This is a study of an anonymous ancient work, originally composed in Greek, titled Joseph and Aseneth. Although relatively unknown outside of scholarly circles, the story is remarkable because of its focus on a female character and its absence of overt misogyny. It has traditionally been viewed as an early 2nd-century C.E. conversion story of Jewish provenance. Kraemer, through her detailed examination of the texts, arrives at conclusions that disagree with previous findings with respect not only to questions of date, provenance, identity, geographic origin and textual relationships, but also to many matters of interpretation.

This is the third of three volumes, first published in 1906, which treat the Egyptian theology of the afterlife. The first volume contains the complete hieroglyphic text of the Book Am-Tuat, with translations and reproductions of all the illustrations; the second, the hieroglyphic text of the short form of the Am-Tuat and the Book of Gates. This volume explores the origin of the Books of the Other World, highlighting and comparing the most remarkable features, with prefatory remarks and a full index to the whole work. The object of all the Books of the Other World was to provide the dead with a 'guide' or 'handbook, ' containing a description of the regions through which their souls would have to pass on their way to the Kingdom of Osiris, and which would supply them with the words of power and magical names necessary for an unimpeded journey from this world to the next

Large state temples in ancient Egypt were vast agricultural estates, with interests in mining, trading, and other economic activities. The temple itself served as the mansion or palace of the deity to whom the estate belonged, and much of the ritual in temples was devoted to offering a representative sample of goods to the gods. After ritual performances, produce was paid as wages to priests and temple staff and presented as offerings to private mortuary establishments. This redistribution became a daily ritual in which many basic necessities of life for elite Egyptians were produced. This book evaluates the influence of common temple rituals not only on the day to day lives of ancient Egyptians, but also on their special events, economics, and politics. Author Katherine Eaton argues that a study of these daily rites ought to be the first step in analyzing the structure of more complex societal processes.

In this beautifully illustrated and closely argued book, a completely updated and much expanded third edition of his magisterial survey, Curl describes in lively and stimulating prose the numerous revivals of the Egyptian style from Antiquity to the present day. Drawing on a wealth of sources, his pioneering and definitive work analyzes the remarkable and persistent influence of Ancient Egyptian culture on the West.

The author deftly develops his argument that the civilization of Ancient Egypt is central, rather than peripheral, to the development of much of Western architecture, art, design, and religion. Curl examines:

• the persistence of Egyptian motifs in design from Graeco-Roman Antiquity, through the Medieval, Baroque, and Neo-Classical periods
• rise of Egyptology in the nineteenth and twentieth-century manifestations of Egyptianisms prompted by the discovery of Tutankhamun s tomb
• various aspects of Egyptianizing tendencies in the Art Deco style and afterwards.

For students of art, architectural and ancient history, and those interested in western European culture generally, this book will be an inspiring and invaluable addition to the available literature."

This beautifully illustrated, closely argued, pioneering, and definitive magisterial survey spans over two thousand years and analyzes the astonishing and persistent influence that Ancient Egyptian culture has had on the West. Professor Stevens Curl describes in lively and stimulating prose the numerous revivals of the Egyptian style from Antiquity to the present day, drawing on a wealth of sources.
The author deftly develops his argument that the civilization of Ancient Egypt is central, rather than peripheral, to the development of much of Western architecture, art, design, and religion. He charts the remarkable persistence of Egyptian motifs in design from Graeco-Roman Antiquity, through the Mediaeval, Baroque, and Neo-Classical periods, and goes on to trace the rise of Egyptology in the nineteenth century, twentieth-century manifestations of Egyptianisms prompted by the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, and various aspects of Egyptianising tendencies in the Art Deco style and afterwards.
For students of art, architectural and ancient history, and those interested in Western European culture generally, this book will be an inspiring and invaluable addition to the available literature.

This landmark work, written by the eminent Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge, is a complete survey of the religion and mythology of the Ancient Egyptians. Every significant religious figure is considered in depth: the primitive gods and Nome-Gods; Ra, the sun god; Thoth and Maat, Amen and Amen-Ra, Aten, Osiris, Isis, the foreign gods, and many others. Also covered are the Underworld, Creation, the Zodiac, and Sacred Animals and Birds. A number of Hieroglyphic texts with translations are included.

This important work by this famous Egyptologist on a central theme in Egyptian life is of the utmost significance to those who wish to understand ancient Egypt. The present work deals particularly with religion of the predynastic portion of Egyptian history, as well as cults, theological systems, and religions of the dynastic period.

The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses contains one of the most comprehensive listings and descriptions of Egyptian deities. Now in its second edition, it provides:

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• a new introduction
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• updated entries and four new entries on deities
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• names of the deities as Hieroglyphs
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• a survey of gods and goddesses as they appear in classical literature
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• an expanded chronology and updated bibliography, together with a list of relevant websites
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• drawings of the gods and emblems of each district
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• a map of ancient Egypt and a time chart

Presenting a vivid picture of the complexity and richness of imagery in Egyptian mythology, students studying Ancient Egypt, travelers, visitors to museums and all those interested in mythology will find this an invaluable resource.

Join Egyptologist Garry J. Shaw on a tour up the Nile, through a beautiful and fascinating landscape populated with a rich mythology: the stories of Horus, Isis, Osiris, and their enemies and allies, tales of vengeance, tragedy, and fantastic metamorphoses. The myths of ancient Egypt have survived in fragments of ancient hymns and paintings on the walls of tombs and temples, spells inked across coffins and stories scrawled upon scrolls. Shaw not only retells these stories with his characteristic wit, but also reconnects them to the temples and monuments that still stand today, offering a fresh look at the most visited sites in Egypt. Shaw's evocative descriptions of the ancient ruins will transport you to another landscape - including the magnificent sites of Dendera, Tell el-Amarna, Edfu, and Thebes. At each site, discover which gods or goddesses were worshipped there, as well as the myths and stories that formed the backdrop to the rituals and customs of everyday life. Each chapter ends with a potted history of the site, as well as tips for visiting the ruins today. Illustrations throughout bring to life the creation of the world and the nebulous netherworld, the complicated relationships between fickle gods, powerful magicians and pharaohs, and eternal battles on a cosmic scale. This is the perfect companion to the myths of Egypt and the gods and goddesses that shaped its ancient landscape. With 58 illustrations

This book brings together, for the first time in a single volume, the significant works on ancient Egyptian religion by renowned Egyptologist Aylward M. Blackman (1883-1956). During his life, Blackman did not publish his writings in book form, placing them instead in a range of publications that are now difficult to obtain.

Section I discusses subjects including purification, salvation, sin, myth, and ritual. In Section II, such topics as the cult of the dead and the significance of incense and libations in funerary and temple ritual are covered. Section III includes explorations of priesthood, the hierarchical position of women, and worship. Finally, Section IV looks at topics including kinghood, communication between gods and men, and oracles.

Blackman's seminal studies of Egyptian religious belief and practice have long been regarded as essential readings on the subject, and Gods, Priests, and Men finally makes Blackman's classic writings available to a broad, general audience. A select bibliography provides an update and key to more recent work on topics discussed by Blackman.

First published in 1993. This is a new edition of Akhaenaten's boundary stelae, which now includes information about most of the boundary markers, the tablets were accompanied by statues of Akhenaten, Nefertiti and two of their daughters, all of which stood on low platforms that were raised above the level of the floor. In addition was the awareness that the statues at the site of Stela A were elevated to a greater degree than were the corresponding statues at other sites (insofar as this could be judged from published photographs). The evidence in the publication indicated, moreover, that Stela A, along with Stela B (some two miles south) were the latest of the boundary monuments to be inscribed, since both concluded with a colophon, dated to the end of Akhenaten's eighth regnal year, added to the standard text of the Later Proclamation found on these and other stelae of this series.

This is the first of three volumes, first published in 1906, which explore the Egyptian theology of the afterlife. It contains the complete hieroglyphic text of the Book Am-Tuat, with translations and reproductions of all the illustrations. This text, at least in the form that we have it, was produced by the priests of Amen-Ra at Thebes, with the intention of demonstrating that their god was the overlord of all the gods, and the supreme power in the universe. The object of all the Books of the Other World was to provide the dead with a 'guide' or 'handbook,' containing a description of the regions through which their souls would have to pass on their way to the Kingdom of Osiris, and which would supply them with the words of power and magical names necessary for an unimpeded journey from this world to the next.

This is the second volume of Sir E. A. Wallis Budge's narrative account of Ethiopian history, and continues the chronicle of the Kings of Abyssinia where the first volume ended: the death of Lebna Dengel in 1540. The list of kings ends with the Regent Ras Tafari, who still reigned at the time of first publication in 1928. Thereafter, the author devotes considerable attention to an overview of the cultural, social and political idiosyncrasies of the Ethiopian people: literature, spells and magic, architecture, ethnography, the alphabet, and a wide range of other engrossing topics. This material complements the narrative history, helping to situate the deeds of the kings and the fortunes of their people in a broader context.

First Published in 1984. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

You are in your bed. It is dark, you hear footsteps coming up the stairs and into your room. There is someone there - a presence. They lie on you or beside you, gripping you tightly, crushing you into the bed. You can't move. There may be a sound, a grunt or a strange smell. Time passes, you are paralysed with fear. Eventually the entity changes, expanding or contracting, moving away from you, sinking to the floor. With a great effort of will you manage to move the tip of your finger, then the hand until movement returns to your whole body and the experience ends. You have been visited by the old 'hag'. Dreams, the real theatre or perhaps battlefield of magick, influenced by cosmic tides that ebb and flow through us as they did the ancient Egyptians. Over the millennia we have lost contact with these tides, and stand alienated from Nature. To restore that first 'Eden' we must undertake an exercise in the archaeology of knowledge. We must reconstruct the ancient Egyptian Wheel of the Year, revealing archaic, pre-dynastic Mysteries, the Lunar Mysteries of Horus and Seth.

During the building of the Aswan High Dam between 1960 and 1970, the Nubian Rescue Campaign, operating under the auspices of UNESCO, was an international effort to rescue those of the Nubian monuments which would be submerged once the dam was completed. The most famous monument to be thus rescued and reconstructed is the Great Temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel, but altogther four areas in Nubia around Lake Nasser now contain ancient monuments that were reconstructed and moved from their original positions: Abu Simbel, New Amada, New Wadi al-Sebua, and New Kalabsha. These impressive sites are becoming increasingly popular with international visitors. Dr. Jocelyn Gohary opens this compact and attractive guide, the first of its kind, with an introduction to the history and culture of Nubia during the pharaonic period. She then describes each monument in detail, providing a simple plan for each and highlighting its history, religion, and art. Also included are brief descriptions of the four temples that were transported and re-erected abroad -- the most notable being the Temple of Dendur in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

The gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt, worshipped for over half of recorded history, are among the most fascinating and complex of any civilization. Here is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the deities that lay at the heart of Egyptian religion and society. It examines the evolution, worship and eventual decline of the numerous gods and goddesses - from minor household figures such as Bes and Taweret to the all-powerful deities Amun and Re - that made Egypt the most completely theocratic society of the ancient world, and made Egyptians, according to Herodotus, 'more religious than any other people'.

The shift from polytheism to monotheism changed the world radically. Akhenaten and Moses-a figure of history and a figure of tradition-symbolize this shift in its incipient, revolutionary stages and represent two civilizations that were brought into the closest connection as early as the Book of Exodus, where Egypt stands for the old world to be rejected and abandoned in order to enter the new one.The seven chapters of this seminal study shed light on the great transformation from different angles. Between Egypt in the first chapter and monotheism in the last, five chapters deal in various ways with the transition from one to the other, analyzing the Exodus myth, understanding the shift in terms of evolution and revolution, confronting Akhenaten and Moses in a new way, discussing Karl Jaspers' theory of the Axial Age, and dealing with the eighteenth-century view of the Egyptian mysteries as a cultural model.

In this important new book, the distinguished Egyptologist Jan Assmann provides a masterful overview of a crucial theme in the religious history of the West - that of 'religio duplex', or dual religion. He begins by returning to the theology of the Ancient Egyptians, who set out to present their culture as divided between the popular and the elite. By examining their beliefs, he argues, we can distinguish the two faces of ancient religions more generally: the outer face (that of the official religion) and the inner face (encompassing the mysterious nature of religious experience). Assmann explains that the Early Modern period witnessed the birth of the idea of dual religion with, on the one hand, the religion of reason and, on the other, that of revelation. This concept gained new significance in the Enlightenment when the dual structure of religion was transposed onto the individual. This meant that man now owed his allegiance not only to his native religion, but also to a universal 'religion of mankind'. In fact, argues Assmann, religion can now only hold a place in our globalized world in this way, as a religion that understands itself as one among many and has learned to see itself through the eyes of the other. This bold and wide-ranging book will be essential reading for historians, theologians and anyone interested in the nature of religion and its role in the shaping of the modern world.

The author uses the heb-sed, or Sed-festival, an ancient Egyptian religious festival that can be traced to the Archaic period, as the basis for a comparative study for providing insights into the controversial reign of Amenhotep IV - Akhenaten.

Building on the comprehensive photographic and epigraphic documentation of the temple presented in The Temple of Ramesses II at Abydos volumes 1 (Wall Scenes) and 2 (Pillars, Niches and Miscellanea), volume 3 (Architectural and Inscriptional Features) offers a detailed analysis of the overall architectural layout and decorative programme of the temple and its symbolism. Of all the enormous monuments throughout Egypt and Nubia that Ramesses II (the Great; ca. 1279-1212 BCE) left behind, his temple at Abydos, built early in his reign, stands as one of his most elegant, with its simple architectural layout and dramatic and graceful painted relief scenes. Though best known for its dramatic reliefs depicting the battle of Kadesh, the temple also offers a wealth of information about religious and social life in ancient Egypt. It reflects, for example, the strenuous efforts of the early Ramessides to reestablish the Osiris cult in Egypt -- and particularly at Abydos -- in the aftermath of the Amarna period. This discussion approaches the religious history of the site through its archaeology, its inscriptions-both planned and secondary (graffiti)-and its situation in the complex religious landscape of Abydos. Of particular interest are the temple's role as a staging point for the great Osiris Festival and its procession, among the most important of all ritual events in the Egyptian religious calendar during the Ramesside period; the promotion of an active, unbound form of Osiris; and the evidence for important cult activities that took place on the rooftop of the temple, the presence of which is documented today by the staircase that accessed it from Court B.

In their wide-ranging interpretation of the religion of ancient Egypt, Francoise Dunand and Christiane Zivie-Coche explore how, over a period of roughly 3500 years, the Egyptians conceptualized their relations with the gods. Drawing on the insights of anthropology, the authors discuss such topics as the identities, images, and functions of the gods; rituals and liturgies; personal forms of piety expressing humanity's need to establish a direct relation with the divine; and the afterlife, a central feature of Egyptian religion. That religion, the authors assert, was characterized by the remarkable continuity of its ritual practices and the ideas of which they were an expression.Throughout, Dunand and Zivie-Coche take advantage of the most recent archaeological discoveries and scholarship. Gods and Men in Egypt is unique in its coverage of Egyptian religious expression in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Written with nonspecialist readers in mind, it is largely concerned with the continuation of Egypt's traditional religion in these periods, but it also includes fascinating accounts of Judaism in Egypt and the appearance and spread of Christianity there."

Take a journey through Ancient Egypt and see how the pharaohs once lived! An enticing and insightful guide that covers 3000 years of life under the pharaoh's rule (c.3200-30 BCE), from the early kings of Egypt to the reign of Cleopatra and the Roman conquest, this book explains it all! Written by a team of respected Egyptologists, this Egyptian history book includes: - Themed spreads which explore developments in areas such as religion, writing, painting, ceramics, and medicine - Biography spreads which feature the lives of the most influential pharaohs and queens - Detailed maps which set the main sites in context, and show the growth of the civilisation and its trade network - An 80-page reference section which provides a directory of the pharaohs, gods, and goddesses Unlock every aspect of Ancient Egypt, from pharaohs such as Tutankhamen, discover the Pyramids and the Sphinx of Giza and even ordinary people's everyday lives and beliefs. From 31 Egyptian dynasties and 3000 years of history to the time of Narmer, and to that of Cleopatra and so much more, this is the perfect comprehensive guide to Egypt's ancient civilisation. This up-to-date biography of Ancient Egypt is filled with so much to learn and experience. Filled with more than 850 photos, illustrations, and maps, this is the perfect book for adventurous thinkers, life-long learners, or anyone with an interest in ancient civilisations and Egyptology.

This is an introduction to the extraordinary religion of the ancient Egyptian civilization and the beliefs that shaped their everyday life. It is an authoritative text by a leading Egyptologist is complemented by beautiful maps, drawings, illustrations and photographs of places and objects. It includes an account of Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife, the Book of the Dead and ceremonies such as mummification and the Weighing of the Heart. The widespread practices of magic, ritual and rites of passage are clearly explained. It includes a study of burial sites such as tombs, pyramids and ben-ben and other sacred stones. It describes temple rites and offerings, the power of the high priests, and the role of women in religion. Religious belief was central to life in ancient Egypt and played a fundamental role in the development of their great society. In the first half of this book, the state religion is considered, with an examination of the preparation for the afterlife, including the procedures and ceremonies that followed death. The second half of the book considers the effects of popular religion on daily activities and social history. The religion of the people of the River Nile is documented here with maps and a wealth of over 200 beautiful photographs, reproductions and artworks, making this book an essential reference for anyone interested in this ancient civilization.