Offering formula

The Offering Formula

The ancient Egyptians considered names to be very important. It was a living part of each person. This meant that if a person’s name was removed from a monument their existence would be removed. Saying the name of the dead helped keep their essence alive.

The soul of a dead person needed to be fed. In order to do this relatives and friends of the dead would repeat the ‘offering formula’. If you would like to ‘pay your respects’ to the people who owned the objects now in the Egypt Centre you could repeat the simplified offering formula given below and insert the name of the person where we have written ‘N’.

This can be translated as:

An offering which the king gives (to) Osiris, lord of Djedu, great god, lord of Abydos

(To) Anubis upon his mountain

So that he may give a voice offering (of) bread, beer, ox, fowl, alabaster, linen

Everything good and pure on which a god lives

For the ka of the revered one ‘N’

Look at stela W1041. See how much of it you can read.