The Egyptian Book of the dead
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.”
“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.”
11. ⁂⁂⁂ ‘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 theory 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.
18. 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.
-----
Footnote 11:
One of the names of the Uræus on the royal crown.
Footnote 12:
‘The Glorious ones’; see Note 1 on Chapter I.
Footnote 13:
See note 11.
Footnote 14:
An abode of bliss (like the Elysian fields) frequently mentioned and
described in the Book of the Dead.
Footnote 15:
The dragon Âpepi.
Footnote 16:
Both _Chabasu_ and _Hammemit_ have the sign of the plural, which may
arise from the omission of _who art above_ before the first of these
words. Unfortunately we have no other copy to check the readings. But
it is certain that the sign of plurality is often affixed to words
which though in plural form (like the Latin _moenia_, _literae_,
_tenebrae_) have a singular meaning. _Chabasu_ means a _lamp_, and the
stars, especially the decans, were called by this appellation.
_Hammemit_ is the name given to those yet unborn.
Footnote 17:
⁂⁂⁂_Un-tȧ_, signifies the god who assumes the face or form of
a _Hare_ ⁂, just as _Mau-tȧ_ signifies the god with the face or
form of a Cat, _Tehuta_, the god with the head or form of an Ibis.
Footnote 18:
I am deeply grieved that in my conversation and correspondence with
Goodwin (see my _Miscellaneous Notes on Egyptian Philology_, p. 15), I
hit upon ‘Ennead’ as a translation of ⁂. Goodwin took it up, and
it has since been productive of much mischief. The word in itself
(like Triad), is perfectly innocent and correct, yet every word has
its ‘cycle’ of associations, and some of them lead the unwary astray.
I had just been lecturing on Plotinus when Goodwin asked me for the
word.
Footnote 19:
The _four_ children of Horus are called (_Tempelins._, I, 41, 1)
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
PLATE IV.
BOOK OF THE DEAD.
CHAPTER XVI.
--------------
_See_ NAVILLE’s “Book of the Dead,” I, Pl. 21.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLATE V.
BOOK OF THE DEAD.
CHAPTER XVI.
--------------
_See_ NAVILLE's “Book of the Dead,” I, Pl. 22.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER XVI.
NOTE.
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 primarily 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.
------------------------------------
CHAPTER XVII.
_Chapter whereby one cometh forth by day out of the Netherworld. Let the
words be said_:
=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.
=What 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