Guardian Deities and their Functions in the Underworld in Light of (The Pyramid) Texts

Abstract

This study addressed the functions related to the guardian deities in the underworld according to the texts of the (pyramids). It is known that the ancient Egyptians saw the death that they would encounter and their belief that the soul would leave the body. Based on this, the ancient Egyptians worked to record these texts on the walls of the royal tombs in order to be an aid to the king and protect him from the danger of evil that would hinder his journey in the underworld. These religious-literary texts were engraved and drawn on the walls of the pyramids, especially in the Saqqara area, starting from the reign of King (Unas) at the end of the Fifth Dynasty (2498-2345 BC). It continued to be recorded on the walls of the burial chambers in the pyramids of the kings of the Sixth Dynasty, and includes spells that address the fusion of the king's spirit with the god (Ra) to complete his daily journey that sails across the sky in the underworld, in addition to the ancient Egyptian belief that the purpose of recording the texts of the (pyramids) is to provide the dead with the provisions they need, especially protection, as many spells aimed to eliminate and get rid of the enemies of the deceased. What concerns us here from those texts that were engraved on the walls of the inner chambers of the (pyramids), is that they address many of the guardian gods present in the underworld, and then gave each of them their job duties, and they were assigned according to their regions in the underworld, as well as tasks according to the hours assigned to protect them.