E. A. Wallis Budge's translation and commentary on the ancient Egyptian funerary corpus known to the Egyptians as 'The Book of Coming Forth by Day' — spells, hymns, litanies and magical formulae composed across roughly two millennia and intended to guide the deceased through the underworld trials toward rebirth. Budge's edition centred on the Papyrus of Ani, a New Kingdom example he acquired for the British Museum, and includes the hieroglyphic text alongside English translation and his interpretive notes.
Modern Egyptology has comprehensively superseded Budge: his translations are routinely characterised by working scholars (Raymond Faulkner, Ogden Goelet) as inaccurate, his hieroglyphic readings outdated, and his interpretive framework Theosophically coloured. The Faulkner translation is the academic standard. Budge's editions nonetheless remain in print because of their cultural foothold — the version through which Yeats, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley, and most of 20th-century Western esotericism encountered the material.
"Book of the Dead" is the title now commonly given to the great collection of funerary texts which the ancient Egyptian scribes composed for the benefit of the dead.
Chapter I: The Title
First lines
"Book of the Dead" is the title now commonly given to the great collection of funerary texts which the ancient Egyptian scribes composed for the benefit of the dead. These consist of spells and incantations, hymns and litanies, magical formulae and names, words of power and prayers, and they are found cut or painted on walls of pyramids and tombs, and painted on coffins and sarcophagi and rolls of papyri.
Contents
The Title
The Preservation of the Mummified Body in the Tomb by Thoth
The Book Per-t em hru, or Coming Forth by Day
Thoth, the Author of the Book of the Dead
Thoth and Osiris
Osiris as Judge of the Dead and King of the Under World
The Judgment of Osiris
The Kingdom of Osiris
A Short Description of the Doors or Chapters of the Book of the Dead
Reception
The standard English-language gateway to the Egyptian funerary literature for over a century — the version through which Yeats, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley, and most of 20th-century Western esotericism encountered the material. Modern Egyptology has comprehensively superseded Budge: his translations are routinely characterised by working scholars (Raymond Faulkner, Ogden Goelet) as inaccurate, his hieroglyphic readings outdated, and his interpretive framework Theosophically coloured. The Faulkner translation is the academic standard. Budge's editions nonetheless remain in print because of their cultural foothold.
Frequently asked
What is the Papyrus of Ani?
The Papyrus of Ani is a New Kingdom Egyptian funerary scroll written around 1250 BCE for Ani, Royal Scribe of Thebes. It is one of the finest surviving examples of the texts the Egyptians called 'Coming Forth by Day' — a collection of spells, hymns and declarations intended to guide the deceased through the underworld trials toward rebirth. Budge acquired it for the British Museum in 1888.
Is Budge's translation of the Book of the Dead still reliable?
No. Modern Egyptologists — including Raymond Faulkner and Ogden Goelet — consider Budge's translations inaccurate, his hieroglyphic readings outdated, and his interpretive framework Theosophically coloured. The Faulkner translation (1972, revised by Goelet) is the current academic standard. Budge's edition remains widely read for its cultural and historical influence, not its philological precision.
Why did the Book of the Dead influence Western esotericism so heavily?
Budge's accessible English edition, published in 1895 and frequently reprinted, became the primary gateway through which the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley, W. B. Yeats, and subsequent Western occultists encountered ancient Egyptian religion. The imagery of weighing the heart against the feather of Ma'at, the Negative Confessions, and the spells for navigating the underworld were absorbed wholesale into 20th-century esoteric symbolism.