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Erik Hornung

    January 28, 1933 – July 11, 2022

    This author delves into the depths of ancient Egyptian funerary literature and the Valley of the Kings to uncover key aspects of ancient belief. His approach emphasizes that understanding complex thought processes requires a multifaceted perspective, not a single method. Through his best-known work, he explores the relationship between unity and plurality in Egyptian conceptions of the divine, establishing himself as a foremost authority in this literature. His writings, often translated into English, challenge readers to approach history and belief with seriousness and an openness to diverse interpretations.

    Erik Hornung
    The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife
    Idea into image
    Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
    The quest for immortality
    The Egyptian Amduat
    The valley of the kings
    • 2014

      The Egyptian Amduat

      The Book of the Hidden Chamber

      • 446 pages
      • 16 hours of reading
      4.4(22)Add rating

      The night-journey of the Egyptian Sungod unfolds over twelve hours, each offering profound insights into the human psyche. This exploration delves into themes of transformation, the afterlife, and the complexities of existence, revealing the intricate connections between mythology and human experience. Through its rich symbolism, the Amduat serves as a guide to understanding both the spiritual and psychological dimensions of life.

      The Egyptian Amduat
    • 2012

      Human capital, technology diffusion and economic growth

      Evidence from Prussian Census Data

      • 182 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      This volume was prepared by Erik Hornung while he was working in the Department Human Capital and Innovation of the Ifo Institute. It was completed in December 2012 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Economics Department of the University of Munich (LMU). The thesis consists of four core chapters, each studying a different aspect of how human capital and technology diffusion shaped the growth and development of historical Prussia. The structure of the thesis follows a chain of causal effects from human capital, to technological diffusion, to economic growth. The econometric analysis draw on rich micro-level data, exclusively digitized for this thesis from Prussian censuses originally collected in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The four core chapters show how human capital and technology shaped the economic development of Prussia during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. During this period, the basic economic environment was formed and long-term consequences of these developments may still be observed in contemporary Germany

      Human capital, technology diffusion and economic growth
    • 2002

      The quest for immortality

      • 288 pages
      • 11 hours of reading
      4.4(20)Add rating

      Ancient Egyptian antiquities are dominated by art and artifacts depicting the Netherworld, the alternate universe which mummified bodies would enter at the end of their physical lives, where they would live on for eternity. In this dazzling book, photographs and exhaustive texts illustrate the promise of a glorious rebirth pervaded the daily life of Egyptians, from commoners to the most powerful pharaohs.

      The quest for immortality
    • 2001

      Akhenaten and the Religion of Light

      • 146 pages
      • 6 hours of reading
      3.8(96)Add rating

      Akhenaten, also known as Amenhotep IV, was king of Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty and reigned from 1375 to 1358 B.C. E. Called the religious revolutionary, he is the earliest known creator of a new religion. The cult he founded broke with... schovat popis

      Akhenaten and the Religion of Light
    • 2001

      The secret lore of Egypt

      • 284 pages
      • 10 hours of reading
      4.1(41)Add rating

      The study of Egypt as the fount of all wisdom and stronghold of hermetic lore, already strong in antiquity, Hornung (Egyptology, U. of Basel) calls Egyptosophy. Though it was soundly rebuffed by Egyptology, based on conventional science and history, he thinks its continuing impact on western culture deserves scholarly attention. He reviews the various occult traditions and their expression during various eras. The original Esoterische Agypten was published by C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich, in 1999, and translated by David Lorton, who has also translated Hornung's earlier books for Cornell. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

      The secret lore of Egypt
    • 1999

      Ancient Egyptians held a rich and complex vision of the afterlife and codified their beliefs in books that were to be discovered more than two millennia later in royal tombs. Erik Hornung, the world's leading authority on these religious texts...

      The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife
    • 1999
    • 1996

      Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

      • 296 pages
      • 11 hours of reading
      4.3(159)Add rating

      Osiris, Horus, Isis, Thoth, Anubis - the many strange and compelling figures of the Egyptian gods and goddesses seem to possess endless fascination. The renowned Egyptologist Erik Hornung here studies the ancient Egyptians' conceptions of god, basing his account on a thorough reappraisal of the primary sources. His book, now available in English for the first time, is the most extensive exploration yet undertaken of the nature of Egyptian religion. Hornung examines the characteristics, spheres of action, and significance of Egyptian gods and goddesses, analyzing the complex and changing iconography used to represent them, and disentangling the many seemingly contradictory aspects of the religion of which they are a part. He seeks to answer two basic questions: How did the Egyptians themselves see their gods? Did they believe there was an impersonal, anonymous force behind the multiplicity of their deities? Throughout, he attempts to evoke the complexity and richness of the religion of the ancient Egyptians and of their worldview, which differs so greatly from our own. A work of extraordinary distinction, Hornung's book will appeal to anyone interested in ancient Egypt, in ancient religion, and in the history of religion, as well as students and scholars of ancient history, anthropology, and archaeology. Sensitively translated by John Baines and with a new preface by the author, this edition has been amplified and updated with an English-language audience in mind.

      Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
    • 1992

      "This volume grew out of a series of lectures delivered to audiences with no special background in Egyptology. While each of the chapters and dresses a separate topic, their shared aim is to convey a sense of the richness, the variety, and the fundamental character of the ancient Egyptian imagination. The book is an introduction to the Mind of Egypt.". "As far back as the third millennium B.C. the Egyptians were investigating questions that concern us still - questions about being and non-being, about the meaning of death, about the nature of the cosmos and of man, about the basis of human society and the legitimization of power. The Egyptians knew that their answers could never be definitive, and this flexible and pluralistic approach is the essence of their philosophical position. The idea that there is no single answer, that everything is flow and every answer provisional, is worth exploring today in an age that has focused attention on fragmentation while continuing to cling to a history of absolutes." "Idea into Image also includes a number of black-and-white photographs by Bill Barrette, which illustrate in concrete visual terms the abstract concepts explored in Hornung's essays."--BOOK JACKET.

      Idea into image
    • 1990

      Focuses on the wall paintings and reliefs in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings, describing their appearance and interpretation, and calls attention to their potential destruction from such causes as tourism

      The valley of the kings