S6E18 - The Cannibal Hymn

Opinion Scholarship on one of the very earliest (and strangest) ancient Egyptian funerary texts, which just so happens to feature...cannibalism. I bring you the Cannibal Hymn from the Pyramid of Unas at Saqqara (2350 BC). This hymn is enigmatic. It contains references to mythological ideas found in no other inscription in all of Egypt. It describes how the Pharaoh's soul becomes divine through a kind of communion ritual, where the Eucharist is the gods of the Egyptian pantheon. It instructs the soul of the Pharaoh to consume the organs and powers of all the gods and in so doing make himself greater than them all. Parallels from other religions (even Christianity) abound. Come and get it! Enjoy ;)