The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 28, 2023

Book of the Dead of Hori

c. 1069–945 BC

Egypt, New Kingdom, Dynasty 21

Papyrus

Overall: 23 cm (9 1/16 in.)

The Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund 1921.1032

Location

107 Egyptian

Description

The Egyptian Book of the Dead--or as they called it, the Book of Going Forth By Day--was not a single, unified, and authoritative manuscript, but a handful of special spells selected from a pool of about 200 age-old magical formulae. This illustrated Book of the Dead inscribed for the priest Hori includes the so-called Book of Gates. There are sixteen gates through which Hori must pass, each guarded by a fierce, animal-headed, knife-brandishing monster. Among them are "The Mistress of Wrath," "The Fiery One," and the "Long-Horned Bull." To reach the afterlife, Hori must present the gate-keepers with a series of secret passwords provided for him in the papyrus. At the far right, we see Hori, who having completed his task, is now reborn.

Provenance
Probably Thebes. Purchased at Sotheby's, London, through Howard Carter
1921-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
"Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 8, no. 9 (1921): 138-41. Mentioned: p. 138 www.jstor.org
Cooney, John D. "Siren and Ba, Birds of a Feather." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 55, no. 8 (1968): 262-71. Figs. 9, 10, details www.jstor.org
Heerma van Voss, Matthieu Sybrand Huibert Gerard. Ägypten, die 21. Dynastie. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1982. pp. 7-8, figs. 1-3
Niwinski, Andrzej. Studies on the Illustrated Theban Funerary Papyri of the 11th and 10th Centuries B.C. Freiburg, Schweiz: Universitätsverlag, 1989. Mentioned: p. 305
James, T. G. H. "Howard Carter and The Cleveland Museum of Art.". Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991 Mentioned: pp.66-77
Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 Reproduced: p. 370-71; Mentioned: p. 370-373
Sims, Lowery S. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. Mentioned: p. 115; Reproduced: p. 38-9. No. 6
Exhibition history

The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1921.1032