The title of the work has been translated as the Book of the Cow of Heaven, the Book of the Celestial Cow, The Destruction of Mankind, and The Destruction of Humanity. The central narrative of humanity’s rebellion and the gods’ reaction, however, is complete. It is only by combining the different finds that scholars have been able to assemble the work and, even so, the conclusion has been lost.
The famous photo of the interior of the tomb of Tutankhamun, from after it was opened in 1922 CE, shows a bed frame in the shape of the heavenly cow which, since it is surrounded by other objects, is more often overlooked than appreciated.Įxcept for the tomb of Ramesses VI, which contained the text on papyrus sheets, the myth was found inscribed on the walls of the tombs and none of them, on their own, are complete. The texts were found in the tombs of pharaohs Tutankhamun (r. The work is thought to have been known in some form during the First Intermediate Period (2181-2040 BCE) and written during the Middle Kingdom (2040-1782 BCE) but the extant scripts all come from the New Kingdom (c. The work has been compared with the Mesopotamian Atrahasis and the biblical tale of Noah’s Ark and the Great Flood. The Book of the Heavenly Cow is an ancient Egyptian text dealing with the rebellion of humanity against the sun god Ra, his destruction of the rebels through the goddess Hathor, the reversal of this decision and Ra’s mercy, and his ascent into the higher heavens, leaving earth in a fallen state. The tale begins after Ra had created the world and was king of the gods and humanity. The funerary bed is fashioned in the shape of the Celestial Cow as depicted in The Book of the Heavenly Cow, a text which adorned Tutankhamun’s tomb’s walls. 1327 BCE) taken in 1922 CE or early 1923 CE.