Spell of the Twelve Caves

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The Spell of the Twelve Caves (also called the Wandering of the Soul;

Merenptah. Although the text also appears in some copies of the Book of the Dead, where it is classified as Spell 168, the Egyptologist Alexandre Piankoff treated it as a distinct composition.[1]

The text describes the Duat, or underworld, as a realm divided into twelve caves, much like the twelve hours found in the Amduat and the Book of Gates, two other funerary texts from the early New Kingdom. Each cave is described as containing several groups of deities who grant benefits to the soul of a deceased person, such as enabling the deceased to move freely through the afterlife.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Hornung (1999) pp. 54–55

Bibliography

  • Hornung, Erik (1999). The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife (in German). David Lorton (translator). Cornell University Press.

External links