise if you want something not so,,, thorough, there are collections of actually, genuinely literary texts from Egypt, such as the famous Tale of Sinuhe - see the Oxford collection The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems, 1940-1640 B.C., or the Penguin collection Writings From Ancient Egypt .
May 23, 2021
Interesting collection of stories and myths. I wonder how much of it is based on real events? The consequences of the 7-year famine seem gruesome enough to be true. The famine mentioned in the Book of Genesis as well. Isis seems a bit like the Greek goddess, Circe - a trickster goddess, well-versed in witchcraft. She tricked Ra into . The idea that land emerged from the primordial ocean Nu and not Chaos (a vague and abstract idea) is fascinating and so is the concept of "sa" - power of the gods. Ra was bitten by a snake and Horus was bitten by a scorpion - I see a pattern here. Scorpions and snakes were, understandably, quite feared by ancient Egyptians. Speaking of fearsome creatures, I was under the impression that the Bennu bird was a protective/guardian spirit, but instead it is described as the "Crusher of Bones". Next on my list is Amulets and Superstitions by the same author.
April 24, 2016
The stories were very interesting. The extra explanations and ham-fisted cultural brokering less so.
December 22, 2022
Understand the Egyptian pantheon and some spiffy spells
People can learn the names of the gods and what they are best known for. Like the Edda tells the tails of the Norse gods, this presents some key papyrus and other sources that tell the tails of the Egyptian gods and their personalities.
We learn of amulets, spells, and histories of the gods and their people.
There are other sources but this one is unique in its organizing the different tears of gods and their relation to each other.
-----------------
Now we have a problem with mixed versions the hard copy has great sketches of the papyri and cartouches. Still, it is missing some simple helpful graphs like “The Grate Ennead of Heliopolis” and some comparison of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt.
Because they are mixed versions the star rating is for the book in general.
The kindle is worse as at least the free version removed even the book’s sketches and replaces them with a reference. So no graphics at all.
What, the kindle dictionary knows about Ra but not most of the gods.
Still, the kindle text-to-speech is too literal many god and place names are mispronounced. Many references are replaced by FN. Spell that out loud and you can imagine the text-to-speech girl is cussing at you.
------------------
I found a companion book that was a great help with pictures and supplemental information.
People can learn the names of the gods and what they are best known for. Like the Edda tells the tails of the Norse gods, this presents some key papyrus and other sources that tell the tails of the Egyptian gods and their personalities.
We learn of amulets, spells, and histories of the gods and their people.
There are other sources but this one is unique in its organizing the different tears of gods and their relation to each other.
-----------------
Now we have a problem with mixed versions the hard copy has great sketches of the papyri and cartouches. Still, it is missing some simple helpful graphs like “The Grate Ennead of Heliopolis” and some comparison of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt.
Because they are mixed versions the star rating is for the book in general.
The kindle is worse as at least the free version removed even the book’s sketches and replaces them with a reference. So no graphics at all.
What, the kindle dictionary knows about Ra but not most of the gods.
Still, the kindle text-to-speech is too literal many god and place names are mispronounced. Many references are replaced by FN. Spell that out loud and you can imagine the text-to-speech girl is cussing at you.
------------------
I found a companion book that was a great help with pictures and supplemental information.
October 12, 2020
Interesting synopsis of ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, mainly dealing with the pantheon of gods / titans. Overall, this was overly tedious and not recommended to a casual reader unless one has a heightened interest in the theme.
October 29, 2017
Although an interesting read, the only thing that kept me reading the book is my desire to know about the customs and cultures of different kingdoms.
March 15, 2021
One would think, "A book of stories about intrigue, murder, and incest; how it could it ever be boring?" Read this book and see how!
September 26, 2021
It’s a good starting point for Egyptian mythology.
December 19, 2021
I read this when I was just beginning my ancient Egypt studies, as I found it in the public domain due to its age. I know now that Budge is not the most reputable or reliable source of information on ancient Egypt, but as a beginner's introduction I found this enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews