The Liturgy of Funeral Offerings: Chapter II: The Liturgy of Funerary Offerings Described
THE religious literature of all periods of Egyptian history proves that the Egyptians believed in a resurrection and in immortality, and that from the earliest to the latest times they performed ceremonies at, or in, the tomb, and recited formulae, which were part incantations and part prayers, with the view of assisting the dead to renew their life, to enjoy their existence in the Other World, and to escape from "dying a second time." We have already seen that so far back as the beginning of the IVth Dynasty, about B.C. 3800, it was customary to offer series of gifts of food, and drink, and raiment to the dead, and there is every reason to think that the presentation of such gifts was made by priests, who recited over them forms of words which were believed to sanctify the things offered, and to make them to become suitable for the needs of the dead. We know that certain kinds of food and drink were offered in certain quantities, and in a definite order, and that every detail of the ceremonies connected with their presentation was performed according to a system The, XXIst and XXIInd Chapters were written with the view of "giving a mouth to a man in Neter
The illustrated papyri which contain the Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead supply further details of the ceremony, and in the papyrus of Ani, in the Vignette of Chapter XXIII., we see a SEM priest, clad in a panther's or leopard's skin, performing one portion of it on a figure of the scribe Ani. In front of him are a sepulchral box for holding unguents, three
The merit of discovering the "Liturgy of Funerary Offerings" belongs to Sig. Ernesto Schiaparelli, who in 1877 was able to prove that the contents of Papyrus The papyrus was-written for a priestess called SAIS. The lower portions of the first few leaves are wanting, and the writing is in places very difficult to read. Being convinced of the importance of the text, Sig. Schiaparelli spent a winter in copying it, and he devoted himself to the preparation of an edition of the text on the coffin in Turin, which dates from the
The first part of his work, 3 i.e., the plates, appeared in 1881, and the two volumes of text in 1882 and 1890 respectively. In 1882 Professor Maspero published in his Recueil (tom. iii., p. 171 ff.) the first part of the texts from the Pyramid of Unas, which contains the oldest known form of the Liturgy of
A year later appeared the first volume of the great French work on the Royal Tombs of Thebes, 2 containing all the scenes and texts in the Tomb of Seti I. Among these were accurate copies of the texts of the Liturgy of Funerary Offerings, as they are found in the tomb of Seti I. at Thebes, and the Book of Opening the Mouth. In 1887 Professor Maspero published a valuable paper in the Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, tom. xv., pp. 159-188, in which he treated the Book of Opening the Mouth at considerable
37:1 Mélanges d'Archéologie Égyptienne, tom. i., p. 45. 38:1 Monuments, plates 237, 243-248. 38:2 Aeg. Zeitschrift, Bd. xi., 1873, p. 29 ff. 38:3 Il Libro dei Funerali degli antichi Egiziani tradotto e commentato da E. S., Rome, 1881-90. 39:1 Der Grabpalast des Patuamenap, Leipzic, 1884-5. 39:2 Les Hypogées Royaux de Thèbes, by Bouriant, Loret, and Naville (Mémoires de la Mission au Caire, tom. ii., Div. i., Paris, 1886).THE LITURGY OF FUNERARY OFFERINGS DESCRIBED.
instruments, and the instrument
. In another Vignette in the same papyrus is a representation of the performance of the ceremony at the door of the tomb. The mummy of Ani is held upright by Anubis, and three priests are officiating; two hold the instruments to the face of the mummy, and the third reads the
, and presents with the other the Ur-hekau instrument, the head of which is in the form of that of a ram. The SEM priest stands behind holding a libation jar in his right hand, and a censer in his left. In the lower register are the cow and calf for sacrifice, two ministrants, the one bearing the heart and the other the leg of a bull, a sepulchral coffer, a table of offerings, and a stand on which are spread out a panther's skin or leopard's skin, and the instruments, vases, &c., which were used in the performance of the ceremony. Above these scenes are several short lines of text, which are entitled, "The Chapter of performing the Opening of the Mouth of the statue" [of the deceased]. This chapter contains two extracts from the "Liturgy of Funerary Offerings."
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