Anatomy of the Ancient Egyptian soul: The Ba

Podcast: Afterlives of Ancient Egypt with Kara Cooney · Kara Cooney

Opublikowano: 2026-02-27

What, exactly, makes a person a person? In this episode, Kara and Amber launch a new series exploring the anatomy of the ancient Egyptian soul. They begin with the ba—often translated as “soul,” but far stranger and more powerful than that simple word suggests. The ba is the part of you that moves, that transforms, that survives death. Drawing from art, funerary texts, and literary works like The Dialogue of a Man with His Ba, the Egyptians unpack how the ba functioned as a mobile, solar, and deeply dynamic aspect of the individual. What emerges is an und...