“O my heart from my mother…do not rise up against me as a witness, do not accuse me in the court, do not turn against me in the presence of the clerk of the scales. You are my ka, which is in my body, the khnum that makes my limbs healthy…”
The 150 chapters of the -Books for Coming to the Day- or to Life, later called by the German historian Carl R. Lepsius, who translated the numerous scrolls of the Egyptian Museum of Turin in 1842, Books of the Dead, were a true guide to the afterlife and helped the deceased to face the dangers after leaving the tomb.
The ka, arriving in the kingdom of Osiris accompanied by Anubis, was judged by 42 demons; if the deceased was a sinner, the ka was condemned to hunger and thirst, or to be torn to pieces, but if the decision was favorable, the ka migrated to the celestial kingdom, to the fields of Osiris where it helped him with the farm work that could be avoided by bringing with it the ushabti, statuettes that worked for the deceased.
The Houses of Life, schools or libraries admitted to the palace, sold the -Books to Exit Life- written on papyrus. In the spaces left blank, one could write one's name and paint illustrations with scenes from one's life and that of one's loved ones. At the Egyptian Museum in Turin, the Books of the Dead are truly numerous and all extremely interesting. Also because they allow us to better understand the life of this great people and its splendid religion (Herodotus).
The Book of Coming in the Day of Nebhepet (1070-946 BC), scribe and superintendent of the works of the Theban necropolis, is a shortened version of the LoM in which the part dedicated to the text is abbreviated in favor of lively religious scenes. The vignettes, arranged in the scroll from left to right, depict the deceased traveling by boat through the Fields of Ialu, the paradise of the ancient Egyptians.
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