The Return of Ancient Epic: The Egyptian Book of the Dead

Ancient Egypt imagined both the beginning of the universe and the end of earthly life with a creativity that still speaks to us today. In this conversation, part 2 of our series on Ancient Epics, Rita Lucarelli will guide us from the cosmic dawn of creation, where gods like Atum, Ptah, and the eight divinities of the Hermopolis (the so-called "Hermopolitan Ogdoad") shape the world through word, will, and divine chaos, to the intimate, personal journey mapped in the Book of the Dead, a guide to navigating the afterlife and proving the heart worthy before Osiris. By comparing competing creation myths and exploring key passages and images from funerary spells and other ritual texts, Rita will uncover how Egyptians used narrative, poetry, and ritual to explain existence from first breath to final judgement. Expect a vibrant conversation that reveals mythology and afterlife texts as living systems of meaning: tools for constructing identity, justifying royal power, and imagining how to make one's way through the world and beyond it, in harmony and according to Maat (truth, order, justice).

Rita Lucarelli is an Associate Professor of Egyptology at UC Berkeley and Faculty Curator of Egyptology at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. Her research centers on ancient Egyptian religion, especially funerary texts, demonology, and the modern reception of ancient Egyptian religion. She is currently completing a monograph on ancient Egyptian demonology and teaches courses on Egyptian and comparative religion through the Mount Tamalpais College program at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Her work highlights an interdisciplinary approach that blends digital innovation, public scholarship, and the study of ancient religious thought.

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