Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been reading a great deal about the Osiris myth; this, together with Tom Hare's book "Re-Membering Osiris" are truly valuable additions to anyone's Egyptology collection. Mr. Assman is a well-established author, and lays on the footnotes with scholarly frequency. His books are dense and a bit dry, but his viewpoint is clearly stated and provocative. I do not agree with his atheism, and find it a bit odd in a man who spends so much time writing about Gods and religion, but I will say that he is stunningly observant and objective in his recounting of the pure source material available to us today. Because his own perspective is clear and unapologetic, it is easy to examine his thoughts and observations from another perspective. Few writers so consistently provoke creative thought in the reader while informing and educating at the same time. Of the books he's written (and that I've read) this book is second only to "The Mind of Ancient Egypt" . Buy both! read them!!

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"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, hearrives 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.

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