Book of the Netherworld

The family of ancient Egyptian compositions describing the underworld's geography and the sun's night journey. All are anonymous products of priestly tradition.

Original byline

Anonymous

Published

Date not recorded

Form

Other works

Authorship

Still unknown

Reason for anonymity

Unrecorded

Copyright

Public domain

Reference

Wikipedia · Wikidata

The authorship story

The Books of the Netherworld is the collective name for the New Kingdom compositions, including the Amduat, the Book of Gates, and the Book of Caverns, that describe the underworld hour by hour and region by region. Painted in the royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings, they served the dead king's identification with the sun god in his nightly regeneration. No composition in the family names an author. They were created and transmitted by temple priesthoods, and Egyptian culture did not attach individual authorship to sacred text.

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Related works

• Still unknown

  Amduat

  Date unrecorded · other

  An ancient Egyptian netherworld book describing the sun god's journey through the twelve hours of night. Like all Egyptian funerary literature, it names no author.

• Still unknown

  Book of Caverns

  Date unrecorded · other

  An ancient Egyptian netherworld book depicting the sun god's passage over six caverns of the underworld. No author is recorded in the tradition.

• Still unknown

  Book of the Dead

  Date unrecorded · other

  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

  Book of the Earth

  Date unrecorded · other

  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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