Description

This anonymous papyrus includes the last four hours (from nine to twelve) from the «Amduat», as well as a complete Abrégé (short version). To be exhibited, it was cut in two: one half includes the version of the Amdouat, and the other, the Abrégé. Both halves have been mounted on cardboard and framed. The half occupied by the Amdouat is currently on display at the Museum of Antiquities of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, while the second half remains at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo at Tahrir, where the two halves were originally displayed.

Amduat: The Book of the Hidden Chamber

Amduat—meaning “What is in the Netherworld” or “The Book of the Hidden Chamber”—is a name used for a specific form of the Egyptian Book of the Netherworld.
The main concern of the Amduat is the regeneration of the Sun-god that flows through twelve sections (hours) from sunset to sunrise. On his journey through the netherworld, the Sun-god experiences a profound process of physical and cognitive transformation. Moreover, various obstacles and demonic creatures try to stop the solar boat. Of all the Ancient Egyptian Books of the Netherworld, the Amduat is the clearest in its description of the voyage of the Sun-god through the twelve nocturnal hours; the hours displayed here are specifically the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Hours.

Ninth Hour: The Accompanying Crew

The Sun-god and his assistants rest in the tranquility of the Ninth Hour. In anticipation of the next activity, the crewmen of the solar boat hold their oars at the ready; the deities accompanying the Sun-god assist him to advance safely towards the long-anticipated moment of birth in the morning.
For the twelve Uraeus-serpents in the lower register, terrifying female deities that they are, live on the blood of those whom they behead day after day. While in the upper and lower registers, deities sit on the new clothes they received from “Ra”.

Tenth Hour: Protecting the Sun-god

The upper register of the Tenth Hour starts with a scarab, the “Living beetle” of regeneration carrying an oval shape with dots—the image of the “Duat” (the netherworld) and its process of Solar renewal as a whole. Afterwards, the motif of the healing of the Sun-god’s eye is represented. Eight standing goddesses and a baboon, who is seated facing them, are associated with the healing of the Eye of “Horus”. These goddesses are aspects of the mighty lion-headed goddess “Sekhmet”. The Left Eye is born out of a double snake, suggestive of the myth of the regeneration of “Osiris” by “Horus”.
Between the solar boat and the assistants of “Ra” in the middle register, there are two interesting scenes. One depicts a falcon standing on a two-headed four-legged serpent, and the other depicts a falcon-headed serpent lying on a boat. The falcon and the falcon-headed serpent seem to represent the ba-soul of “Osiris-Sokar”. The middle register ends with twelve figures representing the guards of “Ra”; they are divided into three groups of four gods, each who are provided with arrows, spears, and bows, respectively. The lower register of the Tenth Hour is dominated by the primeval waters of “Nun”, and in it rest the “drowned ones in the netherworld”. The Tenth Hour closes on a hopeful note; four goddesses with serpents on their foreheads dispense light and inspiration to the Sun-god “Ra” and his entourage.

Eleventh Hour: Time Renewal

The first god in the upper register, named the “Lord of Djet (Time)”, presides over this hour of the night. He has two heads, with a sun disk between them, and holds the hieroglyphic signs for life and domination. In Ancient Egypt, eternal time had two qualities: “Neheh” and “Djet”. “Neheh” describes the everlasting and continuous transformation at work in the cosmos, and the ongoing process of death and revival in nature. However, “Djet” (time)—which is the theme of the Eleventh Nocturnal Hour—refers to duration, the continuum of time; “Djet” remains, endures, and continues.
The ever-necessary and ceaseless renewal of time is the topic of the middle register of this hour. There we see a huge, coiled serpent on the heads of no fewer than twelve gods who symbolize the divine quality of time. “Osiris” awaits “Ra”, who is exhausted in the course of the day. In the evening, “Ra” returns to “Osiris” as an old man in need of rejuvenation. The union of “Ra” and “Osiris”, and the cosmic renewal that results from it, can only be experienced and described as a complementary tension of continuity represented by “Osiris” and discontinuity represented by “Ra”. The lower register deals with the dangerous enemies of the Sun-god. Delivered to their inescapable fate, they are casted into six flame-filled pits.

Twelfth Hour: Last Hour of Darkness

The name of the place heralds the end of the nocturnal journey: “Cavern of the end of the primeval darkness”. In this Hour, three different images of creation are commingled. The first image is that of the “Khepri” beetle that spontaneously emerges from the darkness of the netherworld, and as the morning sun, inaugurates a new era. At the very end of the Twelfth Hour, “Shu” welcomes him with open arms in order to elevate him above the horizon. The second image of creation mentions two of the four pairs of primeval deities: “Nun” and “Naunet” (represents primeval waters), and “Hehu” and “Hehut” (represents infinity of space and endlessness).
The third image is the sky goddess “Nut” giving birth to the solar child. The deities in the upper and lower registers participate in the joy and join in the jubilation. All of them raise their arms in adoration, either of the Sun-god and his rebirth in the morning, or of “Osiris”, who will protect the bodies of all the deceased during “Ra’s” daily journey across the sky.
 

• Abdel-Aziz Fahmy Sadek, Contribution à l'étude de l'Amdouat: les variantes tardives du Livre de l'Amdouat dans les papyrus du Musée du Caire, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 65 (Freiburg, Switzerland: Universitätsverlag; Gottingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck Ruprecht, 1985): 78-87, pl. 1-3 and top of 4.
• Andrzej Niwinski, Studies on the Illustrated Theban Funerary Papyri of the 11th and 10th Centuries B.C., Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 86 (Freiburg, Switzerland: Universitätsverlag; Gottingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck Ruprecht, 1989): 287, no. Cairo 97.
• Andreas Schweizer, The Sungod's Journey Through the Netherworld: Reading the Ancient Egyptian Amduat, edited by David Lorton, foreword by Erik Hornung. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017.