Published: Léfébure, _Tombeau de Seti I_. (_Annales du Musée
Guimet_, ix).
Translated: Jéquier, _Livre de ce qu'il y a dans l'Hadès_; Budge,
_Egyptian Heaven and Hell_.
The description of the Journey of Ra through the Other World is
sculptured on the walls of the tomb of Seti I at Thebes. This is the
great tomb discovered by Belzoni in October 1817. The length is 330
feet, and it consists of long corridors, pillared halls, and
side-chambers, hewn out of the solid rock. The Book of Am Duat is
sculptured on the walls of corridor iii, halls v, vi, and x, and
side-chambers xi and xiii. Eleven hours only are given; the twelfth
hour, though frequently found on papyri, is rare in sculpture.
There are two versions of the Sun's journey through the Duat. One
was called by the Egyptians themselves the Book of that which is in
the Other World (Am Duat); the other has no Egyptian name, but is now
called the Book of Gates, for in it the gates are more important than
the countries which they divide. (For a comparison of the two books,
see Budge, _Egyptian Heaven and Hell_.) The Book of Gates is rarer
than the Book of Am Duat, and is found sculptured on sarcophagi; the
finest example being the alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I, now in the
Soane Museum in London.
The Book of Am Duat is found both in papyri and on tomb walls, the
earliest example of the latter being the tomb of Amenhotep II of the
xviiith dynasty. It is a compilation by the theologians of that
period; an attempt to combine into one homogeneous whole several
distinct ideas of the next world and the life hereafter. The fourth
and fifth countries of the Duat are obviously one complete kingdom,
ruled by the god Sokar, the Memphite god of the dead. As Memphis was
a very important religious centre, its god of the dead and his
kingdom had to be included in the Duat of Ra, in spite of the fact
that it was a waterless desert, and that it ended with the Morning
Star. It was a region totally different from any other kingdom of
the hereafter; no river ran through it; it was inhabited by neither
gods nor spirits, but by enormous and horrible reptiles. The
ingenuity of the compilers of this Book in turning the Boat of Ra
into a serpent, which could dispense with the river and glide over
the sand, is certainly remarkable.
Another Morning Star appears also in the tenth hour, and the breeze
of morning seems to be felt by the goddesses in the eleventh hour,
for they raise their hands to shelter their faces from it. Budge
(_Egyptian Heaven and Hell_) suggests also that the Egyptians looked
upon the red clouds of the dawn as being tinged with the reflection
from the pits of flame. These indications of morning appearing in
the wrong place point clearly to the fact of the book being a
compilation, more or less clumsy.
The first hour seems to have been added in order to make a good
introduction to the compilation. The last hour is evidently a
compromise. The most ancient idea with regard to the sunrise was
that the Sun was born anew every morning of the Sky-goddess Nut.
This theory does not fit with the dogma of the Sun's nightly journey
through the Other World in a Boat; therefore the last hour is
represented as a dark and tortuous passage symbolising the womb of
the goddess. The birth of the Sun was the most important event of
the day to his worshippers, consequently the account of the last hour
is found frequently on papyri, buried in the graves.
The Duat, or Other World, was generally supposed to be the region
lying to the north of Egypt; the delta by the Egyptians of the South;
the Mediterranean and its islands by the delta-people.
The Egyptians had an abridgment or summary of this long account of
Ka's night-journey. It was always written on papyrus in vertical
columns, with all the scenes and long speeches omitted. It gives the
name of each gate and country and of the goddess of every hour;
sometimes, though not always, the names of the gods who live in the
different regions; and always the magical words of Ra to the
inhabitants of each land. Felicitous results here and hereafter are
promised to all who know the words and scenes thoroughly.
The hymn to Ra is a paraphrase of hymns which are still extant.