Pyramid Texts
The oldest religious texts of ancient Egypt, carved in pyramids from the twenty fourth century BCE. Institutional priestly compositions with no recorded author.
- 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 Pyramid Texts are spells and liturgies carved on the interior walls of pyramids from the reign of Unas onward, around 2350 BCE, making them the oldest substantial body of religious writing in the world. They equip the dead king to ascend, join the gods, and circle with the sun. Composed and redacted by the priesthoods of Heliopolis and elsewhere, they carry no author's name, and the modern editions that first published them in the 1890s are the only dates ever attached to individuals. Authorship in the personal sense postdates these texts; they are the anonymous bedrock of Egyptian religion.
Questions readers ask
Who wrote Pyramid Texts?
Nobody knows. No author for Pyramid Texts has been identified in the documented record.
Can I read Pyramid Texts for free?
Yes. Pyramid Texts 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.