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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileThis papyrus scroll depicts the complex, multi-tiered journey of the sun god Ra as he travels through the twelve hours of the night. The composition is organized into registers containing rows of deities, mystical symbols, and serpents, representing the perils and transformations inherent in the afterlife. The ink drawings retain the rhythmic, linear style characteristic of Third Intermediate Period funerary papyri, designed to guide the deceased through the Duat.
The Amduat is one of the most critical foundational texts of Ancient Egyptian funerary religion, documenting the solar theology of the afterlife and the cyclical nature of divine rebirth. Its influence extends into the development of later Western Hermetic and Neoplatonic concepts concerning the soul's descent and ascent through cosmic spheres.
Hieroglyphic text spanning the registers, including labels for specific deities (e.g., Ra, Apep, various guardians) and liturgical recitations describing the nocturnal journey.
Translation
The text consists of descriptive labels and spells associated with the hours of the night, such as 'He who resides in his bark,' prayers to the solar deity, and invocations to protect the deceased (Henettawy) during the passage through the underworld.
Corpus Hermeticum
The Egyptian solar theology exemplified in the Amduat provides the structural and philosophical substrate for the mystical ascension narratives found in later Hermetic writings.
Object
Papyrus, ink
religious
Digital Source
Unknown · Public domain
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview on April 14, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.