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'.
- 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 Litany of Re opens the tombs of New Kingdom pharaohs, invoking the sun god under seventy five names and forms and identifying the dead king with each of them. It is liturgy as cosmology, the king dissolved into the whole cycle of solar being. Reference records sometimes credit it to the clergy of ancient Egypt, which is a way of saying what this site says directly: it is an institutional composition, the work of priesthoods across generations, with no individual author recorded. The litany's voice belongs to a temple, not a person.
Questions readers ask
Who wrote Litany of Re?
Nobody knows. No author for Litany of Re has been identified in the documented record.
Can I read Litany of Re for free?
Yes. Litany of Re 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
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.
- 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.