The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Underworld by Erik Hornung

A wide river divides this world from the underworld. In ancient Egypt it is visibly the Nile which flows between the eastern bank of the living and western bank of the dead. It is the Nile which gives the Ancient Egyptian view of the world its clear, logical order into which the dead enter... For him death has a deeper necessary function in the totality of this world. It is part of the work of God of creation at the very beginning of the world and is a means of a continuous regeneration of one's existence. Death alone can stop the process of aging to which all existence is subject-and can reverse it. Expressed in very different images and wording the philosophy of the Books of the Underworld revolves around the great miracle: that every night the Sun God changes back from an "old man" to a "young child" and thus gives back to the world the youthful strength of the beginning. Death allows the deceased in their tombs to become young again. Thus the Egyptian tomb with its iovous colourful illustrations is a place of rejuvenated life. Apart from the AMDUAT, the oldest text, the Books of the Underworld also contains the Book Of GATES, the BOOK OF CAVERNS, the BOOK OF THE FARIH, and extracts from related texts