The Liturgy of Opening the Mouth for Breathing

This is an ancient Egyptian mortuary text preserved in four manuscripts, located in Berlin, Strasbourg, Paris and Oxford. All are written in Demotic script and date to the early part of the 1st century AD. The purpose of this liturgy was threefold: to revivify the deceased oerson for whom it was recited, to provide them with offerings in the form of clothing and sustenance, to reintegrate them within the cosmos, ensuring their freedom of movement and acceptance among the company of gods. The liturgy is edited with an introduction, transliteration and translation, commentary, bibliography, glossary and photographs of all four versions. The Strasbourg MS contains additional textual material, of uncertain relation to the liturgy proper, which is treated as an appendix.