"That Which Is In the Afterworld" (Amduat) of the priest Hor-em-chemmis

The Amduat provides the deceased with knowledge of the world beyond, which he will enter after death. The various chapters describe the locations of the underworld, its inhabitants, and the dangers faced there, for ‘whoever knows this will be a blessed transfigured being’. The descriptions centre around the god Osiris and the nightly journey of the sun through the underworld. The deceased stands in an attitude of prayer before Osiris, requesting permission to enter the underworld. Osiris is clad as a mummy and depicted with black skin, black being symbolic of the earth, from which all life is reborn. The sayings are written in cursive hieroglyphs, a mixture of hieroglyphs and hieratic (a handwritten writing system that developed alongside hieroglyphs). They help the deceased to enter the world of the living in the form of a soul-bird during the day, and to return at night when the sun journeys through the underworld, awaking the dead and Osiris to new life and regenerating itself for the next morning.