The Book of the Day

The Book of the Day, though found in the royal necropolis at Tanis, along with excerpts from the tomb of Osorkon II and a nearly complete version in the tomb of Shoshen III, is also depicted within the tomb of !amesses "I# The latest version of the book we have is from the private tomb of !amose $TT%&'( that dates from the ')th Dynasty# Otherwise, only brief components of the text regarding the hours of the day have been discovered on sarcophagi and papyri of the *ate +eriod# ,lso related are the hymns to the hours of the day in the pronaos of the -dfu Temple#

.hampoliion originally copied versions of the book from the sarcophagus chamber and corridors of the tomb of !amesses "I, but they received little attention# In %/0', ,lexandre +iankoff published and edition of the book but without regard to the Tanis versions#

The scene and captions of this book are arranged under the figure of the sky goddess 1ut, with her arms and legs spread out# ,ll of the figures within the scene face the head of 1ut, and so the end of the book# ,rranged hori2ontally into five registers, the text follows the course of the twelve hours of the day# This arrangement, however, makes it unclear where one hour ends and the next begins# , prologue and concluding representation stand out from the main text# It should also be noted that the Book of the Day and the Book of the 1ight may have been intended as a single entity, but they are only shown together in the tomb of !amesses "I#

The Book of the Day is notable because, unlike most of the funerary text, it is focused on the 3ourney of the sun god during the day, rather than his nocturnal voyage through the underworld# 4ence, the sun god appears with a falcon5s head rather than his ram6headed nighttime image# 7et underworld motifs such as the repulsing of ,pophis and the 8ield of !eeds occur in the middle of the composition# 9ostly, this book is concerned with the enumeration of deities, with little descriptive text#