Egyptian funerary religion
Khu
Tirard distinguishes the Khu, the luminous, from the Ka and Ba. She reports translations involving glory, brilliance, and radiance, including Maspero’s description of the luminous ones. The dead seek the heaven of eternity with the Khu, and a domain of these glorious ones appears in the description of Amenta. Radiance marks a changed condition and company in the future world.
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In the sources
Principal account
TraditionalTirard distinguishes the Khu, the luminous, from the Ka and Ba. She reports translations involving glory, brilliance, and radiance, including Maspero’s description of the luminous ones.
Further detail
TraditionalThe dead seek the heaven of eternity with the Khu, and a domain of these glorious ones appears in the description of Amenta. Radiance marks a changed condition and company in the future world.
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
ghost, the Ba or soul, and the Khu or luminous, the equivalent of our spirit. The Kay like our ghost, appeared with the sameOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Egyptian funerary religion; active reader leaf 17
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0039-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0039-E001-P0017
- Original scan leaf
- 27
- Recorded leaf number
- 17
- Current Reader position
- 13
- 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
The domain of the Khu, or Glorious OnesOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Egyptian funerary religion; active reader leaf 90
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0039-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0039-E001-P0090
- Original scan leaf
- 100
- Recorded leaf number
- 90
- Current Reader position
- 83
- 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
Ba
The mobile aspect of the soul in Tirard’s account, pictured as a human-faced bird able to leave and return to the mummy.
Shared source pageKa
The personal double for whom the tomb remains a dwelling.
Shared source pageAmenta
The Hidden Land divided into domains of posthumous life.
Same subject and traditionThe Heart in Egyptian Judgment
The organ made witness to a person’s conduct at the balance.