Death and salvation in ancient Egypt / by Jan Assmann ; translated from the German by David Lorton ; abridged and updated by the author.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Assmann, Jan.

Standardized Title:

Tod und Jenseits im Alten Ägypten. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Eschatology, Egyptian.

Death--Religious aspects.

Death.

Egypt--Religion.

Egypt.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (504 p.)

Edition:

Abridged and updated by the author

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Human beings," the acclaimed Egyptologist Jan Assmann writes, "are the animals that have to live with the knowledge of their death, and culture is the world they create so they can live with that knowledge." In his new book, Assmann explores images of death and of death rites in ancient Egypt to provide startling new insights into the particular character of the civilization as a whole. Drawing on the unfamiliar genre of the death liturgy, he arrives at a remarkably comprehensive view of the religion of death in ancient Egypt.Assmann describes in detail nine different images of death: death as the body being torn apart, as social isolation, the notion of the court of the dead, the dead body, the mummy, the soul and ancestral spirit of the dead, death as separation and transition, as homecoming, and as secret. Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt also includes a fascinating discussion of rites that reflect beliefs about death through language and ritual.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Translator's Note

Introduction: Death and Culture

Part One. Images of Death

1. Death as Dismemberment

2. Death as Social Isolation

3. Death as Enemy

4. Death as Dissociation: The Person of the Deceased and Its Constituent Elements

5. Death as Separation and Reversal

6. Death as Transition

7. Death as Return

8. Death as Mystery

9. Going Forth by Day

Part Two. Rituals and Recitations

10. Mortuary Liturgies and Mortuary Literature

11. In the Sign of the Enemy: The Protective Wake in the Place of Embalming

12. The Night of Vindication

13. Rituals of Transition from Home to Tomb

14. Provisioning the Dead

15. Sacramental Explanation

16. Freedom from the Yoke of Transitoriness: Resultativity and Continuance

17. Freedom from the Yoke of Transitoriness: Immortality

Afterword: Egypt and the History of Death

Notes

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 418-478) and index.

ISBN:

9780801464867

0801464862

9780801464805

0801464803

OCLC:

769190456