No general book on Egyptian magic can be written without drawing on the specialised knowledge of many scholars, and most particularly on the work of Professor J. F. Borghouts and his pupils at Leiden. The recent translations of the Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri by a group of scholars including H. D. Betz and J. H. Johnson are essential reading for anyone interested in Egyptian magic. I gratefully acknowledge the inspiration provided by a seminar series on Egyptian magic held at Cambridge University in 1991; especially the contributions of John Baines, Janine Bourriau, Mark Collier and John Ray. I am grateful to Dr Stephen Quirke of the Egyptian Antiquities Department of the British Museum for his assistance with the illustrations to this book and for his helpful comments on the manuscript. I would also like to thank Celia Clear and Carolyn Jones of British Museum Press for their work on the book. I am grateful to the Cambridge University Press and to Graham Fowden and Brian Copenhaver for allowing me to use quotations from their books.

From stories of resurrected mummies and thousand-year-old curses to powerful pharaohs and the coveted treasures of the Great Pyramids, ancient Egypt has had an unfaltering grip on the modern imagination. Now, in Egyptian mythology, Geraldine Pinch offers a comprehensive introduction that untangles the mystery of Egyptian mythology spanning ancient Egyptian culture from 3200 BC to AD 400. Pinch opens a door to this hidden world and casts light on its often-misunderstood belief system. She discusses the nature of myths and the history of Egypt, from the predynastic to the postpharaonic period. She explains how Egyptian culture developed around the flooding of the Nile, or the "inundation," a phenomenon on which the whole welfare of the country depended, and how aspects of the inundation were personified as deities. She explains that the usually cloudless skies made for a preoccupation with the stars and planets. Indeed, much early Egyptian mythology may have developed to explain the movement of these celestial bodies. She provides a timeline covering the seven stages in the mythical history of Egypt and outlining the major events of each stage, such as the reign of the sun God. A substantial A to Z section covers the principal themes and concepts of Egyptian mythology as well as the most important deities, demons, and other characters. For anyone who wants to know about Anubis, the terrifying canine god who presided over the mummification of bodies and guarded burials, or Hathor, the golden goddess who helped women to give birth and the dead to be reborn, or an explanation of the nun, the primeval ocean from which all life came, Egyptian Mythology is the place to look. Spanning Ancient Egyptian culture (ca. 3200 BC to AD 400), the handbook of Egyptian mythology is the only complete survey of Egyptian mythology of its kind available in English.

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