The Amduat

When

c. 1500 BCE onward, New Kingdom

Where it survives

Royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings

What it is

A route map of the twelve hours of the night through which the sun god travels, is regenerated at midnight by uniting with Osiris, and emerges at dawn. Strictly royal for most of its history.

Read it with this in mind

Densely technical and full of names of minor beings. It is a text for priests, not a story.

Myths attested here

The twelve hours of the night

c. 1500 BCE onward, in royal tombs

The sun does not set. It dies, travels through the underworld, unites with Osiris at midnight, and is reborn.

Other sources

The Pyramid Texts

c. 2400-2300 BCE, Fifth and Sixth Dynasties

The Coffin Texts

c. 2100-1800 BCE, First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom

The Book of the Dead

c. 1550 BCE onward, New Kingdom to Roman period

The Contendings of Horus and Set

c. 1160 BCE, Twentieth Dynasty