An episode from 1/28/21: Tonight, I read from perhaps the oldest surviving religious texts in the world, the spells and prayers that were inscribed into the walls of the tombs of the pharaohs as early as 2353 BC. Collectively referred to as the Pyramid Texts, they were the basis of the later Coffin Texts, and the more famous Egyptian Book of the Dead.

These texts were not meant as "literature" in any modern sense. Instead, inscribed as they were into the walls of the pharaoh's tomb, the pharaoh's spirit was supposed to recite them after death in order to travel into the sky, gain access to the Egyptian afterlife, and identify himself completely with Osiris, the god of death and resurrection.

In this first episode on Egyptian mythology, we can see immediately how the spells and prayers are a great example of just how strange and off-putting ancient literature can really be. The very real theological and spiritual needs of the Egyptians, which had little use for narrative as we think of it, led them to create this incantatory and repetitive form of liturgy. There's nothing else quite like it.

The books I read from in this episode include:

Other episodes on Egyptian mythology are here.

Don’t forget to support Human Voices Wake Us on Substack, where you can also get our newsletter and other extras. You can also support the podcast by ordering any of my books: Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone.

Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].