Egyptian funerary religion
Atum
Tirard’s scan spells this god Tum. At Heliopolis he emerges alone from Nu, the primordial water, and becomes the initiating solar presence in a creation narrative. The account associates his movement with separation and the formation of the world. Another passage envisages a return to water, with the creator and Osiris remaining when the ordered earth is undone.
Also known as Tum
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In the sources
Principal account
TraditionalTirard’s scan spells this god Tum. At Heliopolis he emerges alone from Nu, the primordial water, and becomes the initiating solar presence in a creation narrative.
Further detail
TraditionalThe account associates his movement with separation and the formation of the world. Another passage envisages a return to water, with the creator and Osiris remaining when the ordered earth is undone.
Context & interpretation
Tirard’s 1910 account interprets selected funerary texts and rituals through the scholarship of her period. Local cults and surviving manuscripts vary; her comparisons and proposed origins are not a modern Egyptological consensus.
Original passages
Source 1
The Book of the Dead
He was alone in Nu, the primaeval waterOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Egyptian funerary religion; active reader leaf 100
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0039-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0039-E001-P0100
- Original scan leaf
- 110
- Recorded leaf number
- 100
- Current Reader position
- 93
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
- Location review
- Original scan location confirmed against the reviewed Reader mapping; the earlier recorded number is retained above.
Source 2
The Book of the Dead
deface all I have done ; this earth will become water (or an ocean) through an inundation, as it was at the beginning. I amOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Egyptian funerary religion; active reader leaf 104
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0039-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0039-E001-P0104
- Original scan leaf
- 114
- Recorded leaf number
- 104
- Current Reader position
- 97
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
- Location review
- Original scan location confirmed against the reviewed Reader mapping; the earlier recorded number is retained above.
Continue exploring
Nu: Primordial Water
The primordial water in Tirard’s creation account, from which light emerges and to which the ordered earth may return.
Same subject and traditionAnubis
Guardian of the mummy and guide into the judgment hall.
Same subject and traditionGeb
Earth god named Keb in the scanned funerary account.
Same subject and traditionHathor
Goddess associated with sustenance and a varying divine company.