The "Transformations" in the Coffin Texts a New Approach

Abstract

The commonly accepted translation, transformation into, of the irt m in the headings of Chaps. 76-88 of the Book of the Dead originated in 1849 with Birch;2 it was supported by De Rouge in 1851,3 by Reinisch in 1865,4 by Brugsch in 18675 and in his Dictionnaire (1868),6 and has prevailed ever since; it was defended by Shorter in 1935,7 and De Buck, in 1949,8 translated the heading of BD 78 = Spell 312 (CT, IV, 68 a) as Changing into a divine falcon. It was challenged in 1867 by Lepsius,9 who argued that 4pr does not imply the action of Verwandlung (transformation, change), and that hprw are rather the existences in various forms which the