Transcriber’s Note

Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.

The illustrative plates were occasionally spread over facing pages, and sometimes appear out of order, depending on the exigencies of pagination. All plates are moved to the end of the text and linked for ease of reference.

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

Any corrections are indicated using an underline highlight. Placing the cursor over the correction will produce the original text in a small popup.

Any corrections are indicated as hyperlinks, which will navigate the reader to the corresponding entry in the corrections table in the note at the end of the text.

When, in the year 1892, Sir Peter Le Page Renouf began the publication of his translation of the Book of the Dead, his intention was that the work, once completed, should be preceded by an elaborate Introduction, giving, besides all the information concerning the form and the history of the book, his views as to its sense and its religious value.

As with the unfinished part of the translation,^[1] so here, we are left without any notes or any clue whatever as to the form which this introduction was to have taken, and we are obliged to resort to the fifth of the Hibbert lectures, given by Renouf in 1879, in order to know his views about the book.^[2]

Before speaking of its contents, we have to state briefly under what form the book has come down to us. It is hardly necessary to repeat that it is no book at all in the ordinary sense of the word. It is neither a unity nor a whole, it is a collection which has grown by degrees, at various epochs. Undoubtedly part of it goes back as far as the Old Empire; the texts of the Middle Empire show already that there were various editions, and we are forced to admit that its origin is not much later than the beginning of Egyptian civilization, as we see that some of the rubrics attribute certain chapters to a king of the 1st dynasty. In the course of centuries the original text was modified and enlarged, new chapters were added, revisions were made, without casting these detached fragments into a whole. The various parts of the book were always independent, like the Hebrew Psalms; the acceptance of a chapter does not necessarily imply the acceptance of the next chapter, and it seems as if the relatives of the deceased chose in the collection which was at their disposal what they liked best, and the number of chapters which corresponded to the price they wished to pay for a papyrus.

This description applies chiefly to the texts of the Book of the Dead of the period prior to the XXVIth dynasty. Under the Saïte kings it seems that a complete revision of the text was made; a definite order was adopted, which was not rigidly binding on the writers, but to which they generally adhered; various chapters were added, especially the last ones, 162-165, which are never found in the older copies. It seems also that something like what we should call an authorized version was adopted; and this was done by men to whom the book was xviiihardly intelligible. A great many glosses were introduced, which were copied afterwards in all the hieroglyphic and hieratic texts. Although we do not find the strict accuracy of Hebrew manuscripts, the number of variants in the Saïte, Ptolemaïc or Roman texts is considerably smaller than in the manuscripts of the Theban period, and a collation of the hundreds of papyri of late epoch which fill our museums would lead to no great result.

However, it is from a text generally considered as Saïtic, but which I believe to be of the Ptolemaïc epoch, that the Book of the Dead has been first made known in all its extent. In 1842 Lepsius published the long papyrus in the Turin Museum, a document which he called “the largest piece of Egyptian literature which has been preserved.”

Before him Champollion had seen it, and had noticed that a great number of repetitions of the same text existed in various museums. He made use of it in his grammar, quoted here and there a sentence taken from it, but he did not make a special study of the document. Lepsius understood at once the importance of the book, which was the vade-mecum of the deceased, and seeing how much more extensive the Turin Papyrus was than the short copies which had been published before, he traced the whole document and published it two years afterwards.

Lepsius gave to this work the name of Todtenbuch, “Book of the Dead,” in opposition to the name of “Ritual” adopted by Champollion, which is certainly incorrect. It is no Ritual; a few chapters with a ritualistic character have been introduced into it; for instance, the chapter connected with the ceremony of “opening the mouth of the deceased,” which is occasionally met with, or Chapter 171, “chapter of wrapping up (the deceased) in a pure garment;” but these are rare exceptions. On the whole the Book of the Dead differs widely from a Ritual. It is not the priest who speaks, there are no minute prescriptions as to how a ceremony is to be performed; all the prayers and hymns are put in the deceased’s mouth, it is he whose speech is supposed to be heard in the other world.

Todtenbuch, Book of the Dead, is not a translation of the Egyptian title, which is: book of pert m hru. As Renouf says, “Three simple words, perfectly unambiguous when taken singly, but by no means easy of explanation when taken together without a context;” and in fact at the present day no final translation has been given of these three words. Renouf translates, “coming forth by day,” as will be seen in the numerous examples which occur in this volume; but several objections may be raised against this interpretation, to which we should prefer, “coming out of the day,” the day being the period of a man’s life, having its morning and its evening.

The book is divided into fragments called , to each of which Lepsius has given a number, following the order of the great Turin Papyrus, and which he calls chapters. Although his numbering is not quite correct, it has been adhered to in all the subsequent editions.

In his lecture^[3] on the Book of the Dead, Renouf insists on the difficulty of translating it: “Nothing can exceed the simplicity and the brevity of the sentences; and yet the difficulties which a translator has to overcome are very great. In the first place, the text is extremely xixcorrupt. The unsatisfactory condition of the text is owing to different causes. The reasons which writers on Hebrew, Greek or Latin palæography have enumerated for the purpose of accounting for mistakes in manuscripts, apply with much greater force to the funereal manuscripts of the Egyptians; for as these were not intended to be seen by any mortal eye, but to remain for ever undisturbed in the tomb, the unconscientious scribe had no such check upon his carelessness as if his work were liable to be subjected to the constant inspection of the living. But the most conscientious scribe might easily commit numerous errors. Many of them are to be traced to a confusion between signs which resemble each other in the cursive, or as it is called, the hieratic character, but not in hieroglyphic writing.

“Besides the errors of copyists, there are different readings, the origin of which is to be traced to the period during which the chapters were handed down by word of mouth only. There are copies which bear evidence that a critical choice has been made between the different readings of a passage, but the common practice was to admit the inconsistent readings into the text itself....

“Some of the variants have unquestionably arisen from the difficulty of understanding the ancient texts. I have no doubt whatever that some of the chapters of the Book of the Dead were as obscure to Egyptians living under the eleventh dynasty as they are to ourselves.... The most accurate knowledge of the Egyptian vocabulary and grammar will however not suffice to pierce the obscurity arising from what M. de Rougé called symbols or allegories, which are in fact simple mythological allusions. The difficulty is not in literally translating the text, but in understanding the meaning which lies concealed beneath familiar words.”

These words of Renouf have still a very great force, although in the last twenty years some progress has been made towards a better understanding of the text. When Renouf gave the above description of the difficulties of the translation, the main source from which he could derive his information was what he called “the corrupt Turin text.” Since then a critical edition has been made.^[4] It is based on texts of the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties, written at a time when the intelligence of the book was not lost to the same extent as under the Saïtes or the Ptolemies, as may be ascertained from the considerable number of glosses introduced into the Turin text which are absent from the older versions. This edition has been compiled from various papyri, as the older ones are much shorter than the later ones; it is not a single document like Lepsius’s Todtenbuch; most of the chapters have been found in their old form; a few are missing, but a good number have been added to the list which have fallen out of the late versions. Generally it is from this critical text that Renouf made his translation. Occasionally he may choose an older version from a tomb, or perhaps a papyrus of the British Museum, but he hardly ever reverts to the Turin Todtenbuch unless he has no other resource at his disposal.

Nevertheless the difficulties which Renouf enumerates are only partly removed. We are still very far from being able to give a final translation of the Book of the Dead, and I have xxno doubt that Renouf would repeat about his own work what he says of Dr. Birch’s translation, “Many parts of it, where most faithful to the original, must in consequence of that very fidelity be utterly unintelligible to an English reader.”

No doubt Renouf’s translation is a great step towards making the book more intelligible; still the reader may often stumble over sentences out of which it is hardly possible to make a reasonable sense, in spite of their grammatical correctness, and which at first sight will seem childish, not to say, with Renouf, “outrageous nonsense.” But we may say with certainty that they were not so to the old Egyptians. Under this extraordinary or even ridiculous garment may be hidden some very simple, or even elementary truths. Let us remember that we have not yet unravelled all the intricacies of the Egyptian mythology, which plays such an important part in the book. Moreover, we only begin now to understand how the Egyptians expressed abstract ideas. When we speak of passion, shame, remorse, hope, we have so thoroughly lost sight of the concrete element in these words, that we are apt to forget that originally they must have been metaphors, and that they must have expressed something striking the senses, and connected with the material world. An instance will illustrate the difficulty in this translation.

Chapter 112 relates how, owing to an imprudent request, Horus was the victim of Sutu, who inflicted a wound on his eye, which caused him great suffering, and the text adds: , lo! he ate his heart. Renouf translates, “and wrath devoured his heart.” I should prefer, “he regretted sorely (his foolish request).” I believe to eat one’s heart to mean, “to feel regret, repentance, or remorse.” There the abstract meaning is not difficult to find out; but in other cases, as long as we have not discovered the key to the metaphor, we may go far astray, or if we do not go beyond the literal explanation, we miss the abstract sense, which is the true one.

However, because the work will not bear the character of finality, because some obscurities will not be removed, and some difficulties remain unsolved, there is no reason why a scholar like Renouf should have shrunk from attempting the translation of the Book of the Dead, a work which he had before his eyes for years, and which he considered as the crown of his Egyptological labours.

The lecture quoted above gives us Renouf’s ideas as to the purpose and the sense of the book: it is the beatification of the dead considered in three aspects:

The renewed existence “as upon earth.” The deceased enjoys an existence similar to that which he has led upon earth; he has the use of his limbs, he eats and drinks and satisfies every one of his physical wants exactly as in his former life. The gods themselves minister to him occasionally, and contribute to his welfare and to his pleasures. The bliss of the future state consists chiefly in the pleasures of agricultural life.

Transformation. The deceased has the range of the entire universe in every shape and form he desires. He can assume any appearance he likes. But these transformations are not forced upon him; he has no definite series to go through; they depend simply on his pleasure.

xxiIdentification with Osiris and other gods. The identification with Osiris, which is already mentioned in the earliest parts of the book, is taken for granted later on, since the name of the deceased is always preceded by “Osiris.” He may be assimilated to other gods; for instance, in the 42nd chapter every limb is assimilated to a different deity. This Osirian nature gives the deceased the power to triumph over the numerous enemies whom he has to face.

To these three benefits which the book confers on the deceased we should add a fourth: viz., complete preservation from dismemberment and decay. There is evidently in some of the prayers a remembrance of a time when the deceased were dismembered at their burial; and this way of treating the corpse is for the deceased an object of horror. The frequent mention of reconstituting the body, the promises that no part of it shall be taken away, all this shows of what supreme importance it was for him that his body should remain intact. Without a well preserved body there could be no life in the other world; its destruction implies the destruction of the whole individual. This belief is the origin of mummification, for decay is the strongest agent of dismemberment and the certain ruin of the body.

These are the outlines of the principal tenets of the Book of the Dead. If we inquire where they originated, there is no doubt that the bulk of the book came from Heliopolis. It is the doctrine of that ancient city and of its priests. Some of the chapters may be attributed to the priests at Abydos, as M. Maspero suggests; but it seems certain that, except for a small part, the birthplace of the Book of the Dead is the city of Ra Tmu, the place connected with the oldest religious traditions of the country, and which may rightly be called the religious capital of Egypt.

(1)The Beginning of the Chapters of Coming forth by Day, of the (2)Words which bring about Resurrection and Glory, and of Coming out of and entering into Amenta. Said upon the Day of Burial of N, the Victorious,(3) who entereth after coming forth.(4) Here is N the Victorious. He saith—

O (5)Bull of Amenta, It is Thoth, the everlasting King, who is here.

I am the great god in the Bark, who have fought for thee.

I am one of those gods, the (6)Powers who effect the triumph of Osiris over his adversaries on the day of the Weighing of the Words: I am thy kinsman, Osiris.

I am one of those gods to whom Nut hath given birth, who slay the adversaries of Osiris and imprison the (7)Sebau, on his behalf: I am thy kinsman, Horus.

I have fought for thee, and have prevailed for thy name.

I am Thoth who effect the triumph of Osiris over his adversaries on that day of Weighing of the Words in the (8)House of the Prince, which is in Heliopolis.

I am (9)Tatti, the son of Tatti, conceived in Tattu and born in Tattu; and Tattu is my name.

I am with the mourners and weepers who wail over Osiris in (10)Rechit, and who effect the triumph of Osiris over his adversaries.

Rā issued the mandate to Thoth, that he should effect the triumph of Osiris against his adversaries, and the mandate is what Thoth hath executed.

I am with Horus on the day of covering (11)Teshtesh and of opening the fountains for the refreshment of (12)the god whose heart is motionless, and closing the entrance to the hidden things in (13)Restau.

2I am with Horus, as the avenger of that left arm of Osiris which is in (14)Sechem.

I enter in, and I come forth from the (15)Tank of Flame on the day when the adversaries are annihilated at Sechem.

I am with Horus on the day when the festivals of Osiris are celebrated, and when offerings are made [to Rā], on the Feast of the Sixth day of the Month, and on the Feast of Tenait(16) in Heliopolis.

I am the Priest(17) in Tattu and exalt him who is on the Height.(18)

I am the Prophet in Abydos on the day when the earth is raised.

I am he who seeth what is shut up at Restau.(19)

I am he who reciteth the liturgies of the (20)Soul who is Lord of Tattu.

I am the Sem-priest in all that pertaineth to his office.

I am the Arch-Craftsman, on the day in which the Ship of Sokaru is laid upon its stocks.(21)

I am he who seizeth the mattock, on the day of the Feast of Hoeing in Suten-henen.(22)

O ye who bring beneficent souls into the house of Osiris, do ye bring the soul of N together with you into the house of Osiris; let him see as you see, let him hear as youyou hear, let him stand as you stand, and sit as you sit [in the house of Osiris].

O ye who give bread and beer to beneficent souls in the house of Osiris, do you give bread and beer at the two periods to the soul of N who is with you.

O ye who unclose the ways and open the roads to beneficent souls in the house of Osiris, unclose then the ways and open the roads to the soul of N who is with you, let him enter boldly and come forth in peace at the house of Osiris, without hindrance and without repulse. Let him enter at his pleasure and go forth at his will, triumphantly with you; and let that be executed which he shall order in the house of Osiris.

No lightness of his in the scale has been found and the Balance is (23)relieved of his case.

The text taken for the basis of the translation of Chapter I is that of the papyrus of Huneferu; Ag of M. Naville’s edition.

1. The title here translated is that usual in all the papyri representing the third period of the text. It occurs however in the papyrus Ag of Huneferu, who lived in the days of Seti I, at the beginning of the XIXth dynasty. It is also found in the papyrus of Ani. The most common title of Chapter I in the older manuscripts is , “Chapter of coming to the divine Powers attached to Osiris.” These divine Powers are Amsta, Hapi, Tuamautef and Qebehsenuf, the children of Horus, who stand upon the lotus which springs from the water beneath the throne of Osiris, in pictures of the Psychostasia. Chapter 124 bears the same title in the older manuscripts, which sometimes begin with it.

2. . These are two very difficult words, and very different meanings have been assigned to them. But when the entire evidence is examined the result is plain enough. Each of the words has for determinative the sign, , expressive of some kind of utterance. It is a λόγος of some kind has for its first letter the causative . The question therefore is, what are the meanings of the simpler forms , tes, and , ḫu?

The most common, indeed the only true, meaning of is ‘rising,’ and even ‘raising.’ This is too well-known to require proof. is ‘causing to rise.’ The Pyramid text of Teta says (l. 270), “Horus hath given his children that they may raise thee up .” In the same religious text, l. 248, is the rising from the funereal couch after the , the recitations made over the dead.

The ‘raising up’ or ‘resurrection’ here spoken of is said not only of the soul but of the body of the deceased person. The papyrus of Nebseni has preserved two chapters, to which M. Naville has assigned the numbers 177 and 178.

4177. .

Chapter of raising up the Chu, and giving life to the Soul in the Netherworld.

178. .

Chapter of raising up the body, of giving it eyes and the possession of ears, and establishing the head, made firm on its props.

, ḫat, is not simply the body; it is the dead body, that which has fallen, like the Latin cadaver, the Greek πτῶμα, the Hebrew מַפֶלֶח. (See Transactions Soc. Bib. Arch., Vol. VIII, p. 221, note 2.)

The true meaning of ḫu is not ‘luminous’ but ‘clear, distinct, glittering, ‘coruscans,’ and hence ‘bright, splendid, illustrious, glorious,’ and the like. Like the Greek λαμπρός, the Latin clarus, the Hebrew עהל, or the French éclat, it is applied to sound as well as to light. It is said of Thoth (in the wretched orthography^[5] of a tablet of the XIXth dynasty) “he glorified them with the clear utterances of his mouth.” corresponds to the Greek λαμπροφωνία. As a verb is clareo, and is clarifico, glorifico.

5There are, it is true, variants in the title of Chapter 17, giving the form . In spite of the excellent authority of these variants, they must be considered as giving an erroneous reading. The words ‘remember,’ and are different in origin and meaning. The latter signifies ‘confer glory,’ and the are religious formularies recited by priests, identifying the deceased person with Osiris and other divinities. There are numerous pictures in the tombs representing priests performing this office.^[6]

3. M. Déveria has produced excellent evidence showing that maāt-ḫeru has the sense of ‘victorious, triumphant.’ But the sense of véridique is untenable. ḫeru is ‘voice’ not ‘speech.’ In Proceedings S.B.A., Vol. VI, p. 192, note, I have quoted a passage from a chapter (now numbered 181 in M. Naville’s edition) in which signifies ‘want of success, failure.’

maāt ḫeru really signifies “one whose voice is Law.” It is essentially a divine title (see “Altar at Turin,” Transactions, III, pl. II, line 10, appended to Mr. Bonomi’s article), and in no Egyptian text is it used of mortals supposed to be living. The translation “juste de voix,” limits the conception of maāt to one of its secondary acceptations.

semaāt ḫeru is also, and necessarily so, a divine act, that of Thoth; and it is done through his utterances.

4. ȧn in this place as in very many others is not a preposition, still less is it a verb. It is a demonstrative particle, like the Latin en, ecce, or the Hebrew הֵו. Nothing is more common than this particle followed only by a proper name, e.g., on the funereal figures. There is not the slightest reason for supposing that there is an ellipse of the verb ‘saith.’ The particle is used like the corresponding Latin one under the Scottish picture of Edward I—

When I translate , “It is Thoth—who is here,” I do not wish to imply that is the verb to be, any more than I should in the frequent expression “It is his son who revives his name.” is a demonstrative particle and nothing else.

Instead of looking out for moods and tenses and paradigms, Egyptologists ought to wake to the consciousness that the Egyptians never rose to the conception of what we mean by a verb.

65. The Bull of Amenta is Osiris. Bull, like Lion or Hawk, was one of the figurative names of gods or kings, and Osiris is sometimes represented with a Bull’s head.

6. T’at’at. This word is often wrongly translated ‘judges.’ The divine judges are called t’at’at, but the proposition is not simply convertible. There were the not only of Osiris, but (Todt., 22, 2) also of every god and every goddess. And all the ancient towns of Egypt had their divine . It is a term used (cf. p. 55) as exactly synonymous with . In a mythological system like the Egyptian no god stood alone; every god involved others in close connection with himself, and every act of his necessitated corresponding acts on their part.

7. The sebȧu are the enemies of the Sun, either as Rā or Osiris. I believe that under this mythological name the dark clouds are personified.

8. Het Saru, ‘House of the Prince,’ is the name of the great Sanctuary at Heliopolis. It must be remembered however that many of the geographical localities named in the Book of the Dead have their counterparts in the Egyptian heaven.

9. or , the ‘firm, stable, unalterable, abiding, eternal one,’ whose origin and progress are in eternity. The city or has a name like the Palestinian עַוָֹה, Gazah, the ‘strong’ city, and many other Hebrew names connected with the root עזז.

710. Rechit, a locality in the north of Egypt. The mourners and weepers alluded to are chiefly Isis and Nephthys.

11. Teshtesh is one of the names of Osiris; perhaps, as might be inferred from a text at Dendera, of his molten image.

12. The god “whose heart is motionless” is Osiris.

13. Re-stau, one of the gates of the Netherworld. Its situation is specified in Chapter 17, line 19.

14. Sechem. Letopolis, where the arm of Osiris had been deposited, when the other limbs of the god were dispersed throughout the cities of Egypt.

15. The Tank of Flame, as may be inferred from the vignettes of the papyri, is where the sun rises or sets. Cf., Unas, 393, 506.

16. Tenait. Feast of the seventh day of the month.

17. The speaker now assumes the persons of various priests in succession, the āb, the ḥen nutȧr (prophet), the sem, and the ura ḫerp ḥem;^[7] and he describes himself as performing certain religious ceremonies. It must never be forgotten when reading these texts that the Egyptian priests had divine titles, and that their ceremonies were dramatic, and symbolical of the acts performed by the gods.

18. The text here is hopelessly corrupt. The translation given follows Ag.

Instead of exalt, several MSS. have , which has been rendered anoint with oil. One might translate the Turin text, “I lustrate with water in Tattu and with oil in Abydos, exalting him who is in the heights (in excelsis),” for this text combines different readings. But , as it is written, may have another meaning. beq, signifies ‘clear, bright, shining,’ and the olive tree derives its name from this. The determinative 8 and the causative furnish the sense, ‘I make bright, illustrious, glorious,’ ‘I celebrate or glorify.’ ‘He is who on the height’ (= עליון) is, according to Chapter 17, the Sun.

19. This is perhaps supposed to be said by the priest called , the ‘Arch-seer,’ at Heliopolis.

20. One of the designations of Osiris. Perhaps the word Ba should be translated Ram, for in the Mendesian Nome Osiris was worshipped under this form, and was called ḣeru šefit, ‘god of the strong face.’ The fact is that whether applied to the soul or to a ram, the word ba is expressive of ‘power, force.’ The same word under the form is used in Chapter 120, 2 (= 12, 2) in the sense of ‘splitting up.’ And this is clearly the Egyptian concept of the soul—‘the internal force, that which works within us,’ τὸ ἐνεργοῦν.

The word is ideographically written or ,^[8] both the Ram and the cranelike bird being called ba. Some have cleverly inferred that the Egyptians thought that the soul was of a birdlike form, and others have not hesitated to consider ba as expressive of the cry of the ram. The odd thing is that only the ram has this name, not the sheep or the lamb, who nevertheless indulge in the same cry. The truth is that in spite of appearances the word ba is not onomatopoeic here. Whether applied to the ram or to the heron, the word is expressive of human action and signifies ‘digging through, cleaving, piercing, splitting.’ The hieroglyphic variants are very expressive: , , , , , (the last is already found in Denkm. II, 51).

The Ram is called in Egyptian ba on account of the digs which he makes with his head, and a force which has occasioned the name of ‘ram’ to be given to powerful engines.

9The Heron is also called ba because with its bill it cleaves the fishes which it attacks.

And the word which we translate Soul or Spirit is called ba, because it is conceived as something which ‘pierces, penetrates and divides.’

It is right to point out (to those who may wonder at this Egyptian etymology) that the Latin scio ‘I know’ is etymologically akin to seco ‘cut,’ securis ‘an axe,’ and the Greek κείω, κεάζω ‘split, cleave.’

21. The sem, and the urȧ ḫerp ḥem, were priests in the service of Ptah. The latter, who held perhaps the highest sacerdotal office in Egypt, as high priest of Ptah at Memphis, is repeatedly found combining with his own special office that of the sem. The ceremony which is here referred to consisted in a grand procession round the walls of the great sanctuary of Ptah, conveying upon a sledge the bark in which the coffin of the god was supposed to rest. Sokaru signifies ‘the coffined,’ and Ptah Sokaru is only a form of Osiris. Abundant details of the ceremony will be found in the plates of M. Mariette’s Abydos, I, pl. 36 and following. The king Seti I is represented as a Sem priest presiding at the festival.

22. Suten-ḥenen was called by the Greeks Heracleopolis.

23. Or ‘rid of his business.’ The word sep, ‘turn,’ has the different significations of the Latin ‘vices.’

In the later recensions this chapter is lengthened out by other petitions. The deceased asks, among other things, to appear “before thee, O Lord of the gods, to attain the region of Maāt, may I rise up a living god, let me shine like the divine host which is in heaven, let me be as one of you. Let my steps be lifted up in Cher-ābaut. Let me see the ship^[9] of the holy Sahu [Orion], traversing the sky; let me not be prevented from seeing the lords of the Tuat [the Netherworld], smelling the fragrance of the sacrificial 10offerings made to the divine host, and sitting with them. Let the Cher-heb [the priestly ministrant] make invocation over my coffin. Let me hear the prayers of propitiation. Let the divine ship Neshemet advance for me, let not my soul and its possessor suffer repulse.”

An invocation to Osiris follows.

“Hail to thee, Prince of Amenta, Osiris, lord of Nifura; grant that I may advance in peace towards Amenta, and that the Lords of Tasert may receive me and say to me, ‘Salutation! Salutation! in Peace!’ let them make for me a seat by the Prince of the divine Powers, let the two Chenemta goddesses [Isis and Nephthys] receive me, in presence of Unneferu, the Victorious. Let me be a follower of Horus in Re-stau, and of Osiris in Tattu. Let me assume all forms for the satisfaction of my heart in every place that my Genius [Ka] wisheth.”

The following rubric is found as early as the XIXth dynasty in connection with this chapter, but it seems to have originally been attached to Chapter 72.

“If this discourse is learnt upon earth, or is written upon the coffin, he (the deceased) may come forth upon every day that he pleaseth and again enter his house without impediment. And there shall be given to him bread and beer and flesh meat upon the table of Râ: he shall receive allotment in the Fields of Aarru [the Elysian fields of Egyptian mythology], and there shall be given to him there wheat and barley, for he shall be flourishing as when he was upon earth.”

Chapter 1 is followed in M. Naville’s edition by another, which the learned editor calls 1 B. This chapter is found in so very few copies that the text cannot as yet be restored. The two texts published by M. Naville differ widely from each other. It was known however down to the Roman period, though not inserted into copies of the Book of the Dead.

It is called Chapter of introducing the Mummy into the Tuat on the day of burial. The 124th chapter bears a similar title. The word here translated mummy is probably not to be understood of the visible mummy, but of the living personality which it enclosed. The chapter opens with an invocation, “Hail to thee, who art in the sacred region of Amenta, the Osiris, [the deceased] knows thee and thy name, defend him from those Worms which are in Restau, 11who live upon the flesh of men and swallow their blood.” The names of the Worms were given, but in consequence of the gaps in the text they cannot now be recovered. The chapter finished with prayers in which the deceased identifies himself with Horus, who has taken possession of the throne which his father has given him; he has taken possession of heaven, and inherited the earth, and neither heaven nor earth shall be taken from him, for he is Râ, the eldest of the gods. His mother suckles him and offers him her breast, which is on the horizon at Dawn.

VIGNETTE TO CHAPTER IX.

Oh thou Only One,(1) who shinest from the Moon, let me come forth amid that train(2) of thine, at large,(3) and let me be revealed(4) as one of those in glory.(5)

And when the Tuat is opened to the gods, let N come forth to do his pleasure upon earth amid the Living.

This chapter occurs in only two of the ancient MSS. collated by Naville: Ae and Pf. It is also found in the papyrus of Ani.

1. ‘unicus,’ the Sole and Only One, is one of the many appellatives of the Sun. He is here represented as shining in or from the Moon. Cf. note on Chapter 132.

122. , ‘multitude, throng, train,’ here put for the ‘heavenly host,’ the ἄκριτος ἄστρων ὄχλος (Euripid., Fr. 596), or the Hebrew עבא חשׁמים.

Osiris is , ‘the leader of the host,’ Sharpe, I, 105.

3. , אל־מהוץ, foras, ‘forth, out of doors, at large,’ in opposition to enclosure in the tomb.

4. , explicare, ‘disclose, unfold, reveal, make clear.’

5. Or ‘among the Glorious ones,’ .

Oh Tmu, who proceedest from Ur-henhenu,(1) who art resplendent as the Lion-faced,(2) and who strewest thy words to those who are before thee;

Here cometh the faithful N, from the band of those who do the bidding of thy words.

O ye seamen of Râ at the gloaming of the day, let N live after death, like Râ daily.

Here the helmsman: As Râ is born from Yesterday, so he too is born from Yesterday, and as every god exulteth in life, so shall N exult even as they exult in life.

I am Thoth as he goeth forth from the House of the Prince in Heliopolis.(3)

The only ancient copy of this chapter is in the papyrus of Amen-neb (Ae), and here it is imperfect.

1. A personification of the Nile, . The later texts read ‘the great goddess in the Water.’

132. The later texts have , implying the two lions Shu and Tefnut. But the older texts have , a single god, with a lion’s face or form. The two notions, however, are found in combination in the Pyramid texts of Unas (l. 558) and Teta (l. 332).

3. See note 8 on Chapter 1.

It is I who travel on the Stream(1) which divideth the divine Pair,(2) I am come, let there be given to me the lands of Osiris.

This fourth chapter has not as yet been found in any of the papyri of the best period.

1. , literally ‘weeping,’ ‘flood of tears,’ hence ‘overflow, inundation, stream or canal.’ It is one of the names of the Nile on earth and in heaven and of his personification as a god. See Chapter 61, and P.S.B.A., XIII, p. 8 and 9.]

2. or are two divinities in opposition or contrast, like Set and Horus (Chapter 17, 25) or the sister goddesses named Mertȧ (37, 1). Thoth is the umpire between Set and Horus (Darkness and Light) and mediates between them, but he and Râ (the Moon and Sun) are (Teta, l. 69) spoken of as the two Rehu gods travelling over the sky.]

Here is N. He saith, I am he who raiseth the hand which is motionless, and I come forth at the hour.(2) I am the living Soul,(3) and there go before me the longings(4) of those who bring salutation.(5)

This chapter is found in several of the best MSS., but the text is extremely corrupt, and must have become absolutely unintelligible. The Turin text differs greatly from that of the older copies, and the transposition of words clearly shows how little the transcribers understood what they were writing. I follow chiefly the text of Aa, the papyrus of Nebseni.

1. These words only occur in the later copies.

2. is the older reading, but seems to be the more correct.

3. The oldest text must have had simply the ideographic , Ae gives Ba, but Pd has Ḫnemu. The ‘living Soul’ is that of the Sun, whether he is called Râ or Osiris.

4. ‘Desires, wishes, loves,’ literally, ‘hearts.’

5. signifies ‘salute,’ as in Chapter 12, 1, and 14, 1, and , (with various other forms) the ‘saluter,’ is the name of the Ape who is seen in the vignettes of the papyri saluting the rising of the sun. See M. Naville’s Todtenbuch, I, plates 21 and 22; the Papyrus of Ani, plate 2; the Todtenbuch of Lepsius, Chapters 16 and 126.

I do not know how far it is correct to illustrate this undoubted origin of the Egyptian name for the Ape, as ‘the saluting one,’ by the following extract of a letter to Cuvier from M. Duvaucelle, about the Siamang apes in the neighbourhood of Bencoolen in Sumatra. “They assemble in numerous troops ... and thus united, they salute the rising and the setting sun with the most terrific cries, which may be heard at the distance of many miles; and which, when near, stun, when they do not frighten. This is the morning call of the mountain Malays, but to the inhabitants of the town, who are unaccustomed to it, it is a most insupportable annoyance.”

In this place of the Book of the Dead the sign is a mere determinative of the sound aān with the notion of salutation, just as the sign is a determinative of the sound ȧb with the notion of thirst.

15The ‘saluters’ of the rising sun are neither real apes nor men but the “Spirits of the East” who, as we are told in an inscription of the tomb of Rameses VI, “effect the rising of Râ by opening the door at each of the four portals of the eastern horizon of heaven. They it is who light him on both sides, and go forth in advance of him.... And when he arises they turn into six cynocephali.”^[10]

The Egyptian words in the later texts are the alternative reading being itself a proof that the difficulty of the text was already felt by some Egyptian scribe.

But if the scribe had consulted the oldest texts accessible in his day, he would probably have seen another way out. Our oldest MS., that of Nebseni, reads, bes-kuȧ ȧbu ȧāā(n)u, which signify literally, “antecedunt me corda salutantium.” The word bes is a very common one in pictures representing the introduction of a king or a god into a temple. It is the technical term used in the Tablet of Canopus for the inducting, by the king, of priests into their offices. The subject of this verb is hearts; an independent word, instead of being the mere determinative of . The object of the verb is the speaker——kuȧ, ‘me,’ as the papyrus Pa reads, like Aa. And it is easy to see how the later text, which is already found in Ax, has been corrupted out of the older.

O Statuette(1) there! Should I be called and appointed to do any of the labours that are done in the Netherworld by a person according to his abilities, lo! all obstacles have been beaten down 16for thee; be thou counted for me at every moment, for planting the fields, for watering the soil, for conveying the sands of east and west.

Here am I, whithersoever thou callest me.

1. This chapter is inscribed on the funereal statuettes, of which enormous quantities are found; sometimes by hundreds in the neighbourhood of a single mummy. Much information on the subject, both archæological and philological, will be found in Mariette’s Catalogue Général des Monuments d’Abydos, p. 25 and following, and in M. Loret’s articles “Les Statuettes funéraires du Musée de Boulaq,” published in the Recueil de Travaux, tomes IV and V.

In the earlier texts , , ; in the later . The latter word being read ušebti, has very naturally been considered as derived from , in Coptic ⲟⲩⲱϣⲃ, ‘to answer.’ For the statuette is addressed at the beginning of the chapter, and it replies at the end. But there is no reason for supposing that the earlier form had the same meaning.

Oh, One of Wax,(1) who takest captive and seizest with violence, and livest upon those who are motionless! Let me not become motionless before thee, let me not be paralysed before thee, let not thy venoms enter into my limbs, for my limbs are the limbs of Tmu.

And if thou wouldst not be paralysed, let me not be paralysed.

Let not thy languors enter these limbs of mine.

I am the One who presideth over the pole of Heaven, and the powers of all the gods are my powers.

I am he, whose names are hidden, and whose abodes are mysterious for all eternity.

It is I who proceed from Tmu, and I am safe and sound.(2)

Apepi is the personification of the storm-cloud and, as such, is the enemy of Râ, by whom he is vanquished. As representing a natural phenomenon of irregular occurrence, he is not deified like Sutu, the Darkness of Night.

On comparing this chapter with the 99th, it would appear that the occasion for reciting it is on the journey of the heavenly boat through ridges of cloud, which are pictured as the coils of a great serpent, and described as inanes, empty, void. In the papyrus of Nebket (Pe) the vignette shows the deceased person transfixing the dragon. The chapter itself was said over a wax figure of the demon.

1. These wax figures of gods and other personages were used not only for ritual but for unlawful magical purposes. The Rollin papyrus reports about a criminal condemned to death for magical arts. He was charged with making ‘gods of wax,’ and some men “for the purpose of paralysing the limbs of men .” See Chabas, Papyrus Magique, p. 170, and Devéria, Pap. judiciaire de Turin, p. 131.

2. The more recent texts omit this ending and substitute, “I know, I know.” Some MSS. have both readings.

The Hour(1) discloseth what the head of Thoth keepeth close, who giveth might to the Eye of Horus.(2)

And I call upon the Eye of Horus which gleams as an ornament upon the brow of Râ, the father of the gods.

I am that Osiris, the Lord of Amenta, and Osiris knoweth his day, and that it is in his lot that he should end his being, and be no more.(3)

I am Sutu, the father of the gods, the imperishable one.

Stay, Horus, for he is counted among the gods.

1. Time.

2. See note on Chapter 17, 27. It must be sufficient here to say that Thoth is a personification of the moon, and that the relations of solar and lunar phenomena are the sources of a great deal of Egyptian mythology.

3. This is one of the most difficult passages in the Book of the Dead, but I do not see how it can be grammatically understood otherwise. It is understood from the passage from Light to Darkness and the converse.

‘In his lot,’ literally ‘in him.’

‘End his being’: more strictly, ‘bring to an end his activity’; . ‘Being’ (though inevitable in a modern language) is much too abstract a word for these ancient texts. implies ‘motion, activity,’ and is not a simple negation, but implies ‘completion, end’ (τελέω, τέλος), though not ‘cessation.’

Our modern acceptation of the word ‘perfect’ is often wrongly applied to . We should think rather of such phrases as ‘annum perficere,’ ‘sole perfecto.’

O Soul most mighty,(1) here am I: I am come to thee that I may see thee.

I open the Tuat that I may see my father Osiris and may drive away the darkness.

I am he whom he loveth. I have come to see my father Osiris, to pierce the heart of Sutu, and to perform all duties to my father Osiris.

I open all the paths in heaven and upon earth.

I am the son who loveth his father, and I am come as a mummied one, glorious and well equipt.

Oh, all ye gods and goddesses, the path is made for me.

1. ‘Soul most mighty,’ is one of the principal names of Osiris. The whole chapter is spoken in the person of Horus, the son of Osiris.

I come forth victoriously against the adversaries.

I cleave the heaven, I open the horizon and I travel over the earth on foot. There come forward to me the Glorious and the Great ones, for I am furnished with numberless Words of Might.

I eat with my mouth, and I chew with my jaw; for, lo, I worship the god who is Lord of the Tuat, and that is given to me which endureth amid overthrow.

Here is the Osiris N.

O Eater of his arm: away from his path!

I am Râ coming forth from the horizon against his adversary, who shall not be delivered from me.

I have stretched out my hand, as the Lord of the Crown, and lifted my feet.

I shall not be given up; my adversary shall fall before me; he hath been given up to me and shall not be delivered from me.

I rise up like Horus, I sit down as Ptah, I am victorious as Thoth, and powerful as Tmu: I walk upon my feet, I speak with my mouth, searching for him who hath been given up to me; he shall not be delivered from me.

There is unfortunately no early text of this chapter, which we have in a very corrupt form, and can only restore conjecturally. The Eater of his arm is evidently Darkness, which is destroyed by the Sun.

Salutation to thee, O Râ, who guardest the secrets of the gates(1) over this domain of Seb, and this Balance with which Râ raiseth up Maât (2) daily:

Here am I, who cleave open(3) the earth, grant that I may come and acquire advance in age.(4)

This chapter, like the next, occurs only in Pa among the older MSS. It comes twice in the Turin copy, being repeated as Chapter 120.

1. So Pa; the Turin copy has ‘the Tuat.’

2. In many places it is important to treat Maât as a proper name.

3. or , a word not confined to agricultural operations. See note 20, p. 8.

4. As the sun, who is represented as an infant at dawn and as an aged man at sunset.

I enter as a Hawk and come forth as a Bennu(1) at Dawn.

Let the way be made for me that I may adore Râ at the fair Amenta, and the locks(2) of Osiris. I urge on the hounds of Horus.

Let the way be made for me that I may adore Osiris, the Lord of Life.

This chapter, in the MSS. of which the Turin copy is the type, is repeated as Chapter 121, with the following rubric:—

“Said over an ear-ring of the flower Ânch-amu, put upon the right ear of the deceased person, with another ear-ring, put in fine linen, upon which is written the name of N, on the day of burial.”

1. The Bennu is a bird of the Heron kind. He is very commonly but, I think, erroneously identified with the Phoenix. The bird described by Herodotus, II, 73, was in outline and size “very like an eagle,” which no one could say of the Bennu. He appeared only once in five hundred years, whereas the Bennu appeared every day. The fable as told by the Greeks is utterly unsupported by any Egyptian authority known to us.

2. This passage is, unfortunately, both in the ancient and the recent forms, corrupt.

Hail to thee, oh god who sendest forth(1) the Moment, who presidest over all the Secret things(2), and protectest the utterance of my words.

Here(3) is a god displeased against me; let wrong be overwhelmed and let it fall upon the hands of the Lord of Law. Remove(4) the impediments which are in me and the evil and the darkness(5), oh Lord of Law, and let that god be reconciled to me, removing that which detaineth me from thee.

Oh, lord of offerings in Kenu(6), let me offer to thee the propitiary offering by which thou livest, and let me live by it and be reconciled.

Let all the displeasure which is in thy heart against me be removed.

There is a very great difference between the earlier and the later texts of this chapter. Former translators, having chiefly the Turin 22text before them, have understood the title of the chapter as intended “to remove the impurities from the heart of the deceased person.” The Turin text of the chapter is really unintelligible, and even in the earlier texts certain passages are so corrupt as to defy translation.

1. like the Latin ‘mittere’ has the sense of “let go, give free course, set at liberty.”

2. , the secrets, here as elsewhere in the funereal texts, are those of the tomb and of the world beyond the grave.

3. The older texts have , the later, .

4. The Lord of Law is in the singular, but the imperative ‘remove’ is in the plural.

5. The word was a puzzle to the oldest transcribers. It is susceptible of different meanings. The Turin text ‘the god is joined with Law,’ which is supported by some of the older papyri, is intelligible in itself, but not in this context. I have understood , coming as it does after , in the sense of ‘deep darkness.’

6. The MSS. differ hopelessly on this proper name.

Here is the Osiris N, the Victorious, and he saith:—

O thou radiant Orb, who arisest each day from the Horizon, shine thou upon the face of the Osiris N who adoreth thee at dawn, and propitiateth thee at the gloaming.

Let the soul of N come forth with thee into heaven, let him journey in the Mââtit boat and finish his course in the Sektit boat(2) till he reach in heaven unto the Stars which set(3).

23He saith, as he invoketh his Lord, the Eternal one:—

Hail to thee, Horus of the Two Horizons(4), who art Chepera Self-originating(5); Beautiful is thy rising up from the horizon, enlightening the two Earths with thy rays. All the gods are in exultation when they see thee the King of Heaven, with the Nebt Unnut^[11] established upon thy head (and the diadem of the South and the diadem of the North upon thy brow) which maketh her abode in front of thee.

Thoth abideth at the prow of thy bark that he may destroy all thine adversaries.

They who dwell in the Tuat are coming forth to meet thy Majesty, and to gaze upon that beautiful semblance of thine.

And I too come to thee that I may be with thee to see thine Orb each day; let me not be detained, let me not be repulsed.

Let my limbs be renewed by the contemplation of thy glories, like all thy servants, for I am one of those who honoured thee upon earth.

Let me reach the Land of Ages, let me gain the Land of Eternity; for thou, my Lord, hast destined them for me.

The Osiris N; he saith:—

Hail to thee who risest up from the Horizon as Râ in union with Maāt; thou dost traverse heaven in peace and all men see thee as thou goest forward. And after being concealed from them thou presentest thyself at the dawn of each day.

Brisk is the bark under thy Majesty.

Thy rays are upon men’s faces; the golden glories they cannot be told: not to be described are thy beams.

The Lands of the gods, the colours of Punit(6) are seen in them; that men may form an estimate of that which is hidden from their faces.

Alone art thou when thy form riseth up upon the Sky; let me advance as thou advancest, like thy Majesty, without a pause, O Râ, whom none can outstrip.

A mighty march is thine; Leagues by millions, and hundreds of thousands, in a small moment thou hast travelled them, and thou goest to rest.

24Thou completest the hours of the Night, according as thou hast measured them out. And when thou hast completed them according to thy rule, day dawneth.

Thou presentest thyself at thy place as Râ, as thou risest from the Horizon.

The Osiris N, he saith, as he adoreth thee when thou shinest; He saith to thee when thou risest up at dawn, as he exalteth thine appearance;

Thou comest forth, most glorious one, fashioning and forming thy limbs, giving birth to them without any labour, as Râ rising in heaven.

Grant that I may attain to the Heaven of eternity and the abode of thy servants; let me be united with the venerable and mighty Chu^[12] of the Netherworld; let me come forth with them to see thy glories, as thou shinest at the gloaming, when thy mother Nut(7) enfoldeth thee.

And when thou turnest thy face to the West, mine hands are in adoration to thy setting as one who liveth;^[13] for it is thou who hast created Eternity.

I have set thee in my heart unceasingly, who art more mighty than all the gods.

The Osiris N, he saith:—

Adoration to thee, who arisest out of the Golden, and givest light to the earth on the day of thy birth. Thy mother bringeth thee forth upon her hands, that thou mayest give light to the whole circumference which the Solar Orb enlighteneth.

Mighty Enlightener, who risest up in the Sky and raisest up the tribes of men by thy Stream, and givest holiday to all districts, towns and temples; and raising food, nourishment and dainties.

Most Mighty one, master of masters, who defendest every abode of thine against wrong, Most Glorious one in thine Evening Bark, Most Illustrious in thy Morning Bark.

Glorify thou the Osiris N in the Netherworld, grant that he may come into Amenta without defect and free from wrong, and set him among the faithful and venerable ones.

25Let him be united with the souls in the Netherworld, let him sail about in the country of Aarru^[14] after a joyful journey.

Here is the Osiris N.

Come forth into Heaven, sail across the firmament and enter into brotherhood with the Stars, let salutation be made to thee in the Bark, let invocation be made to thee in the Morning Bark. Contemplate Râ within his Ark and do thou propitiate his Orb daily. See the Ant fish in its birth from the emerald stream, and see the Abtu fish and its rotations.(8)

And let the offender^[15] fall prostrate, when he meditates destruction for me, by blows upon his back-bone.

Râ springs forth with a fair wind; the Evening Bark speeds on and reaches the Haven; the crew of Râ are in exultation when they look upon him; the Mistress of Life, her heart is delighted at the overthrow of the adversary of her Lord.

See thou Horus at the Look-out of the ship,(9) and at his sides Thoth and Maāt. All the gods are in exultation when they behold Râ coming in peace to give new life to the hearts of the Chu, and here is the Osiris N along with them.

[Litany.](10)

[Each invocation of this Litany is followed by]

Give thou delicious breezes of the north wind to the Osiris N.

Horus openeth; the Great, the Mighty, who divideth the earths, the great one who resteth in the Mountain of the West, and lighteneth up the Tuat with his glories and the Souls in their hidden abode, by shining into their sepulchres.

By hurling harm against the foe thou hast utterly destroyed all the adversaries of the Osiris N.

Hymn II.(13)

The Osiris N; he saith when he adoreth Râ, the Horus of the Two Horizons, when setting in the Land of Life.

Adoration to thee, O Râ; Adoration to thee, O Tmu, at thy coming in thy beauty, in thy manifestation, in thy mastery.

Thou sailest over the Heaven, thou travellest over earth and in splendour thou reachest the zenith; the two divisions of Heaven are in obeisance to thee, and yield adoration to thee.

All the gods of Amenta are in exultation at thy glory. They whose abodes are hidden adore thee, and the Great Ones make offerings to thee, who for thee have created the soil of earth.(14)

They who are on the Horizon convey thee, and they who are in the Evening Bark transport thee, and they say—Adoration at the approach of thy Majesty, Come, Come, approach in peace, Oh to thee, Welcome, Lord of Heaven, King of Akerta.

Thy mother Isis(15) embraceth thee, seeing in thee her son, as the Lord of Terror, the All-Powerful, as he setteth in the Land of Life at night.

Thy father Tatunen(16) carrieth thee, and his arms are stretched out behind thee, and that which hath taken place is made last upon earth.

27Wake up from thy rest, thine abode is in Manu.

Let me be entrusted to the fidelity which is yielded to Osiris.

Come, O Râ, Tmu, be thou adored. Do thy will daily. Grant success in presence of the cycle of the mighty gods.

Beautiful art thou, O Râ, in thine Horizon of the West; O Lord of Law, in the midst of the Horizon.

Very terrible art thou, rich art thou in attributes, and great is thy love to those who dwell in the Tuat.

To be said, when Râ sets in the Land of Life; with hands bent downward.(17)

Hymn III.(18)

The Osiris N; he saith:—

Adoration to Tmu as he setteth in the Land of Life.

The Osiris N; he saith, adoring Tmu, when setting in the Land of Life and shedding his rays on the Tuat;

Hail to thee setting in the Land of Life, O Father of the gods, thou art united to thy mother in Manu. Her two hands receive thee daily. Thy Majesty hath part in the house of Sokaru. Exult thou because the doors are opened of the Horizon, at thy setting in the Mountain of the West.

Thy rays, they run over the earth to enlighten the dwellers in Amenta. Those who are in the Tuat worship thee with loud acclaim, and cherish hope when they see thee daily.

Thou grantest to the gods to sit upon the earth; to those, namely, who follow thee and come in thy train.

O august Soul, who begettest the gods, and dost invest them with thine attributes; the Unknowable, the Ancient One, the Mighty in thy mystery.

Be thy fair face propitious to the Osiris N, oh Chepera, Father of the gods(19).

Freedom for ever from perdition is derived through this Book, and upon it I take my firm stand.

28He hath written it who spake it, and his heart resteth on the reward.

Let there be given me armfuls of bread and drink, and let me be accompanied by this Book after my life.

The fifteenth chapter as it stands in the later recension (represented by the Turin Todtenbuch) is of very recent origin. It is in fact a collection of texts originally independent of each other; (1) a hymn to Râ at his rising, (2) a litany, (3) a hymn to Râ at his setting, (4) a hymn to Tmu at his setting, followed by a statement respecting the spiritual importance of the document.

Of the last hymn there are no copies of ancient date, but the other three compositions are found more or less perfect as far back as the XIXth dynasty. The discrepancies, however, between the ancient texts furnish so much evidence of free composition on the part of the scribes, that it is impossible to suppose that they had before them documents recognised as sacred and canonical. M. Naville has found it necessary to publish four different forms of the hymn to the rising, and three of the hymn to the setting sun. The ideas and expressions throughout these hymns are current in the religious texts of the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties.

In the translation here given I have followed the form adopted by the later recension, correcting the text when necessary by the copies written in the better periods.

1. The text of the Papyrus of Ani has been taken as the basis of the translation of Hymn I. It is the only ancient text which gives the hymn in the form subsequently acknowledged as canonical.

2. The sun was represented from the earliest period, as we may see in the pyramid texts, as performing his celestial journey in a boat, which during the morning was called the Māāṭit and in the evening the Sektit .

3. The stars which set were called the ȧḫmiu ureṭu. The stars which never set, but are always above the horizon were called ȧḫmiu seku. 29The word ȧḫmiu has often been taken for a mere negative, but it occurs by itself with the sign of stars as a determinative , . And the whole term is written (Denkm. III. 271d twice).

As one of the meanings of ḫem is minuere, and as the ordinary meaning of the Demotic is “small,” like the Coptic ϣⲟⲙ = λεπτὸς, it is not improbable that the stars received this appellation on account of their tiny size as compared with the Sun and Moon. They were what Horace called the “ignes minores.”

The Sun and Moon, as we all know, are called in Gen. i, 16, the “Two Great Lights.”

4. Both the Eastern and the Western horizon are mentioned in this chapter, but “Horus of the Two Horizons,” has no reference to this distinction. Whatever the Sun passes through or over is always conceived as double. The Two Earths imply simply the Earth as divided by the passage of the Sun above it. It is to M. Grébaut that we are indebted for the discovery of this important key to many Egyptian expressions.

5. ḫeper, like the German Werden, has primarily the sense of turning, hence of becoming. It never has the sense of creating. ḫeper t’esef is the equivalent of the Greek αὐτογενής, like that word is sometimes used for spontaneous productions of the mineral kingdom, as salt or natron as contrasted with artificial products of the same nature. It cannot be used for plants, as they have an origin in something external to themselves.

6. The Land of the Gods and Punit are the countries lying east of Egypt. When it is said that gods ‘come from Punit,’ it is not meant by this that they are of Arabian origin, but simply that Sun, Moon, and Stars, and Daylight rise in the East. “Ex oriente Lux.”

7. In many places the divine name Nut has for determinative the sign . Is this an oversight on the part of the scribe, or is it one more proof that the Egyptians certainly believed in a sky below the horizon? If so, I have never seen it misplaced.

308. The Ant and the Abṭu are sometimes represented by the side of the solar bark. From the egg of the Abṭu there rises the great Cat, the Sun. It is, as M. Loret has proved, the Tortoise of the Nile. As ȧbṭu, ‘the month,’ is phonetically homonymous with ȧbṭu, the Tortoise, and that the latter is characterised by , , ‘its rotation, revolving or turning,’ the word ȧbṭu, whether applied to ‘month’ or ‘tortoise’ clearly signifies ‘the revolving one.’ Our modern words Tortoise, Tortue, Tortuga, rather express the turning or twisting of the creature’s feet. In some texts, e.g., the inscriptions of Amenhotep, the son of Hapu, Mariette, Karnak, pl. 36, line 22, and at the beginning of the Ani Papyrus, the word is written abtu. In the later part of the Ani Papyrus it is written with the initial .

9. The Look-out of the ship, in Egyptian , or more fully nefrit, is written in the Papyrus of Ani. This interesting variant is of extreme value. It not only explains a word, the very existence of which has been called in question, but tells us the Egyptian name for that seat of Horus at the prow of the Solar Bark about which I wrote a note in Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch. of Nov. 3, 1891. See the plates attached to the note, and the corresponding vignettes in Todtenbuch, Pl. VI and IX.

10. The Litany here translated is that of the Turin Todtenbuch. It is found, but in a very mutilated condition, in the Papyrus of Nechtuamon at Berlin (Ba), a manuscript of the XIXth dynasty.

Another Litany, preceding Hymn I, is found in the Papyrus of Ani. It is addressed to “Osiris, the everlasting Lord, Unneferu, Horus of the Two Horizons, of many forms and mighty of attributes. Ptah Sakru, Tmu in Heliopolis, Lord of the Unseen World, who hath built up Memphis and its gods.”

31“Hail to thee, Chabasu^[16] in Heliopolis, Hammemit in Cher-âbau, and Unta^[17] more potent than the unseen gods in Heliopolis.

Hail to thee, An in An ... Horus in the Two Horizons, who extendeth his steps and traverseth the Heaven; he is Horchuta;

Hail to thee, eternal Soul, Soul which is in Tattu, Unneferu, Son of Nut; he is Lord of Acherta;

Hail to thee, as thou reignest in Tattu, the royal crown is fixed upon thy brow. Thou art the Only One, the author of his own attributes, thou restest in Tattu;

Hail to thee, Lord of Heracleopolis, for whom the Bark of Sokru is placed upon its sledge; who repellest the Sebau, the doers of wrong; and who puttest the Ut’at into its place;

Hail to thee, Potent One, at thine appointed moment, Most Mighty One, Prince of An-arr-ef, Eternal Lord, author of eternity, Thou art the Lord of Suten-henen;

Hail to thee, who restest upon Maāt; Thou art the Lord of Abydos, thy limbs reach to Ta-tsert; Thou art he who abominatest wrong;

Hail to thee, in the midst of thy Bark, who bringest the Nile from his fountain; upon whose dead body the light shineth; he is the One who is in Nechen;

Hail to thee, author of the gods, King of North and South, Osiris, the triumphant one, possessing the entire universe in his beneficent alternations; He is the Lord of the Universe;

Grant me passage in peace. I am righteous, I speak not falsehood knowingly, I am not guilty of duplicity.”

3211. ‘the Land of Life,’ one of the names given to the realm of Osiris after death, is not, as far as I can discover, mentioned anywhere in the earlier MSS. of the Book of the Dead.

Instead of “resting in the Land of Life,” the older texts have ‘in Amenta’ or ‘in life in Amenta,’ or as ‘one living, in Amenta.’

12. . The word pat implies going round like a wheel or in a circle; ‘going round on high with the Sun.’ Hence the use of it as synonymous with , in the expressions = ‘never’ and = ‘the first time, the beginning of time, prima vice.’ A sacrificial cake is called (Denkm., II, 28) on account of its shape, like the Latin rotundula, also written .

And, like the Greek κύκλος, the word comes to signify a circle of persons. This circle is not necessarily of gods. The Bremner Papyrus in the British Museum (14, line 8), says an apage not only to Âpepi, who was no god, and to his soul and body, and ghost and shadow and children, and to his kith and kin, but, also to his , that is all associated with him, “ceux de son entourage.”

That should express the ‘feast of the New Moon’ is only natural, though Lepsius has pointed out serious difficulties on the subject.

But also expresses the number nine. Whence in this relation arises the Egyptian conception of the number nine? Is it the round (we should say the ‘square’) number, three times three? It certainly is merely a round number in many instances, but what is still more certain is that the same expression meaning ‘circle of gods’ and ‘nine gods,’ the circle was supposed to consist of nine gods, and was enlarged to companies of eighteen or twenty-seven. It is, I am sure, perfectly idle work to look for more profound reasons for the 33theory of the ‘Ennead.’^[18] Every god of importance had his ,^[19] and the best theory that has ever been given is that given at the beginning of Chapter 17.

13. The Turin text seems better adapted for the basis of a translation of Hymn II than the older papyri. These have been used for checking the later text whenever possible.

14. A difficult passage, but the readings are unanimous. What is ? Brugsch translates it “the Talisman of the Earth,” and Pierret “le salut de la terre.” No objection can be raised against the truth of either of these meanings taken by itself. But we have to look at the entire context. The expression literally signifies “the back of the earth.” In Latin we say sinus, gremium and viscera terrae. The Egyptians themselves talk of the back of Seb, , out of which the plants grow, and in a place quoted by Duemichen (Zeitschrift, 1871, p. 92, note) ta the Earth, is substituted for Seb. I believe then that is best translated by Soil of the Earth.

15. Thy mother Isis. So Ba. The Turin text has Nut, which is inconsistent with what follows.

16. La gives Tatunen; Af, Tunen; the Turin recension Tanen, names belonging to the god also called Ptah, Sokru and Osiris. See the inscriptions in Mariette’s Abydos, I, pl. 16, 6, on the Tat figures.

Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, seems to be here addressed.

17. This rubric does not occur in the older MSS.

3418. This hymn has not yet been found in the older MSS. A text carefully corrected from the papyri of the Louvre will be found in M. Lefébure’s Traduction comparée des Hymnes au Soleil composant le XV^e chapitre du Ritual Funéraire Egyptien. Paris, 1868.

19. ‘Chepera, father of the gods.’ Expressions like this are liable to be misunderstood by superficial readers. They are not meant to imply that ‘father of the gods’ was the special attribute of Chepera. ‘Father of the gods’ is predicated in Chapter 8 of Sutu, and it is predicated elsewhere of many other divinities. As in mathematics any point in space may be conceived as the origin of a given line or surface, so in Egyptian mythology any god may be rightly called the father of the gods. And for the same reason. The Day precedes the Night, but not more truly than Night precedes, or in mythological language gives birth to Day. But we may begin at Daybreak, or at Noon, or at Sunset, or with the Sun or the Moon, or with the rising of the Nile or any other natural phenomenon which obeys an evidently permanent fixed Law.

When Lepsius divided the Todtenbuch into 165 chapters, that portion of it which was numbered as Chapter 16, was in fact merely the Vignette of Chapter 15.

It has been thought well to publish with this translation the Vignettes from the great Papyrus La of Leyden, representing a, the Rising; and b, the Setting Sun. (See plates.)

In a the Sun is represented as rising into Heaven, saluted by the six Cynocephalous Apes. He is also saluted by two goddesses kneeling. In the Papyrus of Hunefer these goddesses say, “I am thy sister Isis,” “I am thy sister Nephthys.” The Tat which is between them is a symbol both of Osiris and of the East, and in Ba is replaced by the sign . In the later periods the Dawn was represented by the sign consisting of the Sun rising out of the East, between Isis and Nephthys. The sign of Life ānḫ (which 35primarily means rise up) rises out of the Tat, and with hands proceeding from it raises up the Sun.

In b the central object is the Sun setting in the West . He is saluted by three hawk-headed and by three jackal-headed divinities, the Spirits of Pu and of Nechen. Below this scene the Sun of Yesterday and the Sun of To-day in lion forms are saluted by Isis and Nephthys.

I am he who closeth and he who openeth, and I am but One.(1)

I am Râ at his first appearance.

I am the great god, self-produced;

His Names together compose the cycle of the gods;

Resistless is he among the gods.(2)

I, who am Osiris, am Yesterday and the kinsman of the Morrow.(3)

A scene of strife arose among the gods when I gave the command.(4)

Amenta is the scene of strife among the gods.

I know the name of the great god who is here.

Herald^[20] of Râ is his name.

I am the great Heron who is in Heliopolis, who presideth over the account of whatsoever is and of that which cometh into being.(5)

Who is that? It is Osiris who presideth over the account of all that is and all that cometh into being, that is Endless Time and Eternity. Endless Time is Day and Eternity is Night.

I am Amsu in his manifestations; there have been given to me the Two Feathers upon my head.(6)

Who is that, and what are his Feathers? It is Horus, the avenger of his father, and the Two Feathers are the Uræi upon the forehead of his father Tmu.(7)

I have alighted upon my Land, and I come from my own Place.

36What is that? It is the Horizon of my father Tmu.

All defects are done away, all deficiencies are removed, and all that was wrong in me is cast forth.

I am purified at the two great and mighty Lakes at Sutenhunen, which purify the offerings which living men present to the great god who is there(8).

Who is that? It is Râ himself.

Which are the two great and mighty Lakes? The Lake of Natron and the Lake of Māāt(9).

I advance over the roads, which I know, and my face is on the Land of Māāt.

What is that? The road upon which father Tmu advanceth, when he goeth to the Field of Aarru, approaching to the land of Spirits in Heaven.

I come forth through the T’eser gate.

What is that? This gate of the gods is Haukar. It is the gate and the two doors and openings, through which father Tmu issueth to the Eastern Horizon of Heaven.(10)

O ye who have gone before! Let me grasp your hands, me who become one of you.

Who are they? Those who have gone before are Hu and Sau. May I be with their father Tmu, throughout the course of each day.(11)

I make full the Eye when it waxeth dim on the day of battle between the two Opponents.(12)

What is that? The battle of the two Opponents is the day upon which Horus fighteth with Sut, when he flingeth his filth upon the face of Horus, and when Horus seizeth upon the genitals of Sut, for it is Horus who doeth this with his own fingers.

I lift up the hairy net from the Eye at the period of its distress.(13)

What is that? The right Eye of Râ in the period of its distress when he giveth it free course, and it is Thoth who lifteth up the net from it.

I see Râ, when he is born from Yesterday, at the dugs of the Mehurit cows?(14) His course is my course, and conversely mine is his.

What is that? Râ and his births from Yesterday at the dugs of the Mehurit cows? It is the figure of the Eye of Râ, at his daily birth. And Mehurit is the Eye.

I am one of those who are in the train of Horus.

37What is that—‘one of those in the train of Horus’? Said with reference to whom his Lord loveth.

Hail, ye possessors of Māāt, divine Powers attached to Osiris, who deal destruction to falsehood, ye who are in the train of Hotepeschaus, grant me that I may come to you. Do ye away the wrong which is me, as ye have done to the Seven Glorious ones, who follow after the Coffined one, and whose places Anubis hath fixed on that day of ‘Come thou hither’!

Hotepeschaus is the divine Flame which is assigned to Osiris for burning the souls of his adversaries. I know the names of the Seven Glorious ones who follow the Coffined one, and whose places Anubis hath fixed on the day of ‘Come thou hither.’ The leader of this divine company,

‘An-ar-ef, the Great’ is his name; 2, Kat-kat; 3, the Burning Bull, who liveth in his fire; 4, the Red-eyed one in the House of Gauze; 5, Fieryface which turneth backwards; 6, Dark Face in its hour; 7, Seer in the Night.(15)

I am he whose Soul resideth in a pair of gods.

It is Osiris, as he cometh to Tattu, and there findeth the soul of Râ; each embraceth the other, and becometh Two Souls.

The pair of gods are Horus, the Avenger of his Father, and Horus, the Prince of the City of Blindness.

I am the great Cat, who frequenteth the Persea tree in Heliopolis, on that night of battle wherein is effected the defeat of the Sebau, and that day upon which the adversaries of the Inviolate god(16) are exterminated.

Who is that great Cat? It is Râ himself. For Sau said, He is the likeness (Maȧu) of that which he hath created, and his name became that of Cat (Maȧu).(17)

The night of conflict is the defeat of the children of Failure at Elephantine. There was conflict in the entire universe, in heaven and upon the earth.

He who frequenteth the Persea tree is he who regulateth the children of Failure, and that which they do.

O Râ, in thine Egg, who risest up in thine orb, and shinest from thine Horizon, and swimmest over the firmament without a peer, and sailest over the sky; whose mouth sendeth forth breezes of flame, lightening up the Two Earths with thy glories, do thou deliver N from that god whose attributes are hidden, whose eyebrows are as the arms of the Balance upon that day when outrage is brought to account, and each wrong is tied up to its separate block of settlement.

38The god whose eyebrows are as the arms of the Balance is “he who lifteth up his arm.”^[21]

Deliver me from those Wardens of the Passages with hurtful fingers, attendant upon Osiris.

The Wardens of Osiris are the Powers who keep off the forces of the adversaries of Râ.

May your knives not get hold of me; may I not fall into your shambles, for I know your names; my course upon earth is with Râ and my fair goal is with Osiris. Let not your offerings be in my disfavour, oh ye gods upon your altars! I am one of those who follow the Master, a keeper of the writ of Chepera.

I fly like a Hawk, I cackle like the Smen-Goose, I move eternally like Nehebkau.(18)

Oh Tmu who art in the Great Dwelling, Sovereign of all the gods, deliver me from that god who liveth upon the damned; whose face is that of a hound, but whose skin is that of a man; at that angle of the pool of fire; devouring shades, digesting human hearts and voiding ordure. One seeth him not.

This god whose face is that of a hound and whose skin^[22] is that of a man: Eternal Devourer is his name.(19)

Oh Fearful one, who art over the Two Earths, Red god who orderest the block of execution; to whom is given the Double Crown and Enjoyment as Prince of Sutenhunen.

It is Osiris to whom was ordained the Leadership among the gods, upon that day when the Two Earths were united before the Inviolate god.

The junction of the Two Earths is the head of the coffin of Osiris whose father is Râ^[23] the beneficent Soul in Sutenhunen, the giver of food and the destroyer of wrong, who hath determined the paths of eternity.

It is Râ himself.

Deliver me from that god who seizeth upon souls, who consumeth all filth and corruption in the darkness or in the light: all those who fear him are in powerless condition.

39This god is Sut.

Oh Chepera, who are in the midst of thy bark and whose body is the cycle of the gods for ever; deliver me from those inquisitorial Wardens to whom the Inviolate god, of Glorious Attributes, hath given guard over his adversaries, and the infliction of slaughter in the place of annihilation, from whose guard there is no escape. May I not fall under your knives, may I not sit within your dungeons, may I not come to your places of extermination, may I not fall into your pits; may there be done to me none of those things which the gods abominate; for I have passed through the place of purification in the middle of the Meskat, for which are given the Mesit and the Tehenit cakes in Tanenit.

The Meskat is the place of scourging in Sutenhunen, the Tehenit is the Eye of Horus.... Tanenit is the resting place of Osiris.(20)

Tmu buildeth thy dwelling, the Lion-faced god layeth the foundation of thy house, as he goeth his round. Horus offereth purification and Sut giveth might, and conversely.

I have come upon this earth and with my two feet taken possession. I am Tmu and I come from my own Place.

Back, oh Lion with dazzling mouth, and with head bent forwards, retreating before me and my might.

I am Isis and thou findest me as I drop upon my face the hair which falleth loosely on my brow.

I was conceived by Isis and begotten by Nephthys. Isis destroyeth what in me is wrong, and Nephthys loppeth off that which is rebellious.

Dread cometh in my train and Might is in my hands. Numberless are the hands who cling fast to me. The dead ones and the living come to me. I defeat the clients of mine adversaries, and spoil those whose hands are darkened.

I have made an agreeable alliance. I have created the inhabitants of Cher-âbat and those of Heliopolis.(21) And every god is in fear before the Terrible, the Almighty one.

I avenge every god against his oppressor, at whom I shoot my arrows when he appeareth.

I live according to my will.

40I am Uat’it, the Fiery one.(22)

And woe to them who mount up against me!

What is this? “Of unknown attributes, which Hemen(23) hath given” is the name of the Funereal Chest. “The Witness of that which is lifted” is the name of the Shrine.

The Lion with dazzling mouth and with head bent forwards is the Phallus of Osiris [otherwise of Râ].

And I who drop the hair which hath loosely fallen upon my brow—I am Isis, when she concealeth herself; she hath let fall her hair over herself.

Uat’it the Fiery is the Eye of Râ.

They who mount up against me, woe to them, they are the associates of Sut as they approach.(24)

The seventeenth chapter is one of the most remarkable in the whole collection, and it has been preserved from times previous to the XIIth dynasty. The very earliest monuments which have preserved it have handed it down accompanied with scholia and other commentaries interpolated into the text. Some of the monuments enable us to some extent to divide the original text from the additions, in consequence of the latter being written in red. But there is really only one text where the additions are suppressed, and which therefore offers the most ancient form, as far as we know it, of the chapter. This is the copy on the wall of the tomb of Horhotep. The sarcophagus itself of Horhotep contains a copy of the text along with the additions. The chapter must already at the time have been of the most venerable antiquity. Besides these two copies of the chapter we have those from the sarcophagi of Hora and Sit-Bastit (published, like those of Horhotep, by M. Maspero^[24]), two from the sarcophagi of Mentuhotep, and one from that of Sebek-āa (the three latter published by Lepsius in his Aelteste Texte). The British Museum has Sir Gardner Wilkinson’s copy of the texts inscribed on the coffin of Queen Mentuhotep of the XIth dynasty, and also a fragment (6636 a) of the coffin of a prince named Hornefru. Here then we have an abundance of witnesses of the best period. They unfortunately do not agree. The progress of corruption had no 41doubt begun long before, and the variants are not simply differences of orthography but positively different readings. The differences however are chiefly in the scholia. Even when the explanations of the text are identical, the form differs. The latest recensions have retained the form ; the ancient added the feminine . What is that? But some of the ancient texts give the equivalent words , and Horhotep does without them altogether. These words were evidently additions not merely to the text but to the scholia.

The text of the chapter grew more and more obscure to readers, and the explanations hitherto given were so unsatisfactory as to call for others. The texts of the manuscripts of the new empire furnish a good deal of fresh matter, much of which is extremely ancient, though the proof of this is unfortunately lost through the disastrous condition of literature in the period preceding the XVIIIth dynasty. The XVIIIth dynasty and its immediate successors inherited but did not invent the new form of the Book of the Dead, with its succession of vignettes, which however differing in detail bear the stamp of a common traditional teaching. The manuscripts of a later period bear witness, with reference to this as well as to other chapters, to a recension of an authoritative kind. The text becomes more certain though perhaps not either more true or more intelligible, and the notes and explanations have here reached their fullest extent.

It would take an entire volume to give the translations of all the forms the chapter has assumed. It must be sufficient here to give the earliest forms known to us of the text and of the first commentaries. These are printed in characters which show the difference between text and later additions; all of which, it must be remembered, are of extreme antiquity—some two thousand years before any probable date of Moses.

Explanations or other interesting matter occurring in the manuscripts of the later Empire will be referred to in the notes.

The title in the early copies is the simple one here heading the chapter. In those which begin at the XVIIIth dynasty the title is very like that given for the first chapter. The chief additions are that the deceased person “takes every form that he pleases, plays draughts, and sits in a bower, comes forth as a soul living after death, and that what is done upon earth is glorified.”

421. It would be difficult for us to imagine that the very remarkable opening of the chapter is an addition. Yet it is unknown to the primitive recension on the walls of Horhotep’s tomb, though found everywhere else. The texts however which contain it do not agree. “I am He who closeth, and He who openeth, and I am but One.” ‘He who closeth’ is Tmu, ‘He who openeth’ Unen. As the god who closes and who opens is one and the same, ‘I am but One,’ is a very natural ending of the sentence, and for its sense the whole may appeal to classical, and higher than classical, authority.

“I am Alpha and O, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord.”^[26]

The meaning of the Egyptian is quite plain, but the readings most probably through the absence of determinatives in the oldest style are somewhat different. Horhotep and other texts have , apparently as one word (compounded of tmu and unen), which may signify the ‘closer and opener,’ but Sebek-āa and later texts have . The papyrus of Nebseni has , in the third person, which does not alter the meaning, but this is quite an isolated reading. The later recension, as represented by the Turin Todtenbuch and the Cadet papyrus, has , which only prominently brings forward, what is implied in all the other texts, that the Opener is a god.^[27] The absence of the determinative after is no objection to the sense ‘opener,’ especially after . It is absolutely necessary when dealing with mythology to look to physical rather than to metaphysical meanings. I have sufficiently discussed the meanings of the word in my essay on the Myth of Osiris Unnefer.

43The later recensions add an interpolation (not without very different readings) to the effect that the Sun made his first appearance when Shu raised the Sky from the height of Chemennu, where he destroyed the ‘Children of Failure’ .

The raising of the Sky by Shu is very frequently represented in pictures. Seb (the Earth) and Nut (the Sky) have been sleeping in each other’s arms during the night; Shu (Daylight at sunrise) parts them, and the sky is seen to be raised high above the earth.

, Shu, who is of course the son of Râ, is in consequence of this act called Ȧn-ḥeru, ‘The Lifter up of the Heaven.’

Chemennu is the geographical name of the town called by the Greeks Hermopolis. The mystical Chemennu, however, is alone referred to in this place. The word itself means Eight, and Lepsius sees here a reference to eight elementary deities. (We must remember that the passage itself is an interpolation, of which there is no trace in the older texts.)

The ‘children of Failure’ (, deficere, dissolvi, deliquium^[28]) are the elements of darkness which melt away and vanish at the appearance of Day. This mythological expression here found in an interpolated passage is met later on in a genuine portion of the older text.

2. It would be impossible to find a more emphatic assertion of the doctrine of Nomina Numina; and that more than 3000 years before Christ.

The Names of Râ, the Sun-god, are said, when taken together, to compose ‘the cycle of the gods.’ . Or the names which he has created, to which he has given rise, that is the names of all the solar phenomena, recurring as they do, day after day, to the eyes of all beholders, compose “the cycle of the gods,” who are also called the limbs or members of Râ.

The scholia contained in the papyri of the XVIIIth and later dynasties explain the text as follows:—

44“It is Râ as he creates the names of his limbs () which become the gods who accompany him.”

And the present chapter later on says of Chepera, the rising Sun, that the “cycle of the gods is his body.”

The god who has hitherto been spoken of is Râ. In glaring contradiction to the whole text, a later note states that the resistless god is “the Water, which is Nu”; that is Heaven.^[29] Nu is not alluded to at all in the primitive text, but the papyrus of Nebseni already exhibits the corruption of the fine passage, “I am he who closeth and he who openeth, and I am but One.” This is itself an addition, the true meaning of which was afterwards destroyed by the interpolation of the words . These are ambiguous. They might mean that the god was alone ‘in heaven,’ or that he was alone ‘as Heaven.’ The papyrus of Ani has , “I was born from Nu.” These attempted improvements do not give a favourable impression of the exegetical acumen of Egyptian theologians.

But the mention of ‘Water’ in the scholion has nothing whatever to do with the doctrine of Thales, and to suppose that it has implies a confusion between two very different realms of human thought.

3. ‘The kinsman of the Morrow,’ literally ‘I know the Morrow.’ The word signifies can, ken, and kin.

The papyrus of Nebseni and all the subsequent texts give the explanation that Yesterday means Osiris, and the Morrow means Râ. And the vignette in the papyrus of Ani gives the name of Yesterday to one of the Lions and of Morrow to the other.

4. The earliest texts have either ‘speak,’ or ‘command.’ The meaning is the same in both readings. Strife arose among the gods at the bidding of Râ: that is every force in nature 45began its appropriate career of activity, necessarily coming into contact and conflict with the other forces. And of all this collision the first cause, the origin of all activity and motion, is the Sun.

This mythological cosmology reminds one of the saying of Heraclitos that “Strife is the father and the king of all things,” and the doctrine that all becoming must be conceived as the product of warring opposites—παν´ντα κατ’ ἔριν γίνεσθαι.

5. The Heron is the bird called bennu, the numerous pictures of which enable us to identify it with the Common Heron or Heronshaw. The reason for connecting this bird with the Sun-god has to be sought in the etymology of its name. ben is a verb of motion, and particularly of ‘going round.’ benenu is a ring, also a ‘round pill.’ The Sun therefore is very naturally called bennu, an appellative like κυκλοέλικτος in the Orphic hymns.

, ‘of that which is, and of that which cometh into being.’ Here, as in many other places, , which is a verb of motion, and really signifies ‘rise up, spring forth,’ is pointedly distinguished from , that which (is). So far from signifying ‘being, that which is,’ it very much more nearly corresponds to in the frequent expression , ‘that which is and that which is not yet.’ The sense of ‘good being’ so commonly given to the divine name Unnefer is utterly erroneous.

6. The reading of the name is proved by the numerous variants of this passage to be Ȧmsu. In M. Naville’s edition, II, pl. 41, the name, as written in Ce, would seem to be ȧm. But I already in Zeitschr., 1877 (p. 98) pointed out, that in this manuscript the last sign is at the top of a column, and that at the foot of the preceding column there is a space where the signs , following (as they still do in the next passage), have been obliterated. No one from merely looking at M. Naville’s copy would guess that there was any interval between and .

The god’s name is written on a tablet, Denkm. III, 114 i. And the name is also written or , which are ligatures of and .

467. Note that in this scholion Horus, ‘the avenger of his father,’ calls his father not Osiris but Tmu. In the more recent texts there are many interpretations of the two Feathers. One is “his two EyesF are the Feathers.” But the favourite one is “Isis and Nephthys, who have risen up as two kites” .

8. The reḫit, by whom the oblation is made, the present generation as contrasted with the pāit, the past, and hammemit, the coming generations.

9. Māāāait is supposed to be nitre or salt, or some other substance used in the process of embalming.

The more recent recensions thus answer the question about the lakes. “Eternity is the name of one, and the Great green one that of the other, the lake of Natron and the lake of Māāt.”

10. See the picture of this gate on the Vignette, which shows the Sun-god passing through. One of the later explanations is that from this gate Shu raised up Heaven. Another is that it was the gate of the Tuat. Haukar, , means “behind the Shrine.”

11. Hu and Sau, sons of Tmu, and his companions in the Solar bark, are, like so many other gods, Solar appellatives. Hu is the Nourisher, Sau, ‘the Knowing One.’ The god is also called ‘the Seer’ , ‘He who heareth’ . These names are not personifications of the senses but, as in all cases, appellatives expressing attributes.

12. See Note 2 on Chapter 4.

13. The Eye () being the Sun or Moon, the period of distress () is that of obscuration or eclipse, and the hairy net () which is removed is the shadow which passes for a time over the heavenly body.

47The explanation which M. Maspero has recently given (P.S.B.A. XIV, 314) of the word , as connected with ‘health,’ receives confirmation from the scholia in the papyri, according to which Thoth not only delivered the Eye from the veil of darkness which oppressed it, but carried it off ‘in life, health and strength, without any damage.’

14. Mehurit is explained in the ancient scholion as ‘the Eye,’ but it is really the Sky, from which the Sun is born daily. The sign of plurality after Mehurit (if it means anything) only indicates the daily succession of the skies whence Râ is born.

15. The ‘coffined One’ is of course Osiris, as it is plainly stated in the later scholia, which further add that the ‘Seven glorious ones’ who follow the coffin, or, as they read it, “their Lord,” are to be sought in the constellation of ‘the Thigh in the northern sky,’ that is in the seven stars of the Great Bear.

These stars never set, but are perpetually revolving round the Pole. It is therefore evidently with the Polar Star that we must identify the coffin of Osiris. The names of the Seven Glorious ones vary according to the different authoritiesauthorities. And these Stars themselves receive other mythical forms; that of the Seven Cows and their Bull is recorded in the 148th chapter. Names like ‘the Red-eyed’ or the ‘Red-haired’ cow seem to imply double stars. The ‘Red-eyed’ is said to abide in ‘house of gauze’ (perhaps a cobweb).

The papyri add the important note that the “day of Come thou hither”! represents the moment “when Osiris says to Râ, Come thou hither”! or, as some read, “Come thou to me.” The speaker adds that he sees the meeting of the two gods in Amenta.

16. possessor of completeness, integrity, hence ‘inviolate.’ This name is given to Osiris when restored to his first condition after having been dismembered and cut into pieces. The god is called Râ-Tmu-Nebert’er in the great Harris papyrus, 15, 3.

4817. It is most probable that the Cat became the representative of the Sun because of the homonymy between the Egyptian name mȧȧu of the animal and the attributive mau, ‘shining’ said of the Sun. But the Egyptian scribe gives a different etymological explanation. Sau said of Râ “he is maȧu of what he hath made.” may, like the Latin exemplar, be either the type or the prototype, the copy or the original. The creatures of Râ were made after his likeness. Sanskrit literature, from the Çatapatha Brahmana down to the Vishnu Purâna, is full of similar etymologies. The Egyptians from the very first delighted in this play upon words.

18. Neḥebu-kau, or is the son of Seb and Renenut. The etymology of the name is indicated in the Pyramid texts. neḥbu is to ‘carry, sustain, support’ (whence neḥbet a neck, and neḥb a yoke), and the rest of the word is the plural of ka, which is susceptible of more than one meaning. It might signify the divine or human ka, but the word is sometimes (e.g., Todt., 125, 32) written ‘victuals.’ The god is one of the forty-two judges of the dead, and in some copies of the Book of the Dead he is described as coming forth from his , a word most frequently used for the source of the Nile. The serpent which is a most frequent determinative of the name, is an additional reason for identifying this god with the Nile: a conclusion which seems fully justified by the Pyramid texts, which speak of him as Water , and describe him as , “of many windings.” (See Pepi I, 341 and 487.)

19. This Devourer has the same functions as the strange animal called Âmemit in the pictures of the Psychostasia. The later scholia add that the Devourer comes from the ‘basin of Punit,’ the Red sea. They add other names, Mâtes ‘Flint,’ “stationed at the gate of Amenta,” and 49or Baba, who, in ch. 63, 2, is described as the first born of Osiris. He is a terrible god from whom the deceased prays in ch. 125, 36, to be delivered. His name implies ‘one who searches or probes thoroughly,’ as a digger or miner. And such are his functions at the judgment of the dead.

Instead of tesem, a ‘hound,’ La reads sȧu, a sheep.

20. The Mesqȧt is a ‘a place of scourging.’ The word is known as signifying violent treatment by beating, and has been illustrated by Chabas and Goodwin. See Zeitschr., 1874, p. 62. In the 72nd chapter the deceased prays that he may not perish at the Mesqȧt. A kindred word Mesqa signifies ‘a hide.’ We can understand the connection between δέρω ‘flay, cudgel, thrash’ and δέρμα ‘a hide.’ And we ourselves have the familiar phrase of ‘giving a hiding.’ But purification as well as punishment was found at the heavenly mesqȧt. It is mentioned in the Harris Magical papyrus[6, 3] simply as a heavenly thing. In the more recent scholia the purifier is said to be Anubis, who is behind the chest containing the remains of Osiris.

After the scholion which has just been translated the early texts pass on to the 18th chapter.

For the rest of the chapter we are compelled to follow the texts of the papyri. The character of this portion differs considerably from the former part, and is clearly an addition. The speakers rapidly succeed each other. “I am Tmu,” “I am Isis,” “I was conceived by Isis,” “Isis destroyeth what in me is wrong,” and finally “I am Uat’it.”

21. Cher-âbat and Heliopolis like all the localities here mentioned are in heaven not upon earth.

22. Uat’it is literally ‘the pale one,’ a name of the Dawn. But here the fiery dawn is spoken of, ἠώς φλογερά, πυρίβρομος.

23. Hemen is a divinity seldom, if ever, mentioned after the “Middle Empire.” In the Pyramid texts he has a Snake (the River) in his hand.

5024. The last line of the chapter has suffered in all the best papyri. See M. Naville’s collation. In the papyrus of Ani the chapter is unfinished. The later papyri end the chapter by saying that “it has been granted to the speaker by those who are in Tattu to destroy by fire the souls of his adversaries.” This consummation is already found in La.

The An-māut(1) saith:—

I come to you, ye Great Circles of gods(2) in Heaven, upon Earth and in the World below! I bring to you N void of offence towards any of the gods, grant that he may be with you daily.

Glory to Osiris, Lord of Restau, and to the great gods who are in the World below. Here is N who saith:—Hail to thee, Prince of Amenta, Unneferu who presidest in Abydos, I come to thee with Righteousness; without sin upon me. I am not knowingly a speaker of wrong; I am not given to duplicity; grant me Bread, the right of appearance at the tables of the Lords of Maāt, entering in and going out of the Netherworld, and that my soul may not suffer repulse in its devotion to the orb of the Sun and the vision of the Moon-god for ever.

51The Se-meri-f saith:—

I come to you, O Circle of gods in Restau, and I bring to you N. Grant to him Bread, Water, Air and an allotment in the Sechit-hotepu like Horus.

Glory to Osiris, the Lord of Eternity and to the Circle of gods in Restau. Here is N and he saith:—I come to thee, I know thy will, and I am furnished with thine attributes of the Tuat. Grant me an abiding place in the Netherworld by the Lords of Maāt, my permanent allotment in the Sechit-hotepu, and the receiving of cakes before thee.

1. Oh Thoth, who makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, let N be made triumphant over his adversaries, even as thou makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, before the Circle of gods about Rā and about Osiris and the Great Circle of gods in Heliopolis, on that Night of the Eve’s Provender(3) and the Night of Battle when there befel the Defeat of the Sebau, and the Day of the extinction of the adversaries of the Inviolate god.

The Great Circle of gods in Heliopolis is of Tmu, Shu and Tefnut, and the Sebau who were defeated and extinguished were the associates of Sut on the renewal of his assault.

2. Oh Thoth who makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, let N be made triumphant over his adversaries, even as thou makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries before the Great Circle of gods in Tattu, on the Night wherein the Tat is set up in Tattu.(4)

The Great Circle of gods in Tattu is of Osiris, Isis, Nephthys and Horus the Avenger of his Father; and they who set up the Tat are the two arms of Horus, Prince of Sechem. They are behind Osiris as bindings of his raiment.

3. Oh Thoth who makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, let N be made triumphant over his adversaries, even as thou makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, before the Great Circle of gods in Sechem on that Night of the Eve’s Provender in Sechem.

The Great Circle of gods in Sechem is of Horus in the Dark,(5) and Thoth, who is of the Great Circle of An-arer-ef.

The Eve’s Provender is the dawn upon the Coffin of Osiris.

524. Oh Thoth, who makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, let N be made triumphant over his adversaries, even as thou makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, before the Great Circle of gods in Pu and Tepu,(6) on that Night of erecting the flag-staffs of Horus, and of establishing him as heir of his Father’s property.

The Great Circle of gods in Pu and Tepu is of Horus, Isis, Emsta, Hapi; and the pillars of Horus are erected when Horus saith to those who follow him “let the flag-staffs be erected there.”

5. Oh Thoth, who makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, let N be made triumphant over his adversaries, even as thou makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, before the Great Circle of gods of the Two Regions^[30] of Rechit, on that Night when Isis lay watching in tears over her brother Osiris.

The Great Circle of gods on the Two Regions of Rechit is of Isis, Nephthys, Emsta and Hapi.

6. Oh Thoth, who makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, let N be made triumphant over his adversaries, even as thou makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, before the Great Circle of gods in Abydos on the night of Hakra,(7) when the evil dead are parted off, when the glorious ones are rightly judged, and joy goeth its round in Thinis.

The Great Circle of gods in Abydos is of Osiris, Isis and Apuat.

7. Oh Thoth, who makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, let N be made triumphant over his adversaries, even as thou makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, before the Great Circle of gods on the Highway of the Damned,(8) upon the Night when judgment is passed upon those who are no more.

The Great Circle of gods on the Highway of the Damned are Thoth, Osiris, Anubis and Astes. And judgment is passed on the Highway of the Damned when the suit is closed^[31] against the souls of the Children of Failure.

8. Oh Thoth, who makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, 53let N be made triumphant over his adversaries, even as thou makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, before the Great Circle of gods at the Great Hoeing in Tattu, on the Night of Hoeing in their blood and effecting the triumph of Osiris over his adversaries.

The Great Circle of gods at the Great Hoeing in Tattu(9) when the associates of Sut arrive, and take the forms of goats, slay them before the gods there, while their blood runneth down; and this is done according to the judgment of those gods who are in Tattu.

9. Oh Thoth, who makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, let N be made triumphant over his adversaries, even as thou makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, before the Great Circle of gods in An-arer-ef on the Night of Hiding him who is Supreme in Attributes.^[32]

The Great Circle of gods in An-arer-ef is of Shu, Babai, Rā and Osiris, and the Night of Hiding him who is Supreme of Attributes is when there are at the Coffin, the Thigh, the Head, the Heel and the Leg of Unneferu.

10. Oh Thoth, who makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, let N be made triumphant over his adversaries, even as thou makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries before the Great Circle of gods in Restau on the Night when Anubis lieth(10) with his hands upon the objects behind Osiris, when Osiris is made to triumph over his adversaries.

The Great Circle of gods in Restau is of Osiris, Horus, and Isis. The heart of Horus rejoiceth, the heart of Osiris is glad and the two Parts^[33] of Heaven are satisfied when Thoth effecteth the triumph of N before these ten Great Circles about Rā and about Osiris and the Circles of gods attached to every god and every goddess before the Inviolate god. All his adversaries are destroyed and all that was wrong in him is also destroyed.

Let the person say this chapter, he will be purified and come forth by day, after his death, and take all forms for the satisfaction of his will, and if this chapter be recited over him, he will be prosperous upon earth, he will come forth safe from every fire, and no evil thing will approach him: with undeviating regularity for times infinite.(11)

The eighteenth chapter is one of those found in the earliest copies of the Book of the Dead, on the wooden coffins of the ‘Old’ and ‘Middle’ Empires; the most complete ancient copy being on the coffin of Queen Mentuhotep of the eleventh dynasty.

It consists of a Litany addressed to Thoth, who is invoked for securing the triumph of the departed against his adversaries in presence of the gods of certain localities. Each petition has reference to some mythological event, and is supplemented by the enumeration of the gods constituting the divine company presiding at the locality named, and sometimes by a short comment on the myth referred to.

The order of petitions is somewhat different in the later recensions, and the text has suffered other alterations.

Copies of this chapter are extremely numerous, particularly in the later periods.

The chapter really begins with the petitions to Thoth. The preceding portion is, as far as I know, found only in the Papyrus of Ani. But as the vignette which belongs to this portion has a place in the great Leyden Papyrus of Kenna, the text cannot have been confined to a single manuscript. It is particularly valuable as illustrative of the ritual use of portions of the Book of the Dead.

1. The deceased person is supposed to be presented to the gods by two priests in succession, one called An-maut-ef , and the other Se-meri-f. Both names are titles of Horus, and it is the usual thing for Egyptian priests to bear divine titles; their ritual observances being dramatic and symbolical representations of the actions of the gods. An-maut-ef literally signifies ‘column (support) of his mother.’ Horus is called ‘the An-maut-ef of the Great Company of the gods’ (Mariette, Abydos, I, p. 34), and in Denkmäler, III, 206 e, he is called the An-maut-ef of Osiris (cf. Abyd. II, 54).

Se-meri-f signifies ‘the Beloved Son,’ and the priest of this name in the funereal rites personified Horus in his dutiful offices to his father Osiris. I do not know why is always translated ‘the son who loves him,’ instead of ‘the son he loves,’ 55which is the right meaning. is ‘the place which he loves’ not ‘the place which loves him.’ And similarly is ‘the wife whom he loves,’ not ‘who loves him.’

2. There is a short note (6) on chapter 1, upon the word , but the present seems to be the suitable place for a more extended notice of this feminine word, which is a collective noun, and never found in any other sense.

The ancient form renders it more than probable that is not phonetic in the later form, but that as in kai, originally (whence the Coptic ⲕⲟⲧ, ⲕⲱⲧⲉ, a circle, a round vessel, to go round), it is ideographic of roundness. This concept is certainly to be found in the word , the Coptic ϫⲱϫ, a head (or rather top of the head), as in the Latin vertex, akin to vortex, from the same root as vertere. The sign , which in later texts often appears as the determinative, has its origin in the cursive form of carelessly written. Instead of we also find , which is certainly not phonetic but ideographic of enclosure, as in the word a wall, paries, ἕρκος. This word occurs already in the Pyramid Texts under the form . See Pepi I, 571, which M. Maspero renders ‘la Grande Enceinte d’On.’ The evident etymological relationship to the Coptic ϫⲱϫ has led some scholars to translate the Egyptian word as signifying chiefs, princes. But though the lexicons give dux and princeps as meanings of the Coptic word, these are but secondary applications of head. We have to enquire why ϫⲱϫ means head, or top of the head. And the reason is its roundness, as indicated by the ideographic signs or .

The old Egyptian word invariably implies an association of persons, and this is why in consequence of its etymology I translate it as ‘Circle of gods.’ It is synonymous (cf. chapter 41, note 8chapter 41, note 8) with .

3. The Eve’s Provender. Later authorities read , the ‘Provender of the altars,’ but this is a corruption of the ancient 56, which had probably ceased to be intelligible. According to this pantheistic system the deceased through his identification with the Sun absorbed and consumed all that came in his way. And this is expressed in somewhat brutal style. Men and gods disappear before Unas, he makes his breakfast at dawn , upon great gods, his dinner upon gods of middling quality , and ‘his supper at even’ upon the minor deities, . is the ancient dialectic variant of , which however is really the older form. This word which means ‘things’ has, like the Latin res, a wide application. It frequently means property, estate, and sometimes suit.

4. On the last day of the month of Choiak the great solemnity of setting up the Tat as the symbol of Osiris was observed down to the latest periods. The tablets of Pasherenptah, high priest of Ptah at Memphis, speak of this great dignitary as the king’s second or deputy in ‘Raising the Tat.’ But Brugsch has published a picture (Thesaurus, V, 1190), copied by Dr. Erman from a tomb of the XVIIIth dynasty, in which Amenophis III himself helps to raise the Tat, and the queen Ti and the royal princesses take part in the ceremony. The procession is described as marching four times round the sanctuary of Ptah-Seker-Osiris. See Plate IX.

5. On Horus in the Dark, or Blindness, or Invisibility , see note, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., June, 1886.

6. Pu and Tepu are named together in the earliest texts as one locality, which is recognised by Brugsch as the metropolis of the northern nome called by the Greeks Φθενότης.

7. The feast of derives its name, as Goodwin supposes with great probability, from the words ha-k-er-ȧ, ‘Come thou to me,’ said of a legendary incident like that mentioned at the end of note 15 on chapter 17. The early papyri read but this is no objection, the sign being here the determinative of the entire group which gives its name to the feast.

578. literally the dead, that is those who have died ‘the second death.’

9. The vignette is given by M. Naville from the tracing taken by Lepsius of the now lost Papyrus Busca. It represents ‘the Great Hoeing in Tattu.’ The long text at Dendera (Mariette, tom. IV, pl. 39) contains directions to be observed the festival commemorative of the ancient myth. Two black cows are put under a yoke of ȧm wood, the plough is of tamarisk wood and the share of black bronze. The plougher goes behind, with a cow led by a halter. A little child with the lock attached to its head is to scatter the seed in the field of Osiris, a piece of land of which the dimensions were given in the text (now imperfect). Barley is sown at one end, spelt at the other, and flax between the two. And the Cher-heb in chief recites the Office for the Sowing of the Field.

10. The older texts have lie, the later ones lay.

11. In the formula , šes is “the measuring line used by builders,”builders,” and em šes signifies ‘ad amussim,’ ‘nach der Schnur,’ ‘au cordeau,’ ‘according to the line,’ hence ‘with the strictest accuracy.’ Hibbert Lectures, 1879, p. 121. ‘According to the line of Maāt’ means ‘with undeviating regularity.’

Thy Father Tmu hath prepared for thee this beautiful Crown of Triumph, the living diadem which the gods love, that thou mayest live for ever. Osiris, Prince of Amenta, maketh thee to triumph over thine adversaries. Thy Father Seb hath decreed that thou should be his heir, and be heralded as Triumphant, Horus son of Isis and son of Osiris, upon the throne of thy Father Rā, through the defeat of thine adversaries. He hath decreed for thee the Two Earths, absolutely and without condition(1). And so hath Atmu decreed, and the Cycle of the gods hath repeated the glorious act of the triumph of Horus the son of Isis and the son of Osiris for ever and ever.

58Osiris, the Prince of Amenta, the Two Parts of Heaven united, all gods and all goddesses who are in heaven and upon earth join in effecting the Triumph of Horus the son of Isis and son of Osiris over his adversaries before the Great Circle of gods in Heliopolis, on the Night, etc.

Horus repeateth the proclamation four times. All the adversaries fall and are overthrown and slaughtered.

N repeateth the proclamation four times, and all his adversaries fall and are overthrown and slaughtered.

Horus son of Isis and son of Horus repeateth an infinite number of festivals, and all his adversaries fall down, are overthrown and slaughtered. Their abode is transferred to the slaughtering block of the East, their heads are cut away, their necks are crushed, their thighs are lopped off, they are given to the great Annihilator who resideth in the Valley(2) that they may not ever escape from under the custody of Seb.(3)

This chapter is said over a consecrated crown placed upon the face of the person, and thou shalt put incense upon the flame, for N (the deceased), effecting his triumph over all his adversaries, whether Dead or Living, that he may become one of the followers of Osiris. And there shall be given to him drink and food in presence of this god. Thou shall say it at dawn twice; A great protection is it: with undeviating regularity for times infinite.

The nineteenth chapter is a very recent recension of the eighteenth. The MSS. containing it, as far as we know, are not older than the Greek period. It derives its origin from the practice of placing garlands or floral crowns upon the mummies. The mummy of Aahmes I, the first king of the eighteenth dynasty, when found “portait au cou,” M. Maspero writes, “une guirlande de jolies fleurs roses de Delphinium orientale.” Remains of such crowns are to be found in our Museums. For farther details I must refer to an excellent paper entitled La Couronne de la Justification, by Dr. Pleyte of Leyden, in the second volume of the Transactions of the Oriental Congress held at Leyden in 1884; and see Plate VIII.

591. . This adverbial expression is apparently connected with , and I therefore understand it in the sense of ἀποτόμως, praecisè, absolutely, without condition.

2. the Valley of Darkness (Todt., 130, 6) and Death, “whose secrets are absolutely unknown” (148, 2).

3. That is they shall remain interred for ever.

The twentieth chapter is entitled Another Chapter of Crown of Triumph, but it is simply a tabulated form of chapter 18, with the Rubric. Let the person say this Chapter, and purify himself with water of natron, he will come forth by day after death, and take all forms according to his wish, and escape from the fire. With undeviating regularity for times infinite. The earliest example of this tabulated form of the chapter is found on the Berlin Sarcophagus of Mentuhotep.

Dümichen; Tempelinschriften, LXXV.

Hail to thee, Lord of Light, who art Prince of the House which is encircled by Darkness and Obscurity. I am come to thee glorified and purified.

My hands are behind thee; thy portion is that of those who have gone before thee.(1)

Give me my mouth that I may speak with it; and guide(2) my heart at its hour of Darkness and Night.

The oldest papyrus containing this chapter is that of Ani, and the translation is based upon it. But the text differs both from those written on the very ancient coffins of Heru and Set-Bastit, copied by M. Maspero,^[34] and from the later texts.

The second paragraph seems to be spoken by the god, the first and third being from the deceased.

“My hands are behind thee” is a formula implying protection.

On the coffins the invocation is addressed not to “Osiris, Lord of Light” or “Radiant One” , but to the , “one whose head is clothed with radiant white, of the House of Darkness and Obscurity.”

Instead of “obscurity” the coffin has without a determinative, but shows what the word means.

This ancient text continues—“Come thou to me, glorified and purified; let thy hands [here the text is obliterated], shine thou with thine head (). Give me my mouth that 61I may speak with it, and guide me on the glorious roads which are in heaven.”

The Turin text is very corrupt, and parts of it are incapable of translation.

1. .

2. “Let me guide,” according to the Ani Papyrus. But the later (hieratic) texts have the second person , which is more correct.

I shine forth out of the Egg which is in the unseen world.(1) Let there be given my mouth that I may speak with it in presence of the great god, Lord of the Tuat. Let not my hand be repulsed by the Divine Circle of the great god.

I am Osiris, the Lord of Restau, the same who is at the head of the Staircase.(2)

I am come to do the will of my heart, out of the Tank of Flame, which I extinguish when I come forth.(3)

This is one of the chapters of which the text certainly belongs to the earliest epoch. It is one of those copied by Wilkinson from the coffin(2)(2) of Queen Mentuhotep. In the Papyrus of Ani it is followed by chapter 21 as its conclusion, and both chapters are appended to chapter 1, before the rubric belonging to that chapter.

1. The Egg in the unseen world is the globe of the Sun while yet below the horizon. It is only through a mistranslation of chapter 54, 2 that the Indian notion of a ‘Mundane Egg’ has been ascribed to the Egyptians.

The 17th chapter addresses “Rā in thine Egg, who risest up in thine orb, and shinest from thine Horizon.”

622. See the picture of Osiris at the head of the Staircase, which is here given (see Plate XI) from the alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I in the Soane Museum. Similar pictures are given on other sarcophagi. The gods on the stairs are called , ‘the Divine Circle about Osiris.’

The ‘Staircase of the great god’ at Abydos, is frequently mentioned on the funeral stelae.

3. The Tank of Flame. See chapter 1, note 15. The red glow of the Sky disappears after the Sun has risen, he is therefore said to “extinguish the Flame” after he has come forth. The same notion is expressed in the myth according to which Horus strikes off the head of his mother.

He saith: Let my mouth be opened by Ptah, and let the muzzles which are upon my mouth be loosed by the god of my domain.(1)

Then let Thoth come, full and equipped with Words of Power,^[35] and let him loose the muzzles of Sutu which are upon my mouth, and let Tmu lend a hand to fling them at the assailants.

Let my mouth be given to me. Let my mouth be opened by Ptah with that instrument of steel(2) wherewith he openeth the mouths of the gods.

I am Sechit(3) Uat’it who sitteth on the right side of Heaven: I am Sahit encircled by the Spirits of Heliopolis.^[36]

And all the Words of Power, and all the accusations which are uttered against me—the gods stand firm against them: the cycles of the gods unitedly.

1. Osiris. On the sense of , literally ‘the god of the domain,’ see the articles of M. Naville and Professor Piehl, Zeitschr., 1880, 146; 1881, 24 and 64. I hold with Dr. Piehl that the domain meant in this formula is Abydos, and that the god is Osiris.

2. The word here translated ‘steel’ is , upon which see M. Devéria’s dissertation, “Le Fer et l’Aimant” in the Mélanges d’Archéologie Egyptienne et Assyrienne, tome I, p. 2.

A description of the Ceremonies of the Opening of the Mouth as performed at the tomb will be found in the Introduction to this translation.

3. The name of this goddess is phonetically written Sḫt in the Pyramid texts of Unas (l. 390), where the Murray Papyrus and other texts have the ordinary . The reading Sechemet is indefensible. Cf. Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., XII, p. 365.

I am Chepera, the self-produced, on his Mother’s thigh.(1)

The speed of bloodhounds is given to those who are in Heaven,^[37] and the mettle of hyaenas(2) to those who belong to the Divine Circle.

Lo, I bring this my Word of Power, and I collect this Word of Power from every quarter in which it is, more persistently(3) than hounds of chase and more swiftly than the Light.

O thou who guidest the Bark of Rā, sound is thy rigging and free from disaster as thou passest on to the Tank of Flame.

Lo, I collect^[38] this my Word of Power from every quarter in which it is, in behalf of every person whom it concerneth, more 64persistently than hounds of chase and more swiftly than Light; the same(4) who create the gods out of Silence, or reduce them to inactivity; the same who impart warmth to the gods.

Lo, I collect this my Word of Power from every quarter in which it is, in behalf of every person whom it concerneth, more persistently than hounds of chase and more swiftly than the Light.

This is another of those chapters of which the antiquity is proved by the coffins of Horhotep and Queen Mentuhotep. And even in the early times to which these coffins belong it must have been extremely difficult to understand. In the translation here given I have adhered as closely as possible to the oldest texts, but these, as the variants show, are not entirely trustworthy.

1. Thigh. This is the usual translation, which accords with the frequent pictures of the goddess Nut, as the Sky, with the divine Scarab in the position described.^[39] But signifies that which runs, from uār, run, fugere; and the noun (the runner) is often applied to running water. It is the geographical name of a river or canal. M. Naville has already pointed out that in the Book of the Dead it has for variants and , of which bath is a fair translation.

2. The names of these two animals (especially of the second) vary greatly in the texts. But if we wish rightly to understand the sense of the chapter, we must bear in mind that it is not the animals themselves that are meant, but the characteristics implied by the names of the animals. And as the Sanskrit vṛkas, the Greek λύκος, the old Slavonic vluku, the Gothic vulfs, and our own wolf, signify the robber, so does the Egyptian , whether signifying wolf, wolfhound, or bloodhound, indicate speed.

The names of the second animal in the earlier texts, whether they stand for hyænas , or for other animals of the chase (), imply either speed or ferocity. And what must 65we understand under the latter term? We must look to the context. It is of a god speaking of himself and of his attributes. He is proud of them, and certainly does not wish them to be taken in a bad sense. Nor is it necessary that we should do so. We have only to remember what we learnt at school.

Cicero (de Sen., 10, 33) contrasts the ‘ferocitas juvenum,’ the high pluck of the young, with the ‘infirmitas puerorum,’ and the ‘gravitas’ and ‘maturitas’ of later periods of life.

Livy uses the term ferox, in the same sense as Cicero.

What we have to understand of the Egyptian expression is, ‘mettlesome, of high, unbridled spirit.’

In the later texts the Bennu bird has been substituted for the beasts of the chase.

3. The later texts read , but all the earlier ones give another word or . This is often used in a bad sense, when spoken of the enemy; but it merely implies tenacity, pertinacity, obstinacy, which are, of course, very bad things in opposition, but in themselves virtues of a high order.^[40]

The word is used as a name for the divine Cynocephali who appear at sunrise over the Tank of Flame.

4. , the same who bringeth into being the gods out of Silence, or reduceth them to inactivity.

In addition to this interesting utterance of Egyptian theology, we have to note the idea of Silence as the origin of the gods, or powers of nature. The notion was also current in the Greek world. The writer of the Philosophumena (VI, 22) speaks of ἡ ὑμνουμένη ἐκείνη παρὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησι Ζιγή. It was from this source that the early Gnostic Valentinus borrowed this item of his system. St. Irenaeus (Haeres, II, 14) charges him with having taken it from the theogony of the comic poet Antiphanes.

Let my name be given to me in the Great House. Let me remember my name in the House of Flame(1) on the Night wherein the Years are counted and the Months are reckoned, one by one.

I am He who dwelleth in Heaven, and who sitteth on the Eastern side of Heaven: and if there be any god who cometh not in my train, I utter his name at once.

1. Every Egyptian Temple being symbolical of Heaven, had its Great House and its House of Flame , as most sacred adyta at the extremity opposite to the entrance. The former occupied the central position, like the Ladye Chapel in our cathedrals, and the latter stood by the side of it.

He saith: Heart^[41] mine to me, in the place of Hearts! Whole Heart^[42] mine to me, in the place of Whole Hearts!

Let me have my Heart that it may rest within me; but(2) I shall feed upon the food of Osiris, on the eastern side of the mead of amaranthine flowers.(3)

Be mine a bark for descending the stream and another for ascending.

I go down into the bark wherein thou art.

Be there given to me my mouth wherewith to speak, and my feet for walking; and let me have my arms wherewith to overthrow my adversaries.

67Let two hands from the Earth open my mouth: Let Seb, the Erpā of the gods, part my two jaws;(4) let him open my two eyes which are closed, and give motion to my two hands which are powerless: and let Anubis give vigour to my legs, that I may raise myself up upon them.

And may Sechit the divine one lift me up, so that I may arise in Heaven and issue my behest in Memphis.

I am in possession of my Heart, I am possession of my Whole Heart, I am possession of my arms and I have possession of my legs.(5)

[I do whatsoever my Genius willeth, and my Soul is not bound to my body at the gates of Amenta.]

1. The Egyptian texts have two names for the Heart, phonetically written ȧb, and also written and ḥatu.^[43] The two words are commonly used synonymously, but they are sometimes pointedly distinguished one from the other. Etymologically ȧb is connected with the sense of lively motion ȧb, like the Greek καρδία, κραδίη, (δία τὸ ἀπαύστως σαλεύεσθαι) with κραδάω and κραδαίνω. Other Indo-European names, our own heart, the Latin cor (cord-is), the Sanskrit hṛd, and the corresponding Slavonic and Lithuanian names have the same origin.

From the orthography of it seems to have been connected in popular opinion with its position in the anterior part of the body. And from various uses of the word it appears to denote not merely the heart, but the heart with all that is attached to it, especially the lungs which embrace it. It is for instance to the that air is conducted according to the medical Papyri. And it is not improbable that and , organs of respiration, are closely connected words.

68But perhaps the best argument may be found in the Vignettes of chapter 28, where the two lungs are actually drawn as in the hieratic papyrus (Pl. 2) published by Sir Charles Nicholson. In others (as Leyden, T. 16) even the larynx is visible. (See Plate X.)

The Italian word corata is immortalised through its occurrence in a memorable passage in Dante (Inf., XXVIII), but for want of a better English term than the butcher’s technical word pluck^[44] I use the expression whole heart.

2. But, . This is the most frequent reading both in the earliest and in the latest papyri. But some texts have simply , which is certainly a mistake, and others omit the conjunction before the verb. The sense is not much affected by this omission. signifies if not, unless, until, but, but surely. Cf. the Semitic אִם־לֹא, ܐܷܠܴܐܷܠܴ, إلَّا

3. The mead of amaranthine flowers. ḳaiu is the name of a plant which frequently occurs in the medical prescriptions. It is also mentioned among the aromatic plants () required in the sacred laboratory of Dendera. One of the kinds is named ḳaiu of the Oasis . It is identified with the Coptic ⲕⲓⲟⲱⲩ, amaranthus. In several copies of this chapter the name of the plant is followed by the geographical determinative , which is really implied in the context. Was this mythological ‘mead of amaranth’ suggested by the Oasis and its vegetation?

4. This sentence is a repetition (in other words) of the preceding one. On the title Erpā, see Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch., XII, 359. My chief difficulty about understanding it as compounded of and , and signifying keeper of the Pāt, that is of the deceased (human beings), is that Seb is essentially the Erpā of the gods. Erpā is one of those titles which cannot be translated without perverting the sense of the original.

695. This passage is a very frequent formula not only in the Book of the Dead, as the papyri give it, but in other texts of the same nature; see, e.g., Aelteste Texte, 34, 14. The next passage included in [] is an addition to the original text. It occurs however in some excellent MSS.

O ye gods who seize upon Hearts, and who pluck out the Whole Heart; and whose hands fashion anew the Heart of a person according to what he hath done; lo now, let that be forgiven to him by you.(1)

Hail to you, O ye Lords of Everlasting Time and Eternity!

Let not my Heart be torn from me by your fingers.

Let not my Heart be fashioned anew according to all the evil things said against me.

For this Heart of mine is the Heart of the god of mighty names(2), of the great god whose words are in his members, and who giveth free course to his Heart which is within him.

And most keen of insight(3) is his Heart among the gods. Ho to me! Heart of mine; I am in possession of thee, I am thy master, and thou art by me; fall not away from me; I am the dictator to whom thou shalt obey in the Netherworld.

1. There is a great difference here as in so many other places between the MSS. of different periods. I long ago translated the of the Todtenbuch by non ignoretur a vobis, M. de Rougé, after me, by non renuatur a vobis. But M. Naville pointed out the fact that in some of the oldest MSS. the particle did not occur. It now appears that the particle is not found in any of the older MSS., and I have also found it omitted in hieratic papyri. The passage therefore must be translated differently, and this is possible through a slight change in the 70interpretation of from ignorare to ignoscere; ignoscatur illi a vobis. The pronoun which in the older texts follows , refers to ‘what he hath done’ of the last clause.

2. The god of mighty names is Thoth, and the later texts read “For this is the Heart of the great god who is in Hermopolis.”

3. , . According to another reading new, fresh, young, vigorous.

O Lion-god!

I am Unbu(1), and what I abominate is the block of execution.

Let not this Whole Heart of mine be torn from me by the divine Champions(2) in Heliopolis!

O thou who clothest(3) Osiris and hast seen Sutu:

O thou who turnest back after having smitten him, and hast accomplished the overthrow:

This Whole Heart of mine remaineth weeping over itself in presence of Osiris.

Its strength proceedeth from him, it hath obtained it by prayer from him.

I have had granted to it and awarded to it the glow of heart at the hour of the god of the Broad Face, and have offered the sacrificial cakes in Hermopolis.

Let not this Whole Heart of mine be torn from me.(4) It is I who entrust to you its place, and vehemently stir your Whole Hearts towards it in Sechit-hotepit and the years of triumph over all that it abhors and taking all provisions at thine appointed time from thine hand after thee.

71And this Whole Heart of mine is laid upon the tablets(5) of Tmu, who guideth me to the caverns of Sutu and who giveth me back my Whole Heart which hath accomplished its desire in presence of the divine Circle which is in the Netherworld.

The sacrificial joint and the funereal raiment, let those who find them bury them.(6)

1. Unbu, is one of the names of the solar god, the offspring (Todt., 42, 19) of Nu and Nut. As a common noun the word unbu means the Hawthorn or some other kind of flowering bush. This god is called ‘the golden Unbu’ in the Pyramid Texts (Teta 39). We have no means of determining the exact sense of this word, which as an appellative expresses an attribute possessed both by the Sun and by the fruit, foliage, or other parts of the tree.

2. Divine Champions. in the earlier papyri, in the later; and sometimes both readings occur in the same MS. Such determinatives as certainly do not denote very pugnacious qualities in the divine Champions.

3. Clothest. is a word of many meanings, and the context generally determines which is the right one. In the present instance we have no such help. Some of the more recent MSS. give , the determinative of clothing.

4. M. Pierret here breaks off his translation of the chapter, with the note: “La fin de ce chapitre est absolument inintelligible; les variantes des manuscrits hiératiques ne l’éclaircissent pas.”

Like many other portions of the book this chapter is hopelessly corrupt, and the scribes did not understand it better than we do. They have probably mixed up different recensions without regard to grammatical sense. The deceased addresses gods in the plural , but immediately afterwards we have the singular suffix .

725. Tablets or records. See Zeitschr., 1867, 50. The word already occurs in the Pyramid Texts, Pepi I, 364, in the sense of memory, , ‘his memory for man and his love for the gods.’

But there is another word, (Denkm., III, 65 a), which signifies a stand upon which objects are placed.

6. The last words of the chapter were extremely puzzling to the scribes of the later periods, who altered them in ever so many ways. The older MSS. read . And this is borrowed from an ancient text, which may be found on the sarcophagus of Horhotep, line 338. The variants , , of the papyri, and of the sarcophagus show that it is the sacrificial joint which is meant, and not a verb as the scribes of a later period thought. For this verb they had to discover an object and accordingly we find ‘I trod their caverns.’ was in like manner converted into a verb. See the introductory note to chapter 29.

Back thou Messenger(1) of thy god! Art thou come to carry off by violence(2) this Whole Heart of mine, of the LivingLiving XYZZY(3) But I shall not surrender to thee this Heart of the Living. The gods have regards to my offerings and fall upon their faces, all together, upon their own earth.

The two most ancient copies of this chapter are found upon the coffins of Amamu, Plate XXX, and of Horhotep, Mission Arch. 73Française au Caire, t. 1, p. 157, lines 335-337. The papyrus of Ani is the only one of the early period in which it occurs. None of these texts is perfect. A part of the text of Amamu has been destroyed, but there remains enough to show that Horhotep has omissions. And in the text of Ani the word has slipped in from the 28th chapter, and is entirely out of place where it now stands.

The scribes of a later period had to exercise their ingenuity on the subject. They changed ḫenṭu into ḫenȧ, and this being itself a disagreeable word, they prefixed to it a negative or .

1. Messenger, , a word used here and elsewhere in religious texts in the same sense as מַלְאָךְ an angel, ambassador of God. The later texts have ‘every god,’ by the change of into .

2. By violence, . Cf. , Harris Papyrus, 500, verso.

3. The Living and saved, in opposition to the Dead and damned. This plural form is a mere sign of a common noun.

I am the Heron, the Soul of Râ, who conduct the Glorious ones to the Tuat.

It is granted to their Souls to come forth upon the Earth to do whatsoever their Genius willeth.

It is granted to the soul of the Osiris N to come forth upon the Earth to do whatsoever his Genius willeth.

Certain chapters having reference to the Heart were written upon gems^[45] and served as amulets, the 26th upon Lapis-lazuli, the 27th upon green Felspar, the 30th upon Serpentine, and the foregoing chapter upon Carnelian.

M. Naville has called this chapter 29B, as marking its natural place in the Book of the Dead. It is not often found in the Papyri. M. Naville found one copy in the Berlin Papyrus of Nechtuamen, and another traced by Lepsius in Rome from a papyrus now lost. A third copy will be found in the papyrus of Ani^[46] in the British Museum. It differs from the two others in “conducting the gods to the Tuat,” and by omitting some words for which there was no room in the space provided.

Heart mine which is that of my Mother,

Whole Heart mine which was that of my coming upon Earth,

Let there be no estoppel against me through evidence; let not hindrance be made to me by the Divine Circle;(1) let there not be a fall of the scale(2) against me in presence of the great god, Lord of Amenta.

Hail to thee, Heart mine; Hail to thee, Whole Heart mine, Hail to thee, Liver(3) mine!

Hail to you, ye gods who are on the side lock, conspicuous by your sceptres,(4) announce my glory to Râ and convey it to NehebkauNehebkau.

[And lo, though he be buried in the deep deep Grave, and bowed down to the region of annihilation, he is glorified there(5).]

Heart mine which is that of my Mother,

Whole Heart mine which is that of my birth,

Let there be no estoppel against me through evidence, let no hindrance be made to me by the divine Circle; fall thou not against me in presence of him who is at the Balance.

Thou art my Genius, who art by me, the Artist(6) who givest soundness to my limbs.

Come forth(7) to the bliss^[47] towards which we are bound;

Let not those Ministrants(8) who deal with a man according to the course of his life(9) give a bad odour to my name.

Pleasant for us, pleasant for the listener, is the joy of the Weighing of the Words.

Let not lies be uttered in presence of the great god, Lord of the Amenta.

Lo! how great art thou [as the Triumphant one.(10)

This chapter is found not only on papyri but upon innumerable scarabs. The differences of text are very great, but the principal ones may be considered as represented by M. Naville’s 30A and 30B. They branch off from each other after the mention of the Balance.

The oldest copy known on a scarab is that of King Sebak-em-saf of the XIIIth dynasty. It is in the British Museum (No. 7876) and has been described by Dr. Birch in his study^[48] of the “Formulas relating to the heart.” “This amulet,” he says, “is of unusual shape; the body of the insect is made of a remarkably fine green jasper carved in shape of the body and head of the insect. This is inserted into a base of gold in shape of a tablet.... The legs of the insect are ... of gold and carved in relief.... The hieroglyphs are incised in outline, are coarse, and not very legible.”

1. The Divine Circle, . This word on the scarab of Sebak-em-saf is written , which shows that (a wall 76of enclosure) is ideographic of the whole word. And this sign in hieratic, when placed upright , has given rise to the , which takes its place in the later texts.

2. Fall of the scale, = the Coptic ⲣⲓⲕⲓ ⲛ̀ⲟⲩⲙⲁϣⲓ or the Greek ῥοπὴ τοῦ ζυγοῦ.

3. Liver; This seems to be the real meaning of .

4. These gods are mentioned in the Pyramid Texts in a passage closely resembling this one of the Book of the Dead. “They bring to Unas (line 479) the four Glorious ones who are on the side lock of Horus; who stand upon the Eastern side of Heaven, and who are conspicuous through their sceptres . They announce to Râ the glorious name of Unas, and proclaim (, cf. ⲟⲩⲱ, ⲉⲣⲟⲩⲱ) Unas to Neheb-kau.” The text of Teta is very imperfect in this place.

The word appears to have the sense of insignire, designare. This sense is a key to every passage in which the word occurs.

5. The few early copies of this paragraph are too fragmentary and too contradictory to furnish a restoration of the text, which must have meant something like what is expressed in this translation.

6. The Artist, , which is here a common noun rather than a proper name.

7. The deceased addresses his heart, and thereupon speaks in the first person plural, we; that is you and I.

8. The Ministrants. The were high officials in the Egyptian court, but here they minister to Osiris in the Netherworld. They are apparently the same gods who are addressed in the 27th Chapter as fashioning the heart of a person according to his deeds when living.

9. The determinative shows that is here to be taken in the sense of the duration of human life, and the pronominal 77suffixes or show whose life is spoken of. The latter suffix has reference to , which is accordingly to be translated in the singular. The plural sign merely indicates a common or collective noun.

10. As the Triumphant one. So Aa, the papyrus of Nebseni. Another authority (B.M. 7865) quoted by Dr. Birch has like Râ, the Triumphant One.

The formula “How great art thou!” occurs in other primitive texts; cf. Aelteste Texte, Pl. 5, lines 7 and 8. In line 8 it occurs twice.

Back, in retreat! Back, Crocodile Sui! Come not against me, who live by the Words of Power.(1)

I utter(2) that Name of the great god, who granteth that two of his Messengers^[49] should come; the name of one is Batta(3), and the name of the other is Thine Aspect is Fixed Law.(4)

Heaven determineth(5) its hour; my Word of Power determineth all that which concerneth it; and my mouth determineth my Word of Power. I eat, and my teeth are like flint, and my grinders are like the Cliff of Tuf.(6)

O thou who art sitting(7) with a watchful eye against this my Word of Power; do not thou carry it off, O Crocodile who livest by thine own Word of Power.

This chapter is but rarely found in the more ancient collections. It was on the coffin of Queen Mentuhotep, but M. Naville gives the readings of only two early papyri. The later recensions add a text which we shall find later on in chapter 69, and which has no connection whatever with the present chapter.

781. The Words of Power are supplied to the deceased by Thoth in chapter 23.

2. The Turin text and those which agree with it read “Do not thou utter,” as if the Crocodile were about to use the Word of Power. I read . The was first corrupted into , and was farther improved into , which in its turn necessitated the addition of a suffix of the second person.

3. This name was changed in the later texts to the more familiar one of the divine Ape Benit.

4. Fixed Law, or . The central idea of theology in the Book of the Dead is that of Regularity, whether in permanence or change. Those things alone are divine which abide unceasingly or which recur in accordance with undeviating rule.

5. Determineth. The word here, as in other places, has the sense of circumscribing, as in a circuit , prescribing the limits, fixing and determining.

6. The Cliff of Tuf , literally ‘his cliff,’ namely of Anubis, in allusion to his frequent title .

7. Sitting. Here I follow Pc and the papyri generally in reading . The scribe of Ca seems to have been thinking of of a well-known magic text (Unas, 320).

Osiris standeth up upon his feet;(1) his company of gods raise him up.

O Son who conversest with thy father, do thou protect this Great one from these four(2) crocodiles here who devour the dead and live by the Words of Power.

79I know them by their names and their way of living, and it is I who protect his own father from them.

Back, thou Crocodile of the West, who livest on the Setting Stars.(3) What thou execratest is upon me. Thou hast devoured the head of Osiris, but I am Rā.(4)

Back, thou Crocodile of the East, who livest upon those who devour their own foulness. What thou execratest is upon me. I have come, and I am Osiris.

Back, thou Crocodile of the South, who livest upon impurities. What thou execratest is upon me. Let not the red flame be upon thee. For I am Septu.(5)

Back, thou Crocodile of the North, who livest upon that which lieth between the hours(6). What thou execratest is upon me. Let not thy fiery water be inflicted upon me. [For I am Tmu.(7)]

All things which exist are in my grasp, and those depend upon me which are not yet.

I am arrayed and equipped with thy Words of Power, O Rā; with that which is above and with that which is below me.

I have received increase of length and depth, and fulness of breathing within the domain of my father, the Great one.

He hath given to me that beautiful Amenta in which the living are destroyed. But strong is its possessor though he faint in it daily.

My face is unveiled, and my heart is in its place.

The Uræus is upon me daily.

I am Rā, who protecteth himself, and no evil things can overthrow me.

This chapter is in even worse condition than the one which precedes it. There are a few scraps of it on a coffin at St. Petersburg which M. Golenischeff assigns to the earliest period. The only early MS. which is of any use, Ba, the Berlin papyrus of Nechtuamon, is here in a very mutilated condition, as may be seen on referring to M. Naville’s edition.

1. Osiris standeth up upon his feet. So Ba; but the coffin at St. Petersburg lends its support to the text of Bekenrenef (of the] 8026th Dynasty), which opens the chapter with the name of a crocodile . “Let the Great one fall upon his belly”!

2. The ancient text had only four crocodiles, and only four are mentioned in the text of Bekenrenef. The Turin text speaks of eight; two for each of the cardinal points. But the Saitic text already has two invocations instead of one for each crocodile.

3. The sense of this myth is obvious. Every star which sets is supposed to be swallowed by the Crocodile of the West. It was stated in note 3 to chapter 15 that the are stars.^[50] Besides the the stars which set and the the circumpolar stars, whose navigation ⲥⲱⲕ is continuous, there are the whose name is very significant. and have the sense of turning back,^[51] and the only stars whose apparent motion is ever retrograde are the planets.

All these stars are supposed as divinities to aid in the navigation of the Bark of Rā. The Egyptians could not have had a correct planetary theory (which only became possible through Kepler), but they understood at least that the motions of the planets were regular, and that they depended upon the Sun. Eudoxus is reported to have derived the data for his theory from his Egyptian instructors.

4. Instead of Rā the name of Sut is found in the later texts. Bekenrenef has .

815. Septu, , , the ‘armed,’ one of the Solar appellations, already found in the Pyramid texts (Unas, 281). He appears in chapter 130, 7, in connection with the block of execution.

6. The text is here hopelessly corrupt. M. Pierret has ‘offrande,’ which he most probably derives from or , a reading found in some papyri. But Ba, our oldest authority, has , and Bekenrenef has . The Turin copy has ; and the context does not help us. Of these four readings (and there are probably others which I do not know) that of Bekenrenef seems to me the best; but has so many possible applications that I will not venture to suggest one.

7. [I am Tmu.] These words are not in Ba, but they occur in all other copies, and the omission of the divine name which stops the crocodile is an evident fault.

The chapter ends here, and what follows is an addition for which our earliest authority is that of Bekenrenef. But even this text is already corrupt, and requires to be corrected by more recent ones.

Oh serpent Rerek, advance not! Here are the gods Seb and Shu!

Stop! or thou shalt eat the rat which Rā execrateth, and gnaw the bones of a putrid she-cat.

This chapter is often found in coffins. There is a chapter much resembling it in the tomb of Horhotep (line 364), at least as regards the opening words. It addresses Rerek and tells him that Shu and another deity are coming, and that the speaker is Horus. No allusion, however, is made to the dead rat and cat. These typify the impurities and abominations to which the damned are liable in the world to come.

O Uræus! I am the Flame which shineth, and which openeth out eternity,(2) the column of Tenpua(3) [otherwise said—the column on which are blossoming plants.]

Away from me! I am the Lynx goddess.(4)

1. It is not possible to say what is here actually meant by ḥat. Every word almost in this tiny chapter was a puzzle to the Egyptian scribes, who altered the text in a hundred ways. The Turin text provides against the persons being bitten by the Eater of the head, , instead of as even Bekenrenef has it.

2. Open out Eternity . This is the oldest and most approved reading even in later times. But in Pe the flame ‘shineth on the brow of the Glorified ones.’

3. A quite unknown deity and most probably a mere blunder. The MS. which contains it, Ca, suggests another reading Tenpua with , the determinative of plants. This not proving satisfactory, renpit was substituted. But all this was mere conjectural emendation.

4. The Lynx goddess, Maftit. The name of this deity is generally translated Lynx, and it is certainly applied to an animal of the feline species closely resembling the cat. But the notion expressed by the name is that of swift speed . (See Dümichen, Rec. IV, 100, where this verb is in parallel with others of the same sense.)

This deity is again mentioned in the 39th chapter as taking part in the conflict with the dragon of darkness, and it is named in the strange magic formulæ already found in the Pyramid texts. She is 83called (Teta 310), and she apparently defends the deceased (ib., l. 303) against two serpent divinities, one of whom at least, T’eser-ṭepu (praeclaro capite), is known to us as one of the forty-two assessors of Osiris (Todtenbuch, 125-33).

Oh Shu, here is Tattu, and conversely, under the wig(1) of Hathor. They scent(2) Osiris.

Here is the one who is to devour me. They wait apart.(3) The serpent Seksek passeth over me.

Here are wormwood bruised(4) and reeds.

Osiris is he who prayeth that he may be buried.

The eyes of the Great One are bent down, and he doth for thee the work of cleansing;(5) marking out what is conformable to law and balancing the issues.(6)

The translator of this chapter cannot pretend to do more than give an accurate meaning to each word. The true sense of the chapter must have been lost when the earliest copies known to us were written.

1. Wig, . The head-dress of the gods is one of the mythical forms of representing the light cloud at sunrise or sunset, in which the deity is pileatus.

2. Scent, . The Egyptian word is also used for nursing, putting to sleep, probably through influencing the breathing.breathing. The nose as a determinative is used in the different senses of the word.

843. They wait apart. The early MSS. do not agree here in a single word, and they defy translation. The later MSS. are scarcely less discordant. is to alight, rest, and this must also be the meaning of . is connected with . ⲛⲉϩ in the sense of dispersing, separating.

4. Bruised, or trodden. There being no rational context it is impossible to fix the sense of a word like , which may mean either guard or bruise by beating or treading down.

5. Cleansing or . The result of the process is certainly cleansing, but the operation itself is generally supposed to be washing. This agrees with the Coptic ⲣⲁϩⲧ a fuller, of which the old Egyptian form is . But ⲣⲁϩⲧ has also the sense of beating, and the operation is in many countries thought to be one of the most important duties of washerwomen. With this sense of the word I would connect the names Rechit given to Isis and Nephthys, as signifying ‘mourners.’ Compare the Greek τύπτεσθαί τινα, κόπτεσθαί τινα, to mourn a person, and the Latin plangere.

6. Balancing the issues . The first of these words is unambiguous. signifies literally ‘standing,’ like status, or στάσις, and like those words also signifies position, situation, condition, circumstances, and also the point at issue, the question to be decided.

A well known passage in Cicero’s Topics (93, c. 35) may be quoted here: “Refutatio accusationis, in quae est depositio criminis, Graece στάσις dicitur, Latine status appelletur: in quo insistit, quasi ad repugnandum congressa defensio.”

Perhaps the passage in chapter 30 B, in which “the divine ministrants are said to deal with a man” according to his may have reference to the circumstances of his life.

Chapters like this, however worthless in themselves, contain small fragments highly illustrative of the ideas of the Egyptians at an extremely remote period.

Away from me, thou with parted lips! I am Chnemu, the Lord of Shennu, who am bringing the words of the gods to Rā. And I announce the news to Nebes.

The insect called āpšai or āpsȧit is difficult of identification. It is certainly not a tortoise as was formerly thought, but looks rather like the voracious Blatta orientalis. The form in Le is peculiar, but I have met it in a later papyrus. The last word of the chapter is doubtful. The most recent papyri have ‘their Lord,’ which gives a very good sense, but even the Turin copy has ‘her Lord’ which agrees with the oldest papyrus. Bekenrenef has Nebes, a lion-headed goddess.

Hail ye Pair of goddesses Merta, Sister Pair, Merta!(1) I inform you of my Words of Power.

It is I who rise up from the Sektit boat. I am Horus the son of Isis, and I am come to see my father, Osiris.

1. The Pair of goddesses consists of Isis and Nephthys , Rehetȧ, as the word is written at Denderah. , Mertȧ signifies two eyes.

I am the god in Lion form; the heir of Râ and Tmu in Chemmis,(1) the Master in their halls.

Those who are in their cells(2) accompany me as guides. I have made my way and gone round the heavenly Ocean on the path of the Bark of Râ, and standing on the girders^[52] of the Bark of Râ.

I utter his words to the men of the present generation^[53] and I repeat his words to him who is deprived of breath.(3)

I spy out for my father Râ at sunset, compressing my mouth,(4) and feeding upon life.

I live in Tattu, and I repeat my life after death like the Sun daily.

There are two recensions of this chapter, and both are found in the papyrus Lb. They are called by M. Naville, 38A and 38B. The latter is that adopted as canonical by all the manuscripts of a later date, and is the one here translated. The other recension is longer, and contains passages which are also found in other chapters, to which it accordingly furnishes important variants. It may possibly be older than those chapters.

1. In Chemmis. The name of the place where Isis gave birth to Horus is in the Pyramid texts written (Pepi I, 428), and (Merenra I, 683), aḫ-ḫebit or ḫebit-aḫ; but simply ḫebit in the texts of the eighteenth dynasty, as in the annals of Thothmes III (Mariette, Karnakc pl. 16, line 47),^[54] or in the divine and 87proper names , , , , and , , . It is certain therefore that the sign is here only an ideogram of , not of the ancient . From the eighteenth dynasty at least, and for a time belonging to a period of unknown length between the sixth and the eighteenth dynasties, and for ever afterwards, the name of the place was Ḫebit, where, as the Tablet of the Dream says, (Mariette, Mon. div., pl. 7).

2. In their cells: . Here 38A has: in their shrines, followed in some papyri by “I fraternize with Horus and Sut.”

3. Deprived of breath, ‘the dead.’ In 38A, the privation of breath is mentioned but in a different connection. But the text of the passage is uncertain. Here as in chapter 41, ‘the Breathless one’ is Osiris.

4. Compressing my mouth: is the ancient reading, not , as in the more recent texts. The same observation applies to the name of the god in chapter 125, 15.

Back! down with thee, stabber(1) from Apepi! Drown in the lake of Heaven, in the spot wherein thy father ordered that thy 88murder should be carried out. Away from this birth-place of Râ, the god encompassed by^[55] his terrors.

I am Râ, encompassed by his terrors.

Back! the dark demon and the sword which he maketh to flash!

Râ flingeth down thy words; thy face is twisted round by the gods; thy whole heart is torn out by the Lynx goddess; chains are flung upon thee by the Scorpion goddess; and slaughter is dealt upon thee by Maāt.

The gods who are on the roads overthrow thee.

Apep falleth down, the enemy of Râ.

O thou who removest the bolt from the East of Heaven at the stormy voice of bellowings, and openest the gates of the Horizon before Râ: he cometh forth fainting from the wounds.

I am a doer of thy will, I am a doer of thy will, O Râ.

I have done well, I have done well; I have done to the satisfaction of Râ.

And I raise shouts of acclamation at thy success at fettering, O Râ. Apep is fallen and is in bonds.

The gods of the South, the North, the West and the East bind him; their bonds are upon him. Aker(2) overthroweth him, and the lord of the ruddy sky doth bind him.

Râ is satisfied; Râ is satisfied; Râ maketh his progress peacefully.

Apep falleth; Apep goeth down; the enemy of Râ. And more grave for thee is the proof(3) than that sweet proof through the Scorpion goddess, which she practised for thee, in the pain which she suffered...(4).

Be thou emasculate, O Apep, enemy of Râ; be thou repulsed whom Râ hateth; look behind thee: a chopper is over thy head to divide it into two parts, and those who are above thy head assail it. Thy bones are broken, thy limbs are severed under the direction of Aker, O Apep, enemy of Râ.

Thy boatmen [O Râ], succeed in measuring out thy path, and a journey, with which thou art satisfied; a progress, a progress 89towards home; and the progress which thou hast made towards home is a fair progress.

Let no evil hindrances come forth against me from thy mouth in what thou doest towards me.

I am Sutu, who causeth the storms and tempests, and who goeth round in the Horizon of Heaven, like to one whose heart is veiled.

Tmu saith: Let your countenances be raised up, ye soldiers of Râ, and drive back Nebtu in presence of the Divine Circle.

Seb saith: establish those who are upon their thrones in the middle of the Bark of Chepera; seize your shields and spears, and hold them in your hands.

Hathor saith: Seize your daggers.

Nut saith: Come and drive back Nebtu, who cometh against him who dwelleth in his shrine, and maketh his voyage in solitary guise: the Inviolate god, the resistless one.

O ye gods in your Divine cycles, who travel round the lake of Emerald, come and defend the Great one who is in the shrine from which all the Divine cycle proceedeth. Let glory be ascribed to him, and let honour be given to him. Oh then, proclaim him with me.

Nut saith, the mother of the gods: He cometh forth and findeth his path, and maketh captures of the gods; he hath the first place in the two houses of Nut.

Seb standeth still, the great cycle of the gods is in terror, Hathor is under terror, and Râ is triumphant over Apep.

The extreme uncertainty of the text is such that no translation at present can be other than conjectural.

1. Back, down with thee, Stabber. The first word is clear enough; not so the two next.

Are we to read , or ? for each of M. Naville’s authorities gives a different word. The last of these readings has some support in a subsequent passage, but almost all copies have . There has evidently been a confusion between and , and the determinative of the latter 90word has been transferred to the first. I believe that the true word is which is used in the ancient forms of conjuration (see the texts of Unas, 304, 311, 542, 545, 554, etc.). It is always used in expressions of lying down or falling down , , and it is also found in parallelism with .

without a determinative is susceptible of different meanings, and the very recent texts have it written with the determinative of motion or , as significant of retreat. But the oldest determinative in this place is , and this inclines me to identify the word with , and translate it ‘stabber.’ But this is mere conjecture. See note 5 on chapter 40.

2. Akar. The older MSS. differ hopelessly from each other as to the name of the god.

In order to understand the nature of the god Akar, we have to imagine a tunnel starting from the spot where the sun sets, and extending through the earth as far as where the sun rises. Each end of the tunnel has a sphinx-like form. A human-headed lion stands at the entrance and also at the terminus. It is through the paws of this double sphinx that the galley of the Sungod enters on the Western horizon and comes out on the Eastern.

In the picture Plate XV, taken from the tomb of Rameses IV, , Fair Entrance, is written at one end of the tunnel; , Fair Exit, at the other. As the solar bark could not be represented inside the dark tunnel, it is placed above.

3. The proof. Lit. the taste, ṭepit, with the tongue as a determinative, in the sense of a probe. The hand of an Egyptian hero is said to taste his enemy. In the Bremner Papyrus the god tastes Apep four times. The same conception is found in the Homeric poems,

though in Greek the taste comes generally to the patient rather than to the agent.

914. This passage, which would be most interesting if we could only get it accurately, is wretchedly corrupt. It is impossible from the variants to obtain a text grammatically intelligible. The Scorpion goddess is Isis.

Back, serpent Haiu,(1) whom Osiris execrateth. May Thoth cut off thy head, and may there accrue to me whatsoever property proceedeth from thee [according to] what was decreed against thee by the Company of the gods for the accomplishment of thy slaughter.

Back, thou whom Osiris execrateth, from the Neshemet galley, which saileth towards the south with favourable breeze.

Pure are ye, all ye gods who overthrow the enemy of Osiris.

The gods upon the larboard utter loud acclamation.

Back, thou Eater of the Ass, whom the god Chas,(2) who is in the Tuat, execrateth.

Know me! (Repeated four times).

“Who art thou?”

I am....^[57]

Down upon thy face!(3) thou who art eating at my sanctuary.

I am the Season, which cometh at its own will.

“Come not against me; thou who comest without being called, and who art unknown.”

I am the master of thine utterance, and the check upon thy pride.(4)

O Ha-as, whose horns(5) Horus doth cut: by my children, the cycle of gods in Pu and Tepit, thou art severed from thy fold and thy fold is severed from thee.

And he who cutteth thee off cometh forth as the Eye of Horus; thou art kept back and assailed, and stopped(6) by the breath of my speech.

92O thou god who devourest all wrong, and carriest off with violence;(7) there is no wrong in me, my tablets(8) are free from wrong. Let me not suffer violence before the Divine Circle; let not disaster be hurled upon me.

I am he who giveth or taketh according to thy behest.

Let not N be seized, let him not be devoured.(9)

He is Possessor of Life, and Sovereign Lord(10) on the Horizon.

The translation of this chapter is based upon the important papyrus T 5 of Leyden, known as Lb. This is the only MS. which contains the whole chapter. All other copies begin after the sixth line. The usual chapter begins in Lb with a , which is the ordinary way of indicating a various reading. But the difference of reading applies rather to a mere paragraph than to the whole chapter. In this case we should expect or something equivalent.

The Eater of the Ass is a Serpent, but who is the Ass?

Here, as in each case of mythological name, the animal is not meant, but something which is connoted by it. The name of the ass is given to it in consequence of one of its characteristics. It is . But this is one of the seventy-five names of the Sun-god in the Solar Litany.^[58] And he derives this appellation from his fructifying power.

But if the Ass is the Sun, who is the Eater of the Ass? This must be Darkness or Eclipse of some kind.

1. Haiu, the serpent who devours the sun, is undoubtedly the same as Haiu, the serpent who in the Pyramid texts is ordered to lie down (Unas, 545, &c.), and cease from his attacks.

2. The god Chas, .

3. The usual chapter begins here. The text of Lb has generally been followed, but in some places later authorities have been preferred.

4. Pride or boastings, ānta, “glory,” cf. glorior. The speaker addresses his adversary as being a miles gloriosus.

935. Horns or barbed hooks, , or . The horns here spoken of, as possessed by a viper, are those of the deadly Cerastes, which are spines projecting from the arched eye-brows of the creature. See picture in Long’s Egyptian Antiquities of British Museum, II, p. 316, copied from the great French work.

But the Sun-god is also called in his Litany^[59] . And a picture of the god^[60] under the name exhibits him as characterized by a pair of hooked weapons, suggested apparently by the mandibles of a beetle.

6. Stopped. There are three important variants here , , and . And the last of these is possibly a corrupt reading from . The first two are synonymous. may in certain contexts mean destroy, but it only signifies ‘bring to a limit, to an end, stop,’ like the τερ in τερ-μα, ter-min-o. It is used in many cases, such as the staunching of blood, where no destruction is intended. is stop in thy place.

7. There is a picture in Denkm., III, 279, of the god who carrieth off with violence . But it is a mummied form holding the T’ām sceptre.

8. Tablets, . These are the tablets on which Thoth has written down the evidence taken at the Weighing of the Words, the examination at the Psychostasia. They are mentioned again at the end of Chapter 41.

9. Here I follow the general authority of the later texts.

10. Sovereign Lord . This word is closely connected, and was so from the first, with ‘seize.’ The best commentary upon it may be derived from the legal terms usucapio, saisine, seisin. The Sovereign Lord of Egypt is in our current legal phrase “seized of the Two Earths,” that is of the whole Universe, North and South.

O Tmu, let me be glorified in presence of the god in Lion form, the great god; that he may open to me the gate of Seb.

I prostrate myself to earth to the great god who is in the Netherworld. Let me be introduced into the presence of the company of gods who preside over those who are in Amenta.

O thou who art at the gate of Tebat; god with the Red Crown,(1) who art in Amenta; let me feed, let me live by the breath of air and accompany the great Cleaver,(2) and the Bark of Chepera.

Let me speak to the divine Boatman at the gloaming, let me enter in and let me go out; that I may see who is there; that I may raise him up and speak my words to him.

O Breathless one:(3) Let me live and be saved after death.

O thou Bearer of peace offerings, who openest thy mouth for the presentation of the tablets,(4) for the acceptation(5) of the offerings and for the establishment of Maāt upon her throne; let the tablets be brought forward, and let the goddess be firmly established.

I am Osiris, the great god, the eternal king, who numbereth his seasons and who lifted up his right arm, who judgeth the great ones and giveth mission to the gods of the great Circle(6) which is in the Netherworld.

The most noteworthy difference between the older recension of this chapter and that of the Saitic and later periods is that in the latter the god addressed at the opening is Osiris Unneferu, who is identified with Tmu. In the older recensions the identification may be seen in another way. Tmu is the god invoked, and in answer he says that he is Osiris, the great god.

1. God with the Red Crown is , one of titles of Osiris with the crown. See Plate XV from Lefébure, Tombeau de Seti I, part IV, pl. 34. This title, derived from the crown , is Net-tȧ or Nait-tȧ. It was borne by the high 95priest at Coptos (Brugsch, Dict. Geogr., pp. 1374, 1377), and the King of Egypt derived his title from the Crown of the North which he wore as representing Osiris, or rather the heir of Osiris, Horus.

2. The great Cleaver, , the name of the god who cleaves his path through the sky.

3. Breathless one, Osiris.

4. Thoth is the person here addressed, and the speaker is Osiris. The tablets are those containing the evidence at the trial at the Balance.

5. Acceptation peḳa, besides the physical sense of comprehendere, ‘to lay hold of’ with the hands, has that of ‘taking in, embracing with the mind,’ and perhaps ‘setting forth in words.’

6. On the Sarcophagus of Seti (Bonomi, pl. 3. D), and the other copies of the same text, there is a picture of these . Such is the title written over them. But the text speaks of them as .

Land of the Rod, of the White Crown of the Image, and the Pedestal of the gods.

I am the Babe.(2) (Said Four Times.)

O Serpent Abur!(3) Thou sayest this day, “The Block of Execution is furnished with what thou knowest,” and thou art come to soil(4) the Mighty One.

But I am he whose honours are abiding.

I am the Link,(5) the god within the Tamarisk,(6) who connecteth(7) the Solar orb with Yesterday. (Four Times.)

I am Râ, whose honours are abiding.

I am the Link, the god within the Tamarisk.

96My course is the course of Râ, and the course of Râ is my course.

My hair is that of Nu,(8)

My two eyes are those of Hathor,

My two ears those of Apuat,

My nose that of Chenti-chas,

My two lips those of Anubis,

My teeth those of Selkit,

My neck that of Isis, the Mighty,

My two hands those of the Soul most Mighty, Lord of Tattu,

My shoulders those of Neith, Mistress of Sais,

My back is that of Sut,

My phallus that of Osiris,

My liver is that of the Lords of Cher-ābat,

My knees those of the most Mighty one,

My belly and my back are those of Sechit,

My hinder parts are those of the Eye of Horus,

My legs and thighs those of Nut,

My feet those of Ptah,

My nails and bones those of the Living UræiUræi.

There is not a limb in me which is without a god. And Thoth is a protection to my flesh.

I shall not be grasped by my arms or seized by my hands.

Not men or gods, or the glorified ones or the damned; not generations past, present, or future, shall inflict any injury upon me.

I am he who cometh forth and proceedeth, and whose name is unknown to man.

I am Yesterday, “Witness of Eternity” is my Name: the persistent traveller upon the heavenly highways which I survey. I am the Everlasting one.

I am felt and thought of as Chepera. I am the Crowned one.

I am the Dweller in the Eye and in the Egg.

It is an attribute of mine that I live within them.

I am the Dweller in the Eye, even in its closing.

I am that by which it is supported.

I come forth and I rise up: I enter and I have life.

I am the Dweller in the Eye; my seat is upon my throne, and I sit conspicuously upon it.

I am Horus, who steppeth onwards through Eternity.

97I have instituted the throne of which I am the master.

As regards my mouth: whether in speech or in silence, I am right and fair.

As regards my attributes: I hasten headlong, I the god Unen,^[61] with all that pertaineth to me, hour proceeding from hour, the One proceeding from the One, in my course.

I am the Dweller in the Eye; no evil or calamitous things befall me.

It is I who open the gates of Heaven; it is I who am master of the throne, and who open the series of births upon this day.

I am thethe Babe, who treadeth his path of Yesterday.

I am “This Day” to generation of men after generation.

I am he who giveth you stableness for eternity, whether ye be in heaven or upon earth; in the South or in the North, in the West or in the East—and the fear of me is upon you.

I am he who fashioneth with his eye, and who dieth not a second time.

A moment of mine belongeth to you, but my attributes belong to my own domain.

I am the Unknown one, but the gods of Ruddy Countenance belong to me.

I am the Gladsome one, and no time hath been found, but served to create for me the Heaven and the increase of Earth, and the increase of their offspring.

They sever and join not—they sever my name from all evil things, according to the words which I say unto you.

It is I who rise up and shine forth; strength proceeding from strength(9), the One proceeding from the One.

There is not a day devoid of that which belongeth to it; for ever and for ever(10).

I am Unbu,^[62] who proceedeth from Nu, and my mother is Nut.

O thou who hast set me in motion(11)! for I was motionless, a mighty link within the close of Yesterday; my present activity is a link within the close of my hand.

I am not known, but I am one who knoweth thee.

I am not to be grasped, but I am one who graspeth thee.

[Oh Dweller in the Egg! Oh Dweller in the Egg!]

98I am Horus, Prince of Eternity, a fire before your faces, which inflameth your hearts towards me.

I am master of my throne and I pass onwards. The present time is the path which I have opened, and I have set myself free from all things evil.

I am the golden Cynocephalus, three palms in height, without legs or arms in the Temple of Ptah(12); and my course is the course of the golden Cynocephalus, three palms in height, without legs or arms in the Temple of Ptah.

This chapter is in itself most interesting, and it is one of the most important as illustrative of Egyptian mythology. It is impossible at present to explain every detail, but the general drift of the chapter is not to be mistaken. And the same drift is to be recognised in the whole course of Egyptian religious literature from the beginning.

The speaker throughout identifies himself with the divinity whose manifestation is the Sun; he is not the Sun of this or that moment but of Yesterday, To-day and of all eternity, the “One proceeding from the One.”

1. Sutenḥenen. The later texts say the “Netherworld.”

2. The Babe , an appellative applied to the rising Sun. See Brugsch, Rev. II, pl. 71, 3, where this babe is compared to the Lotus coming forth from the great stream .

The word signifies that which is “lifted up,” “un élève,” .

3. Serpent Ab-ur . The two important MSS. Ca and Pb seem to imply a female personage, but as the verb in connection with the name is masculine the final cannot be meant for a feminine ending, and it is peculiar to those two MSS. Ȧb-ur “the very thirsty,” as the appellative of a viper, recalls that of the διψάς, whose bite caused intense thirst. But it may have 99originated in the fact that these reptiles are in the habit of lying in wait by the water side for the sake of the animals who come there to drink.

4. To soil: is the type of the word in the earlier texts. The late ones have the well known .

5. The Link . Another appellative of the Sun god, applied to Tmu and Horus in the oldest texts. The notion of is that of concatenation, connecting, combining, fastening, binding, setting in order together, σύνταγμα, σύνταξις, as in nectere coronam. Hence its occurrence in words signifying ‘the vertebral column,’ ‘a row of teeth,’ ‘a chain of hills,’ ‘a body of troops’ (σύνταγμα ἱππέων or πέζων), or their ‘captains,’ literary ‘composition’ (Pap. Prisse V, 6), and the seven divine οἱ συντάσσοντες, the first authors of artistic composition. See note to chapter 71.

6. The god within the Tamarisk. The rising sun under his various names is frequently represented as being in a tree or bush, which partly conceals him. This is a mythological way of treating the light cloud or mist which so commonly accompanies the sun’s first appearance. Tamarisk is only a provisional translation of . The god Apuat, who is identical with Osiris, is said in the Pyramid Texts (Unas 107, Teta 66) to come forth from the .

7. Who connecteth. This I believe to be the sense of if the next word is . But the text is quite uncertain.

is a rope or cable (Bonomi, Sarc. II, c, 34), and like the Latin copula or the Semitic חבל, حبل has the sense of tie, bond, connection.^[63]

100When the prince of Tennu (Berlin Pap. 1, line 31) proposed a family alliance to Senehat, he said to him lie-toi avec moi! And he gave him his daughter to wife.

In the expression , nefrit signifies continuously, connectedly, and the sense of until is only completed by the addition of the preposition .

Instead of ‘the Solar orb,’ some MSS. read , , , or and in each of these cases must be understood as an adjective raised to the comparative degree by the preposition : “More beautiful [my] splendour (colour, hair or veil) than Yesterday.” None of these readings seem very attractive.

8. Here follows the identification of the limbs of the deceased person with those of various gods. There are many similar texts belonging to all the periods of the Egyptian religion. For the Pyramid Texts, see e.g. Unas, line 218 &c., ib. line 570, &c., Pepi I, line 565, &c. Compare the Coffin of Amamu, pl. XXIV, line 11, &c., Naville, Litanie de Râ, p. 96, and Golenischeff, Metternichstele, lines 9-35.

9. Strength , literally a wall or tower, like the מגדל־עז of Ps. XI, 4.

10. ‘continuously, continuously.’

11. The interjection seems to imply that a second person is addressed. The passage would otherwise be translated, “I have set myself in motion,” which would be more consistent with the doctrine contained in this chapter.

12. All the more recent copies have , the Sanctuary of Ptah at Memphis.

13. Âbaba-k ṭer-ek. This is only one of the readings of a formula which had soon become utterly unintelligible to the copyists. Hieratic copies like Louvre 3079, published by M. de Rougé, B.M. 10,257 (Rollin) and Leyden, T. 16, record several conjectural emendations, to which modern scholars might add others, were they so disposed.

I am a Prince, the son of a Prince; a Flame, the Son of a Flame, whose head is restored to him after it hath been cut off.

The head of Osiris is not taken from him, and my head shall not be taken from me.

I raise myself up, I renew myself, and I grow young again.

I am Osiris.

An early recension of this chapter is found in the tomb of Horhotep (Miss. Arch. II, p. 159), and an apparent reference on the Coffin of Amamu.

Let the Cavern of Putrata(1) be opened for me, where the dead fall into the darkness, but the Eye of Horus supporteth me, and Apuat reareth me up. I hide myself among you, O ye Stars that set not. My front is that of Râ, my face is revealed, according to the words of Thoth; my heart is in its place, my speech is intelligent.

I am Râ himself, I am not to be ignored, I am not to be molested.

Thy father liveth for thee, O Son of Nut! I am thy son Horus, I see thy mysteries, and am crowned as King of the gods. I die not a second time in the Netherworld.

1. Putrata or . This name has disappeared in nearly all the MSS. It is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts (Pepi I, 332, Merirā 635) as a lake traversed by the glorified personage.

Here is the Osiris N., motionless, motionless like Osiris; motionless his limbs like Osiris—let them not remain motionless, let them not corrupt. They move not, they stir not: be it done for me as for Osiris. I am Osiris.

Oh ye recent offspring of Shu, who dawn after dawn is possessor of his diadem at sunrise; ye future generations of men, my springing forth^[64] is the springing forth of Osiris.

This chapter is addressed to the hammemit, who are known from other quarters to be human beings, as the younglings of the god Shu. But the reference is not to men who have yet lived upon the earth. They are spoken of as men of a future generation. Queen Hatshepsu on her obelisk when speaking of them connects them with the period of 120 years, that is as if we said “men of the next century.” Before their appearance upon the earth they circle round the Sun, and the glorified dead hold converse with them (chapter 124, 6124, 6).

The Egyptians, like many other ancient nations, held the doctrine of the preexistence of souls. They held it not like philosophers or poets, but as an article of their popular and traditional creed.

Chair and Throne of mine, which are coming to me and circling round to me; divine ones!

103I am a noble Sāhu(1), grant that I may become one of those who follow the great god.

I am the Son of Maāt, and wrong is what I execrate.

I am the Victorious one.

Note.

1. Sāḥu is not a mummy, as it is sometimes rendered, but a living personality in mummied form.

The four(1) fastenings of the hinder part of my head are fastened.

He who is in heaven it was who made firm the fastening for him who was fainting upon his two haunches on that day when the fleece was shorn.

The fastenings of the hinder part of my head were fastened by Sutu and the company of gods in his first triumph. Let there be no disaster. Preserve me safe from him who slew my father.

I am seized of the ‘Two Earths.’

The fastenings of the hinder part of my head were fastened by Nu, on the first time of my beholding the Law in virtue of which the gods and their symbols(2) come into existence.

I am the Heedful one, and become the executioner for you, ye great gods(3).

The antiquity of the chapter is proved by its occurrence on the second coffin of Mentuhotep; but its condition there is such that no one can read it who is not already familiar with it from other sources. It begins, Aelteste Texte, p. 22, line 34, and goes on till the red letters at line 50. The text, in spite of its importance, is very inaccurate.

1041. The four fastenings. The number four is only found in the oldest copies. The later copies have a different text. It is impossible to say what kind of fastening is meant. might be a ligament or a vertebra—though more probably the latter. But it might be a combination of several pieces. is the occiput, and this suggests the hypothesis of cervical vertebrae. But the number of these is not four but seven. Of these three are peculiar; the Atlas which supports the head, the Axis upon which the head turns, and the Vertebra prominens with its long spinal process. But see the Vignette of chapter 42 from Pd where four vertebrae are figured.

2. Symbols, or symbolical representations, or .

3. The Heedful one , perhaps , Unas 584, Pepi I, 199 and 667.

I execrate, I execrate, I do not eat it.

That which I execrate is dirt. I eat it not, that I may appease my Genius.

Let me not fall into it; let me not approach it with my hands, let me not tread upon it with my sandals.

The Chapters numbered 51 and 52 are not found in the most ancient papyri, but the substance of them and their formulas are met with on the ancient coffins^[65] and in the Pyramid texts. See, for instance, Unas 189, Teta 68, with M. Maspero’s note on the latter text. I do not, however, believe, as M. Maspero does, that these texts convey the idea “so frequent[!] among half-civilised peoples, 105of another life in which the deceased will have nothing to eat and drink but excremental matter.” That the which I translate ‘dirt’ and ‘lye’ are of this nature is quite certain, but they are objects of abhorrence to the Sun-god, like the dead rat and the putrid cat in chapter 33, because he is a consuming fire, and “whatsoever he findeth upon his path he devoureth it,” Unas 515. It is only natural then that the deceased who is identified with the Sun-god in these texts should express his execration of such offensive matter. He is not afraid of being limited to this food, his fear springs from the opposite extreme.