Editing Unas (section)

===Pyramid Texts===
{{main|Pyramid Texts}}
[[File:Unas Pyramidentexte.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The [[Pyramid Texts]] inscribed on the walls of Unas' burial chamber|alt=A large chamber of stone, its walls entirely covered with thousands of hieroglyphs.]]
The main innovation of the pyramid of Unas is the first appearance of the [[Pyramid Texts]],{{sfn|Malek|2000a|p=102}} one of the oldest religious texts in Egypt to have survived to this day.{{efn|group=lower-alpha|Note that the archaic style of certain sections of the ''Pyramid Texts'' indicate that these are much older than Unas' reign.{{sfn|Lehner|1997|pp=154&ndash;155}}}} In doing so, Unas initiated a tradition that would be followed in the pyramid of the kings and queens of the Sixth to Eighth Dynasties, until the end of the Old Kingdom circa 200 years later.{{sfn|Allen|2001|p=95}}

In total 283 magical spells,{{sfn|Lehner|1997|pp=154&ndash;155}}{{efn|group=lower-alpha|The number reported differs from scholar to scholar. Clayton mentions 228 spells;{{sfn|Clayton|1994|p=63}} Allen gives 236.{{sfn|Allen|2001|p=95}}}} also known as utterances, were carved and the signs painted blue on the walls of the corridor, antechamber, and burial chamber of Unas' pyramid.{{sfn|Verner|2001c|p=92}} They constitute the most complete rendition of the Pyramid Texts existing today.{{sfn|Lehner|1997|p=33}} These spells were intended to help the king in overcoming hostile forces and powers in the Underworld and thus join with the sun god [[Ra]], his divine father in the afterlife.{{sfn|Oakes|Gahlin|2002|p=94}} By writing the texts on the walls of the pyramid's internal chambers, the architects of Unas' pyramid ensured that the king would benefit from their potency even if the funerary cult was to cease.{{sfn|Altenmüller|2001|p=600}}{{sfn|Lehner|1997|p=95}}
Hence, the Pyramid Texts of the pyramid of Unas incorporate instructions for ritual actions and words to be spoken, suggesting that they were precisely those performed and recited during the cult of the king in his mortuary temple.{{sfn|Lehner|1997|pp=32&ndash;33}}

The good preservation of the texts in Unas' pyramid shows that they were arranged so as to be read by the [[Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul#Ba .28personality.29|Ba]] of Unas, as it arose from the sarcophagus thanks to resurrection utterances and surrounded by protective spells and ritual offerings.{{sfn|Lehner|1997|p=33}}{{sfn|Allen|2001|p=96}} The Ba would then leave the burial chamber, which incorporates texts identifying the king with Osiris in the [[Duat]], and would move to the antechamber symbolizing the [[Akhet (hieroglyph and season)|Akhet]]. Included in the spells written on the walls of the antechamber of Unas are two utterances known as the [[Pyramid Texts#Cannibal hymn|Cannibal Hymn]], which portrays the pharaoh as flying to heaven through a stormy sky and eating both gods and men. In doing so the king would receive the life force of the gods.{{sfn|Lehner|1997|p=33}}{{efn|group=lower-alpha|While most historians believe that it is unlikely that Unas himself engaged in cannibalism, the Egyptologist [[E. A. Wallis Budge|Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge]] proposed that the Cannibal Hymn may harken back to an earlier time in Egyptian history when cannibalism was in fact practiced.{{sfn|Budge|1988|p=323}}}}{{efn|group=lower-alpha|This inspired the American [[technical death metal]] band [[Nile (band)|Nile]], which recorded an 11:43-long song titled "Unas, Slayer of the Gods" based on the Cannibal Hymn. It appears on their 2002 album ''[[In Their Darkened Shrines]]''.{{sfn|Music Song Lyrics|2015|loc=Nile Unas Slayer Of The Gods lyrics}}}} At this point the Ba of Unas would face east, the direction of the sunrise, and beyond the pyramid masonry, the [[false door]] of the mortuary temple where funerary rituals were performed. Finally, turning left the Ba would join Ra in the sky by passing through the pyramid corridor.{{sfn|Lehner|1997|p=33}}

An example of a spell from the pyramid of Unas is Utterance 217:{{sfn|Oakes|Gahlin|2002|p=94}}<blockquote>Re-Atum, this Unas comes to you<br>A spirit indestructible<br>Your son comes to you<br> This Unas comes to you<br> May you cross the sky united in the dark<br> May you rise in lightland, the place in which you shine!</blockquote>