Spell of the Twelve Caves
An ancient Egyptian funerary composition enumerating twelve caves of the underworld and their gods. Anonymous priestly tradition.
- 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 Spell of the Twelve Caves enumerates the caverns of the underworld and the deities dwelling in each, securing their goodwill for the dead. Known from a Theban tomb papyrus and later copies, it belongs to the wider family of New Kingdom netherworld literature that mapped the geography beyond death. Like every text in that family it names no author. It was composed and transmitted within priestly institutions whose scribes did not sign sacred text, and its authorship is recorded here as unknown by the nature of the tradition.
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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.