The Books of the Sky
Also known as: Books of the Sky, Book of Nut, Book of the Day, Book of the Night, Books of Day and Night
An Egyptian cosmological corpus centered on the sky-goddess Nut, charting the sun’s daily and nightly journey, the decans and star clocks, and the ordering of celestial time. Inscribed prominently in Ramesside tombs, it blends myth, ritual, and astronomy to safeguard cosmic renewal.
Description
The Books of the Sky comprise interrelated cosmological compositions—most prominently the Book of Nut, the Book of the Day, and the Book of the Night—depicting the heavens as the body of the goddess Nut arched over the world. They narrate and diagram the solar cycle as the sun is swallowed at dusk and reborn at dawn, escorted through twelve hours of day and twelve hours of night by divine crews. Tables of decans and star clocks regulate ritual timekeeping and the calendrical night watches, while scenes of the celestial river, two horizons, and protective deities articulate the maintenance of maat (cosmic order). Copied on tomb ceilings and sarcophagi in the New Kingdom and echoed in later temple astronomy, the corpus integrates mythic imagery with observational schemes to secure the king’s rebirth with that of the sun and stars.
Historiography
“Books of the Sky” is a modern designation for cosmological compositions preserved chiefly on New Kingdom royal tomb ceilings (e.g., Seti I, Ramesses IV–VI) and later in Ptolemaic temples with astronomical ceilings (Dendera, Esna). The Book of Nut has earlier antecedents and underwent Ramesside redaction alongside the Book of the Day and Book of the Night. The corpus was studied and translated in detail by Piankoff and colleagues; subsequent syntheses by Hornung established its place among Egyptian funerary-cosmological texts. Recent scholarship refines decanal systems and star clocks, aligning textual diagrams with observational astronomy.
Date Notes
Elements likely formed in the Middle Kingdom (Book of Nut) and were compiled/standardized in Ramesside royal tombs as the Book of the Day and Book of the Night.
Archetypes
Symbols
Major Characters
- Nut
- Ra
- Shu
- Geb
- Nun
Myths
- Nut Swallows and Gives Birth to the Sun
- The Sun’s Nightly Passage through the Body of Nut
- Decans and Star-Lore of the Night Sky
- Mapping the Duat upon the Heavens
Facts
- The corpus is centered on the sky-goddess Nut, whose body forms the vault of heaven.
- The Book of the Day and Book of the Night structure the sun’s passage into twelve hours each.
- Star clocks and decanal lists in the corpus supported nocturnal timekeeping.
- Ramesside royal tombs first preserve extended versions on decorated ceilings.
- The texts combine image captions, tabular lists, and short hymnic passages.
- The solar barque’s crew includes protective deities and personified powers (Sia, Hu, Heka).
- Mehen, a protective serpent, coils around Ra during the night journey.
- Apophis embodies chaos threatening the solar cycle and is ritually subdued.
- Later temple ceilings at Dendera and Esna preserve related astronomical material.
- The corpus integrates myth, ritual, and observation to renew maat and royal rebirth.