James’s Reviews > The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts > Status Update

Pyramid of Pepi II: Largely uninteresting compared to the others. Little in the way of memorable lines despite its length.

Merenre's Pyramid holds little that is in variation from those that preceded it, at least in the texts that still exist. The spells for invoking the gods at dawn are nice.

The Pyramid of Pepi I contains the largest of the pyramid texts, and by this nature does carry a large number of striking verses, but the density is lower than that of the previous texts, and there are long periods of relatively uninteresting or repetitive spells which do not do enough to differentiate themselves from those of past rulers.

The texts of the Pyramid of Teti, although largely having the same purpose as those of Unis, contain many more stories and allegories, which likely require a better understanding of the mythology than I have to fully appreciate. I feel a desire to further develop that understanding, but would have to turn from religious texts to the discussion of religions to do so.

Having read through the contents of the Unis pyramid after switching over from the Mercer collection of translations, I can say that Allen's not only benefit from several more decades of deciphering the language and connecting fragments to texts found elsewhere, but seek to convey allegories that would be missing from a purely literal translation, creating a richer and more enjoyable text on the whole.