Egyptian Funerary Spells
Explore More
Looking for more content like this? Explore other texts in the Ancient Near East collection or try searching for similar themes in our tag library.
Summary
Date: 2350 BCE
The Pyramid Texts are the oldest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious literature, inscribed on the walls of royal pyramids at Saqqara beginning in the Fifth Dynasty (c. 2350 BCE). They consist of spells and utterances intended to protect the deceased pharaoh in the afterlife. Many of the earliest spells are apotropaic incantations against snakes, commanding serpents to fall, crawl away, and be crushed underfoot.
More Books
In the same collection