=Papyrus du Louvre, III, 9.=
]
[Illustration:
CHAPTER CXXIV.
=Papyrus, Musée du
Louvre, Cab. des Médaille=
]
[Illustration:
CHAPTER CXXV.
=Papyrus, Paris, Sketch by Mr. Renouf=
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLATE XXXIII.
BOOK OF THE DEAD
[Illustration: CHAPTER CXXV. =Papyrus Brit. Mus., No. 9,901, and Papyrus
Leyden, No. 11.=]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER CXXIV.
_Chapter whereby one cometh to the Divine Circle of Osiris._
My soul buildeth for me a Hall(1.) in Tattu and I flourish in Pu.
My fields are ploughed by those who belong to me: therefore is my palm
tree like Amsu.
Abominations, abominations, I eat them not. I abominate filth, I eat it
not.
[Peace offerings are my food, by which I am not upset.]
I approach it not with my hands; I tread not upon it with my sandals;
for my bread is of the white corn and my beer of the red corn of the
Nile.
It is the Sektit boat, or it is the Atit boat, which bringeth them to
me, and I feed upon them under the foliage of the Tamarisk.(2.)
I know how beautiful are the arms which announce Glory for me(3.) and
the white crown which is lifted up by the divine Uræi.
O thou Gate-keeper of him who pacifieth the world, let that be brought
to me of which oblations are made, and grant that the floors may be a
support for me, and that the glorious god may open to me his arms, and
that the company of gods be silent whilst the Hammemit(4.) converse with
me.
O thou who guidest the hearts of the gods, protect me and let me have
power in heaven among the starry ones.
And every divinity who presenteth himself to me, be he reckoned to the
forerunners of Rā: be he reckoned to the forerunners of Light and to the
Bright ones who deck the sky amid the Mighty ones.
Let me have my will there of the Bread and Beer with the gods; that I
enter through the Sun-disk and come forth through the Divine Pair, that
the gods who follow may speak to me, and that Darkness and Night may be
terrified before me in Mehit-urit, by the side of him “Who is in his
Sanctuary.”
And lo I am here with Osiris. My measure is his measure(5.) among the
mighty ones. I speak to him the words of men and I repeat to him the
words of gods.
There cometh a glorified one, equipped, who bringeth Maāt to those who
love her.
I am the Glorified one and the Equipped. And better equipped am I than
any of the Glorified.
NOTES.
1. _Hall_ ⁂,⁂[,⁂⁂⁂, or ⁂⁂ _ḫent_, the πρόναος,
πρόδομος, ‘Vorsaal,’ first room of a temple or palace. The sense of
_harîm_ which has been ascribed to it in certain texts is entirely
erroneous. The temple inscriptions (see Brugsch, _Zeitschr._, 1875, p.
118, and fol., and Mariette, _Denderah_, I, 6) leave no doubt on the
subject. If there were “ladies of the royal antechamber,” it by no means
follows that they were wives or concubines of the king, and hall or
antechamber convey a very different idea from that of the most reserved
portion of the house.[110]
Pictures and inscriptions on mummy cases identify the term
mythologically with that portion of the sky whence the first rays of the
rising sun are visible.
The mention of the word in the Pyramid Texts (_Pepi_, I, 672) is in
connection with the notion of food, ⁂⁂.
2. We have here a repetition of passages to the same effect as in
Chapters 53 (A and B) and others. The Pyramid Texts (_Teta_, 344) have a
section nearly identical.
3. _The arms which announce Glory for me._ The clue to the meaning of
this passage is to be found in ⁂, which is a _relative_ form
implying an antecedent, which can only be “the arms.”
The _arms which announce Glory for me_ are to be explained by the usages
of the ancient ritual, which prescribed certain postures or attitudes in
the ceremony of ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, as in other forms wherein the
arms played a great part. These religious ceremonies it must always be
remembered, were considered as dramatic representations of what was done
in the invisible world.
4. _The Hammemit_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, or
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, the
generations of human beings yet unborn.
5. _My measure is his measure_. The meaning of ⁂⁂⁂⁂ or
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ can only be inferred from the form
⁂⁂⁂⁂ which occurs repeatedly in the great Harris Papyrus
and some other documents.
The scribe of the Turin _Todtenbuch_ carelessly omitted the second part
of the phrase, and therefore altered the grammatical construction. This
is how M. Pierret came to conjecture the sense ‘proclaim,’ which is not
suggested by any of the ancient authorities, or even by the later ones.
The reading of the Leyden Papyrus T, 16 is identical with that of the
oldest papyrus.
-----
Footnote 109:
“The amount of this motion by which the equinox travels backward, or
retrogrades (as it is called), is _per annum_ an extremely minute
quantity, but which, by its continual accumulation from year to year,
at last makes itself very palpable, and that in a way highly
inconvenient to practical astronomers, by destroying, in the lapse of
a moderate number of years, the arrangement of their catalogues of
stars, and making it necessary to reconstruct them.” Herschel,
_Astronomy_, chapter 4.
Footnote 110:
The ⁂⁂⁂⁂ mentioned in the tablet of Pa-shere-en-Ptah
are not concubines, as Brugsch and others have thought, but female
children, as Birch rightly asserted. Cf. my _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 79,
note. It is the feminine form of ⁂⁂⁂⁂.
There is also another word, ⁂⁂, applied on the walls of tombs
to persons (_male_ as well as female) executing certain gymnastic
movements.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLATE XXXIV.
BOOK OF THE DEAD.
[Illustration:
Fig. 11. CHAPTER CXXV.
=Sarcophagus of Sebek-āa, Berlin Museum.=
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 12. CHAPTER CXXV. LEPSIUS, “Denkmäler,” Abth. III, Bl. 232.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 13. CHAPTER CXXV.
LEPSIUS, “Denkmäler,” Abth. III, Bl. 232.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLATE XXXV.
BOOK OF THE DEAD.
[Illustration:
Fig. 14.
CHAPTER CXXV. =Papyrus, Leyden Museum, No. 1.=
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 15.
CHAPTER CXXV. LEPSIUS, “Denkmaler” Abth. III, Pl. 78.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 16.
CHAPTER CXXV. =Papyrus of Ani, British Museum.=
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLATE XXXVI.
BOOK OF THE DEAD.
CHAPTER CXXV (Notes).
[Illustration:
Fig. 17. LEPSIUS, “Denkmäler,” Abth. III, Bl. 39.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 19. MARIETTE, “Deir el Bahari,”
Pl. VIII.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 20. ROSELLINI, “M.C.,” Pl. LI.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: Fig. 18. LEPSIUS, “Denkmäler,” Abth. III, Bl. 39.]
[Illustration:
Fig. 21. ROSELLINI,
“M.C.,” Pl. LII.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 22. ROSELLINI, “M.C.,” Pl. LII.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------
CHAPTER CXXV.
PART I.
Said on arriving at the Hall of Righteousness, that _N_ may be loosed
from all the sins which he hath committed and that he may look upon the
divine countenances.
_He saith_: Hail to thee, mighty god, lord of Righteousness!
I am come to thee, oh my Lord: I have brought myself that I may look
upon thy glory. I know thee, and I know the name of the Forty-two gods
who make their appearance with thee in the Hall of Righteousness;
devouring those who harbour mischief, and swallowing their blood, upon
the Day of the searching examination(1.) in presence of Unneferu.
Verily, ‘Thou of the Pair of Eyes,(2.) Lord of Righteousness’ is thy
name.
Here am I; I am come to thee; I bring to thee Right and have put a stop
to Wrong.
I am not a doer of wrong to men.
I am not one who slayeth his kindred.(3.)
I am not one who telleth lies instead of truth.(4.)
I am not conscious of treason.
I am not a doer of mischief.
I do not exact as the firstfruits of each day more work than should be
done for me.(5.)
My name cometh not to the Bark of the god who is at the Helm.
I am not a transgressor against the god.
I am not a tale-bearer.
I am not a detractor.
I am not a doer of that which the gods abhor.
I hurt no servant with his master.
I cause no famine.
I cause not weeping.
I am not a murderer.
I give not orders for murder.
I cause not suffering to men.
I reduce not the offerings in the temples.
I lessen not the cakes of the gods.
I rob not the dead of their funereal food.
I am not an adulterer.
I am undefiled in the Sanctuary of the god of my domain.
I neither increase nor diminish the measures of grain.
I am not one who shorteneth the palm’s length.(6.)
I am not one who cutteth short the field’s measure.(7.)
I put not pressure upon the beam(8.) of the balance.
I tamper not with the tongue of the balance.
I snatch not the milk from the mouth of infants.
I drive not the cattle from their pastures.
I net not the birds of the manors of the gods.(9.)
I catch not the fish of their ponds.(10.)
I stop not the water at its appointed time.
I divide not an arm of the water in its course.
I extinguish not the lamp during its appointed time.
I do not defraud the Divine Circle of their sacrificial joints.
I drive not away the cattle of the sacred estate.
I stop not a god when he cometh forth.
I am pure, I am pure, I am pure, I am pure.
My purity is that of the Great Bennu in Sutenhunen, for I am the Nose of
the Lord of Air, who giveth life to all mortals; on the day when the Eye
is full in Annu, on the last day of Mechir; in presence of the Lord of
this land.
And I am one who see the fulness of the Eye in Annu, let no harm come to
me in this land, in the Hall of Righteousness; because I know the names
of those gods who make their appearance in it.
PART II.
1. Oh thou of long strides, who makest thine appearance in Annu; I am
not a doer of wrong.
2. Oh thou who holdest the fire, and makest thine appearance in
Cher-āba; I am not a man of violence.
3. Oh thou of the Nose,(11.) who makest thine appearance at Chemunnu; I
am not evil minded.
4. Oh Eater of the Shadow,(12.) who makest thine appearance at
Elephantine; I am not rapacious.
5. Oh thou Facing-backward god, who makest thine appearance at Re-Stau;
I am not a slayer of men.
6. Oh thou of Lion form,(13.) who makest thine appearance in Heaven; I
am not fraudulent in measures of grain.
7. Oh thou whose eyes [pierce] like swords, who makest thine appearance
in Sechem; I commit no fraud.
8. Oh thou of fiery face, whose motion is backwards; I am not a robber
of sacred property.
9. Oh Breaker of bones, who makest thine appearance in Sutenhunen, I am
not a teller of lies.
10. Oh thou who orderest the flame, who makest thine appearance in
Memphis; I am not a robber of food.
11. Oh thou of the Two Caverns, who makest thine appearance in Amenta; I
am not sluggish.(14.)
12. Oh thou of the Bright Teeth,(15.) who makest thine appearance in the
Unseen Land; I am not a transgressor.
13. Oh Eater of Blood, who makest thine appearance at the Block; I have
not slaughtered the sacred animals.
14. Oh Eater of Livers, who makest thine appearance at Mâbit; I deal not
fraudulently.
15. Oh Lord of Righteousness, who makest thine appearance in the place
of Righteousness; I am not a land-grabber.
16. Oh thou who turnest backwards, who makest thine appearance in
Bubastis; I am not an eaves-dropper.
17. Oh Âati,(16.) who makest thine appearance at Annu; I am not one of
prating tongue.
18. Oh Tutu,(17.) who makest thine appearance in Ati; I trouble
myself(18.) only with my own affairs.
19. Oh Uammetu, who makest thine appearance at the Block; I commit not
adultery with another’s wife.
20. Oh Maa-antu-f, who makest thine appearance in Pa-Amsu, I am not
unchaste with any one.
21. Oh thou who art above Princes, and who makest thine appearance in
Amu;(19.) I do not cause terrors.
22. Oh Chemiu,(20.) who makest thine appearance in Kauu; I am not a
transgressor.
23. Oh thou who raisest thy voice,(21.) and makest thine appearance in
Urit; I am not hot of speech.
24. Oh divine Babe, who makest thy appearance in Annu; I lend not a deaf
ear to the words of Righteousness.
25. Oh high-voiced one, who makest thy appearance in Unsit; I am not
boisterous in behaviour.
26. Oh Basit, who makest thine appearance at the Shetait; I am not the
cause of weeping to any.
27. Oh thou whose face is behind thee, and who makest thine appearance
at thy cavern; I am not given to unnatural lust.
28. Oh thou, hot of foot,(22.) who makest thy appearance at even; I
indulge not in anger.
29. Oh Kenemtu, who makest thine appearance in Kenemit; I am not given
to cursing.
30. Oh thou who carriest thine own offering, and makest thine appearance
in Syut; I am not of aggressive hand.
31. Oh thou who hast different faces, and makest thine appearance in
Net’efit; I am not one of inconstant mind.(23.)
32. Oh Busy one, who makest thine appearance at Utenit; I do not steal
the skins of the sacred animals.(24.)
33. Oh thou Horned one, who makest thine appearance at Sais I am not
noisy(25.) in my speech.
34. Oh Nefertmu, who makest thine appearance in Memphis; I am neither a
liar nor a doer of mischief.
35. Oh Tem-sepu, who makest thine appearance in Tattu; I am not one who
curseth the king.
36. Oh thou who doest according to thine own will, and makest thine
appearance in Tebuu; I put no check upon the water in its flow.
37. Oh Striker,(26.) who makest thine appearance in Heaven; I am not one
of loud voice.
38. Oh thou who makest mortals to flourish, and who makest thine
appearance at Sais; I curse not a god.
39. Oh thou of beautiful shoulder, who makest thine appearance at
...(27.); I am not swollen with pride.
40. Oh Neheb-kau, who makest thy appearance at thy cavern; I have no
unjust preferences.(28.)
41. Oh thou of raised head,(29.) who makest thine appearance at thy
cavern; I have no strong desire except for my own property.
42. Oh thou who liftest an arm,(30.) and who makest thine appearance in
the Netherworld, I do not that which offendeth the god of my domain.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLATE XXXVII#.
BOOK OF THE DEAD.
[Illustration:
CHAPTER CXXV.
=Tombeau de Seti I^{er}= (Ann. du Musée Guimet, Vol. IX).
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART III.
[Said upon approaching to the gods who are in the Tuat.(31.)]
Hail ye gods, I know you and I know your names; let me not be stricken
down by your blows: report not the evil which is in me to the god whom
ye follow. Let not reverse(32.) of mine come to pass through you.
Let not evil things be said against me in presence of the Inviolate One;
because I have done the right in Tamerit.
I revile not the god: let not reverse of mine come to pass through the
King who resideth within His own Day.(33.)
Hail ye gods who are in the Hall of Righteousness, who have nothing
wrong about you; who subsist upon Righteousness in Annu, and who sate
themselves with cares,(34.) in presence of the god who resideth within
his own Orb: deliver me from Babai who feedeth upon the livers of
princes on the Day of the Great Reckoning.
Behold me: I am come to you, void of wrong, without fraud, a harmless
one: let me not be declared guilty; let not the issue be against me.
I subsist upon Righteousness: I sate myself with uprightness of heart: I
have done that which man prescribeth and that which pleaseth the gods.
I have propitiated the god with that which he loveth. I have given bread
to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, a boat to the
shipwrecked. I have made oblations to the gods and funeral offerings to
the departed: deliver me therefore: protect me therefore: and report not
against me in presence of the great god.
I am one whose mouth is pure, and whose hands are pure, to whom there is
said “Come, come in peace,” by those who look upon him.
For I have listened to the words which were spoken by the Ass and the
Cat in the house of Hept-ro.(35.)
And I have undergone the inspection of the god Whose face is behind him,
who awardeth my verdict(36.), so that I may behold what the Persea tree
covereth(37.) in Restau.
I am one who glorifieth the gods and who knoweth the things which
concern them.
I am come and am awaiting that inquisition be made of Rightfulness and
that the Balance be set upon its stand within the bower of
amaranth.(38.)
O thou who art exalted upon thy pedestal and who callest thy name, Lord
of Air: deliver me from those messengers of thine who inflict
disasters(39.) and bring about mishaps. No covering have they upon their
faces.
For I have done the Righteousness of a Lord of Righteousness.
I have made myself pure: my front parts are washed, my back parts are
pure, and my inwards steeped in the Tank of Righteousness. There is not
a limb in me which is void of Righteousness.
I purify me in the Southern Tank, and I rest me at the northern lake, in
the Garden of Grasshoppers.(40.)
The Boatmen of Rā purify them there at this hour of the night or
day(41.) and the hearts of the gods are appeased(42.) when I pass
through it by night or by day.
Let him come(43.): that is what they say to me.
Who, pray, art thou? that is what they say to me.
What, pray, is thy name? that is what they say to me.
“He who groweth under the Grass(44.) and who dwelleth in the Olive tree”
is my name.
Pass on, then: that is what they say to me.
I pass on to a place north of the Olive.
What, prithee, didst thou see there?
A thigh(45.) and a leg.
And what, prithee, said they to thee?
That I shall see(46.) the greetings in the lands there of the Fenchu.
What, prithee, did they give to thee?
A flame of fire and a pillar of crystal.
And what, prithee, didst thou to them?
I buried them on the bank of the Lake of Māāit as Provision of the
Evening.
What, prithee, didst thou find there on the bank of the Lake of Māāit?
A sceptre of flint: ‘Giver of Breath’ is its name.
And what didst thou to the flame of fire and to the pillar of crystal
after thou hadst buried them?
I cried out after them and drew them forth: and I extinguished the fire,
and I broke the pillar, and I made a Tank.
Thou mayest now enter through the door of the hall of Righteousness, for
thou knowest us.
I allow thee not to pass by me, saith the Leaf(47.) of the Door, unless
thou tell my name:
“The Pointer of Truth”(48.) is thy name.
I allow thee not to pass by me, saith the right side of the Door, unless
thou tell my name.
“The Scale-pan(49.) of one who lifteth up Right” is thy name.
I allow thee not to pass by me, saith the left side post of the Door,
unless thou tell my name:
“The Scale-pan of Wine” is thy name.
I allow thee not to pass over me, saith the Threshold of the Door,
unless thou tell my name:
“Ox of Seb” is thy name.
I open not to thee, saith the Lock of the Door, unless thou tell my
name:
Bone of An-maut-ef is thy name.
I open not to thee, saith the Latch, unless thou tell my name:
“The Eye of Sebak, Lord of Bachau,” is thy name.
I open not to thee, and I allow thee not to pass by me, saith the Keeper
of the Door, unless thou tell my name:
“The Knee of Shu, which he hath lent for the support of Osiris,” is thy
name.
We allow thee not to pass by us, say the Lintels of the Door, unless
thou tell our names:
“The dragon brood(50.) of Renenut” is your name.
Thou knowest us: pass therefore by us.
I allow thee not to pass over me, saith the Floor of the Hall, for the
reason that I am noiseless and clean, and because we know not the names
of thy two feet, wherewith thou wouldst walk upon us. Tell me, then,
their names.
“He who goeth before Amsu” is the name of my right foot: and “The
Truncheon of Hathor”(51.) is the name of my left foot.
Thou mayest walk over us: for thou knowest us.
I do not announce thee, saith the Doorkeeper, unless thou tell my name:
“He who knoweth the heart and exploreth the person”(52.) is thy name.
Then I will announce thee.
But who is that god who abideth in his own hour? Name him.
He who provideth for(53.) the Two Worlds.
Who, pray, is it? It is Thoth.
Come hither, saith Thoth, wherefore hast thou come?
I am come, and wait to be announced.
And what manner of man, prithee, art thou?
I have cleansed myself from all the sins and faults of those who abide
in their own day; for I am no longer among them.
Then I shall announce thee.
But who is he whose roof is of fire, and whose walls are living Uræi,
and the floor of whose house is of running water? Who is it?
It is Osiris.
Proceed then: for behold, thou art announced.
Thy bread is from the Eye, thy beer is from the Eye, and the funeral
meals offered upon earth will come forth to thee from the Eye(54.). So
is it decreed for me.
_This chapter is said by the person, when purified and clad in raiment;
shod with white sandals; anointed from vases of ānta; and presenting
oblations of beeves, birds, incense, bread, beer and vegetables._
_And thou shalt make a picture, drawn upon a clean brick of clay,
extracted from a field in which no swine hath trod._
_And if this chapter be written upon it—the man will prosper and his
children will prosper: he will rise in the affection of the king and his
court: there will be given to him the shesit cake, the measure of drink,
the persen cake and the meat offering upon the altar table of the great
god; and he shall not be cut off at any gate of Amenta, but he shall be
conveyed along with the Kings of North and South, and make his
appearance as a follower of Osiris: undeviatingly and for times
infinite._
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLATE XXXVIII.
BOOK OF THE DEAD.
CHAPTER CXXV. (Note 2.)
[Illustration: Papyrus, British Museum, No. 9900.]
[Illustration: Mummy Case, Leyden Museum.]]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLATE XXXIX.
BOOK OF THE DEAD.
[Illustration: Papyrus, Leyden Museum.]
[Illustration: LEPSIUS, Todtenbuch.]
[Illustration: Papyrus, British Museum, 9964.]
[Illustration: Mummy Case, Leyden Museum.]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER CXXV.
NOTES.
For the significance of this most important chapter with reference to
the religion and ethics of ancient Egypt I must refer to the
Introduction. The notes in this place must be confined to the text and
its elucidation.
No copy of the chapter is known of more ancient date than the eighteenth
dynasty, but the oldest papyri contain the three parts of which the
chapter consists. That the chapter is of much earlier date than the
eighteenth dynasty is quite certain from the nature of the corruptions
which had already made their appearance in the earliest copies which
have come down to us. But the three parts are not necessarily of the
same antiquity. The second part seems to have grown out of the first and
to have been suggested by the mention of the “Forty-two” gods and the
“negative confession,” as it is called, of certain sins. It is a
tabulated form in which the gods are named and a sin is mentioned in
connection with each god. The number of sins in this form is therefore
forty-two; a higher number than in Part I.
The two catalogues agree to a certain extent, but they also disagree,
and the second is evidently the result of a different process of thought
than that which gave birth to the first. The author of Part I is not the
author of Part II, unless perhaps at a different and later period. Nor
is there any indication in Part I of the extraordinary examination to
which the deceased person is subjected in Part III. This in itself would
not be a serious objection, but the matter becomes more complicated if
we remember that the picture of the Psychostasia has the right to be
considered as a part of the chapter. The texts which are written upon it
differ, indeed, according to the taste of the artist, and can therefore
claim no canonical authority. But the question as to the order of
succession in the trials, or the precise moment at which the deceased
person is finally freed from all anxiety as to his fate, cannot be
satisfactorily solved on the supposition that all these documents form
parts of a consistent whole. It seems much more natural to consider them
as really independent compositions brought together in consequence of
their subject matter. The artists of the Ramseside period (in the papyri
of Hunefer and Ani) add another scene[111] in which the deceased is
judged not by the forty-two assessors of Osiris but by a smaller company
of gods (twelve or fourteen), sitting on thrones and bearing the names
of well known divinities.
The essential notion was that of a trial before Osiris, in which the
man’s conduct or conscience was weighed in the Balance. This trial is
referred to in various chapters of the Book of the Dead and in other
texts which prove that, with reference to the details, free scope was
allowed to the imagination of the scribes or artists.
The number of the Forty-two assessors might be thought connected with
that of the Nomes of Egypt. But this number is only certain for the
later periods of Egyptian history, and is not true for earlier times.
Moreover the localities in which the gods are said to make their
appearances do not correspond to the nomes, or places within them. Some
of the localities occur more than once, and some of them, if not all,
are localities not upon earth. Heaven occurs twice, the eleventh god
makes his appearance at Amenta and the forty-second in the Netherworld.
But the names which have a more earthly sound may have a mystical
meaning. The first god makes his appearance in Annu, so does the
seventeenth and so does the twenty-fourth. But does this mean Heliopolis
of Egypt? On referring to an important text in Mariette’s _Monuments
Divers_, pl. 46, it will be seen that Annu is the Eastern _Solar
Mountain_ ⁂⁂⁂, where the sun rises, and where he is saluted by
the Powers of the East. There cannot be a more striking illustration of
“the Divine Babe who maketh his appearance in Annu” (the twenty-fourth
Assessor), than the _picture_ I refer to.[112]
And Chemunnu, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, is surely not the Hermopolis of
Egypt, but the place _of the Eight gods_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂,
four to the Left and four to the Right of the rising sun, who hail
his coming and help him to rise; where Shu, according to the MSS. of
the 17th Chapter, raises up the Sky, and where “the children of
Failure,” (that is, shades of darkness) are exterminated. It is not
simply of Hermopolis nor yet of Lake Moeris that one may say
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂
‘it is the place of the Eight deities where Rā riseth’ (_Zeitschr._,
1872, p. 8).
The same considerations apply to such names as those of Sutenhunen and
Tattu.
The presence of the divine “Babe,” of the god “of long strides” (Rā), of
the god “of Lion form,” of the goddess Bast, of Nefer-tmu, of the
“Striker” (_Ahi_, a name of Horus), and of Nehebkau, not to mention
others, among the Assessors, would of itself be sufficient to convince
us that, in spite of the strange and terrific names of some of these
personages, they are not to be looked upon as fiends, like Malacoda,
Scarmiglione, and the rest of the demon crew in the Inferno of Dante.
They are not evil spirits, but gods, all of them, “subsisting on
righteousness;” there is “nothing _wrong_ about them.”[113] They are the
gods who accompany Osiris, and, according to Egyptian theology, are his
Names, his Limbs, his Body. If the names of some of them appear harsh or
cruel, it is because strict Justice is inexorable, and Mercy is a
quality never thought of in Egyptian theology.
The exact notion of Maāt in Egyptian texts is discussed in another part
of the present work. In this chapter I have translated it
_Righteousness_, because the question here is about _moral conduct_: and
conformity to the strict Rule of Right towards one’s fellow men, one’s
own self and the heavenly powers is what is meant by Righteousness. And
here it is opposed to moral transgression or sin, not to physical evil,
which itself is a very frequent result from the operation of the
inexorable Maāt.
But in the expression, “Hall of Righteousness,” the word in Egyptian is
used in the dual number: hence the erroneous or inadequate translations,
“the Two Truths,” or “Double Justice,” and the guesses which have been
made as to their meaning.
A very important determinative of the Egyptian word is found not only in
the papyri but in the very earliest mention yet known of the Hall. The
great inscription of the tomb of Peher at El Kab, calls it the
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. The repetition of the sign ⁂ indicates a
locality in which the Sun-god is _present_, as in the cases of ⁂,
⁂, ⁂⁂ and many others. Space is divided into two parts; one
on the Southern and one on the Northern side of the god as he proceeds
on his course. And when we have for determinatives two Uræi ⁂⁂, or
two ostrich Feathers ⁂⁂, we have to understand two goddesses Maāt,
one to the Left and one to the Right side of Osiris.
These goddesses are Isis and Nephthys, who play very conspicuous parts
in a symbolism discussed in note 2 of the present chapter.
It would be well if evidence could be brought with equal facility to
bear upon all the difficulties with which the chapter abounds. But
though a very lively interest was attracted to it ever since Champollion
quoted extracts from it in his Grammar, the difficulties with which he
did not attempt to cope have only increased with our knowledge of the
language and its scientific treatment. The text is extremely doubtful in
many important parts, the forty-two sins are not the same in all the
manuscripts, and they are not assigned to the jurisdiction of the same
gods. So important a papyrus as that of Sutimes omits some sins of which
an Egyptian would certainly be expected to give an account. The same
word is made to appear with different meanings in the same passage of
the papyri when they are compared together. And there are not a few
important words of which the meaning was first only guessed at by the
first translators, but has been retained without sufficient warrant by
their successors. The present translation is presented under the full
consciousness of all its imperfections, and of the difficulties which
have yet to be overcome before a version can be called satisfactory.
A very admirable contribution towards our acquaintance with the first
part of the chapter was made as far back as 1866 by Dr. Pleyte in his
_Etudes Egyptologiques_. Since then other versions have appeared by MM.
Devéria, Lefébure and Pierret.
The Demotic text of the chapter, first published by Brugsch, and now
more recently, with a complete translation, by M. Revillout, is in
itself most interesting, but written, as it is, in the days of imperial
Rome, cannot always be appealed to as to an authoritative exposition of
the ancient text.
1. _The Day of searching examination_ or reckoning. The word
⁂⁂⁂ has to be compared with the Coptic ⲕⲱϯ in the sense of
_search_, _enquiry_, ζητεῖν, ζήτησις. This sense is derived from
⁂⁂ _a circle_ (⁂⁂⁂ _sail round_) and the notion of
going completely round a thing and approaching it from all sides.
2. _Thou_ [literally _he_] of _the Pair of Eyes_
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.[114] This title of
Osiris is made clear by the 37th chapter, which begins with
an invocation to the _Sister Pair of Goddesses, Merta_
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, _Merta_ signifying _Two
Eyes_, and the divine Sister pair being Isis and Nephthys.
In vignettes of the chapter (see, _e.g._, Pl. XXXIII and XXXIV, figs. 14
and 16 for instances) the two goddesses appear in human form with their
brother Osiris within the naos where the judgment is delivered. It is
not so easy to recognise them under the form ⁂⁂ which they have
in the vignette of _Pb._ (see Pl. XXXI), or in the picture which is
found in many papyri (_e.g._, those of Nebseni, Hunefer, Ani and the
Turin _Todtenbuch_), wherein the cornice or top row of the decoration
surmounting the forty-two judges has for central figure a man (Osiris)
either supporting the Two Eyes or extending his hands above them (see
Pl. XXXIV, fig. 14).
We have here a symbolism of such extreme importance as to justify a
short excursus on the subject.
The Two Eyes ⁂⁂ are a most frequent symbol on all funereal
monuments; on the most ancient coffins, such as those of Apaānchu,
Antuf, Taka (_Denkm._, II, 98, 146, 147), Mentuhotep (_Aelteste Texte_,
pl. 9 and 25), Sebak-āa (Gio. d’Athanasi, pl. 3) and Amamu, as on mummy
cases generally, and on funereal tablets. Between the Eyes on many
tablets we frequently find the sign ⁂, and this is often followed by
the sign of Water ⁂ or the Vase ⁂, and very frequently by both.
Very often we have two signs ⁂, one by each Eye, and not less
frequently a pair of jackals, ⁂ or ⁂ facing each other. No two
tablets are exactly alike, but the meaning is always the same.
Nor is the meaning changed when the tablet is headed by the Winged Disk
⁂ or ⁂ even though the Eyes are not seen. Their place is
supplied by two Uræi, sometimes crowned with the ⁂ and the ⁂,
insignia of Southern and Northern sovereignty.
On a fine tablet of the twelfth dynasty (_Denkm._, II, 136_b_), the sign
⁂ is attached to each Uræus, and this device is repeated on
innumerable monuments.
According to another device the Two Eyes are represented within the
Winged Disk (see _e.g._, Leemans, _Mon._, III, _M._, Pl. XVI).
“He of the Pair of Eyes” is always Osiris. But Osiris is a god “of many
names,” as the Pyramid Texts show no less than the Book of the Dead,
where in the seventeenth chapter he is identified with Tmu, Rā, the
Bennu, Amsu and Horus, not to mention others, and where in the Scholia
the Two Feathers, the Two Uræi, the Two Eyes and the Two Kites[115] are
identified with the Sister pair Isis and Nephthys. And wherever these
symbols occur in _pairs_ Isis and Nephthys are meant, one for the right
or northern side and the other for the left or southern. The same idea
is conveyed under such forms as ⁂, ⁂, or ⁂, and many others.
Dr. Birch long ago (_Zeitschr._, 1877, p. 33) mentioned ⁂⁂⁂
as representing Osiris between his two sisters. Osiris is often
represented as a living ⁂, with eyes.
The royal crowns and their decorations, such as ⁂, ⁂, ⁂,
⁂, and ⁂, abound in this symbolism.
The ancient coffin of Sebakāa at Berlin (_Aelteste Texte_, pl. 29), in
the phrase ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, recognizes Isis as one of
the Two Eyes. Down to the latest periods the Sisters were known as
⁂⁂⁂, _Eye of the Southern_ or Left _side_ (Isis), and
⁂⁂⁂, _Eye of the Northern_ or Right _side_ (Nephthys). On
countless coffins and sarcophagi these goddesses are represented on
opposite sides, in kneeling attitude, holding the ⁂ in their hands,
like the equivalent Vultures of the North and South, with their claws,
and the Uræi on their bodies.
The meaning of the sign ⁂ is well known. It is a _ring_, and is
applied to the circuit of the heavens made by the sun and other heavenly
bodies. It is also applied to the yearly recurring flow of the Nile. It
has numerically the signification of 10,000,000 or an indefinitely large
number. As attached, ⁂, to the sign of years ⁂,⁂ it means
_Eternity_.
It is therefore an appropriate emblem of Osiris, the Lord of Years,
⁂⁂⁂⁂, _annosus_, ⁂⁂⁂ the _King of Eternity_.
The sign of _Water_ ⁂, and the _Vase_ ⁂, are also emblems of
Osiris, one of whose names is _Water of Renewal_. A chapter of the
Pyramid Texts, Teta, 176, Pepi I, 518, which begins by saying that Seb
has given to the departed (identified with Osiris) the Two Eyes of _that
Great One_,[116] and has done that through Horus who recognizes his
father, proceeds after this to say: “He renews thee in thy name of
⁂⁂⁂⁂, Water of Renewal.”
I cannot say if the _Vase_ ⁂ is a mere appendage to the _Water_, but
if it is not it most probably was meant to contain the ⁂, the divine
and life-giving _Sap_ flowing from Osiris, which is mentioned in another
Pyramid Text (Pepi I, 33), also speaking of the _Water of Renewal_, as a
name of Osiris.
The goddesses Isis and Nephthys as mythological figures represent not
merely the Light at Dawn and Sunset, but the Light thrown out right and
left by the Sun in his entire course, whether in the heavens or in the
Netherworld. ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, “he lightens up
the earth with his two eyes,” an expression most frequent in the texts,
is not confined to special moments, though it is said of these
emphatically.
In all that has been said thus far, the Two Eyes have been considered as
acting conjointly and discharging one and the same function. When they
are distinguished one from the other as acting in different ways the
symbolism is altered.
The ancient scholion on the 17th Chapter speaks of the Right Eye of Rā,
and the more recent scholion of the papyri speaks of the Eye as being in
pain and weeping for its sister ⁂⁂⁂. The Egyptian name for
the Eye is here ⁂⁂⁂⁂ _ut’ait_. The frequent expression
⁂⁂ means _full moon_, and is constantly identified with the
fifteenth day of the month ⁂. The moon is in these texts called the
_Left Eye_ ⁂⁂, and Osiris is said to unite with her (or with her
sister) in order to renew her revolution ⁂⁂⁂⁂. And of the
Eye it is said that ‘she renews her revolution on the fifteenth day’
⁂⁂⁂⁂, and the god (Osiris) makes her full of her _glory_
or _splendour_ (⁂⁂⁂⁂) or what she requires, ⁂⁂ =
⁂⁂⁂⁂. This explains the symbol ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ which
is seen on certain tablets.
But what is the meaning of the passage at the end of Part I of this
chapter—“when the Eye is full in Annu, on the last day of Mechir”
⁂⁂⁂⁂, an expression which is repeated in the title of
Chapter 140? The moon, which is always represented as full on the
fifteenth of the month, cannot be full on the thirtieth. It must be the
other Eye, the Sun. Now we know what is meant by the Full Moon, the
Plenilunium, but what is the Full Sun?
M. de Rougé, in his commentary on the 17th Chapter, gave the key to
this, by pointing out that the 30th Mechir was the last day of the sixth
month of the year; that is the 180th day after the first of Thoth, which
is supposed to coincide with the Summer Solstice. It is therefore at the
time of the _Winter_ Solstice that the Eye is said to be full. The
inaccuracy, of course, arises from the length of the Egyptian year. But
there can be no doubt that the time of the Winter Solstice is meant.
In the year 1470 B.C. the Egyptian year began on July 20, and the 30th
Mechir coincided with January 15 of the Julian calendar.
If the Eye (considered as the Sun) is said to be _full_ at the Winter
Solstice, it was most probably spoken of in the same way not only at the
Summer Solstice, but also at the two Equinoxes. And this is the most
probable reason why in the pictures representing the Four Rudders of
Heaven (North, South, East and West) an Eye ⁂ is attached to each
rudder. (See Vignettes of Chapter 148.)
The Two Eyes, considered as Sun and Moon, are attributed not only to Rā
and Osiris, but to gods identified with these. Of the two passages which
have been most frequently quoted, “Thy Right Eye is the Sun
⁂⁂⁂ and thy left is the Moon ⁂⁂,” “His Right Eye is the
Sun and his left is the Moon,” the first is addressed to Ptah (in the
Pap. Berlin, VII, l. 42), and the second, which occurs on the Neapolitan
Stele, is really addressed to Osiris as god of Suten-hunen, under the
form of the Ram-headed deity Her-śefit. Reference is made towards the
end of the inscription to the “divine Eyes which are in Suten-hunen.”
Horus according to the Pyramid Texts has two eyes, a Light one and a
Dark one. But the “Eye of Horus” is most frequently spoken of in the
singular number. It is certainly meant for the Sun, and the name of it
is given to cakes and ale, wine, corn, oil, honey, and all the good
things which come to maturity through the beneficent god: who has in
himself all the attributes of ‘Ceres and Bacchus.’
I must bring this long note to an end with one or two observations.
Many goddesses will be found bearing the title of Eye of Rā. There is
not one of these who is not identified with Isis or Nephthys, who are in
fact one, and personify the Light of the Sun.
Shu and Tefnut, who are brother and sister, play the same parts as the
two goddesses.
There is a picture, which appears in the vignette of Chapter 17 in most
of the papyri of the second and later periods, of two _male_ deities
bearing the Eyes over their heads (see Pl. XXXV). If the beards upon
their chins are not a mistake,[117] copied from one papyrus upon
another, they must represent not Isis and Nephthys but the two Rehu
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ Rā and Thoth, Sun and Moon, instead of the
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
It is important to note that if Sun and Moon are Eyes of Osiris or Rā or
Ptah, the deity is not to be confounded with them: they are but
manifestations of himself.
3. _Kindred_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. The sign of plurality does not
here, any more than in Chapter 1, necessarily imply more than one
person. The crime in question is one to which men are easily tempted in
certain stages of society. Abimelech, in the book of Judges (ix, 5),
“slew his brethren, the sons of Jerubbaal.” Jephthah had to “flee from
the face of his brethren.” Absalom had his brother Amnon assassinated,
and all the king’s sons fled in fear of sharing the same fate. Solomon
put to death his elder brother Adonijah. Athaliah, the queen mother,
“destroyed all the seed royal” of Judah. The annals of eastern[118] and
even western[119] nations are full of such occurrences. But, in
positions less exalted than that of claimants to royalty, ambition or
covetousness are motives to crimes like that of the wicked uncle of ‘the
Babes in the Wood.’[120] The reading ⁂⁂⁂⁂, which has for
determinative the sign ⁂ of _smallness_, seems to indicate that the
victims of the crime are _minors_, perhaps _wards_.
Some of the papyri (even that of Nebseni) have a _calf_, ⁂, as
determinative of the word, and as the ‘slaying of calves’ is not
necessarily a crime, other scribes have added ⁂⁂, ‘sacred,’ and
thus made the sin one of sacrilege.
The same word, like the Greek μόσχος and the Latin _pullus_, might be
applied to the young of all kinds of animals; but the Egyptian scribes
have in such cases a propensity to use a determinative which forces a
wrong sense upon the word.
4. _Instead of truth_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. There are two
ways according to which this expression may be translated, but only one
of them can be the right one. ⁂⁂⁂ is a compound preposition,
_instead of_, _in loco_, _anstatt_, _au lieu de_, بمنزلة. And this is
evidently the right construction. If ⁂ be taken as the simple
preposition governing ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, the meaning will be that
the deceased did not “tell lies _in the cemetery_.” The Pyramid Texts
(Unas, 394) have the expression ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂(_sic_),
“Right instead of Wrong.”
5. This is only an approximate version of a passage, the true text of
which was lost at an early period. M. Maspero (_Origines_, p. 189)
understands it as follows: “Je n’ai jamais imposé du travail à l’homme
libre quelconque, en plus de celui qu’il faisait pour luimême!” The last
words are the translation of ⁂⁂⁂, according to _Td._ (tomb
of Ramses IV) all the other ancient texts having ⁂, ‘_for me_.’ But
the chief difficulties occur at the beginning of the sentence.
6. _Shorten the palm’s length_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. Many papyri
read ⁂, which is a superficial measure, more in place under the next
precept.
7. _The fields’ measure_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
8. _The beam of the balance_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
_The tongue_ [rather _plummet_] _of the balance_,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
The balance is so frequently represented in false perspective by
Egyptian artists, that Sir J. G. Wilkinson has given an account of it,
which is quite unintelligible to those who have ever so moderate a
knowledge of statics. Mr. Petrie’s description is the true one. “The
beam was suspended by a loop or ring from a bracket projecting from the
stand.... Then below the beam, a long tongue was attached, not above the
beam as with us. To test the level of the beam, a plummet hung down the
tongue, and it was this plummet which was observed to see if the tongue
was vertical and the beam horizontal.”—_A Season in Egypt_, p. 42.
In Pl. XXXVI, a few pictures will be found which give a more correct
notion of the Egyptian balance than some of the absurd representations
which defy a scientific explanation.
It is evident that if the tongue is fastened at a wrong angle, the beam
will not really be horizontal when the tongue is shown by the plummet
line to be vertical. This seems to be the fraud alluded to in the text.
The word ⁂⁂, ⁂⁂, the name given to the plummet,
apparently signifies a cup _full_ of liquid. It is etymologically
identical with ⁂⁂⁂⁂, _a toper_ (ⲑⲁϧⲓ, ϯϩⲉ, _ebrius_,
_ebrietas_), ⁂⁂⁂, ⲧⲓϧⲓ, _a crane_, and ⁂⁂⁂ the
crane-god, Thoth.
The apparatus of which the plummet forms so important a part, whether
for the balance or for building purposes, is called ⁂⁂⁂
(_Denkm._, III, 26), ⁂⁂.
9. _The manors of the gods_, ⁂⁂⁂. I understand ⁂⁂ as
property acquired by royal grant. Aâhmes at El Kab says that he has
_acquired_ (⁂⁂⁂⁂) much land through the royal bounty. The
deceased in the later copies of the Book of the Dead (Ch. 1, 24),
acquires the allotment of land, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, in the
Garden of Aarru, and Ani (Pl. III) acquires “a permanent allotment
(⁂⁂⁂) in the Garden of Hotepit like the followers of Horus.”
10. _Ponds._ The right reading is ⁂⁂⁂, as Birch already noted
in his _Dictionary_, from the excellent papyrus _Ao_ of the XVIIIth
dynasty.
Hieratic papyri also give the determinative ⁂.
The determinative ⁂ which some of the papyri give to the word, and
which is a self-evident blunder, is probably copied either from ⁂,
or from ⁂. The sign ⁂, and a man striking with an instrument,
which also occur, are mere symbols of the operation by which either
_quarries_, or _ponds_, are _cut_.
11. _Thou of the Nose_, or rather _Beak_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, in
allusion to one of the chief characteristic features of the Ibis god
(πρόσωπον ἐς τὰ μάλιστα ἐπίγρυπον; _Herodotus_, II, 76, in his
description of the bird). Thoth, the god of Chemunnu, is meant by this
appellative.
He is so called, ⁂⁂⁂, on the statue of the King Horus in the
Museum of Turin (l. 8), and ⁂⁂⁂ on the very much more ancient
altar, of the VIth dynasty, belonging to the same museum. The same
appellative[121] is found in the list of gods upon each of the Memphite
cubits described by Lepsius.[122]
12. _Eater of the Shadow._ The Demotic version interprets this of “his
own shadow.” I am rather inclined to interpret it by “the gnomons which
were without shadows at noon,” and the “well of Syene” (Strabo, 817) at
the Summer Solstice; when the Sun was vertical.
13. _Thou of Lion form_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂. The Demotic has “Shu and
Tefnut.” But as there are only forty-two gods in all, we must here think
of a single god with a lion’s head, as in such pictures as _Wilkinson_,
III, Pl. XLIX; _Denkm._, III, 276, and many sarcophagi (_e.g._, Leemans,
_Mon._, III, L, Pl. III).
Even some of the Theban papyri have two divinities by way of
determinatives to the group.
14. _Sluggish_, ⁂⁂⁂; ⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂,
_sluggishness_. Coptic ϭⲛⲁⲩ. See my note (_Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch._, XI,
p. 76) on the Inscription of Kum el Ahmar.
There are however other readings; none of them apparently of any value.
15. _Thou of the Bright Teeth_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. The
Demotic equivalent is, “who openeth his teeth,” and so exhibits their
brightness.
16. _Âati_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, a name about which the copyists have
bungled. It is one of the names of Râ in the Solar Litany, where it
appears (l. 23) as ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, or ⁂⁂. Whether
applied to the Sun, to the Fish of the name, or to a Ship, the name
means _Cutter_, ‘that which cleaves’ its way.
17. _Ṭuṭu_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, with many variants, showing that the
scribes did not understand the sense of the syllable ⁂⁂, some of
them adding the bird of evil ⁂, others the ⁂ determinative of
_mountain_. The name on the Sarcophagus of Seti (Bon. II, A. 30) has a
snake for determinative, and some papyri call him _Ṭuṭu_. The god may be
recognised in later texts. In the Calendar of Esneh there is a feast on
the 14th day of Thoth, in honour of ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, Tutu, ‘the
son of Neith,’ and the text gives the important determinative ⁂, of a
_serpent_, _worm_, or _slug_. I feel sure, therefore, that we should in
the text read the name Tutu, and consider ⁂ as a determinative.[123]
The symbolism would then be identical with that in Pl. XXIII,
illustrative of Chapter 87. The Sun-god there rises up like a worm out
of the Lotus of Dawn, whereas in another picture a slug (⁂) is seen
moving upon the flower.
⁂⁂, _Ati_, where the god makes his appearance, is the name of the
ninth Nome of Lower Egypt.
18. _I trouble myself only with my own affairs._ I understand this of
the virtue spoken of by Cicero (_de Officiis_, I, 34), “nihil praeter
suum negotium agere, nihil de alieno anquirere, minimeque esse in aliena
republica curiosum.” It is the same to which Plato refers in the
_Timaeus_, 72 A; εὖ καὶ πάλαι λέγεται τὸ πράττειν καὶ γνῶναι τὰ τε
ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ἑαυτὸν σώφρονι μόνῳ προσήκειν, not in the sense of a selfish
indifference to a neighbour’s welfare or the public good, but in
opposition to the ways of the busybodies, who tattle and “speak things
which they ought not” (1 Tim., v, 13).
The Egyptian ⁂⁂⁂ is a rare word. Brugsch’s etymology of it is
an impossible one, and his identification of it with ϣⲱⲥⲙ is not less
unfortunate.
19. _Amu_, or _Amit_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂.
This seems to be the favourite reading. It means the _town of Palm_.
But, as the name was written ideographically, it appears in some copies
as the town of other trees, such as _Nehait_, or _Nārit_.
Amu was a place in the north of Egypt, which Brugsch thinks he has
identified with a town called Apis (the site of which is itself
doubtful).
The most interesting thing known about Amu (Dümichen, _Rec. de M._, IV,
Pl. XV, 90 _a_), is that in the rites performed on the 16 Choiak, Horus
is represented as raising up the body of Osiris out of the water in the
form of a crocodile; and that Osiris was known under the name of
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, _The Crocodile, Lord of Amu_.
The 142nd chapter of the Book of the Dead, which gives a list of the
names of Osiris, has (l. 17) that of ⁂⁂, ‘Osiris of Crocodile
form,’ or ‘with Crocodile head.’[124] The variants of this group,
however, show the reading ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘king,’ or
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘of kingly form.’ There is but little doubt that
(as M. Naville says, _Zeitschr._, 1882, p. 190) ⁂⁂⁂⁂ on the
Turin tablet published by Professor Piehl, means ‘King of the gods,’ and
that Ptahhotep in the Prisse papyrus (IV, 1) addresses not Osiris, but
King Assa as ‘my Lord the King,’ Goodwin had already asserted this
meaning in his “_Story of Saneha_,” and in the _Zeitschr._, 1874, p. 38.
The orthography of the crocodile name here played upon is remarkably
vague, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂, and ⁂⁂⁂ (_rapax_,
Louvre, C, 26). It is this last form which enables us to see the
paranomasia in ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, _rapax sicut Raptor_
(_crocodilus_) of the Prisse papyrus (VII, 6), and brings the word into
connection with _ȧta_, or _ȧti_, ‘he who is seized’ of the Sovereignty
(see _supra_, Ch. 40, note 10).
20. _Chemiu_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘one who overthrows.’ His
appearance is made at _Kauu_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, the Canobic entrance
to the Nile, which the Libyan invaders had taken possession of in the
time of Rameses III (Great _Harris Pap._, 77, 2).
The _transgression_ here disavowed is understood by some of the scribes
as a violation of ritual precepts, such as those regarding sacred
seasons.
21. _Who raisest thy voice_ ... _words of Righteousness_,
⁂⁂⁂⁂ is an attribute assigned to Isis in the Hymn to Osiris
(line 14) on the Stele of Amenemhait in the Bibliothèque Nationale; and
it is there further defined through the addition of the words
⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘with _clearness_ of utterance’ (_cf._ Ch. 1, note
2). One of the chief names of Isis is ⁂⁂⁂⁂ ‘Mighty in
Words of Power.’ She is also described in the Hymn as ‘Most potent of
tongue (⁂⁂⁂⁂) and unfailing of speech.’[125]
Her name _Urit ḥekait_ may have suggested the name _Urit_ as the place
of her manifestation. But we do not know if _Urit_ is to be taken as the
name of a town or if some papyri are correct in reading ⁂⁂⁂,
which may mean _tribunal_.
There were in ancient Egypt _six_ great courts of justice,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
A High Priest of Ptah of Memphis, named Ptahmes, in the early part
of the eighteenth dynasty, who was President of these six
Courts,[126] has left a very remarkable attestation relative to
the 24th Precept, on a beautiful scribe’s palette in basalt
(Louvre, _Inv._, 3026). The inscription, after saying that the
whole country was subject to the jurisdiction of Ptahmes, proceeds
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. “He
turned not a deaf ear to the truth, through the terrors of his
Eye;” that is, “the terrors of his Eye” were not used for the
perversion of Justice. But what is meant by his “Eye”? M. Pierret
(in his _Inscr. inédites du Louvre_, pt. 1, p. 96) suggested the
‘Eye of Horus.’ I think it has reference to the position of
Ptahmes as ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. He was ‘the King’s Eye,’
ὁ βασιλέως ὀφθαλμός,[127] and had in consequence, an unlimited
power of defeating justice had he been so inclined.
It is only by a blunder[128] that the papyrus of Ani makes
⁂⁂⁂⁂ (the nineteenth Nome of Upper Egypt) the scene of
the divine Babe’s manifestation, which is unquestionably Heliopolis.
The name of the Nome has numerous variants, but they always consist of
two signs, _a crooked staff_ (⁂, ⁂, ⁂, ⁂) either double
or with _a twisted cord_ (⁂, ⁂, ⁂, ⁂), and the final
sound of the name (when expressed) is in ⁂, ⁂. The key to the
phonetic reading of the name of the Heliopolitan Nome is to be found
in the inscription at Edfu (J. de Rougé, _Edfou_, pl. 46);
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. Here
the _crook_ of the name is identified with the _crook_ and _flail_
⁂⁂⁂⁂ _ams_, ⁂⁂⁂ _ȧms_, ⁂⁂⁂ or
⁂⁂⁂ _emsit_ of Osiris, who is called in the Book of the
Dead (_Todt._, 142, 9) ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, _the August
Dismembered[129] one of the Powers of Annu_. And this is how, in the
important papyrus _Pc_, we find ⁂⁂⁂ in Ch. 17 as the
equivalent of ⁂⁂⁂⁂, a few words after, in the same
papyrus. Both groups are to be read _ȧmsu_; which means _furnished
with the crook_ (_or sceptre_) _and flail_, ⁂⁂ or ⁂.[130]
22. _Hot of foot_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
The Coptic ⲟⲩⲉⲙϩⲏⲧ, _poenitentiam agere_, would be the natural
representative of ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, but the meanings of the terms
cannot be the same. The latter is expressive of a passion, the
indulgence in which may be laudable in the gods and yet blameworthy in
men. For the divine wrath is necessarily just; whereas human anger, even
when it seems to listen to reason, listens, as the philosopher says, but
imperfectly.[131]
The 29th god, _Kenemta_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, has also for
determinative the sign ⁂ of a cynocephalus. This is explained by his
identity with the constellation which occupies the whole month of Thoth
in the list of the Decans. But though the name means ‘_in Ape form_,’
the word ⁂⁂⁂ in the Pyramid Texts (Pepi i, 408, and Merira
579) is used in the sense of ‘vested,’ ‘clad,’ perhaps simply ‘covered.’
Brugsch has identified the locality _Kenemit_ with the Great Oasis at
Khargeh. It may be asked if the Oasis bore this name at the time when
this chapter was composed. The determinative ⁂ proves nothing
beyond the actual sense of the word, but it suggests that the _Dark_ may
be a sufficient translation. From the etymology I should like to
assimilate it to the ποικιλείμων νὺξ of the Prometheus Vinctus, or to
the ‘furvo circumdata peplo’ of the Latin poet.
23. _Of inconstant mind_, ⁂⁂⁂.
24. Another intelligible reading of the precept is, “I rob not the dead
of their wrappings”; but the text is so corrupt that none of the
readings are of any value.
The god is called ⁂⁂⁂⁂ or ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, both of
which words I understand in the sense of _busy-minded_, _planning_,
_devising_, _crafty_, _wise_.
The appellative _Horned one_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, of the next
precept, is the exact equivalent of the Hebrew בַּעַל קַרְנַיִס, and is
the attribute of Osiris (_Todt._, 144, 4), especially in the character
of ⁂⁂⁂; under which name he was worshipped at Sutenhunen.
25. _Noisy in speech_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
26. _Striker_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂. A name of Horus, on which see ch. 103,
note.
27. There is no locality about which there is any agreement between the
older papyri, and many of them omit the mention of a locality; later
authorities, like the Turin text, read ⁂⁂ _Annu_.
28. _No unjust preferences_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂. There is no virtue more
frequently extolled on the funereal monuments than the absence of
favouritism. Great personages in their epitaphs are strong in their
declarations that they made no distinction between great and small, rich
or poor, wise or simple. The declaration of Ameni (_Denkm._, ii, 122),
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, is a type of many
others.
29. Of _raised head_, ⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂, or (B.M. 9971)
⁂⁂⁂. This, like the last two, is a name of the Nile god, who
is one of the manifestations of Osiris.
30. _Who liftest an arm_, ⁂⁂, not ‘_amener_ son bras.’ ⁂, like
the Greek φέρειν, means _bear_ in the sense of _holding up_,
_supporting_. When it signifies _bring_ the collateral notion of
_motion_ is imported from the context. The god Shu, who is called
⁂⁂, _holds up_, _supports_, _the sky_, but does not _bring_ it.
The god _who holds up his arm_, is of course the ithyphallic Amon[132]
⁂, who in Ch. 17 is identified not only with Horus but with Osiris.
31. This introduction to Part III of this chapter occurs only in the
Papyrus of Nebkat (_Pe_). Another ancient manuscript (_Pb_) has the
words “Said upon approaching triumphantly to the Hall of Righteousness.”
But the texts generally begin with the invocation, “Hail ye gods, I know
you and I know your names.”
32. _Reverse of mine_, ⁂⁂, a turn of the wheel, which the
context implies to be unfortunate. A very absurd reading is
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, as if the defendant were master of the
fates of his divine judges.
33. _The King who resideth within His own Day._ A very doubtful passage
at present. The words do not occur in the oldest text of the chapter
(that of Nebseni), and they are omitted here in the later recensions.
_Ad_ is, as far as I know, the only authority for ⁂⁂⁂⁂;
other papyri having merely ⁂, which might possibly correspond to
the ⁂⁂ immediately preceding. The Royal tombs have
⁂⁂⁂⁂, and one of the papyri has ⁂⁂⁂ instead of
⁂⁂⁂. All this reminds one of an obscure passage in Chapter
115, where Rā is speaking with ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂
according to the Text of the Turin _Todtenbuch_. Goodwin conjectured
that King Amhauf belonged ‘to the race of mythical kings who preceded
Menes,’ and that his history is ‘a legend somewhat analogous to that of
Deucalion and Pyrrha.’ There is a much more probable solution of the
matter.
⁂⁂⁂ is meant for ⁂⁂⁂ _Sut_, and it was with this god
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ or ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂[133] ‘in his
_course_’ that Rā was speaking when the disaster happened to the latter
divinity, who for his talk had chosen a wrong _moment_, which really
belonged to his adversary. _Cf. supra_ note 3 on Chapter 110.
And here too I would instead of ⁂⁂ read ⁂⁂, and the
sense of the passage would be “let not reverse of mine come to pass
through Sutu, when his time cometh.”
34. _Cares_, ⁂⁂ in the later texts. The older texts differ
greatly from each other: ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ is the most frequent
reading.
35. _The Ass and the Cat in the house of Hept-ro._ The two personages
who take part in this dialogue are known from other portions of the Book
of the Dead. The Cat is Rā in the 17th chapter. And the Ass appears in
the 40th chapter, as the victim of the devouring Serpent. The Sun-god
overcome by darkness is Osiris; and he is so called by name in the
Demotic version of this chapter.
_Hepṭ-ro_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘god of the gaping mouth.’ The word
⁂⁂⁂ is not found elsewhere, but the meaning of it seems to be
indicated by the determinative. It is very probably akin to the more
common ⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂, which does not mean ‘squat’ or ‘sit,’
but ‘stretch out,’ _distendi_. _Cf._ Note 6, Chapter 63B.
The ‘house of the god of the gaping mouth,’ seems to be the _Earth_,
considered as the universal tomb (ἀλλ’ αὐτοῦ γαῖα μέλαινα πᾶσι χάνοι,
Il. 14, 417). And here Osiris and Rā (the Ass and the Cat) meet daily,
‘Yesterday’ speaketh to ‘To-day.’
יוס ליוס יביע אמר
36. _Verdict_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂,
⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂.
A note of M. Guyesse in the _Recueil_, X, p. 64, contains references to
the chief passages in which this word occurs. I will add a very
important one, the picture of a god (Lefébure, _Tombeau de Seti_, p.
III, pl. 33) with sword in hand, whose name is this word. The
ideographic signs which express it imply (1) ‘a _cutting_ in two,
parting, division,’ (2) that the act is one of speech or intellect, such
as ‘judgment, decision, verdict.’ The phonetic equivalence of the signs
⁂ and ⁂ or ⁂ show that the value is that of _Seb_.
37. _Covereth._ The right Egyptian word here, as in a similar passage in
Chapter 17, is uncertain, but the meaning is plain enough. There are
many pictures showing a divinity (the sun or moon-god) hidden within or
behind a tree.
38. _That the Balance may be set upon its stand within the bower of
amaranth._
_Cf._ the passage (Rochemonteix, _Edfou_, p. 191) where mention is made
of the divine powers which animate the Princes who are in the train of
Osiris and who lift the Balance upon the stand before them
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
_Amaranth_ (see Note 3 of Chapter 26) is only one of the readings of
this doubtful text.
39. _Disasters_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ bad luck, misfortune.
See my note on this word, _T.S.B.A._, II, p. 313.
40. _Grasshoppers_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. The similar word סלעם, which
only occurs in Lev. xi, 22, does not appear to be Semitic. It is a
sufficiently familiar word in Egyptian to serve as a term in comparison,
‘as plentiful as grasshoppers.’
41. The text here is quite uncertain. The Turin _Todtenbuch_ has “the
fourth hour of the Night and the eighth hour of the Day,” which does not
agree with any early reading. _Cd._ has “the fourth hour of the Night
and of the Day.” Several papyri have the “second hour of the Night and
the third ⁂⁂⁂ of the Day.” It was in this passage, as written
in B.M. 9904, that, in the year 1860, I found the phonetic value of the
Egyptian number 3: a discovery first ascribed by Brugsch[134] to
Goodwin, and afterwards by others to Brugsch himself.
42. _The hearts of the gods are appeased_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
_Cf._ ⲛⲁⲓ, ἱλάσκεσθαι, and ⲛⲁⲏⲧ, ἐλεήμων, οἰκτίρμων. This explains Pap.
Prisse XVII, 6 ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
43. _Let him come._ ⁂⁂⁂ is a tolerably certain reading, but it
is not possible to say what should be the word preceding this. The
scribes have written ‘there he cometh,’ ‘we grant that he come,’ ‘I
grant,’ ‘let him be brought in,’ and the like.
44. _He who groweth under the Grass_,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
45. _A thigh_, ⁂⁂⁂, also written ⁂⁂.
46. _See the greetings_: φωνῇ γαρ ὁρῶ, τὸ φατιζόμενον, _Oedip. Col._
138.
47. _The Leaf_, ⁂⁂⁂.
48. _Pointer_ [or _Plummet_] _of Truth_,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
49. _The Scale Pan_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂.
50. _The Dragon Brood_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂.
51. _The Truncheon of Hathor_, ⁂⁂⁂ does not appear to be a very
familiar word to the scribes, who write it in the most diverse ways
possible; one of them even understanding it as the ‘opening of heaven’
⁂⁂. All that we can say is that the word is shown by its
determinative to be of _wood_, and by its etymology (_cf._ ⁂⁂,
⁂) to serve for _striking_, _blinding_, or _slaying_. Some of the
texts name Hathor, and others Nephthys. The sign ⁂ occurs in both
names, and the scribes have read the rest of the name as best they
could.
52. _He who knoweth the heart and exploreth the person_,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. This is so exactly the
equivalent of “Searching the heart and trying the reins” of Jeremiah
(xvii, 10), that we might have expected to find something like it in the
Coptic version of the Bible. But there we have nothing but a close
adherence to the sense of the Septuagint, and even to such a word as
δοκιμάζειν.
53. _Who provideth for._ ⁂⁂⁂ is the equivalent of the Greek
φρονεῖν in the inscription of Tanis, and of μέριμνα in the Demotic text
of the verses of Moschion. The Coptic form is ⲙⲉⲩⲓ, ⲙⲉⲉⲩⲉ, which stands
for φρονεῖν in Phil. iv, 10, “Your _care_ of me, wherein ye also were
_careful_.”
Thoth is thus represented as the divine Providence, which takes care of
the universe. The same view is found in a text at Edfu.
54. _The Eye_ of Horus; see latter part of Note 2, of this chapter.
-----
Footnote 111:
Apparently suggested by the scene in the tomb of Hor-em-heb (see
_Denkm._, III, 78), in the time of Amenophis III. (Plate XXXII, fig.
15.)
Footnote 112:
The picture of the Babe lifted up into the upper world by two
divinities speaks for itself. Of the birth of the Sun as the Winged
Scarab at the beginning of the first hour of the day, M. Maspero, in
his description of the text, says: “Il est salué à ton apparition par
les huit ... ‘les esprits d’Orient, dieux du ciel, des terres, des
pays étrangers, de la montagne d’horizon orientale qui est On.’”
Footnote 113:
This is the principle by which to judge the cases of the
_Facing-backward_ god ⁂⁂⁂⁂ serpentine, or crocodile
⁂⁂⁂, and of Uammeta ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, against
both of whom a passage of the ‘Book of Hades’ (Bonomi, _Sarc._, pl. II
A) has been quoted. The book, of course, is of inferior authority to
the ‘Book of the Dead,’ but in any case it must be remembered that
these names, as appellatives, are _common_ nouns (_Uammeta_ is in the
_plural_ number in the passage in question), and may simply mean
_Serpents_. Sutu is called by the first of these names at Edfu
(_Zeitschr._, 1871, p. 108). But even at Dendera (Lanzone, _Diz._, pl.
173, 1) this ‘god of serpent face’ is ‘disastrous to the Sebau,’ the
enemies of Osiris and Rā, and is therefore not one of them. His soul
is invoked like those of all the great gods in the royal tombs.
Footnote 114:
The ⁂ is not to be read _fi_ or _fy_. The sign ⁂ is merely
the ideogram of the number 2, like the letter ⲃ in Coptic. The belief
in an Egyptian dual with ⁂ as a final syllable is an illusion,
though a very pardonable one, of our grammarians.
Footnote 115:
Or _Vultures_. _See_ M. Gayet’s _Temple de Luxor_, Pl. xliii, fig.
127, where the Bird at each end of the picture holds ⁂ in its
claw. And note the tabernacles (a very frequent picture) where a
winged goddess bearing the ⁂ kneels on either side of the solar
scarab.
Footnote 116:
Or as it is said in other words (Teta, 172; Pepi I, 130; Pepi II, 107,
and Merenra, 152), “Seb hath brought to thy side thy two sisters, Isis
and Nephthys.”
Footnote 117:
A very conceivable, because a very frequent, one.
Footnote 118:
“His sons were kept in prison, till they grew
Of years to fill a bowstring or a throne.”
Footnote 119:
To quote only well known cases, we have ‘the massacre of the princes,’
involving the two uncles and seven cousins of the Emperor Constantius,
and those of our own King John and Richard III.
Footnote 120:
The legislation of Solon is said by Diogenes Laertius (who is however
contradicted by notorious evidence) to have excluded from the position
of guardian anyone who had the right of succession to the ward’s
estate. And this was also the law of England with reference to
guardians in socage. In France the next in succession had the charge
of the estate, but was excluded from the custody of the person of the
ward.
Footnote 121:
The true sense of the name has been missed by Birch, who reads it
Teti, and by Brugsch, who reads it “Chonti, der Anfängliche.” At
Beb-el-moluk it is written ⁂⁂⁂.
Footnote 122:
_D. Aegyptische Elle_, Taf. 1 and 2.
Footnote 123:
_Cf._ the forms ⁂`⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂ and
⁂⁂⁂⁂ (Naville, _Litanies_, pp. 55, 83, and the
corresponding texts) of one of the Solar names.
Footnote 124:
On the other hand in the standard ⁂ of Dendera, the Crocodile is
Sut, and the Feather upon his head is Osiris.
Footnote 125:
Her son Horus inherited these gifts. He is invoked (_Metternich
Stele_, line 106),
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
Footnote 126:
Rechmarā filled this office shortly before this, in the time of
Thothmes III, and the inscriptions of his tomb give interesting
information of the duties discharged. His clerks are praised for the
virtue of discretion (18th Precept). Each heard the reports read by
others, but without troubling himself with what did not concern him.
See next note.
Footnote 127:
This office is often referred to by Greek writers as existing in the
Persian hierarchy. Pseudartabas, the ‘King’s Eye,’ is one of the
Dramatis Personæ in the _Acharnians_ of Aristophanes. Herodotus (1,
114) tells how Cyrus being chosen king by his playfellows, selected
his principal officers, and one among the boys to be the ‘King’s Eye.’
Aeschylus does not forget in his _Persae_ (line 976) to make the
Chorus bewail the loss of the King’s faithful Eye.
The most ancient personage who is known to me as the ‘King’s Eye’ in
Egypt is Antuf, whose tablet (of the 12th dynasty) is in the Louvre
(C. 26). His duties are detailed on this magnificent tablet, and they
are very similar to those of Rechmarā. He is described not only as the
King’s Eyes which see, but ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂
the “Tongue which speaks, of the lord of the Palace.”
Footnote 128:
⁂⁂ in cursive writing might be mistaken for ⁂⁂ or for
⁂⁂, and the scribe, to show his learning, might interpolate
the ⁂, but even this might be an error for ⁂.
Footnote 129:
The determinatives in ⁂⁂, ⁂⁂, express the sense of
_division_, διαμελισμός, and the insect (a scolopendron) in ⁂⁂
exhibits the very notion which has given rise to the Latin _insecta_
and the Greek ἔντομον
Footnote 130:
For more particular details, see P.S.B.A., viii, p. 245, and
following.
Footnote 131:
Ἀκούειν τι τοῦ λόγου, παρακούειν δε: _Ethic. Nich._, viii. 7.
Footnote 132:
There is no such god as _Min_ or _Minu_, except as an abbreviated (or
perhaps primitive) _orthographic_ form of _Amon_. ⁂⁂⁂ and
⁂⁂ bear to ⁂⁂⁂ exactly the same relationship
that ⁂⁂, ⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂, have to
⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂ and ⁂⁂⁂⁂.
Neither _Amen_ nor the shorter form can be the phonetic equivalent of
⁂. The image of Horus with the Flail at Edfu is described (J. de
Rougé, pl. C. III) as ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, _Horus as
Amsu-Amen_, and I have elsewhere quoted from _Tempel insch._, I, 32,
the ⁂⁂⁂ _Amsu- Men_ [or _Amen_] as well as ⁂⁂
_Amsu Horus_.
Footnote 133:
The Luynes papyrus reads ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, which affords
good reason for thinking that in Chapter 115, as elsewhere, ⁂
was originally written without its phonetic value.
Footnote 134:
_Zeitschr._, No. 3.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLATE XL.
BOOK OF THE DEAD.
[Illustration: CHAPTER CXXVI. =Papyrus of Ani.=]
[Illustration:
CHAPTER CXXVI.
=Papyrus, British Museum. No. 9913.=
]
[Illustration:
CHAPTER CXXIX.
=Musée du Louvre, Papyrus III, 36.=
]
[Illustration: CHAPTER CXXX. =Papyrus, Leyden, VI.=]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PLATE XLI.
BOOK OF THE DEAD.
[Illustration:
CHAPTER CXXXI.
=Papyrus, Musée du Louvre, No. 3079.=
]
[Illustration:
CHAPTER CXXXII.
=Brit. Mus. Papyrus, No. 9964.=
]
[Illustration:
CHAPTER CXXXII.
=Papyrus, Brocklehurst, II.=
]
[Illustration:
CHAPTER CXXXIII.
=Papyrus, British Museum, No. 9900.=
]
[Illustration: CHAPTER CXXXIV. =Papyrus of Ani, British Museum.=]
[Illustration: CHAPTER CXXXIV. =Papyrus, British Museum, No. 9900.=]
[Illustration:
CHAPTER CXXXVI.
=Papyrus, Brit. Mus., No. 9913.=
]
[Illustration:
CHAPTER CXXXVI.
=Papyrus, Brit. Mus., No. 9900.=
]
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CHAPTER CXXVI.
Oh ye four Harbingers(1.) who sit at the prow of the Bark of Rā, and
convey the fixed ordinances(2.) of the Inviolate One, ye who are judges
of my distress(3.) and of my good fortune, and propitiate the gods with
the flames from your mouths: ye who present to the gods their oblations
and the sacrificial meals to the Glorified: ye who live through Maāt and
are sated with Maāt: who have nothing wrong in you and execrate that
which is disordered,(4.) do ye put an end to my ills and remove that
which is disorderly in me through my being smitten to the earth.(5.)
Grant that I may penetrate into the Ammehit and enter into Restau; and
that I may pass through the mysterious portals of Amenta.
Be there given to me the Shensu cakes and the Persen cakes [and all
things] even as to the Glorified, who make their appearance on entering
into Restau or on coming forth.(6.)
Enter thou, Osiris _N_: We put an end to thine ills, and we remove that
which is disorderly in thee through thy being smitten to the earth. We
put away from thee all the ills which thou hast. Enter thou into Restau
and pass through the mysterious portals of Amenta. Enter thou in and
come forth at thy pleasure, like the Glorified ones; and be thou invoked
each day in the Mount of Glory.(7.)
NOTES.
In the older papyri the vignette of this chapter is unaccompanied by any
text. The only exception as yet known is that of the papyrus _Ab_, of
the XVIIIth dynasty. The text is also found in the tomb of Rameses VI,
with the important addition of the answer made by the four _Harbingers_
to the prayer of the deceased. This addition is retained in all the
later recensions. Other discrepancies between the two texts lead to the
conclusion that even the older one has suffered from interpolation.
1. _Harbingers_ or _Saluters_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. See Chapter 5,
Note 5, for an explanation of the name of those Apes who salute[135] the
Daybreak. Here _four_ only are spoken of, and this was probably the
original number, corresponding to the four portals of the Mount of
Glory. The number _eight_ (the Chemunnu) is more easy to explain than
_six_, which is the number stated in the text quoted from the tomb of
Rameses VI.
2. _Fixed ordinances_, ⁂⁂; θέμιστες in the different acceptations
of that word.
3. _Distress_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂. “Te semper anteit saeva
_necessitas_,” Horace says to Fortuna. The determinative ⁂ and the
Coptic ⲙⲣ̄ evidently point to the notion of _constraint_, but the few
texts in which the word is found imply _want_, _need_ (_angustiæ_,
ἀνάγκη),[136] rather than captivity. Amenemhat at Benihassan (tomb 2)
boasts that in his days and under his government no one was seen “in
distress (⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂), or starving.” And Horus at Edfu
(Naville, _Mythe d’Horus_, pl. XXII) is said to protect the _needy_ or
_distressed_ (⁂⁂⁂) against the powerful. This is an honour
already claimed by Antuf on his tablet (Louvre, C. 26 line 17), who
mentions the _maȧru_ as being an object of interest to him, like the
orphan and the widow.
4. _Disordered_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, is the absence of ⁂⁂,
strict _order_, and always spoken of as in opposition to it. One is
κόσμος and the other is οὐ κατὰ κόσμον, and may be predicated of
whatever is contrary to rule, faulty, defective, out of line, deformed,
or disfigured, not only in a moral but in a purely physical sense.
⁂⁂, _ill_, does not mean _wickedness_ or _sin_, but simply
physical evil, mischief, pain or sorrow. There are many texts to prove
this, but perhaps the most interesting is the great text at Dendera
(Mariette, _Denderah_, IV, pl. 73, or Dümichen, _Rec._, III, pl. 96),
where Osiris is invoked at Apu (Panopolis) as the fiery Bull, hiding (or
scarcely seen) on the day of the New Moon ..., but at length rising into
full strength,[137] and seeing the Golden Horus fixed upon the throne of
the universe. ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ (continues the text),
“Joy cometh round after[138] pain,” or sorrow; most certainly, not after
_sin_.
The meaning of ⁂, which governs the noun, has been explained
(Chapter 40, Note 6) as _stopping_, _bringing to an end_; not
_destroying_, and still less _forgiving_.
5. _Through my being_ [or _because I am_] _smitten to the earth_,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
⁂⁂ in this position, without a suffix or nominal subject, is not
an auxiliary verb, but a particle of correlation, used when a cause,
motive, or circumstance is asserted or implied in connection with a
preceding statement.
Like all such particles, of which the function was originally only
deictic, it is susceptible of very many shades of meaning, and it would
be impossible in this place to do justice to a word so frequently
occurring, especially in the hieratic papyri of a secular character. The
following examples are only intended to illustrate its _grammatical_ use
in our text.
The particle occurs three times before as many propositions at the
beginning of Chapter 123; ‘I have balanced the divine Pair,’ ‘I have put
a stop, _etc._,’ ‘I have ended their complaints;’ ⁂⁂ connects each
of these statements with the preceding one, ‘I am Thoth.’ It is as if
the speaker said, ‘_It is in consequence of_ my being Thoth, that I have
balanced,’ _etc._
In Chapter 36, ‘I am the bearer of the divine words’ is followed by
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘and _so it comes that_ I make the
report.’
In Chapter 15, line 7, ‘I am one of those who honoured thee upon earth’
is followed by ⁂⁂⁂⁂ ... “let me _therefore_ attain to the
Land of eternity.”
Aahmes, the son of Abana, says in his inscription (line 5) that he was
young and unwedded, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “_and so_ I continued to
wear” a certain dress.
Amenemheb was, he tells us (_Zeitschr._, 1873, p. 3), high in the favour
of the King, “_and so it comes that_ I followed my Lord
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.”
Una was sent by his sovereign on a certain mission, and the negro
chieftains of certain districts furnished the wood for his purpose,
“_and so it came to pass that_ he spent ⁂⁂⁂ a year in this
wise.“
After _verba dicendi_ ⁂⁂ corresponds to our as _how_, _comme
quoi_, or the _quod_ or _quia_ of late Latinity. It often needs no more
translation than the Greek ὅτι in such a relation.
In the inscription of Pianchi (line 2) one came to tell his Majesty
“_that_ (_comme quoi_) a prince [or magnate] had started up
⁂⁂⁂⁂” and seized upon a part of the kingdom.
⁂⁂⁂ most certainly does not mean ‘est, est,’ any more than it
means ‘Dominus meus mortuus est.’
Nebuaiu (_Zeitschr._, 1876, p. 5) in the time of Thothmes III
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “says, _as how_ ‘I have presided over
many constructions.’”
The Naophoros of the Vatican in like manner ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “says
_that_ ‘I made a petition’” to Cambyses.
Long before this Chnumhotep of Benihassan begins his biography (line 14)
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “his mouth, it says _as how_ ‘his Majesty
appointed me’ to the dignity of _Erpā ḥā_.”
The absence of Verbal character becomes especially apparent in such
combinations ⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂.
6. The older texts finish here. What follows in the translation is taken
from the later recensions. It is the reply made by the four Harbingers
to the prayer addressed to them.
7. _Mount of Glory_ ⁂. This is the real meaning of the word, and
there is no reason why we should continue to use the misleading term
_horizon_.
-----
Footnote 135:
The Gothic _Hana_ (the Cock), German _Hahn_ and our _Hen_ signify the
_Singer_, and are words cognate to the Latin _can-ere_. The Latin
_Gallus_ is probably related to our _call_.
Footnote 136:
The Greek language would furnish an interesting parallel to the
Egyptian if it could be shown that δέω, _bind_, and δέω, _want_,
_need_, had the same root. But the latter was originally δέϝω.
Footnote 137:
Such is the real meaning of ⁂⁂⁂⁂, not only in
this place, but in the extremely ancient text found on many
sarcophagi and already in the Pyramid Texts (see Pepi I, 33),
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂,
“Thy mother Nut bringeth it to pass that thou risest into full
strength, without an adversary, in thy name of _the Strong one_.”
In this translation it is assumed that the second ⁂ is the
negative ⁂, as it was always understood in later times (see for
an instance _Zeitschr._, 1869, p. 51, and the beautiful text of
Bakenrenf, _Denkm._, III, 263).
The true meaning of ⁂⁂ is not simply ‘this god’ but ‘the
Strong one,’ ὁ Ισχύων. ⁂⁂ is the ‘Strong and Beautiful;’
⁂⁂ is אל שׁדי, ὁ Παντοκράτωρ.
Footnote 138:
That is, ‘succeedeth.’
------------------------------------
CHAPTER CXXVII.
_The Book_(1.) _for invoking the gods of the Bounds,_(2.) _which the
person reciteth when he approacheth them, that he may enter and see
the Strong one_(3.) _in the Great Abode of the Tuat._
Hail, ye gods of the Bounds, who are in Amenta.
Hail, ye Doorkeepers of the Tuat, who guard this Strong one, and who
bring the reports before Osiris; ye who protect them who worship you,
and who annihilate the adversaries of Rā: who give light and put away
your darkness: ye who see and extol your Great one, who live even as he
liveth, and invoke him who is in his Solar disk.
Guide me, and let the gates of Heaven, Earth, and the Tuat be opened to
me.
I am the Soul of Osiris and rest in him.
Let me pass through the Gateways, and let them raise acclamation when
they see me.
Let me enter as I will, and come forth at my pleasure, and make my way
without there being found any defect or any evil attaching to me.
NOTES.
The text which has been followed in the translation of this chapter is
that of the Royal Tombs of Rameses IV and Rameses VI, called by M.
Naville Chapter 127 A. The lost Busca papyrus, of which Lepsius had a
tracing, furnishes a different text, (127 B), and the text of the Turin
_Todtenbuch_ has been enlarged by means of numerous interpolations. M.
Naville has called attention to the close relationship between this
chapter and the second part of the “Solar Litany.”
1. _Book_ ⁂⁂, properly a _Roll_; a title given to several of the
chapters (125, 127, 129, 130, 140, 141, 142 and 148 in the Turin
_Todtenbuch_), instead of the usual ⁂. Too much importance should
not be attached to the difference of terms. This chapter is called
⁂ by the Busca papyrus; and Chapter 125, which is called ⁂
in the earliest texts containing it whenever a title is given, is called
⁂⁂ ever since the time of Rameses IV.
2. _Bounds_, ⁂⁂⁂, in the dual form, though ⁂⁂⁂
is not unfrequent, here and in other places. The English word is not a
translation of the Egyptian one, which has to be explained before any
equivalent for it can be proposed. And the explanation of it has to be
sought in the ‘Solar Litany,’ first completely published by M. Naville.
There we find the Sun-god Rā invoked as a Power _pouring itself forth_
or _overflowing_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂[139] in 75 _forms_ and the
_forms_ in 75 ⁂⁂⁂. Each of these divine _forms_ (⁂⁂⁂)
has its own ⁂⁂⁂ as a dwelling-place, to which however it is
not confined.
The seventy-five Forms in question (each of which is a god) are, as the
text itself shows, simply so many names of the Solar god or solar
phenomena. Each of them is addressed as ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ‘Rā,
supreme of power,’ after which some attribute of the deity is mentioned,
and the name of the deity is connected with this attribute.
In Greece, Apollo was called ἑκηβόλος, καταιβάσιος, ἀποτροπαῖος,
νεομήνιος, and by ever so many other names expressive of the attributes
with which he was credited. These names correspond to what Egyptian
mythology called the ⁂⁂⁂ of a god, and each of the names has
but a limited application. The god is not always thought of as
‘Far-darting’; under the conception of ‘Neomenios,’ he _dwells_ in what
Egyptian mythology called another ⁂⁂, which is the local
habitation, or, as mathematicians would say, the _locus_ of the concept.
M. de Rougé, without giving any reason, but probably guided by what
Champollion had written, translates the word _zone_. M. Naville, who has
carefully studied the word, prefers _sphere_. And no better word could
be thought of, if we used it as we do in speaking of ‘moving in a
certain sphere,’ ‘each in his own sphere,’ or, ‘the sphere of action;’
without applying a strict geometrical sense to the word. For the
Egyptian ⁂⁂ was a hollow cylinder like a round tower, a chimney,
or a deep well rather than a sphere.
With the explanation I have just given, I prefer _Bounds_ as a more
expressive translation. The word appears in the dual form on account of
the presence of the god.
The name ⁂⁂⁂ was given to the fabulous Source of the
Nile, supposed to be in the neighbourhood of Elephantine. The
inscription of Seti I at Redesieh (_Denkm._, III, 140B) compares the
abundance of water at the King’s cistern to that of the
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “the cavern of the
double Well of Elephantine.”
In the later orthography the word is written ⁂ or ⁂⁂. It has
been supposed that the Coptic ⲕⲟⲣⲓ _cataracts_ might be connected with
the old Egyptian name. But the history of the Coptic word is not
sufficiently known to justify any inferences.
3. _The Strong one_, ⁂⁂, the name of Osiris. See footnote to
Chapter 126, Note 4.
-----
Footnote 139:
M. Naville leaves this word untranslated, though he rightly
conjectures it to be the origin of ϫⲱϣ _effundere_, _effusio_,
_infundere_, _immergere_.
⁂⁂⁂ at chapter 64, 23, is undoubtedly the _overflowing_,
or _outpouring_. There are the reduplicated Coptic forms ϭⲉϣϭϣ and
ϭⲉϣϭⲱϣ; and ϭⲉϣⲉ, a name of the _goose_, has its origin in
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, and has the same sense etymologically
as the Latin _mergus_.
------------------------------------
CHAPTER CXXVIII.
_Invocation of Osiris._
Hail to thee, Osiris Unneferu, son of Nut and eldest son of Seb: the
Great One who proceedeth from Nut; the king in Taa-urit;(1.) the Prince
in Amenta; the Lord of Abydos; the Lord of Forces; the most Mighty; the
Lord of the Atef crown in Suten-hunen, the Lord of Power in
Taa-urit,(2.) the Lord of the Mansion: most Powerful in Tattu: Lord of
Administration,(3.) and of many festivals in Tattu.
Horus exalteth his father Osiris in every place; associating Isis the
Great with her sister Nephthys.
Thoth speaketh to [Horus] with the potent utterances(4.) which have in
himself their origin and proceed from his mouth, and which strengthen
the heart of Horus beyond all gods.
=Rise up Horus, son of Isis, and restore thy father Osiris!=
Ha, Osiris! I am come to thee; I am Horus and I restore thee unto life
upon this day, with the funereal offerings and all good things for
Osiris.
Rise up, then, Osiris: I have stricken down for thee thine enemies, I
have delivered thee from them.
I am Horus on this fair day, at the beautiful coming forth(5.) of thy
Powers: who lifteth thee up with himself on this fair day as thine
associate god.(6.)
Ha, Osiris! thou hast come and with thee thy _Ka_, which uniteth with
thee in thy name of Ka-hotep.(7.)
He glorifieth thee in thy name of the Glorified: he invoketh thee in thy
name of Hekau: he openeth for thee the paths in thy name of Ap-uat.(8.)
Ha, Osiris! I am come to thee that I may set thine adversaries beneath
thee in every place, and that thou mayest be triumphant in presence of
all the gods who are around thee.
Ha, Osiris! thou hast received thy sceptre, thy pedestal and the flight
of stairs beneath thee.(9.)
Regulate thou the festivals of the gods, and do thou regulate the
oblations to those who reside in their mansions.
Grant thou thy greatness to the gods whom thou hast made, great god, and
make thine appearance with them as their Ensign.(10.)
Take thou precedence(11.) over all the gods and listen to the Voice of
Maāt on this day.
_Said over the oblations made to the Strong One on the Festival of
Uaka._(12.)
NOTES.
The ancient papyri do not contain this chapter. The translation follows
the text of the Turin _Todtenbuch_, occasionally corrected by other
papyri of the later period. There is nothing specially interesting in
the chapter: the first portion of it is an invocation to Osiris under
certain names, as in many other hymns[140] to the god from the time of
the XIIth dynasty down to the latest times: the latter portion consists
of evocations addressed by Horus to his father. Their prototype is to be
found in formulas frequent in the Pyramid Texts. These were much admired
and imitated in the Saïtic and the later periods.
1. _King in Tau-urit_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. Osiris is also
called ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ at Philæ. And in the second line
of this chapter he is called ⁂⁂⁂ _in Tau-urit_ which, if not
identical with Abydos, must have been a part of that town or in its
immediate neighbourhood.
2. ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ is equivalent to ⁂⁂⁂,
the title of Osiris in _Pepi I_, line 8. And the Power is defined as
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “thy Power which is upon the
Glorified.”
3. _Administration_ ⁂; literally _things_. See note 3 on Chapter 18.
4. _Utterances_ ⁂⁂. See note 2 on Chapter 1, and compare
_Merenrā_, 103, and _Pepi II_, 13.
5. _Coming forth_ ⁂. _Cf._ ϣⲁⲓ, ἀνατέλλειν, ἀνατολὴ, and the
meanings ἐξοδεία and ἑορτή, which, on the tablet of Canopus, correspond
to the Egyptian ⁂. The first hour after sunrise was called
⁂⁂⁂⁂; so that “the beautiful Coming forth of thy Powers”
may be a mere technical periphrasis for daybreak.
Besides the ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ of Rā in Chapter 17, it is well to
remember such proper names as ⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂,
⁂⁂⁂⁂ and ⁂⁂⁂, with several others.
6. _Thine associate god_, or _one of those about thee_,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
See Note 2 on Chapter 18. M. Chabas in his commentary upon the fine hymn
translated by him in the _Rev. Arch._, 1857, considers it “une
circonstance bizarre” that Osiris is several times included among his
‘_Djadjou_.’ The _bizarrerie_ is easily explained by parallel
expressions known to every Greek scholar, οἱ ἀμφὶ Πεισίστρατον in
Herodotus means _Pisistratus with his troops_, and in Thucydides, οἱ
περι Θρασυβουλον means _Thrasybulus with his soldiers_. In the Iliad (3,
146) οἱ ἀμφὶ Πρίαμον is explained by the Scholiast as meaning _Priam
himself_: τοῦτ ἐστιν, ὁ Πρίαμος.
7. This passage as it stands is the alteration of one of the Pyramid
Texts (Teta, 284; Pepi I, 54): “Horus hath brought to pass that _his Ka_
[? image] which is in thee should unite with thee in thy name of
Ka-hotep.”
8. This whole passage is also taken from the Pyramid Texts. Its chief
value in this place is in evidence of a truth not yet generally
acknowledged by Egyptologists, that _Ap-uat_ (or as written in the
Pyramid Texts, _Up-uat_) is really Osiris. The proofs are numerous and
overwhelming.
I produced evidence of this identity in the P.S.B.A. of June 1, 1886,
from an obelisk of the XIIth dynasty now at Alnwick Castle, and in 1891
Brugsch published in his _Thesaurus_ (p. 1420) a tablet, now in the
Louvre, of the same period as the obelisk, which also treats Ap-uat as
one of the names of Osiris. But the earliest as well as the most
instructive evidence is that of the Pyramid Texts. The later form of it
is thus given on the coffin of _Nes-Shu-Tefnut_ at Vienna (see Bergman,
_Recueil_, VI, p. 165): “Horus openeth for thee thy Two Eyes that thou
mayest see with them in thy name of Ap-uat.”
But the Pyramids of Teta (l. 281) and Pepi (l. 131) say, “Horus openeth
for thee thine Eye that thou mayest see with _it_ in _its_ name
_Ap-uat_.” Each of the Eyes of Osiris is Ap-uat, one of them is the
Southern and the other is the Northern Jackal. These two facing each
other form part of the symbolism explained in Note 2 upon Chapter 125.
The figure of the Jackal is wholly insufficient as an argument that
Ap-uat is identical with Anubis. Much better evidence is found in the
fact that the name of Anubis is sometimes written over the figure.[141]
But the true explanation of this is, what might have seemed incredible
to some of our older scholars, that Anubis is itself only one of the
names of Osiris.
The Pyramids of Pepi I (line 474 and following) and Pepi II (l. 1262 and
following) give imaginary etymologies of certain names of Osiris which
are repeated in the inscriptions of the tomb of Horhotep, published by
M. Maspero (_Miss. Arch._, I, 260). One of these names is ⁂⁂,
which is said to be derived from ⁂, “pass thou over to me.” The next
is ⁂⁂⁂⁂ _Anpu_, which is derived from ⁂⁂! The true
meaning of ⁂⁂⁂ is not _jackal_, but _whelp_; the fierce young
of an animal; not only of jackals or lions but of men, kings or gods,
⁂⁂⁂. Thus Orestes speaks (Eur., _Orest._, 1) of σκύμνον
ἀνοσίου πατρός, and the Chorus of another play talks of the reception of
τὸν Ἀχίλλειον σκύμνον (_Andr._, 1170). And Shakespeare speaks of “the
young whelp of Talbot’s raging brood.”
9. _Pedestal_, ⁂⁂⁂; the _stand_ upon which the images or
emblems of the god were carried in procession. The ⁂ is very
frequently supported by it; ⁂.
_Flight of stairs_, ⁂⁂. See Note 2 on Chapter 22.
10. _Ensign_, _i.e._, _insignis_, one who bears the distinguishing mark
or sign of investiture ⁂⁂⁂⁂.[142] See Note 4 on Chapter 78.
Osiris is here presented as the Sāhu of the gods whom he has called into
existence. The Hymn of the Bibliothèque Nationale (line 7) calls him
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
Chnumhotep at Benihassan says of the king,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, “he distinguished me
above all his _nobles_,” that is the order of men bearing the sign of
investiture.
11. _Take precedence_, ⁂⁂⁂. I take the word in the same sense
as where it occurs (without the determinative of sound) in _Denkm._,
III, 29a; in parallelism with ⁂⁂.
12. _Uaḳa_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂; in the older texts ⁂⁂⁂ (as in
Pepi I, 98); one of the oldest festivals of the Egyptian calendar, kept
on the 17th and 18th of the month Thoth.
The Pyramid Text says “Behold, he cometh to thee as Orion
(⁂⁂⁂[143]); behold Osiris cometh as Orion the _Lord of Wine_
(⁂⁂⁂, _vinosus_, full of wine), who cometh on the fair
festival of _Uaḳa_.”
_Uaḳa_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂ or ⁂⁂⁂⁂ is also one of the names
given to the Nile.
-----
Footnote 140:
_Cf._ the Hymn to Osiris in the Bibl. Nationale, the Hymn of Tunrei
(Mariette, _Mon. div._, pl. 57), and an inscription copied by Mariette
from the temple of Ptah at Memphis (_Mon. div._, pl. 28 _e_). There
are plenty others of the same kind.
Footnote 141:
See Mariette, _Mon. div._, pl. 61, where each of the jackals is
surmounted with the Eye and bears the name _Ȧnpu_.
Footnote 142:
The importance of this sign is manifest in the Pyramid Text
(_Merenrā_, 634), “_N_ maketh his appearance as King, he hath
possession of his ⁂⁂⁂ and of his throne.” [Since the
above was in print M. Naville has published an inscription of Queen
Hatshepsit, in which the remarkable expression ⁂⁂⁂⁂
occurs three times.
The word written ⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, but also
⁂⁂⁂⁂ or ⁂⁂⁂⁂ (and also without any
vowel, though ⁂ is understood), has determinatives in _Pepi_ I,
635, and _Merenrā_, 509, which imply the sense of _girdle_, _zone_.
Hence the sense of _neighbourhood_, “the men or places round about
one.”
Footnote 143:
Does ⁂ represent what we call the _Belt_ of Orion with its three
bright stars?
------------------------------------
CHAPTER CXXIX
is a repetition of Chapter C.
------------------------------------
CHAPTER CXXX.
_A Book whereby the Soul is made to live for ever, on the day of
entering into the Bark of Rā, and to pass the Sheniu of the Tuat. Made
on the Birthday of Osiris._(1.)
Opened be the gates of Heaven; opened be the gates of Earth; opened be
the gates of the East; opened be the gates of the West; opened be the
gates of the Southern and of the Northern sanctuaries.
Opened be the gates and thrown wide the portals as Rā riseth up from the
Mount of Glory; opened to him be the doors of the Sektit boat, thrown
open to him be the portals of the Māātit, as he scenteth Shu and setteth
in motion Tefnut, and those follow who are in the train of the Osiris
_N_, who followeth Rā and taketh possession of his arms of steel.(2.)
I am coffined in an ark like Horus, to whom his cradle(3.) is brought:
and secret is the place, hard by his own shrine, which the god openeth
to whom he willeth.
And so it cometh that I lift up Right to the Lord of Right, and that I
make fast the cord which windeth about the shrine.
The Osiris _N_ avoideth the raging storm: the Osiris _N_ is not to be
kept away from Rā, not to be repulsed is he.
Let not the Osiris _N_ advance into the Valley of Darkness: let not the
Osiris _N_ enter into the dungeon of the captives: let him not leap into
the grip of Fate, let him not fall among those who imprison souls or
come forth among those who would drag him behind the slaughtering block
of the Armed god.(4.)
Salutations to you, ye sejant gods.(5.)
The divine Sword(6.) is concealed in the hands of Seb, at daybreak, for
he delighteth in drawing to himself both old and young at his own
season.
And now behold Thoth in the secret of his mysteries. He maketh
purifications and endless reckonings; piercing the steel firmament and
dissipating the storms around him.
And so it cometh that the Osiris _N_ hath reached every station of his.
He hath fashioned his staff, and received the oblations of Rā, the swift
of speed and beautiful in his rising and almighty through what he hath
done.
He putteth an end to his pain and suffering, and the Osiris _N_ putteth
an end to his own pain; yea, he gladdeneth the countenance of Thoth by
the worship of Rā and Osiris.
The Osiris _N_ entereth the Mount of Glory of Rā, who hath made his Bark
and saileth prosperously, lightening up the face of Thoth, that he may
listen to Rā and beat down the obstacles in his way, and put an end to
his adversaries.
Let not the Osiris _N_ be shipwrecked on the great voyage by him whose
face is in his own lap:(7.) for the name of Rā is upon the Osiris, and
his token of honour is on his mouth, which speaketh to him who listeneth
to the words of the Osiris _N_.
Glory to thee, O Rā, Lord of the Mount of Glory. Hail to thee, who
purifiest the generations yet unborn and to whom this great quarter of
heaven offered homage.
The steering keepeth clear from misadventure.
Lo, here is Osiris who proclaimeth Right, because of the marvel in the
West, for he hath put an end to the rage of Apepi, for he is himself the
god in Lion form among the associate gods and protecteth Rā against
Apepi daily, that he may not approach him, and he keepeth watch upon
him. Osiris seizeth the scrolls and receiveth the offerings.
And Thoth supplieth the Osiris _N_ with that which he shall perform for
him. It is granted that the Osiris shall carry Maāt at the head of the
great Bark, and hold up Maāt among the associate gods, and that Osiris
gain endless triumphs.
The Sheniu marshal the Osiris _N_, and they procure for the Osiris a
voyage amid acclamations.
The Satellites of Rā make their round, in the train of the exaltation of
Maāt, who followeth her Lord. And glory is given to the Inviolate one.
The Osiris receiveth the Amsu-staff(8.) wherewith he goeth round Heaven.
The unborn generations of men give him glory, as to one who standeth
without ever resting. Rā exalteth him by this, that he alloweth the
Osiris to disperse the cloud and behold his glories. He maketh firm his
rudders that the Bark may go round in Heaven and that he may make his
appearance in Antu. Thoth is in the centre of his eye, sejant in the
great Bark of Chepera. The Osiris becometh one whose words come to pass.
He it is who passeth over Heaven unto the West, and the Chabasu gods of
Light rise up to him with acclamation. They receive the cable of Rā from
his rowers, and Rā goeth on his round and seeth the Osiris who issueth
his decrees;(9.) the Osiris _N_, the Victorious; in peace! in peace!
Not to be repelled is he; not to be caught by the fire of thy fate. Let
not the tempest of thy mouth come forth against him.
Let not the Osiris _N_ advance upon the paths of misfortune: let him
avoid disasters, let them not attain him.
The Osiris _N_ enters into the Bark of Rā, he succeedeth to thy throne;
he receiveth thine insignia.
The Osiris _N_ inaugurateth the paths of Rā and prayeth that he may
drive off the Lock which cometh out of the flame against thy Bark out of
the great Stream.
But the Osiris _N_ knoweth it, and it attaineth not thy Bark. For the
Osiris _N_ is within it; the Osiris _N_ who maketh the divine offerings.
_Said over a Bark of Rā, coloured in pure green.(10.) And thou shalt
place a picture of the deceased at the prow thereof. And make a Sektit
boat on the right side of it and an Atit boat on the left side of
it._(11.)
NOTES.
1. This title is given to the Chapter in the later recensions, and
nearly resembles that given in the Berlin papyrus of Nechtu-amen (of the
XIXth dynasty). That given in another papyrus of the older period is
quite different,—“_Chapter whereby the Chu is fortified_.” Instead of
the _Sheniu of the Tuat, Ba_ (the papyrus of Nechtuamen) has the _Sheniu
of Fire_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, a reading suggested by the
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ _the circuit of fire_, which occurs in the
title of another chapter. The _Sheniu_ of this chapter are living
personages who attend upon the Osiris and greet him with their
acclamations. The word is often translated ‘princes,’ ‘officers,’ but it
signifies _those who are in the circle_ of a king or god, hence
‘ministrants,’ ‘courtiers,’ as in the rubric of Chapter CXXV.
The words _made on the Birth-day of Osiris_ are only found in the later
texts, but the old papyrus _Lc_, which has another title, has the words
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. The important word ⁂⁂⁂ which is
here carelessly omitted is supplied by the rubric. For the Birth-day of
Osiris, was the first of the five supplementary days, added to the year
of 360 days. On this day the chapter was to be recited and the usual
oblations offered (see Note 11). So we must understand ⁂, ‘which is
to be made or done.’
2. _Arms of steel_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂.
3. _Cradle_ or _Nest_, ⁂⁂; the ‘Nest of Reeds’ ⁂⁂ so often
represented in pictures of the later periods.
4. _The Armed god_, ⁂⁂ _Septu_, called ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
(_Unas_ 282) and ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ _septu ābu_, ‘armed with horns,’
that is, rays of light. In pictures he is represented as a hawk armed
with bow and arrows, and there is one picture in which he is in the form
of Bes, destroyer of the _Menti_.
5. _Sejant gods_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. I am compelled for want of a
better word to use the heraldic term which most nearly expresses the
posture of gods sitting on the ground with their knees raised up against
their breasts. The posture is a very common one in Egyptian pictures.
The second Sallier Papyrus represents an unfortunate artisan as sitting,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “with his two
knees at the pit of his stomach.” The ⁂⁂⁂⁂ is the limb
between the knee and the pelvis.
6. _This divine Sword_ ⁂⁂⁂. Unseen fate brings down the old
and the young alike to the Grave ever ready to receive them. Seb, the
φυσίζοος αἶα, is here, as elsewhere, spoken of in reference to his
κατοχή of the dead in the Tuat, as in _Unas_ 210.
7. _Whose face is in his own lap_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. _Cf._
Note 5.
8. _The Amsu staff._ The name of it is phonetically written
⁂⁂⁂⁂ in the later texts. It is the emblem both of Osiris
and of Horus, and is constantly represented along with bows, arrows, and
other weapons, in the oldest coffins, as belonging to the celestial
armoury of the deceased person.
9. _Who issueth his decrees. See_ Maspero, _Bibl. Egyptol._ II., p. 3
(note) and 39.
10. _Green._ The Egyptian ⁂⁂ is probably nearer in meaning to
the Greek χλωρός, ‘pale green, yellowish-green.’
11. The Rubric ends here in _Pb_. _Lc._ adds, _“They shall offer bread,
beer, and all good things_ on the Birth-day of Osiris. _And if these
rites are performed for him, his soul will rise up and live for ever; he
will not ever die a second time in the divine Nether world._”
The later texts add the information that the text was discovered in the
great hall of the palace in the time of king Septa, and that it was
found in a pit or chamber in the rock, ⁂⁂⁂. It was made by
Horus for his father Osiris Unneferu. Septa is the fifth royal name on
the great tablet of Abydos.
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CHAPTER CXXXI.
_Chapter whereby one proceedeth into Heaven by the side of Rā._(1.)
Oh Rā(2.) who art shining this night: if there be any one among thy
followers, let him present himself living as a follower of Thoth, who
causeth Horus to come forth this night.
The heart of the Osiris is glad, because he is one at the head of them.
His adversaries are brought to a stop by the warriors(3.) of the Osiris
_N_, who is a follower of Rā, and hath taken his arms of steel.
He cometh to thee, his father Rā, he followeth Shu and calleth for the
Crown. He putteth on Hu(4.) and is arrayed with the Lock which is on the
path of Rā and is his glory.
And he arriveth at the Aged one, at the confines of the Mount of Glory,
and the crown awaiteth him.
The Osiris _N_ raiseth it up.
Thy Soul is with thee, and strong is thy Soul through the terror and the
might which belong to thee, Oh Osiris _N_, who utterest the decrees
which Rā hath spoken in Heaven.
Hail to thee, great god in the East of Heaven, who enterest into the
Bark of Rā in the form of the Divine Hawk and executest the decrees
which have been uttered; thou who strikest with thy sceptre from thy
Bark.
The Osiris _N_ entereth into thy Bark and saileth peacefully to the Fair
West; and Tmu saith to him: Art thou coming in?
Mehenit is millions upon millions in length from Amur to Ta-ur(5.) an
endless river wherein the gods move.
(6.) ... whose path is in the fire; and they travel in the fire who come
behind him.
NOTES.
1. None of the oldest papyri yet known contain this chapter. This of
itself is not an argument against its antiquity, and there is really no
reason for supposing it to be less ancient than the chapter which
precedes it. The latter portion of the text is, however, very corrupt
and we have unfortunately no means as yet of correcting it.
2. _O Rā._ The name of the god is sometimes omitted in MSS. The context,
however, requires its presence. It may nevertheless be asked: how can
the Sun-god be said to be shining in the night?
The question might as pertinently be asked: how can Horus (in the very
same line) be said to come forth in the night? The answer to both these
questions is that the Sun, whether as Rā or as Horus or Osiris, shines
in the night through the agency of Thoth, the Moon. For further
information see Notes to next chapter.
3. _Warriors_ ⁂⁂⁂. I take this group as = ⁂⁂ or
⁂⁂⁂. But a papyrus gives the variant ⁂⁂⁂⁂.
4. _He putteth on Hu._ This, is certainly obscure; but it is not the
less in conformity with the doctrine of the Pyramid texts. The
deceased (_Pepi_ I. 432, _Merira_ 618) is borne to a region where he
is fed from night till daybreak, and then seizes upon the god Hu,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. And according to other texts (_Unas_,
446, _Teta_, 250) the deceased seizes (⁂) upon Hu, and after Sau
has been fastened to his feet enters the bark and seizes upon
(⁂) the Mount of Glory.
5. _Mehenit_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂, or in the masculine form ⁂⁂, is
the name of the mythological serpent which personifies the subterranean
path from West to East of the Sun’s nightly course. In the _Book of
Hades_ (_e.g._ on the Sarcophagus of Seti, _passim_) it is represented
as extending over the back, top and front of the shrine in which the
Sun-god is borne in his Bark. The many folds of the serpent are
symbolical of the turnings and windings of the river or canal (⁂)
over which the god is conveyed. This river is here described as infinite
in length. This is one of the instances from which it is clear
⁂⁂⁂, like the corresponding Coptic ⲟⲩⲉⲓ, has the meaning of
_length_. See _P.S.B.A._, XVII, 190.
The length ‘from West to East’ is described as ‘from _Amur_ to _Taur_’
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. _Amur_ is known from many texts to
signify the West (see _supra_, Chapter 64, note 13). The East is known
as _Ta-ur_ or _Ta-urit_. The royal Ritual at Abydos (Mariette, I. 37)
says ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. And as one
of the values of the sign ⁂ is _ta_ as in ⁂⁂ (Louvre, B. 14),
I feel sure that we should read _Ta-ur_ (or in the feminine _Ta-urit_)
rather than _Nif-ur_ or _Nif-urit_, even in such passages as those
quoted _supra_ in Chapter 128, notes 1 and 2, which have no necessary
references to earthly geography.
6. There is a corrupt passage here, which I have at present no means of
correcting by manuscript authority. M. Pierret thus renders it: “Le dieu
qui partage les paroles y fait son chemin de millions d’années, seigneur
sans égal, dont le chemin est dans le feu.”
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CHAPTER CXXXII.
_Chapter whereby a person is enabled to go round, to visit his dwelling
in the Netherworld._
I am the Lion-god who issueth from the Bow,(1.) and therefore have I
shot forth.(2.)
I am the Eye of Horus; and the Eye of Horus is opened at the instant
that I reach the strand, coming with happy issue.
I advance and, lo! there is no defect found in me, and the Balance is
relieved of my case.(3.)
NOTES.
1. _The Bow_, ⁂, often written with the determinative ⁂, of
_stretching_, which is the conception implied in this name of the
instrument. This mythological _Bow_, as I explained, _Proc. Soc. Bibl.
Arch._, VI, 131, is the moon’s _crescent_, which during its course
through the sky is always turned towards the sun; so that a line at
right angles to the chord of the arc passes through the sun’s centre.
From this “very delicate observation,” as Arago calls it, the
Alexandrian astronomer Geminus infers that the moon derives its light
from the sun. The observation evidently had been made in Egypt some
thousands of years before Geminus, and explains why in several chapters
the sun is spoken of as shining in or from the moon.
See also _Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch._, XVII, 37, on another form of the
myth.
2. I follow the Turin text in omitting a word about which the earlier
texts are not agreed, but which seems to have originated in an alternate
reading for ⁂.
3. See end of Chapter 1 and note. These words are omitted in Turin text.
------------------------------------
CHAPTER CXXXIII.
_Book whereby the Deceased acquireth Might(1.) in the Netherworld in
presence of the great Cycle of the gods._ [_Said on the first day of
the Month_].(2.)
Rā maketh his appearance at the Mount of Glory, with the Cycle of gods
about him: the Strong one issueth from his hidden abode.
The Twinklers(3.) fall away from the Mount of Glory at the East of
Heaven, at the voice of Nut as she buildeth up the paths of Rā, before
the Ancient one who goeth round.
Be thou lift up, O Rā who art in thine shrine; breathe thou the breezes,
inhale the north wind ... (4.)on the day when thou discernest the Land
of Maāt.
Thou dividest them that follow; the Bark advanceth and the Ancient ones
step onwards at thy voice.
Reckon thou thy bones, and set thy limbs, and turn thy face towards the
beautiful Amenta.
For thou art the golden Form,(5.) with a couch of the heavenly orbs,
with the Twinklers amongst whom thou goest round, and art renewed daily.
Acclamation cometh from the Mount of Glory, and greeting from the lines
of measurement.(6.)
The gods who are in heaven, they see the Osiris _N_, they present to him
their adorations as to Rā.
He is the Great one, who seeketh the Crown and reckoneth up that which
is needful.
He is the One, who cometh forth this day from the primeval womb of them
who were before Rā, and his coming forth taketh place upon earth and in
the Netherworld. His coming forth is like Rā daily.
Without haste, but unresting, is the Osiris _N_ on this Land of
Eternity.
Twice blessed is he that seeth with his eyes and heareth with his ears.
Right, right is the Osiris _N_: and his future, his future,(7.) is in
Annu.
His oars are lifted as in the service of Nu.
The Osiris _N_ hath not told what he hath seen; he hath not repeated
what he hath heard in the house of the god who hideth his face.