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Inside the sarcophaguses of the XI and XII dynasty ( 2055 – 1795) more
than 1000 “magic formulas” have been found, many of which derived from the
previous texts of the pyramids.
During the ancient reign only the
pharaoh
could become a god, who transformed himself in
Osiris at his death. But in
the epoch at the XVIII dnasty a more opened attitude prevailed: everybody
could enter the other world, in a form or another. It was so essential to
establish the dead perosn’s hopes and desires with prayers, songs and
incantations, leaving them written inside the sarcophaguses, to avoid any
misunderstanding about the soul’s final resting place.
Sometimes, instead of
painting the sarcophaguses, the funeral texts were written on papyruses that
accompanied the dead person in the tomb or on the walls. Often they were
actual “guides” for afterlife, as the book of the two ways. The funeral texts
were more common in the second middle period (1650 – 1550) and that culminated
in the book of the dead and the book of afterlife, in the writings of the
hidden chamber, in the book of the Gates in the book of the Caverns in other
miner collections.
They widaly appeared during the new reign (1550 – 1069 BC)
specially in the tombs of the valley of the kinfs.
In Ramses’s VI tomb the
book of the gates was found at the entrance of the superior level, followed by
the book of the Caverns and, closer to the sarcophagus, by the book of what is
in the Duat.
Unas’s pyramid, near Giza, has some of the most remarkable
inscriptions, including the text of Ptah-Hoteo’s wisdom. The circular zodiac
of Dendera, painted on the ceiling of the temple, crearly show the
astronomical constellation represented by the astrolog personaes of the zodiac.
The inscriptions in Unas’s pyramid document Osiride’s myth and bring forward
the mythological story:
“Oh king, you are Osiride’s friend... may you pass the
close milky way...and may you go to the place where Orione is...”
This formula had to accompany the dead king to Osiride’s constellation to let
him become a star among the others.
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