Metaphoric Language in Coffin Texts 548 and Book of the Dead 93

Spell 548 of the Coffin Texts (CT), and its later recension, spell 93 of the Book of the Dead (BD), is entitled “Spell for not ferrying a man to the east from the necropolis”. An alternative title, attested in the Twelfth Dynasty Theban coffin of Mentuhotep, is “spell for not dying again in the necropolis”, as to be ferried to the east would lead to the second death, which would be final and eternal. The spell is intended to avoid the occurrence that the mummy is ferried to the east, as the identification of the deceased with the sun god would imply an inversion of the cosmic order: the sun would enter the netherworld in the west, and not in the east.