Book of the Earth
An ancient Egyptian funerary composition showing the sun's night journey through the earth god Aker. Anonymous, like all Egyptian netherworld books.
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- Original byline
- Anonymous
- Published
- Date not recorded
- Form
- Other works
- Authorship
- Still unknown
- Reason for anonymity
- Religious
- Copyright
- Public domain
- Reference
- Wikipedia · Wikidata
The authorship story
The Book of the Earth is a Ramesside netherworld composition, best preserved in the tomb of Ramesses VI, in which the sun god's nocturnal regeneration is staged within the body of the earth. Its scenes of the solar disc raised by pairs of arms from the depths are among the most striking images in Egyptian royal tombs. The composition names no author, and no scribe or priest is credited anywhere in the tradition. Its anonymity is structural: Egyptian religious literature was corporate and cumulative.
Questions readers ask
Who wrote Book of the Earth?
Nobody knows. No author for Book of the Earth has been identified in the documented record.
Can I read Book of the Earth for free?
Yes. Book of the Earth is in the public domain and the full text is free to read at the Internet Archive.
Related works
- Still unknown
Book of the Dead
The ancient Egyptian collection of funerary spells guiding the dead through the afterlife. Tradition associates such texts with the god Thoth; no historical author exists in the record.
- Still unknown
Coffin Texts
The Middle Kingdom corpus of Egyptian funerary spells painted on coffins, ancestor of the Book of the Dead. Composed anonymously within priestly tradition.
- Still unknown
Key of Solomon
The most famous of the grimoires, attributed by its own tradition to King Solomon. Its actual medieval and Renaissance compilers are unknown.
- Still unknown
Litany of Re
A New Kingdom Egyptian funerary text invoking the sun god in seventy five forms. Produced by priestly tradition; the record names no author, only 'the clergy'.