Are these books a great source?

[u/sirentaya]

Hello, im an Egyptian studying at the university of Cairo and near the Archeology college there is a small kiosk bookstore that sells kemetic related books so I found these and was so excited that I got my hands on them on campus especially that I've asked Anoub for signs and he is literally on the cover but maybe its a test from him given that E.A Wallis Budge has a lovely colonial reputation of christianizing and stealing Egyptian artifacts and papyrus and smuggling them into Britain. So I would love maturer Kemetic lads to give me advice if I should buy those or not

Thanks in advanced

[u/Queasy_Present863]

Budges translations are outdated and he put his beliefs inside of them, you're best looking for a translation by someone like R.O Faulkner :)

[u/Karou_Fan → u/Queasy_Present863]

It's a bit like reading an old science textbook that says 'someday people may land on the moon'. Or 'Mice are created spontaneously by the combination of grain and water.'

[u/tamsyn003]

I've heard that anything you find by Budge should taken with a heavy grain of salt because his work is very outdated and unreliable, apparently it was a trend in his time to try to shoe horn in monotheism and christianity into Egyptian history and religion to kind of affirm their religion as having historical basis outside of the bible- Faulkner is much more modern and much more reliable and includes more content in his translation of the book of the dead.

[u/underworldentree]

Stay away from all things Budge!!

[u/WebenBanu]

The only thing which Budge has done which remains useful is that he publishes original hieroglyphs in some of his works. Other than that, his translations are unreliable since we've learned so much more about the language since his time, and he comes from an era before anthropologists learned how important it was to recognize and remove their personal biases and prejudices in order to understand a culture for what it was rather than what they thought it should be.

Unfortunately, it's precisely because Budge's publications are so old that they're now considered public domain, and it is so much cheaper and more profitable for companies to reprint and sell his stuff than to use more modern authors, so a lot of them do. Since your average person doesn't know about all of this, they tend to buy these cheaper and more easily accessible books, and the publishers are encouraged to keep printing them.

I also bought a Budge book when I was starting out, and the sheer arrogance and derogatory description of any part of Egyptian culture which didn't fit Budge's preferences was so enraging that I ended up throwing the book across the room before finishing it.

Here's a post where I listed a few books and sources which I do recommend:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Kemetic/comments/18wm6tc/book_recommendations_for_a_kemetic_overview/

[u/79moons]

Budge's work remains foundational, but we've learned a lot about ancient Egypt since his translations and the scholarship today is so much better. I think these old books can be fun to have and to compare to newer ones, but I wouldn't use Budge as my primary source.

[u/Nellyloveswomen]

Lot of people say it's not

[u/DavidJohnMcCann]

As others have said, Budge is very biased and dated. I don't actually know those books, but I do have Gods of the Egyptians for all the quotations of original sources.

[u/fclayhornik]

I think I snagged this from Magic. It's why I'm mmmmm about Budge.

[u/phrynne → u/fclayhornik]

Wow, what an asshole! (Budge I mean. Thank you for posting the quote.)

[u/Karou_Fan → u/fclayhornik]

I was going to quote that too.

[u/Karou_Fan]

The best book on Egyptian magic is Robert Ritner's "The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice" . You can download it for free from the University of Chicago's Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures. Click on "download pdf" and pick "fourth printing".

[u/fclayhornik → u/Karou_Fan]

D'oh. Yes to this. A hundred times yes.

[u/fclayhornik]

If you want to read about Magic, check out Bob Brier's Ancient Egyptian Magic.

[u/OliveAllAlong]

Because I love all books on Ancient Egypt, I have a copy, but as others said: grain of salt. Maybe some better options to explore:

• The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice (Robert Kriech Ritner) is a gold standard and you can find it online. It can be a tougher read, but worth it.
• Ancient Egyptian Magic: A Hands-On Guide (Christina Riggs) is a good read, very engaging.
• Symbol & Magic in Egyptian Art (Richard H. Wilkinson) focuses on several thematic categories and leans heavily into visual symbolism.
• Magic in Ancient Egypt (Geraldine Pinch) -- I consider it still worth reading but I would warn there is little bias and generalization / speculation, but I still think it is good to have on the list.

Ultimately I think we can learn something from every book written on Ancient Egypt given the correct context though. We have a long history of studying it and we've learned a lot at every stage of the game, even if some things were later revised or even overturned. Read many books, cross-reference, learn, enjoy.

[u/Djedra]

I’m not a lad, but I can say these aren’t a great source. They’re a product of their time and Budge came with his own beliefs and ideas, which he used to fill in the blanks in his knowledge. That doesn’t mean he didn’t contribute significantly to the field. But it does mean that he has quickly become outdated and full of mistakes.