The Book of Amduat.
| N° d'inventaire | 8206 |
| Format | 13.5 x 21.5 |
| Détails | 3010 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2005 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782714308863 |
According to its Egyptian title, this collection of texts and images is entitled "Written Document from the Hidden Region." This text consists, for the most part, of a directory, a veritable travel guide. It is about knowing the world of the beyond: counting and naming the beings who are there, knowing its doors and its paths, knowing the activities that take place there, and the words that are spoken there. Faithful to this clearly stated program, the text deploys a litany of nine hundred and eight divine names, lists the nomenclature of the strange landscapes that one encounters there, and details hour by hour the journey of the boat transporting the sun god. A dive into a theonymy and a topography that could disconcert the uninitiated reader. But certainly not discourage him, we hope, because this inevitable change of scenery is the condition for entering without trickery or makeup into the imaginary world of the ancient Egyptians. François Schuler understood that adapting such a text to a modern sauce would lead to emptying it of its substance. He offers us a translation close to the Egyptian text, and therefore respectful of the latter. We must therefore follow, and accept, step by step, this liturgical, repetitive language, in which the same formulas are constantly rehearsed; a language that loves euphemism, allusive mode, stylistic formulas. And above all, a language that enunciates a complex theology. The world that the Amduat reveals to us, and that all the similar funerary documentation evokes, is a universe that requires careful and long work for those who want to know it, and try to understand it better, while knowing full well that many of its aspects will remain obscure. Reading the Amduat today is a way of entering the symbolic universe of the ancient Egyptians, and their vision of eternity. Because the key is the idea of rebirth, which is inevitably associated with knowledge: knowing how to name the gods and space, knowing the world beyond in order to explore it without fear and overcome its perils. A magical journey into the twists and turns of the beyond, a theme whose connections will extend to The Magic Flute.
According to its Egyptian title, this collection of texts and images is entitled "Written Document from the Hidden Region." This text consists, for the most part, of a directory, a veritable travel guide. It is about knowing the world of the beyond: counting and naming the beings who are there, knowing its doors and its paths, knowing the activities that take place there, and the words that are spoken there. Faithful to this clearly stated program, the text deploys a litany of nine hundred and eight divine names, lists the nomenclature of the strange landscapes that one encounters there, and details hour by hour the journey of the boat transporting the sun god. A dive into a theonymy and a topography that could disconcert the uninitiated reader. But certainly not discourage him, we hope, because this inevitable change of scenery is the condition for entering without trickery or makeup into the imaginary world of the ancient Egyptians. François Schuler understood that adapting such a text to a modern sauce would lead to emptying it of its substance. He offers us a translation close to the Egyptian text, and therefore respectful of the latter. We must therefore follow, and accept, step by step, this liturgical, repetitive language, in which the same formulas are constantly rehearsed; a language that loves euphemism, allusive mode, stylistic formulas. And above all, a language that enunciates a complex theology. The world that the Amduat reveals to us, and that all the similar funerary documentation evokes, is a universe that requires careful and long work for those who want to know it, and try to understand it better, while knowing full well that many of its aspects will remain obscure. Reading the Amduat today is a way of entering the symbolic universe of the ancient Egyptians, and their vision of eternity. Because the key is the idea of rebirth, which is inevitably associated with knowledge: knowing how to name the gods and space, knowing the world beyond in order to explore it without fear and overcome its perils. A magical journey into the twists and turns of the beyond, a theme whose connections will extend to The Magic Flute.