The Liturgy of Funerary Offerings

9781465576972

Library of Alexandria

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Overview

THE present volume contains the Egyptian text and English translations of two copies of one of the most, important documents connected with the dead which have come down to us, namely, a detailed list of the offerings which were made to the dead, and also of the consecrating formulae which were recited by the chief officiating priest, as he presented them to a mummified body, or to a statue of the deceased. The ancient title of the composition, if it ever had one in early days, is unknown to us, but it has been called the "Liturgy of Funerary Offerings," because the document deals exclusively with the presentation of offerings to the dead, and because this title is convenient for reference. This Liturgy is associated in the funerary texts in the tombs and papyri with another work entitled the "Book of Opening the Mouth" and this fact suggests that it is a portion of or a supplement to it, and that it is a development of the canonical List of Offerings which we have reason to believe was in existence under the IIIrd or IVth Dynasty. We know that funerary chapels were attached to the. pyramids and mastaba tombs of this period, and that offerings of meat and drink were made in them to the dead daily by properly qualified priests. It follows as a matter of course that the proceedings of the priests were regulated by some system, and that some kind of written service must have been recited regularly, and we are justified in believing that the Liturgy of Funerary Offerings was that which was commonly said for kings and other royal personages, and for men of high civil and ecclesiastical rank. In the case of the "Book of Opening the Mouth" the object of the recital was, in the earliest times at least, to bring about the reconstitution and resurrection of the dead man, and even in later times, when the work was recited before a statue, on which the accompanying ceremonies were performed, the idea of the Egyptians on this matter remained unchanged.