The Egyptian Book of the Dead

by E.A. Wallis Budge

Deliver me from the Watchers who bear slaughtering knives, and who have cruel fingers .

The Egyptian Book of the Dead?is an ancient collection of spells, prayers and incantations designed to guide the departed through the perils of the underworld, ultimately ensuring eternal life. Written as part of funeral rites, these scrolls were often left in the sarcophagus of the deceased and now offer fascinating insight into Egyptian culture.

This beautifully illustrated edition contains images from the exquisite Papyrus of An i, an ancient Egyptian scroll narrating the journey of Theban scribe Ani through the underworld. Its accompanying hieroglyphic text has been translated by acclaimed Egyptologist E.A Wallis Budge, and includes spells addressed to ferryman, gods and kings to aid Ani on his way to the afterlife.

Genres: Mythology, History, Classics, Nonfiction, Religion, Egypt, Witchcraft

160 pages, Hardcover

Published October 15, 2019

About the author

Sir 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.

Reviews

[Chynna Bancroft · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not quite what I expected, which was a general reference on the Books of the Dead, but instead the specific Book of the Dead for the scribe Ani. My only grievance is that it was translated into a very Shakespearean or Victorian English as opposed to a more modern one. It doesn’t take away from the book in the slightest; it just took me a bit longer to read.

[Noelle]

what a ride

[D.B White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating but it is a primary text without the added context of an accompanying historical description. The book is beautiful, the illustrations are marvellous, and in it is an account of the myth of Osiris as well as the incantations and prayers that are to accompany the dead on their journey through the afterlife. The endnotes are helpful, but you’ll want to pair this with an encyclopedia or a historical nonfiction. Read it in the context of exploring the afterlife through different cultures. As such, without context, the book is very dry, but it does offer a glimpse into the fabric of ancient Egyptian culture through the values and judgements made in the afterlife, about what it meant to live without sin.

[Just Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Egyptian history has always been an interesting and fascinating topic to me.
The fact that we have this knowledge today is estonishing.

The book of the dead tells the story of the journey in the afterlife.
It consist of hyms, magical spells, and prayers.

We are shown the papyrus of Ani, one of the most famous and well-known papyrus. There is no doubt in my mind that the papyrus itself deserves a 5 star rating, and this book very simply describe what we saw on the papyrus, and in addition the translated script.
The reason I settled on 4 stars was the fact that despite my curiosity of the culture and the old texts, my knowledge of what all these gods, places and ceromonies are very limited. Which translated into me having a hard time connecting the information.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pictures and explanations are great, although it would have been better if the translations were written in more common language. I would also prefer if the endnotes had been footnotes for easier reference. Very interesting!

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. No regrets picking this one up however the translations sometimes drove me crazy simple because the author used old English. It was a challenge for sure but once you get past that it’s not that big of a deal. I do wish there was more explanation from the author as well. We get a bit of info about which gods and objects are present in each imagine but I would have loved to know more why each thing is there and purpose of those things during the souls journey though Duat.

[Luca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Egyptian murals always scratch this itch in my head in a very pleasing way. The hieroglyphics, the mythology and symbolism, the fact that everything looks worn and battered and torn. Middle school me was onto something when he pivoted from the Percy Jackson series to obsessing over the Kane Chronicles and the ancient world sections of any history class I ever took

[Jakob Laub · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look into one scribe’s journey through the underworld, and its various rituals. Incredibly helpful glossary at the end. The same god will have 3 different names which can be hard to follow is my one complaint, but hey that’s why they have the glossary.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as research for a novel I'm writing and got lots of great ideas! The pictures are beautiful, the language is poetic and I have many leads to get me going.

[Rose Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely translation of the Book of the Dead. My only wish was that the glossary was easier to navigate and the translation/definition of certain words and places was less cumbersome to find in the back of the book.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is nearly impossible to review because it's not really a book, per se. It's more like a very focused encyclopedia. You do get to learn about the story of Osiris but it's not told linearly. The story is literally printed on 50+ plates in an Egypitian tomb. So this book describes the current plate, breaks down what is depicted and the backstory of teh characters represented, then it gives you our best guess at the translation of the story. I don't think they are certain exactly what the Egyptians were conveying, so th etranslator just fills in the blanks. That's not to diminish the amount of effort that went into this. It is very impressive! The book itself is also gorgeous!

It's just that a certain point, I didn't bother trying to piece the story together. The introduction gives you the basics and contaxt of the story. That's all you really need to know. Other than that, this felt like a reference book. I'll pick it up whenever I want to gaze at the beautiful artwork, or when I want to know what a particular symbol stands for. I am very happy to have this book on my shelves and will probably come back to it often just for fun.

[Brandon "Buddy" Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a translation of ancient Egyptian rites which were believed to be required for safe passage in the afterlife. In addition to translations of various "plates," the translator also provides some descriptions and context clues.

Most of the translated content is prayers; some had to be recited by the priest attending the decedent, and the rest had to be memorized by the decedent for use in the afterlife.

As this book is a translation of mostly prayer material, it does not contain much in the way of explanation for Egyptian theology, etc. As a result, I had a difficult time understanding why many certain things were contained in the prayers. Before reading this book, I recommend finding another that will provide such background, as that will make reading this book far easier in my opinion.

Also, the translator rendered the translating into a version of English very similar to that used in the King James Version of the Bible (e.g., use of second-person informal pronoun [thou], verbal conjugations therefor, etc.).

[Bradley McCann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful presentation of the Papyrus of Ani with lovely illustrations of the papyrus. Possesses a clear, simple glossary and end notes, which at first was more easy to navigate than a more complex and exhaustive arrangement; but as I began to gain facility with the language of the Ancient Egyptian hymns and spells and rubrics, I wanted to dig more deeply into the meaning behind certain terms, epitaphs, and phrases, and found it frustrating when a god or goddess or enigmatic reference wasn't glossed. I think an appendix including a list of all the Ancient Egyptian deities would be a beneficial addition. Overall, this presentation of the Papyrus of Ani looks to be a good starting point for someone interested in beginning their discovery of the extensive funerary texts (almost 200 chapters) known generally and collectively as "The Egyptian Book of the Dead".

[Jenna Roscoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

The illustrations were beautiful and detailed, but the essence of the text is just a long winded circle jerk between osiris and Ani, with a few other gods mixed in. It reads like the Bible almost- just a bunch of flowery hymns and prayers reciting the same thing over and over again. Great for….. archaeologists? And academia? But certainly not a casual read. Glad I finally read it but I think next time I’ll just stick to the illustrations and google searches.

[Monteiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gorgeous book, probably one of the most beautiful in my library, happy to have spent a moment with it, now it's more of a sum of hymns than anything, too little context for a pure amatorial read, the style makes it a heavy read, sometimes adding to the gravity sometimes making it dull and overdemanding. Personally it wasn't as much of a reading but a exploration and contemplation of this artistic edition.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great treatment and translation. Not a ton to say here, I picked this one up because I like to collect these types of primary sources.

I think a good addition to something like this would be a bit more in-line analysis to guide the reader through some of the more obscure, repetitive, or unclear incantations and prayers. It's very much doable to work through, and prior to each series of plates there is a bit of analysis on what is to be covered, but I felt like more could have been done to give a bird's eye view to the bigger picture journey through the afterlife a deceased egyptian was expected to endure.

That's a want, not a need, but the gorgeous binding more than makes up for it. 3/5.

[Samar El · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating read. Always been intrigued with Egyptian history and this satiated some of my interest. Had this book for a while and finally decided to pick it up to see what I’ve missed out on.

Loved the illustrations though I felt I was going insane reading those translations. I believe more people would want to read this if there were footnotes or summarised translations at the end. Similar to how Stephen Fry does his books.

[Alex Whigham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this book expecting a more general overview of the book of the dead. It’s mainly filled with ancient Egyptian prayers written in old Shakespearean language which was a bit much for me. I ended up skipping most of it because it started to all blur into the same “praise ra, I am Osiris” kinda stuff. I did enjoy looking at the pictures and reading the intro

[Charlotte Hukvari · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting read, but it’s even more interesting to find out that the book is a compilation of papyri and plates developed over a lengthy period of time, and that not all of these are the same.

[Seon Ji (Dawn)]

Hope to come back to this another day. Was difficult to read. Wanted to read because I understand their are some similarities to The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Not sure if I am capable of getting the most out of this one.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting, but not what I expected at all, and I’m not really into the specifics of ancient Egyptian funerary rituals. It wasn’t for me but I can absolutely see how somebody else would love this.

[Fábio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish the glossary was a bit more thorough. At times I felt like looking into the entries for some of the deities and I couldn't find them whatsoever. All things aside, the presentation is great and I'm not at all disappointed.

[Jordean Cushing]

I use to be obsessed with the Egyptian Gods. It was a bit hard to fallow from time to time but, if your dedicated like me then you'll do just fine. Amazing to think that the words in this book were carved in stone.

[Mindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book visually. It would have been nice to have more description of what I was reading. A lot of it was just over my head. But cool to read it.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, but a bit repetitive and dry at times.

[Gale · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this book!

[Tito · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful book but as most say in the reviews: I expected more. It's an actual translation of the plates but not much context or history.

[Poet for fun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una edición impecable y formidable, cuya presentación es exquisita en todos los aspectos. No puedo imaginar una mejor versión.

[Sam Carroll · Rating 2 out of 5]

The use of Elizabethan English makes me question the authenticity of the translations

[Virginia Aguirre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was not what I thought it was going to be, however I love learning what each plate meant. Great way to learn!