Ancient Egypt
Elements of its Cultural History

  by Sjef Willockx

Spell 258 and Spell 259 from the Pyramid Texts display so much common ground that a very close relationship is immediately recognizable – but they also exhibit significant differences: enough to warrant different spell numbers. This combination of common roots and diverse developments holds a special promise for sampling and examining the work of the ancient Egyptian editors of these texts.

Treating the different variants as stand-alone texts brings a special bounty in this case. By assuming a different sentence end, § 308d in the Unas version of spell 258 suddenly acquires a new meaning, which moreover solves a long standing riddle.

The paper has two parts: first a chapter that focusses on the translation, then one with a detailled examination of the contents of the spells.

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