Publication of a fifth dynasty chapel from Saqqara puchased from the Egyptian Government in 1904.

Publication of a fifth dynasty offering chapel from Saqqara purchased from the Egyptian Government in 1904.

The Cannibal Hymn forms a self-standing episode in the ritual anthology that makes up the Pyramid Texts, first appearing in the tomb of Unas at the end of the Fifth Dynasty. Its style and format are characteristic of the oral-recitational poetry of pharaonic Egypt, marked by allusive metaphor and the exploitation of wordplay and homophony in its verbal recreation of a butchery ritual. Christopher Eyre examines the text of the Cannibal Hymn in its performative and cultural context: the detailed mythologization of the sacrificial process in this hymn poses key questions about the nature of rites of passage and rituals of sacrifice in Egypt, and in particular about the mobilization of oral accompaniment to ritual actions.

Ancient Egypt is well known for its towering monuments and magnificent statuary, but other aspects of its civilization are less well known, especially its written texts. Now Texts from the Pyramid Age provides ready access to new translations of a representative selection of texts ranging from the historically significant to the repetitive formulae of the tomb inscriptions from Old Kingdom Egypt (ca. 2700-2170 B.C.). These royal and private inscriptions, coming from both the secular and religious milieus and from all kinds of physical contexts, not only shed light on the administration, foreign expeditions, and funerary beliefs of the period but also bring to life the Egyptians themselves, revealing how they saw the world and how they wanted the world to see them. Strudwick's helpful introduction to the history and literature of this seminal period provides important background for reading and understanding these historical texts.

This book outlines the development of the divine classifiers in the Egyptian script system from the beginning of writing to the end of the Old Kingdom. The first part discusses the falcon on the standard and the ways in which ancient Egyptian writing system expressed the idea of divine kingship. The seated bearded man is the focus of the second part, in which the author follows the sign from its first appearance as a classifier of foreign peoples to its identification with the god Osiris. The third part is dedicated to divine markers and the structure of the divine category in the Pyramid Texts. This part surveys the special orthographic constraints of the Pyramid Texts, as well as the evolution of the female divine classifiers. Although the book concentrates on orthographic processes, it takes into account the broader religious context of the Old Kingdom. Hence, the relations between the sun-god Re and the king, as well as the special role of the Great God in the private inscriptions and the appearance of Osiris as a foreigner are also discussed.

The emergence of the cult of Osiris is generally posited to have occurred quite suddenly at the end of the 5th dynasty. This study considers evidence to suggest this appearance was preceded by a period of development of the theology and mythology of the cult.