What happens to us after we pass away? How order in the cosmos of the afterlife is maintained?
For the ancient Egyptians the constant quest for immortality raises the need for creating written documents, paintings and sculptures to assist the Dead throughout his passage from death to afterlife. (While for the ancient Greeks the quest for mortality, the Now and Present places the Man towards the God, face to face with the human fate – the mystery of Life is what is expressed in the Greek Art rather than the mystery of Death).
Travelling the paths to the hereafter, the rite of passage from Life to Death is exhibited at the British Museum. What I found extremely interesting was the variety of the funerary papyri –the Book of the Dead- on display, papyri rolls that contain astonishing illustrations and sacred texts accompanying and guiding the dead in the afterlife. The longest one ever found and for the first time on public display is 37 meters long, the Greenfield Papyrus!
Tags: arts, exhibition, london
