Among polytheistic beliefs, the Ancient Egyptian divine pantheon is a unique phenomenon. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that, firstly, it has a very weak hierarchical structure, and secondly, all the gods, as it were, change roles over time. Only one deity remains unchanged - this is the supreme god of the entire pantheon Ra - the sun god. Moreover, Ra is not the oldest of the gods, moreover, sometimes other gods rule over him, but this does not change the essence: the will of Ra is an immutable law and no one dares to contradict him.
And there is a pragmatic, one might say "earthly" explanation for this. The fact is that the pantheon of Ancient Egypt is actually assembled from the gods of different clans or cities, the mythology of some of them might not even have an idea of the gods of others. Therefore, since the creation of a single state, the priests, as best they could, attracted the biographies of different gods to the general picture of the world, and, surprisingly, they were able to achieve a certain harmony in the divine structure. Each god in the pantheon was similar to a representative from a particular region of the state. Well, the pharaoh, the supreme ruler on Earth, had a direct analogy with the god Ra in the divine world.
But, such a picture was too primitive and did not fit in any way for such a serious and important legend as the justification of the supreme power of the pharaoh. In addition, Ra is definitely omnipotent, but Pharaoh is not. A certain intrigue was needed, and it came in the form of the next legend.
Osiris, the grandson of Ra, was killed out of envy by his brother, Set. After which Seth began to rule the entire world of the living. Such a situation, of course, did not like the son of Osiris, Horus, and Horus began a fight with Set. This struggle did not have the character of a war, rather, it was a trial, only the gods played all the roles in it. The result of the process was the recognition of Set's actions as evil, the release of Osiris from the Kingdom of the Dead and the return of the throne of the Earth to him. However, Osiris liked the afterlife so much that he decided to stay in it and judge the newly arrived dead, and put Horus in his place.
Thus, Pharaoh is not the hypostasis of Ra on Earth, it is the hypostasis of Horus. The role of the pharaoh is a fair trial over the inhabitants of the Earth. But one must not forget about the divine origin. Therefore, the god Horus is depicted with the head of a falcon, like in Ra. But, at the same time, millet, the crown of the pharaohs of Northern Egypt, is put on this falcon head.
However, Pharaoh, like any other person, is mortal. At the end of his life's journey, he finds himself in the kingdom of the dead, where he will have to go through the judgment of Osiris and 42 more gods; but this is not so bad, because in order to go through the Divine judgment, you must first reach it.
The other world, depicted by most modern religious figures, looks approximately the same: in a certain volume, called purgatory (limbo, araf, and so on) there is a line of souls awaiting the doomsday. But the ancient Egyptian afterlife, the Duat, was not at all that. It was the most dangerous place, the abode of evil beasts and demons, whose food was the souls of the dead that had just appeared in the Duat. To make it easier for the soul to travel to the palace of Osiris, it was necessary to always have the right prayer or spell at hand that could drive away or destroy a particular demon. Help in this matter was provided by the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead - a collection of those very prayers and spells written for a specific person; she set off on her last journey with the deceased. The papyrus with the afterlife was either placed directly in the sarcophagus along with the mummy, or was located somewhere nearby.
Initially, instead of papyrus, the walls of the tomb were painted with hieroglyphs containing practically the same text as the Book of the Dead. The first such collections were "Texts of the Pyramids", tared by the XXII century BC; after them, about 300-500 years later, more meaningful "Texts of Sarcophagi" appeared. However, over time, the walls of the tombs began to be decorated not with “saving” hymns and songs, but with more earthly things - for example, pretentious biographies of the deceased pharaoh. Prayers and conspiracies for guiding the soul along the Duat passed to papyrus.
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Over time, religious freedom allowed the use of the pyramids and the Book of the Dead, not only to the pharaohs, but also to the highest nobility, and later to the ordinary inhabitants of Ancient Egypt. Naturally, all this had some material costs, however, absolutely all representatives of society now had equality before death.
Custom-written, the Books of the Dead were quite expensive. In addition, not many could afford to carry out all the ritual services of that time. And often its acquisition was carried out in installments, or the book was purchased in parts. At first, for example, it was just a collection of the most necessary prayers, later, at the request of the customer, it could be expanded and supplemented. In addition, there was the practice of group Books of the Dead, which were ordered by entire families or clans; as a rule, they shared a common burial site.
Over time, so that everything was "like Pharaoh's", ordinary people began to find their life stories in the Books of the dead, usually having the form of legends or parables. That is, in these books there was a moment of reasoning about the motivation of the "protagonist" and the correctness of his conclusions and actions. From the detailed description of the judgment of Osiris, one can understand what the ancient Egyptians considered a righteous deed, and what was sinful. In general, we can say that the moral norms of the ancient Egyptians did not differ much from modern ones, unless, of course, we take into account the views on the issue of slavery. The attitude to family, children, government and business was the same as it is now.
Thus, by the time of the XVIII dynasty (1500 BC), a whole literary and religious genre was formed, individual copies of which have survived to this day. Thanks to the Books of the Dead, we can learn not only the features of the cult rituals of the ancient Egyptians, but also understand what was important for them in earthly life, what their morality and spiritual values were.