During this previous age, the sun god had not yet begun his daily course through the sky and the netherworld. Prior to the rebellion, which required a complete reordering of the world, there had been a golden age where the various deities and humans were both under the sovereignty of the sun god. He is specifically given rulership over both the deities and the humans. The first part places considerable emphasis on the royal role of the sun god, who bears the royal title and who's name is surrounded by a cartouche. It takes place after Re's long rule on earth. The central theme of The Book of the Heavenly Cow is mankind's rebellion against the elder sun god, Re, resulting in the punishment of humans by the fiery "eye" of Re in the form of the goddess Hathor.
It is purely mythological in nature, and in fact, it is difficult to see how this particular book fits into the evolutionary framework of the other funerary text. Rather, it tells a story that mixes magic spells with the exact details of the Divine Cow herself.
#Henry édouard neville book of the heavenly cow manual
The Book of the Divine Cow is not a manual of spiritual instruction, or a guidebook through the Duat, as are the other funerary text of the New Kingdom. In 1983, Erik Hornung, taking into account all of the versions of the book including that found in the tomb of Ramesses III, published an improved version of the text, which included a metrical transliteration by Gerhard Fecht, which saw a second edition with four pages of supplemental material and corrections in 1991. In 1941, Charles Maystre published the first synoptic version of the book, taking into account the text discovered in the tomb of Ramesses II (though he omitted the text from Tutankhamun). Heinrich Brugsch published the first translation into German in 1881. Later, in 1885, he also published the version found in the tomb of Ramesses III. He supplied the first translation into English in 1876. In 1876, Edouard Naville published the version of the Book of the Heavenly Cow found in the tomb of Seti I, translating it into French.
The heavenly cow in the tomb of Seti I was noted by early adventurers who visited the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank of Luxor (ancient Thebes) such as Henry Salt and Robert Hay. Within the first part of the text in this book, a parallel to the biblical narrative of the great Flood has inspired considerable interest both within and outside of Egyptology. While this book does not seem to appear after the New Kingdom, it was incorporated into the Book of the Fayoum during the Roman Period. We also find brief excerpts from the book in the left niche of the third corridor in the tomb of Ramesses VI, and another even shorter version on a papyrus from the Ramesside Period now in Turin. In each of these instances, the book is exclusively depicted in an annex off of the burial chamber. However, we do find fairly complete versions of the book in the tombs of Seti I (KV17), Ramesses II (KV7) and Ramesses III (KV11). The first rendering of the Book of the Heavenly Cow was produced on the outermost of the four gilded shrines of Tutankhamun discovered in his tomb, though it was incomplete.
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