Egypt
Joann Fletcher
Duncan Baird Publishers
London
2002
ISBN: 1-904292-05-4
This lovely and colourful paperback opens with an introduction on the ancient Egyptian religion and practices of their beliefs through complex and often conflicting systems of positive and negative forces combined within one of many deities. These beliefs are founded with the creation theories involving the Ogdoad of Heliopolis, the Ennead of Hermopolis as well as by the Memphite God Ptah.
The reader is introduced to the various deities who produce generations of gods with many forms of animals and temperment to which the god or goddess could be represented, while on the ram headed God Khnum's potters wheel humanity is created as an afterthought.
The forces these gods and goddess' contributed to the creation of the earth and stars is explored as is the impact of the Nile on the country and its people. "A world of dualities" puts forward primitive aggression to humankind's development of sophisticated thought.
Ms. Fletcher turns to a more in depth look into the major gods with their liturgy's and loyalties too and from the locals with the observances and feasts practiced by the deities priests and the superstitious populace. The personalities of among others Isis, Horus. Seth and Osiris are explored through the various myths and powers each possessed.
The book is a fairly easy read suitable for readers 10 and up though passing through the halfway point of the book the read possess little fluency and the subject of Pharaonic religious myth and thought might bore some readers. The author now turns to the kings role in the continuation of the state of Maat and as bridge between the people and their gods.
Ms. Fletcher is next onto the gods houses including the rituals invoked and the roles of the servants of the gods. Ritual purity was a must in the temples requiring bathing twice a day and twice a night as well as shaved bodies and fresh linens.
The author deals with in passing ancestor worship and heads into the kings ritual responsibilities within the gods houses, usually performed on the kings behalf by the temples priests in the day to day running of the temple. The festival days are covered and seemingly frequent including the Opet festival and local festivals with large processions by land or river to and from their temples.
Various temple documents are touched upon as is the essence of the hieroglyphic script and the symbolism involved in the royal names. The power of magic mixed with theology and dreams are implored to guide or aid the devotee.
In the final chapter the souls journey to the underworld is guided by an evolving liturgy which over time democratized the path through the underworld from pyramid texts in the royal tombs of the Old Kingdom to the book of the dead found in the coffins of the noble class of the New Kingdom.
The book was a short read and very informative on the subject though I would not say the book was great, it was certainly adequate and reliable as a gift to a young person but I would not give it to an adult!
- Ancient Egypt As It Was
Charlotte Booth Quid Publishing 2008 ISBN: 978-0-7627-7058-8 Here we have an imaginative concept as a tourist guide to Thebes in 1200 BC. The guide opens with a historical rundown of Egyptian history leading up to the early descendants of Rameses II...
- The Encyclopedia Of Ancient Egypt
Helen Strudwick Amber Books London 2006 ISBN-13: 978-1-904687-85-6 This large, heavy 512 page book opens with the chronology of ancient Egypt of which the colourful pages are filled with small often overlapping vignettes accompanied by brief descriptions...
- Chronicle Of The Pharaohs
Peter A. Clayton Thames and Hudson New York 1994 ISBN-13: 978-0-500-28628-9 The book opens with the usual background information on Pharaonic Egypt including the authors intentions of tracing Egyptian history through kingship. The introduction deals...
- The Nile And The Egyptian Civilization By Alexandre Moret
Alexander Moret Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner Co., LTD. Alfred A. Knopff 1927 ISBN-10: 0486420097 This 1927 book is by the late distinguished Alexandre Moret which comes with some immediate approval well at least by the mouse that nibbled on the bottom...
- The Splendour That Was Egypt
Margaret A. Murray Sidgwick; Jackson London 1977 Reprint ISBN: 0 283 97892 9 This sixty year old book is hopefully just what I needed to forget the last book I read, though the chronology is off with dates of the Middle Kingdom as an example being more...
Egypt
The Egyptian Book of Living and Dying
Joann Fletcher
Duncan Baird Publishers
London
2002
ISBN: 1-904292-05-4
This lovely and colourful paperback opens with an introduction on the ancient Egyptian religion and practices of their beliefs through complex and often conflicting systems of positive and negative forces combined within one of many deities. These beliefs are founded with the creation theories involving the Ogdoad of Heliopolis, the Ennead of Hermopolis as well as by the Memphite God Ptah.
The reader is introduced to the various deities who produce generations of gods with many forms of animals and temperment to which the god or goddess could be represented, while on the ram headed God Khnum's potters wheel humanity is created as an afterthought.
The forces these gods and goddess' contributed to the creation of the earth and stars is explored as is the impact of the Nile on the country and its people. "A world of dualities" puts forward primitive aggression to humankind's development of sophisticated thought.
Ms. Fletcher turns to a more in depth look into the major gods with their liturgy's and loyalties too and from the locals with the observances and feasts practiced by the deities priests and the superstitious populace. The personalities of among others Isis, Horus. Seth and Osiris are explored through the various myths and powers each possessed.
The book is a fairly easy read suitable for readers 10 and up though passing through the halfway point of the book the read possess little fluency and the subject of Pharaonic religious myth and thought might bore some readers. The author now turns to the kings role in the continuation of the state of Maat and as bridge between the people and their gods.
Ms. Fletcher is next onto the gods houses including the rituals invoked and the roles of the servants of the gods. Ritual purity was a must in the temples requiring bathing twice a day and twice a night as well as shaved bodies and fresh linens.
The author deals with in passing ancestor worship and heads into the kings ritual responsibilities within the gods houses, usually performed on the kings behalf by the temples priests in the day to day running of the temple. The festival days are covered and seemingly frequent including the Opet festival and local festivals with large processions by land or river to and from their temples.
Various temple documents are touched upon as is the essence of the hieroglyphic script and the symbolism involved in the royal names. The power of magic mixed with theology and dreams are implored to guide or aid the devotee.
In the final chapter the souls journey to the underworld is guided by an evolving liturgy which over time democratized the path through the underworld from pyramid texts in the royal tombs of the Old Kingdom to the book of the dead found in the coffins of the noble class of the New Kingdom.
The book was a short read and very informative on the subject though I would not say the book was great, it was certainly adequate and reliable as a gift to a young person but I would not give it to an adult!
- Ancient Egypt As It Was
Charlotte Booth Quid Publishing 2008 ISBN: 978-0-7627-7058-8 Here we have an imaginative concept as a tourist guide to Thebes in 1200 BC. The guide opens with a historical rundown of Egyptian history leading up to the early descendants of Rameses II...
- The Encyclopedia Of Ancient Egypt
Helen Strudwick Amber Books London 2006 ISBN-13: 978-1-904687-85-6 This large, heavy 512 page book opens with the chronology of ancient Egypt of which the colourful pages are filled with small often overlapping vignettes accompanied by brief descriptions...
- Chronicle Of The Pharaohs
Peter A. Clayton Thames and Hudson New York 1994 ISBN-13: 978-0-500-28628-9 The book opens with the usual background information on Pharaonic Egypt including the authors intentions of tracing Egyptian history through kingship. The introduction deals...
- The Nile And The Egyptian Civilization By Alexandre Moret
Alexander Moret Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner Co., LTD. Alfred A. Knopff 1927 ISBN-10: 0486420097 This 1927 book is by the late distinguished Alexandre Moret which comes with some immediate approval well at least by the mouse that nibbled on the bottom...
- The Splendour That Was Egypt
Margaret A. Murray Sidgwick; Jackson London 1977 Reprint ISBN: 0 283 97892 9 This sixty year old book is hopefully just what I needed to forget the last book I read, though the chronology is off with dates of the Middle Kingdom as an example being more...