The Egyptian Book of the dead
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.
Let 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.)
_Adored be Râ, as he setteth in the Land of Life._(11.)
Hail to thee, who hast come as Tmu, and hast been the creator of the
cycle of the gods,(12.)
Hail to thee, who hast come as the Soul of Souls, August one in Amenta,
Hail to thee, who art above the gods and who lightenest up the Tuat with
thy glories,
Hail to thee, who comest in splendour, and goest round in thine Orb,
Hail to thee, who art mightier than the gods, who art crowned in Heaven
and King in the Tuat,
Hail to thee, who openest the Tuat and disposest of all its doors,
Hail to thee, supreme among the gods, and Weigher of Words in the
Netherworld.
Hail to thee, who art in thy Nest, and stirrest the Tuat with thy glory,
Hail to thee, the Great, the Mighty, whose enemies are laid prostrate at
their blocks,
Hail to thee, who slaughterest the Sebau and annihilatest Âpepi,
[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.
Wake 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.)
_Adoration to Tmu as he setteth in the Land of Life._
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.
He 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.
NOTES.
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_. The 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.
271_d_ _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.
8. 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