Egyptian Book of the Dead



Egyptian Book of the Dead

Introduction

Book of the dead is a collection of magical spells written by the ancient Egyptians. This collection of spells was meant to help the Egyptians in reaching their afterlife. Some of these spells were found written on the tomb while, while the others were written on the piece of papyrus.

Discussion

The Egyptian civilization dates back to 3000 B.C. Egyptians had access to plentiful slave labor and supplies of stone; these enabled them to leave evidences of their beliefs about perpetual life, by developing pyramids. The concept of afterlife was very strong in the ancient Egypt; Egyptians believed that after death, the person travels to his afterlife in the very first night. The stately funeral rites and richly furnished tombs revealed the beliefs of these people about the afterlife. It is due to the belief about afterlife that Egyptians used to equip the tombs with various items to be used by the deceased in his afterlife. Also, the famous concept and art of mummification reveals the Egyptian belief of afterlife.

One of the important beliefs among the Egyptian people was that magical spells would help them in reaching safely to their afterlife. The Egyptians considered death as one of the most fearful realities and wanted to reduce their fear through fascinating descriptions of afterlife. Under the same thoughts of reducing the fear for death, the wealthy Egyptians used to hire the people for writing their favorite spells on the piece of papyrus. The Egyptians believed that those spells would help them after death, for example while facing Gods. The lesser wealthy people who could not afford to hire a scribe for themselves used to buy the existing templates of spells, on which place was intentionally left for writing the name and other details ...