Erik Hornung (28 January 1933 – 11 July 2022)[1] was a Latvian-born Germanegyptologist and one of the most influential modern writers onancient Egyptian religion. He wasprofessor emeritus ofBasel University.[2]
Hornung was born inRiga, Latvia in 1933 and gained hisPhD at theUniversity of Tübingen in 1956. He was Professor of Egyptology at theUniversity of Basel from 1967 to 1998. His main research field has beenfunerary literature, theValley of the Kings in particular. He published the first edition of theBook ofAmduat in three volumes between 1963 and 1967.J. Gwyn Griffiths described Hornung as the foremost authority in such literature.[3] His bookConceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, The One and the Many has become his best-known work, in which he concludes, whilst acknowledging previous work byHenri Frankfort and his "multiplicity of approaches" andJohn A. Wilson's "complementary" treatment of Egyptian modes of thought, that "Anyone who takes history seriously will not accept a single method as definitive; the same should be true of anyone who takes belief seriously".[4] Hornung became Vice-President of the Society of the Friends of the Royal Tombs of Egypt in 1988. His books have been published in German, but many have been translated into English.[5]
