Osiris-Hymnen

Osiris - a god of the dead and a dead god, whom the Ancient Egyptians praised and described in numerous hymns. These hymns however are always functional texts, created with the intention of usage, preserved due to intentional records. In this study, Daniela C. Luft traces the original usages and contexts of four groups of hymns and describes their checkered history in the form of text biographies. In doing so, she shows how the content of the texts and their application to various materials depends on the designated uses and functions. She presents the hymns with their textual variants in text editions and synopses. The evidence of how these hymns were moreover recreated from text material which already existed makes them fascinating case studies for the mechanisms of the religious text production of the Ancient Egyptians.