Retelling Pyramid Texts
Egyptian
Introduction
This is the Mythopouch retelling of the Pyramid Texts. It is a modern educational reading of ancient Egyptian royal funerary texts about resurrection, offerings, protection, celestial travel and the dead king's transformation among the gods and stars. It is written for readers aged 15 and up.
It is not a translation of the hieroglyphs and it is not Samuel A. B. Mercer's 1952 translation. The public Sources page provides a separate historical English selection from E. A. Wallis Budge's 1914 The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians.
What this retelling is
The Pyramid Texts are a corpus of hundreds of ritual utterances rather than one continuous ancient story. This retelling organises major themes into a six-chapter educational journey while making clear that the chapter structure is modern.
Vol. 1 - The Tomb
1. The Walls That Waited
2. A Great One Sleeps, A Great One Wakes
3. Serpents at the Threshold
Vol. 2 - The Ascent
4. The Crossing - Ferrymen, Gates, and Threats
5. The Ascent
6. The Devouring of Gods, and the Court of Heaven
The complete retelling is 20 pages. Volume 1 is 11 pages and Volume 2 is 12 pages, including their title, contents and source-note pages.
How to use it with the Sources page
Use Pyramid Texts (Sources) when you want the historical source witness. The downloadable source is Chapter II of E. A. Wallis Budge's 1914 The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, a public-domain English selection covering key Pyramid Text themes. It is not the complete modern corpus, so not every ancient passage discussed in the retelling appears in that source PDF.
Use this Retellings page when you want a modern continuous educational reading. The retelling was checked against the wider Pyramid Text tradition, including Samuel A. B. Mercer's 1952 translation and commentary as a private research reference and modern archaeological scholarship. Mercer is not distributed or reproduced by Mythopouch.
The ancient Egyptian texts are public domain. The modern Mythopouch wording, organisation and layout are separate modern work.
Summary
A modern 15+ Mythopouch retelling of the Pyramid Texts in two volumes: The Tomb and The Ascent. The six chapters trace ritual awakening, protection, crossing, ascent and divine transformation.
Copyright Note
Mythopouch original educational wording. Copyright Mythopouch 2026. The ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts are public-domain source material. The public historical source witness is E. A. Wallis Budge's 1914 selection. Samuel A. B. Mercer's 1952 translation and commentary is not reproduced or distributed by Mythopouch.