The Pyramid Texts Explained

The History of Egypt Podcast

Dominic Perry

History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2024

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What’s the deal? We explore the Pyramid Texts’ meaning, as well as their origins and scholarship. The Osiris achieves his apotheosis. Having awakened from death and received his offerings (or taken them by force), Unas now prepares to enter the sky at last. We add more protections and defeat more enemies (including a dramatic appearance from the fearsome Mafdet). Then, Unas meets the oldest of primeval gods, sails the milky way, and hears the lamentations of his enemies’ women… Episode topics: Meaning 01:15. Rituals 03:54 Afterlife geography 17:05. Origins 20:16. Arrangement / Structure 29:00. Conclusion 37:25 Includes passages in English translation and ancient Egyptian. Date: c.2320 BCE. The History of Egypt Podcast Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com. Support the show via Patreon www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast. Make a one-time donation via PayPal payments. Intro music by Jeffrey Goodman, “Lament of Isis and Nephthys,” Ancient Egyptian Music II. Interludes by Keith Zizza, Children of the Nile. Select Bibliography: Pyramid Texts in translation: https://pyramidtextsonline.com/translation.html. J. P. Allen, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (2nd edn, 2015). First edition (2005) available in Open Access via Archive.org. J. P. Allen, A Grammar of the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts Volume I: Unis (2017). Available via the publisher, and major online retailers. R. Bertrand, Las Textes de la Pyramid d’Ounas (2004). Available via the publisher. W. M. Davis, ‘The Ascension-Myth in the Pyramid Texts’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 36 (1977), 161—179. JSTOR. J. Hellum, ‘The Presence of Myth in the Pyramid Texts’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, University of Toronto (2001). Online. J. Hellum, ‘Toward an Understanding of the Use of Myth in the Pyramid Texts’, Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 43 (2014), 123—142. Academia.edu. H.-J. Klimkeit, ‘Spatial Orientation in Mythical Thinking as Exemplified in Ancient Egypt: Considerations toward a Geography of Religions’, History of Religions 14 (1975), 266—281. JSTOR. A. J. Morales, ‘The Transmission of the Pyramid Texts into the Middle Kingdom: Philological Aspects of a Continuous Tradition in Egyptian Mortuary Literature’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, University of Pennsylvania (2013). Academia.edu. D. Stewart, ‘The Myth of Osiris in the Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, Monash University (2014). Online. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:37.8	Hello and welcome back to the History of Egypt podcast. This is The Pyramid Texts explained.
0:50.0	This is the concluding chapter in our mini seriesseries about the pyramid texts of King Unas.
0:55.8	Today I want to dive into what it all means, what the core themes of the texts are,
1:01.8	where they come from, how the ancients conceived and organized them,
1:06.8	and how Egyptologists have reached the understandings that they do.
1:11.0	This is going to be a slightly disjointed episode as we go from topic to topic, but hopefully it will give a greater depth and meaning to what we have heard so far.
1:19.0	If you're interested in a particular topic, there will be chapter codes in the episode description.
1:24.1	I'll also include a proper bebibliography in the description of the episode because many of the
1:29.0	academic sources that I'll be using here are accessible online and I know some people will be interested to learn more.
1:35.6	So with that out of the way, let's cut to the chase. What's the deal with the pyramid texts. The pyramid texts may appear to be incredibly complicated,
1:51.0	full of obscure metaphors and references, and with a language style that goes all over the place,
1:56.6	from elaborate descriptions of the gods to the endless repetition of certain rituals or phrases.
2:10.0	This can obscure the core meaning, but the actual idea at the heart of the pyramid texts is relatively simple. The core idea is that the deceased, the king, is going to ascend to the sky, to join or rejoin the gods, and to sit beside the great solar deity Ra on his boat as he sails across the sky.
2:25.0	There are additional themes and metaphors that turn up through the pyramid texts,
2:30.0	but this is the core idea.
2:32.6	When the ruler of Egypt dies, he must travel to the stars
	...

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