1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910781539803321

Autore

Assmann Jan

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca, : Cornell University Press, 2005

ISBN

0-8014-6486-2

0-8014-6480-3

Edizione

[Abridged and updated by the author]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (504 p.)

Altri autori (Persone)

LortonDavid

Disciplina

299/.3123

Soggetti

Eschatology, Egyptian

Death - Religious aspects

Egypt Religion

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

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

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

"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.