(a) The doctrine of immortality attached to the name of Osiris is the best known to us of all the Egyptian conceptions of the future life. To it is devoted the so-called Book of the Dead, whose oldest texts date from the Middle Empire (cf. Lepsius, Aelteste Texte des Todtenbuchs, Berlin, 1867; Birch, Egyptian Texts of the Coffin of Amamu, London, 1886; Lepsius, Denkm. u. 98f., 145-148 ; Maspero, Mém. de la Miss. du Caire, i. 155f. [These texts show a great resemblance to the Pyramid texts which Maspero published in Les inscriptions des Pyramides de Saqqarah, Paris, 1894, a reprint from Rec. de trav. rel. a VEgypt., vols. iii.-xiv.]). Its period of bloom, to which belong the copies that are relatively freest from verbal errors and best illustrated, falls within the period from the 18th to the 20th dynasty (for the texts see Naville, Das aegyp. Todtenbuch der I8-20 Dynastie, Berlin, 1886 ; le Page Renouf, Facsimile of the Papyrus of Ani, London, 1890 [2nd ed. by Budge, 1894-1895, with Introduction and Transla- tion]; Budge, Pacsimiles of the Papyri of Hunefer, etc., London, 1899 [among them notably the very important text of the Papyrus of Nu]. Transla- tions have been published by le Page Renouf in PSBA xv. ff. [recently continued by Naville] ; Budge, The Book of the Dead, 3 vols., London, 1898 [abridged ed. under same title, London, 1901}. Renouf’s notes are mainly on the language ; Budge discusses also the history of the Book of the Dead, with the later and the supplementary texts). In later times many passages were no longer intelli- gible to the scribes, who, accordingly, frequently eases very faulty copies. To this category
elongs the Turin exemplar (emanating from the Ptolemaic period) published by Lepsius, which is now used as the basis for citations from the Book of the Dead (Lepsius, Todtenbuch der Aegypter, Berlin, 1842). A similar but less complete text is found in the Papyrus Cadet used by Champollion, and published in the Description d’Egyp. Ant. ii. 72-75. Translations, mainly based on the Turin exemplar, have been published by Birch (in Bun- sen’s Lyypt’s Place in Universal History, v. 123 ff.) and Pierret (Le Livre des Morts, Paris, 1881).
Ata late period, from about B.c. 1000 onwards, there grew up, side by side with the Book of the Dead, numerous religious compilations, based upon the same doctrines, and utilizing the Book itself as a source. Thus we have the various Books of ‘Breathing,’ the Book of ‘Journeying through Eternity,’ the Book of ‘May my name flourish,’ and the like. (Texts of this class have been pub- lished and discussed by, amongst others, Maspero Les monies royales de Deir el-Bahari, p. 594 f.; ef. Budge, The Book of the Dead, 1898, ii. pp. elxxxiii ff. [text of Nesi-Chunsu]; Horrack, Livre des Respirations, Paris, 1877 [another text in
Budge, /.c. p. cxcv ff., publ. by Budge with the Book of the Dead of nner: von Bergmann, ‘Das Buch vom Durchwandeln der Ewigkeit’ in Sitzungsber. der Wiener Akad. 1886, p. 3691f. ; Lieblein, Le Livre Hgyptien ‘Que mon nom fleu- risse, Leipzig, 1895; Papyrus Louvre, No. 8283, ed. by Wiedemann in Hieratische Texte, Leipzig, 1879). These works help in some measure to fill up lacune in the conceptions of the Book of the Dead. Further supplements, emanating from the same circle of ideas, are furnished by the rituals for the process of embalming (Rhind Papyri, ed. by Birch, London, 1863, and Brugsch, Leipzig, 1865; a ‘hieratic Papyrus from Vienna’ in von Bergmann’s AHieratische Texte, Vienna, 1887 ; texts from Gizeh and Paris in Maspero’s Mém. sur quelques papyrus du Louvre, Paris, 1875) and for the ceremonies at the door of the tomb (Schia- arelli, Libro dei Funerali, Turin, 1881-1890; cf. Mester Et. de myth. i. 283 ff.).
These texts yield an uncommonly large number of notices with reference to the notions of im- mortality that attached to Osiris, but they con- tain nothing like a systematic Osirian religion. This is due to the circumstance that from first to last the Book of the Dead was a collection of hymns to gods and of magical formule, which were based upon the most diverse fundamental doctrines, and were united in a single work with- out any attempt being made to remove the con- tradictions and establish a harmony. As time went on, this compilation always received fresh accessions in the shape of independent passages ; and, in addition to this, the already existing texts were constantly being expanded at every turn, without any regard to the harmony of the various doctrines expressed.
(e) Thus the same confusion that reigns in Egyptian religion in general, prevails also in the Book of the Dead and its supplementary texts. It is impossible here to illustrate this in detail ; we must be content to sketch briefly the principal features of the Osirian faith, passing over all incidental points and particular deviations.
Originally, the adherents of Osiris appear to have held, in accordance with the teaching of the Book of the Dead, that the dead man as a whole would enter upon the way to the world beyond. The name Osiris—and this custom persisted through the whole course of Egyptian history— was then given to him, in the hope that, like the god Osiris, he would attain to immortality. In earlier times, so far as we know, the deceased was always thought of as male. It was only at a later period, after c. 500 B.c., that women began to have their sex left to them, and to be sometimes called in the funeral texts by the name Hathor instead of Osiris.