The Egyptian Book of the Dead and Other Fancy Stuff.

In this past week, I read The Illustrated Egyptian Book of the Dead. In a rather timely coincidence, my wife and I also watched Cleopatra.

Somehow I was able to squeeze in some Douglas Adams with The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

Without any further ado, lets jump right into The Illustrated Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Wow this book is pretty. The pictures were great, if a bit irrelevant to the text at times.

Dr. Ramses Saleem takes us through the Papyrus of Hunefer as well as some portions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. His translations were very readable, if his conclusions seems a bit, how should I put it, Westernized. What especially bothered me about that was his insistence that it was the Westerners who had muddle everything.

But, perhaps my experience with Bob Brier's work is tainting me a bit to the opposite end of the spectrum. I don't know. Let's just say that Dr. Saleem's views on some things (particularly polytheism vs. monotheism in Ancient Egypt) don't work for me.

Where does that leave us?

Why don't we start with what the heck the Egyptian Book of the Dead even is. It isn't really a book per se. Back in the heroic days of Archaeology, there was much more adventure and much less science to the whole venture. The Egyptian Book of the Dead is really just a mish-mash of texts found in various tombs. They appear to detail the process through which a soul must go before being resurrected into their new life.

Note, that we're talking about resurrection - not reincarnation.

My understanding is that the Egyptians believed that after death, they would get up and go in the next world. It rather reminds me of "The Further" from Insidious: A world that surrounds our own, is within our own, and that we cannot see. Sort of a parallel universe, but that sounds a bit too sci-fi for our purposes here.

This book wasn't in my kindle, so we're going to have to wade through my little post-it scraps from each page. I just can't bring myself to write in actual books, much less books owned by the library.

• Book of Dead = Book of Life
• In a sense, the Book of the Dead is more about life. It is about the life after this one. The life eternal. Since this life is finite, and the next one is infinite, it only makes sense that we should devote our time to ensuring that our next one is as good as it can be. 
• "Did the deceased embrace life enough to be able to live again in death? Did the deceased develop a strong enough character to continue his or her personality...Did the deceased make the words of truth a reality in everyday life by practicing them?"
• Does this remind you of anything? It reminds me of the 10 commandments. They are the questions asked a soul after it has died. The answers to these questions influence what happens next. 
• It's interesting that the Jewish faith (and it's descendants) utilize commandments sent from God. Could those have been inspired by these questions? Perhaps.
• "The wickedness of the soul is ignorance and the virtue of the soul is knowledge." 
• Perhaps it's a good idea to try to learn stuff.
• "This power wanted to make itself known and so it uttered the sacred word to create."
• This creation story goes on to mimic that of Genesis. Obviously, the Egyptian Book of the Dead came well before the Genesis story, so there is likely some inspiration drawn from this text. 
• Images such as the Djed colonnade read to me as showing a similarity, if not an evolutionary track between apes and man.
• Do we perhaps view time as a linear dimension because we, as humans, can only see in a single direction?
• I doubt it, but it's an interesting concept.
• "This suffering is, in reality, consciousness undergoing the process of transforming itself."
• In order to grow as a human, we must challenge ourselves to step out of our comfort zone. We must suffer a little.
• "None of our thoughts are capable of conceiving God, nor any language of defining him."
• I really like this quote. It really puts a damper on all of those arguments about God, Religion, and who is 'right'. We cannot ever be certain, since we cannot ever even comprehend what "God" is.
• The Sun and the Moon are considered the two eyes of god. 
• What a nice image.
• According to Dr. Saleem's commentary, the Egyptians felt it was more important to cultivate good than to fight evil.
• Perhaps random acts of kindness and living with integrity are truly more important than ostracism and hate.
• Like later religions, Egyptians believed that it was important to live a proper life. We are born innocent, and must maintain this innocence (not ignorance) throughout life in order to reach our full potential in the afterlife.
• The Egyptians, unlike the later Greeks, valued innocence over cleverness. Odysseus, for instance, would likely not have been considered a hero by the Egyptians.
• Unlike certain monotheistic religions, the Egyptians believed that Evil did, in fact, come from God. It was not an invention of man, or an inherent weakness in humankind.
• Similar to later religions, Egyptians believed that one could be absolved of their sins.

In my reading, I felt like views were often skewed by Dr. Saleem. The translations were wonderful, and the commentary felt forced. Perhaps he is 100% accurate in his commentary (I am not one to say), I just found it frustrating. Ideas such as feelings lead to thoughts, thoughts to actions, and actions to destiny; or trauma can bring awakenings; felt like self-help tropes. 

So, what did I get from all of this.

I saw inspiration for both the Greek Pantheon and the Judeo-Christian tradition in these very early texts. The detailed lives of the gods (who were mortal and gods simultaneously) reminded me of the Ancient Greek mythology, with which I am much more familiar. The Creation story, and much of the "how to live your life" instruction reminded me of Judaism and Christianity.


Real quick, lets talk about Cleopatra and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

Cleopatra was epic film making at it's finest. Elaborate sets (often used for mere seconds), beautiful costumes, and non-stop drama were the name of the game. I really enjoyed the movie, though I must admit I had to break it up into about four 60-minute viewings. My only gripe with it, and I understand why this was done, was that Cleopatra felt like a clingy succubus rather than a super-genius politician. If anything, I think Shakespeare's interpretation of their relationship was less overdone.

Much of the historical work in the film was very accurate, with some intentional side-steps to heighten tension or to save on time.

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it if for no other reason than the fabulous sets.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - What can I say, other than absolutely hilarious. Any time I'm in the mood for some goofy witticism (just about always), I know I can turn to good old Douglas Adams for ridiculous fun. As my ever annoyed family and coworkers will attest to, I try to emulate this silly humor every chance I get. If only I was funnier.

Oh wait, I told you I'm hilarious... yeah... that's it... hilarious.


Believe it or not, I'm already half way through The Odyssey. I'm actually reading the Butler edition because it's free.

Until next time...