The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) · 259 of 357 · tr. E.A. Wallis Budge
Chapter 43 (part 20)
Although these chapters were found at Hermopolis, the city of Thoth, it does not follow that they were drawn up there.
5.
See Birch, in Bunsen, Egypt's Place in Universal History , vol.
V., p.
125; Naville, Todtenbuch (Einleitung), p.
26.
6.
Stromata , VI., 4, 35, ed.
Dindorff, t.
iii., p.
155.
7.
On the sacred books of the Egyptians see also Iamblichus, De Mysteriis , ed.
Parthey, Berlin 1857, pp.
260, 261; Lepsius, Chronologie , p.
45 ff.; and Brugsch, Aegyptologie , p.
149.
8.
###.
9.
###.
10.
###.] Influence of the priests of Annu on its compilation.
pyramid texts are versions of ancient religious compositions which the priests of the college or school of Annu succeeded in establishing as the authorized version of the Book of the Dead in the first six dynasties.
Ra, the local form of the Sun-god, usurps the place occupied by the more ancient form Tmu; and it would seem that when a dogma had been promulgated by the college of Annu, it was accepted by the priesthood of all the great cities throughout Egypt.
The great influence of the Annu school of priests even in the time of Unas is proved by the following passage from the text in his pyramid: "O God, thy Annu is Unas; O God, thy Annu is Unas.
O Ra, Annu is Unas, thy Annu is Unas, O Ra.
The mother of Unas is Annu, the father of Unas is Annu; Unas himself is Annu, and was born in Annu." Elsewhere we are told that Unas "cometh to the great bull which cometh forth from Annu, and that he uttereth words of magical import in Annu." In Annu the god Tmu produced the gods Shu and Tefnut, and in Annu dwelt the great and oldest company of the gods, Tmu, Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys. The abode of the blessed in heaven was called Annu, and it was asserted that the souls of [1 Annu , the metropolis of the thirteenth nome of Lower Egypt; see Brugsch, Dict.
Géog.
, p.
41; de Rougé, Géographie Ancienne de la Basse-Égypte , p.
81; and Amélineau, La Géographie de Égypte a l'Époque Copte , p.
287.
Annu is ###, Genesis xli., 45; ###, Genesis xli., 50; ### Ezekiel xxx., 17; and Beth Shemesh, ### 4:11 Jeremiah xliii., 13; and the Heliopolis of the Greek writers ( H?liou'polis , Strabo, XVII., 1., §§ 27, 28; Herodotus, II., 3; Diodorus, I., 57, 4).
2.
###.
Maspero, Unas, II.
591, 592; and compare Pepi I., II.
690, 691.
3.
See line 596.
4.
###.
5.
###.
Maspero, Pepi I.
, 1.
465, 466.
6.
The Pyramid of Pepi II.
, 1.
665.
[auto] The passage quotes a spell from the Pyramid Texts describing Pepi's journey by boat to the field of the great god, which is a core example of texts guiding the soul through death.
Guided passage of the soul through afterlife realms.
The text mentions beings over the throne proclaiming Pepi's health to enable his sailing in the boat, implying a guided passage through afterlife realms.
Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.
The text references 'Hermetic' literature and rituals that transport the dead to the divine presence.