Ba (Egyptian soul)

The provided sources do not record a single cosmogonic origin myth for the ba. Rather, the ba appears within Egyptian funerary and theological literature and iconography as one of several constituent parts of the person (alongside the ka, akh, name, shadow, etc.). Textual attestations and later summaries (including funerary texts and literary works such as the attested Middle Kingdom composition 'The Dispute Between a Man and his Ba') present the ba as an established aspect of personhood and afterlife thought rather than as the product of a discrete creation narrative.

In Egyptian art and summaries preserved in the sources the ba is conventionally represented as a human-headed bird — often described specifically as a human-headed falcon — and is shown hovering over the mummy or leaving and entering the tomb. This bird form is an iconographic convention used to represent the ba's mobility and its relation to the corpse and tomb.

Sources portray the ba as a mobile, individuated aspect of a person that can leave and re-enter the tomb or body and is associated with continuity of personal identity after death. It is distinct from the ka (the life-force/double) and the akh (the transformed, effective spirit). Funerary preparation, offerings, and the preservation of the body and tomb are described as necessary to provide a locus or 'home' for the ba so that the deceased continues to exist in the afterlife. Literary evidence (e.g., 'The Dispute Between a Man and his Ba') shows the ba could be treated as an interlocutor in Egyptian thought.