Securely dated Late Period funerary literature prior to the fourth century bc is still relatively scarce. The primary text that we have is the Book of the Dead, which was standardized in terms of both the selection of spells and their sequence during the Kushite period (although known as the ‘‘Saite Recension’’). A number of Books of the Dead of the Kushite and Saite period have been published (Munro i. p.; Verhoeven 1993; 1999a), all written in Hieratic, while very little material has been ascribed to the long period of Persian occupation. It is important to note that the surviving manuscripts by no means represent the scope of funerary literature known during this period. Contemporary tombs, sarcophagi, stelae and other sources preserve spells from the Pyramid Texts (Allen 1950: 12-41) and the Coffin Texts (Gestermann 2005) as well as the Book of Amduat, the Book of Gates, the Book of Caverns, the Book of the Earth, the Book of Nut, the Book of the Day, the Book of the Night, and the Litany of Re, and many of these compositions are still attested also in the Ptolemaic Period (cf. conveniently Hornung 1999; Manassa 2007).
From the fourth century bc the material becomes much more abundant. The Book of the Dead is now also found inscribed on mummy linen (Kockelmann 2008a). This was not necessarily a substitute for papyrus since both are sometimes found together. The corpus is broadened by different texts that are entitled Book ofBreathing, as well as the Book of Traversing Eternity (Herbin 1994), and the adaption of royal and temple rituals put to funerary use, above all in a range of protective spells, glorifications and lamentations relating to the cult of Osiris (Burkard 1988; 2000; Assmann 2008). The vast majority of these texts are written in the Hieratic script. Hieroglyphic copies of the Book of the Dead reappear in the Ptolemaic Period and certainly from the first century bc Demotic is also used for funerary texts, though on a much more limited scale than the other two scripts (Depauw 1997: 116-21). Papyrus Pamonthes (63 ad; Stadler 2003) contains the only known Demotic version of a spell from the Book of the Dead - the latest securely dated attestation of Spell 125 - together with an extract of the Book of Traversing Eternity.
The Book of Breathing makes it first appearance in the second century bc and is used as a general term for a range of funerary texts which may be written in Hieratic or, more rarely, Demotic or even Hieroglyphic. The most common are the Book of Breathing made by Isis for her brother Osiris, the First Book of Breathing, the Second Book of Breathing, and what might be termed the Demotic Book of Breathing (for the three former see Herbin 2008; for the latter Stadler 2004). The first-mentioned text is sometimes provided with an opening vignette similar to the Book of the Dead and may be several columns long; the other texts are much shorter, usually a single column and often without illustrations. The papyri were generally placed on the mummy in pairs, and it is frequently indicated on the reverse whether the text was to be placed at the head or the feet. The texts were all intended to secure the continued well-being of the deceased through posthumous revival, restoration of the mental and physical faculties, integration with the gods, participation in important festivals, and provision of nourishment. By the late Ptolemaic Period the Book of Breathing seems to have completely replaced the Book of the Dead.
The Glorification texts represent an Osirian ritual transferred to the individual, with a purpose somewhat similar to the Books of Breathing. These texts go back to the earliest funerary literature in the form of the Pyramid Texts, and many different versions are attested for the Late and Graeco-Roman periods. They appear to have been used mainly in relation to offering and embalming rituals (Smith 1987: 20). The Lamentations express the suffering by the loss of the deceased and are modeled on the grief suffered by Isis for her deceased husband Osiris, Osirian myth again providing the frame of reference. Lamentations are often incorporated in the glorification ritual.
Further funerary texts that were also used in contemporary temple rituals include the Ritual for Bringing Sokar out of the Shrine (Burkard 1988: 228-49;
Smith 1993b) and the Rite of Opening of the Mouth (Otto 1960). Related to the latter is the Liturgy of Opening the Mouth for Breathing attested in four Demotic papyri of the first century ad, perhaps all from Akhmim (Smith 1993a). A few papyri of early Roman date also include spells first attested in the Pyramid Texts, both in Hieratic (Moller 1900; Szczudlowska 1972) and Demotic (Smith 1993b).
FURTHER READING
There is, unfortunately, no single study that covers the Hieratic material from the period, but at least some of it is now collected in the present chapter. General surveys of the textual material from our period will be found in Depauw 1997, Hoffmann, 2000, Quack 2005a, and Hoffmann and Quack 2007.
World History
