The Book of the Dead | Page 4

Nesitanebtashru (Brit. Mus. No. 10554), now commonly known as the
"Greenfield Papyrus." It is the longest and widest funerary papyrus [4]
known, for it measures 123 feet by 1 foot 6 1/2 inches, and it contains
more Chapters, Hymns, Litanies, Adorations and Homages to the gods

than any other roll. The 87 Chapters from the PER-T EM HRU which it
contains prove the princess's devotion to the cult of Osiris, and the
Hymns to Amen-Ra show that she was able to regard this god and
Osiris not as rivals but as two aspects of the same god. She believed
that the "hidden" creative power which was materialized in Amen was
only another form of the power of procreation, renewed birth and
resurrection which was typified by Osiris. The oldest copies of the
PER-T EM HRU which we have on papyrus contain a few extracts
from other ancient funerary works, such as the "Book of Opening the
Mouth," the "Liturgy of Funerary Offerings," and the "Book of the Two
Ways." But under the rule of the Priest-Kings the scribes incorporated
with the

Chapters
of the PER-T EM HRU extracts from the "Book of Ami-Tuat" and the
"Book of Gates," and several of the vignettes and texts that are found
on the walls of the royal tombs of Thebes.
One of the most remarkable texts written at this period is found in the
Papyrus of Nesi-Khensu, which is now in the Egyptian Museum in
Cairo. This is really the copy of a contract which is declared to have
been made between Nesi-Khensu and Amen-Ra, "the holy god, the lord
of all the gods." As a reward for the great piety of the queen, and her
devotion to the interests of Amen-Ra upon earth, the god undertakes to
make her a goddess in his kingdom, to provide her with an estate there
in perpetuity and a never-failing supply of offerings, and happiness of
heart, soul and body, and the [daily] recital upon earth of the "Seventy
Songs of Ra" for the benefit of her soul in the Khert-Neter, or Under
World. The contract was drawn up in a series of paragraphs in legal
phraseology by the priests of Amen, who believed they had the power
of making their god do as they pleased when they pleased.
Little is known of the history of the PER-T EM HRU after the downfall
of the priests of Amen, and during the period of the rule of the Nubians,

but under the kings of the XXVIth dynasty the Book enjoyed a great
vogue. Many funerary rolls were written both in hieroglyphs and
hieratic, and were decorated with vignettes drawn in black outline; and
about this time the scribes began to write funerary texts in the demotic
character. But men no longer copied long selections from the PER-T
EM HRU as they had done under the XVIIIth, XIXth and XXth
dynasties, partly because the religious views of the Egyptians had
undergone a great change, and partly because a number of Books of the
Dead of a more popular character had appeared. The cult of Osiris was
triumphant everywhere, and men preferred the hymns and litanies
which dealt with his sufferings, death and resurrection to the
compositions in which the absolute supremacy of Ra and his solar
cycle of gods and goddesses was assumed or proclaimed. Thus, in the
"Lamentations of Isis" and the "Festival Songs of Isis and Nephthys,"
and the "Litanies of Seker," and the "Book of Honouring Osiris," etc.,
the central figure is Osiris, and he alone is regarded as the giver of
everlasting life. The dead were no longer buried with large rolls of
papyrus filled with Chapters of the PER-T EM HRU laid in their
coffins, but with small sheets or strips of papyrus, on which were
inscribed the above compositions, or the shorter texts of the "Book of
Breathings," or the "Book of Traversing Eternity," or the "Book of May
my name flourish," or a part of the "Chapter of the Last Judgment."
Ancient Egyptian tradition asserts that the Book PER-T EM HRU was
used early in the Ist dynasty, and the papyri and coffins of the Roman
Period afford evidence that the native Egyptians still accepted all the
essential beliefs and doctrines contained in it. During the four thousand
years of its existence many additions were made to it, but nothing of
importance seems to have been taken away from it. In the space here
available it is impossible to describe in detail the various Recensions of
this work, viz., (1) the Heliopolitan, (2) the Theban and its various
forms, and (3) the Saïte; but it is proposed to sketch briefly the main
facts of the Egyptian Religion which may be deduced from them
generally, and especially from the Theban Recension, and to