The Pyramid Text of Teti
Oho, oho, rise up,
o Teti,
take your head,
collect your bones,
gather your limbs,
shake the earth from your flesh,
take your bread that rots not,
your beer that sours not,
stand at the gates that bar the common people.
The gatekeeper comes out to you,
he grasps your hand,
takes you into heaven,
to your father Geb,
he rejoices at your coming,
gives you his hands,
kisses you,
caresses you,
sets you before the spirits,
the imperishable stars.
The hidden ones worship you,
the great ones surround you,
the watchers wait on you,
barley is threshed for you,
emmer is reaped for you,
your monthly feasts are made with it,
your half-month feasts are made with it,
as ordered done for you by Geb your father.
Rise up, o Teti,
you shall not die!
(Utterance 373)
The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. The first king to have these texts engraved on the walls of the burial chamber of his pyramid was Unas, the last king of the 5th Dynasty (c. 2350 BCE). They were carved onto the subterranean walls and sarcophagi of pyramids at Saqqara from the end of the Fifth Dynasty, and throughout the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, and into the Eighth Dynasty of the First Intermediate Period. Unlike the later Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead, the Pyramid Texts were reserved only for the pharaoh and were not illustrated.[The Pyramid of Teti in Saqqara, Egypt]
[Engraved texts of the Burial Chamber
(detail with the cartouche of Teti)]
The spells, or utterances, of the Pyramid Texts were primarily concerned with enabling the transformation of the deceased into a new existence. The spells of the Pyramid Texts are divided into two categories: sacerdotal texts and personal texts. The sacerdotal texts mainly consist of offering spells. The personal texts (such as the one above) are concerned with guiding the spirit out of the tomb, and into new life.
The first pyramid texts were found in 1881 in the pyramids of Unas, Teti, Pepi I, Merenre and Pepi II. The Pyramid of Teti is a smooth-sided pyramid located at Saqqara. It is the second known pyramid containing pyramid texts. Excavations have revealed a satellite pyramid, two pyramids of queens accompanied by cult structures, and a funerary temple. The pyramid was opened by Gaston Maspero in 1882 and the complex explored during several campaigns ranging from 1907 to 1965. The preservation above ground is very poor (just resembling a small hill), but below ground the chambers and corridors are very well preserved.
The Pyramid Texts are chiefly concerned with preserving and nurturing the soul of the sovereign in the afterlife. In the period of the Middle Kingdom (c. 2181–2055 BCE) they were replaced by the so-called Coffin Texts, which were directly written on coffins and not solely the right of pharaohs anymore. Third in line is the well-known Book of the Dead, written on papyri and placed inside the coffin or burial chamber. Like the earlier funerary texts, the Book of the Dead contains magic spells to assist a dead person's journey through the underworld and into the afterlife. It was written over a period of 1,000 years, between 1550 BCE) to around 50 BCE. But as the Book of the Dead is similar in content to the Pyramid Texts, I have not included it in this series.
[Pyramid of Teti: burial chamber and sarcophagus in the foreground]
Text cited from Wikipedia (Pyramid texts) and Wikiquote (Pyramid texts). Translation by Lichtheim, Miriam (1975), Ancient Egyptian Literature. 1. (University of California Press), pp. 41-42.
Photos: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Photos: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons