27: Book of the Dead Summing up
Paper
Online course evaluations
Papers due at beginning of class Tuesday April 22
NO EXCEPTIONS!
Book of the Dead: Summing up
Book of coming forth by day
Life, Death and the Afterlife
"Coming forth by day"
Sun gods
Gods of dead:
Osiris: divine precedent, ruler, title
Anubis: Embalmer, mediator
Thoth: Ani's advocate, delivers verdict
Sokar: ancient associations
Other gods: judges, gatekeepers, protectors
Text of Book of the Dead:
"Chapters"
No absolute order or selection
Not a direct narrative sequence, but not random
Kinds of writing (genres):
Hymns, rituals, magical spells, dialogues,
Exegesis/explanation, etc.
Rubrics
Summary:
Plates 1-6
Hymn to sun/sunrise
Hymn to Osiris
Weighing of heart
Ani true of voice
Chapter of coming forth by day//funeral procession
Plates 7-11
Chapter 17: Exegesis and long string of vignettes
Chapters 147, 146: Gates & guardians
Plates 12-17
Exegesis (Chapter 18)
Gods/Judges in councils
Opening the mouth
Preventative/protective chapters
Freedom of movement
Plates 23-28
Chapter 18 again: Exegesis, judges in councils
Not eating excrement (fear of disorder)
Transformations
Divine Falcon (78): dialogue between gods and Ani
More transformations
Plates 30-35
Entering the hall of the two truths (Anubis speaks)
The Hall: declarations of innocence (125)
Equation of body parts with gods
125 Rubric
Amulets
Embalming/burial chamber
Field of Offerings
Provisions
Ending with tomb of Ani
From Book of the Dead to paper about the Book of the Dead
Paper Assignment
Write a 2000-2500 word paper about the sequence of Book of Coming Forth by Day/Book of the Dead chapters from the papyrus of Ani found in plates 5-6 of the textbook.
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Chapter 1
Vignette: funeral procession
Text: "Going forth by day"
Funeral procession: mourners
Scene at tomb:
Opening of the mouth
Important places:
Field of Offerings/Reeds
Rosetjau
Duat
Lake of Fire
Long Rubric:
Guarantee of effectiveness
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Discuss how the chapters relate to all of the following questions:
•What does this particular section tell us about Egyptian beliefs concerning death and the afterlife, and what does it tell us about funerary practice? That is, what does it tell us about what people thought versus what they did?
•What myths that we have covered in lectures and readings are alluded to in this section?
•The interaction of text and image: how do the vignettes complement the text, how does the text explain the illustrations, are there places where text and image do not seem to go together?
•How does this section of the Book of the Dead relate to the other portions of the text that we have read or discussed for class?
Sources:
This is NOT a research paper: use notes,
lectures, and textbooks.
No need for outside sources.
No Budge books!
Stay off the internet….
Citation style:
You can cite textbooks by author’s name, page #
Example: Shafer 111-114
You may do this in-text (Shafer 111-114) or as footnotes.1
1Shafer 111-114
Citation style for myths, stories, etc.:
•If you are citing a myth or story in general, you
may just refer to it by title ("We remember that in the myth of the Destruction of Humanity, Re sent out his eye in the form of Hathor")
•If you are citing an author’s opinion on a myth or story, you should cite the author ("According to John Taylor (Taylor 125), the myth of Osiris is a?parallel that the dead person hoped to follow…")
Academic integrity and the writing of papers
Plagiarism and how to avoid it
Typical paper pitfalls:
Underkill
•Paper as list
•Excessive spacing to fill pages
•Excessive quotations to fill pages
•Repetition
Overkill
•Overambitious papers
•Too fixated on a specific point
•Illegible fancy fonts….
•Multimedia extravaganzas….
A Good Paper:
•Answers the questions asked in narrative form
•Tells us what you have learned
•Tells us your informed ideas about what you’ve learned
•Is interesting for us to read
•Can be creative if you address the points above
•Is "mechanically" sound (legible, well-spelled, well-written)
•Has been edited and typewritten or printed
•Is handed in on time at the beginning of class on April 22