CHAPTER CX.
The Beginning of the Chapters of the Garden of Hotepit, and of the Chapters of coming forth by day; and of entering and coming forth in the Netherworld, and of arriving at the Garden of Aarru, at the Rise([1]) in Hotepit and at the Grand Domain, blest with the breezes: that I may take possession there and be in Glory there: that there I may plough and mow: that there I may eat and drink and love: doing whatsoever things are done upon earth.
Horus is seized by Sutu: who looketh as one turning([2]) towards the Garden of Hotepit.
But for me Sutu releaseth Horus: and the double path which is nigh to Heaven is thrown open by Sutu. And Sutu taketh his portion of the breeze through the Power of his own day,([3]) and he delivereth the bowels of Horus from the gods below.
Lo, I sail the great Bark on the Stream of the god Hotep. I took it at the mansion of Shu.
The mansion of his stars is again and again renewed.([4]) I sail upon its streams that I may come to the domains thereof.
For I am in unison with his successive changes and his rules, and his papyrus,([5]) and his attendant gods, and his chieftains. He reconcileth the two Warrior gods with those who have the charge of food and the beautiful creation which he raiseth up; and he reconcileth the two Warrior gods with each other.([6])
He severeth the mourners from those who quarrel with them: he putteth a stop to them whose hand is violent against those weaker than themselves: he keepeth within bounds the contentions of the Powers.
May I have possession there.
I know it, and I sail upon its streams that I may come to the domains thereof.
My mouth is potent and secured against the Glorified that they may not have the mastery of me.
May I have the investiture of thy Garden, O Hotep. What thou willest, do thou it.
Let me be glorified there, and eat and drink there, and plough there, and reap there, and grind([7]) there, and have my fill of love there.
May my mouth be potent there, let me there utter my Words of Power and not be slighted.
* * * * * * *
I am in possession of that Word of Power of mine which is the most potent one within this body of mine here: and by means of it I make myself either known or unknown.
I make my progress and I plough.
I take my rest in the divine Domain.
I know the names of the domains, the districts and the streams within the Garden of Hotep.
I am there, I am master there, I am in glory there, I eat there; I plant and I reap there; I plough there, and I take my fill of love. I am united there with the god Hotep.
I cast my seed there, and I sail upon its stream that I may come to the domains thereof, O Hotep.
Lo, my mouth is armed with sharp points. There is given to me the abundance which belongeth to the Ka and to the Glorified.
I give the reckoning of Shu to him who understandeth it.
I sail upon its stream, and I range within the Garden of Hotep, for Rā is in the sky, and Hotep is putting together the oblations.
I hasten to the land, and I fasten my stole upon me, that I may come forth, and that that may be given to me which hath to be given; that I may have joy and take possession of the wealth which Hotep assigneth to me.
Rise in Hotep, I arrive in thee, my soul is with me, and my provision is before the Mistress of the Two Earths, who maketh fast my Words of Power, which recall to mind that which I have forgotten. Let me live free from strife; and be there granted to me enlargement of heart.
Let my arteries be made fast, and let me have the enjoyment of the Breeze.([8])
Rise in Hotep, blest with the Breeze, I arrive in thee, my head is uncovered: Rā sleepeth, but there waketh for me, and there shineth upon me Hesit [the Cow-goddess]([9]) who lieth at the confines of Heaven by night.
He standeth in my way who heapeth against me his own dross.
But I am in my own domain.
Great Domain, I arrive in thee and I reckon up the abundance as I pass on to Uach.([10])
I am the Bull, raised on high in the Blue; the lord of the Bull’s field; which Sothis describeth to me at her successive hours.
Uach, I arrive in thee, and I eat my cakes, and take possession of my joints of flesh and meat and fowl.
The winged things of Shu are given to me, and my Kau follow me.([11])
T’efait,([12]) I arrive in thee, I put on the stole and fasten upon me the girdle of Rā, whilst he is in heaven,([13]) and the gods who are in heaven are following Rā.
Rise in Hotep, Lord of the Two Earths, I arrive in thee: I salute the stream of T’eserit.([14]) Lo, here am I, and all impurity is far from me. The great one flourisheth ... I net the ducks, and I eat dainties.
Kankanit,([15]) I arrive in thee; that I may see my father and attentively view my mother.
I take care to net the reptiles; and that which protecteth me is that I know the name of that god who is next to T’eserit (goddess with flowing locks and armed with horns), and who reapeth.
I myself plough and reap.
Hesit, I arrive in thee, and I encounter the Blue.
I follow the Breezes, and the company of the gods.
It is the Great goddess who hath given me my head, and he who fasteneth my head upon me is the Great god, the Blue-eyed, who doeth according to his own will.
Userit,([16]) I arrive in thee, in face of the mansion where food is produced for me.
Smait,([17]) I arrive in thee. My heart is awake: my head is provided with the White crown and I am conveyed over the heavens: and I make those things to prosper which are below me: a joy to the Bull of the gods above, the divine company.
I am the Bull, the Lord of the gods; and I make my way through the midst of the Emerald ones.([18])
Isle of Corn and Barley, divine district, I arrive in thee. I encounter and I bear off that which proceedeth from the head of Rā: the pair of horns which have the force of purification.([19])
I make myself fast to the Block of Moorage on the heavenly stream, and I utter my praise to the gods who are in the Garden of Hotepit.
Notes.
The text of this chapter handed down by the Turin papyrus and those which agree with it contains nothing very difficult for a translator, but on being compared with the older copies it is found to consist of a collection of small fragments of the older text put together without any regard to their original order or context. And about three-quarters of the old chapter are suppressed in the new recension.
The editors of the fine papyrus of Sutimes in their notes upon this chapter remark, that in the Turin text the sentences are in quite a different order from that of their papyrus, “On peut y voir,” they say, “l’effet de lectures et de transcriptions en rebours du sens, par des scribes ayant mal compris les éditions en colonnes rétrogrades.”
This is, curiously enough, the very fault of the papyrus of Sutimes itself, which is here wrong from beginning to end,[[98]] though probably derived from an excellent original. It begins with the “Isle of Corn and Barley,” and jumbles together quite incoherent sentences.
The oldest copy of the chapter yet discovered is that of the Tomb of Chā-em-hait, at Thebes, and by a strange fatality it has been published in such a form that in order to read it correctly, we must begin with what is printed as line 11 and finish with line 1. We have it also in a very incomplete condition. We miss the first eighteen lines contained in the papyrus of Nebseni and the last words of every line.
The papyrus of Nebseni is the only complete text we have, and here as well as elsewhere it is extremely incorrect. Some parts are so corrupt that a translation must necessarily be dependent upon conjectural emendations which can have no genuine claim upon the reader’s confidence. We must be content with waiting till better authorities are discovered.
The Gardens of Hotepit and Aarru are the Paradise, Elysian Fields and Islands of the Blessed of the Egyptian imagination.[[99]] They were supposed to be situated in the neighbourhood of the rising Sun, but certain features were apparently suggested by the islets of the Delta.
The usual meaning of the word Ḥotepit,
,[[100]] when written according to the orthography of the Pyramid Texts, is oblations, offerings. This, however, is only a derived meaning. The word really only expresses a predicate of the things offered, as putting together, uniting, reconciling;
Ḥotep might signify Rest, or Peace; very appropriate names for such a garden.
is the name of a god who dwells here.[[101]] There is also a goddess here called Ḥotepit
, mentioned in the Pyramid inscription of Pepi I (line 423), as mother of the great Scarab: and the same name is given to Hathor in the temple of Dendera. The name of Ḥotep (with different determinatives[[102]]) belongs to one of the islands of this blissful place.
The Pyramid Texts furnish some interesting information not contained in the Book of the Dead. We are told that the approach to the Garden is over the Lake of Putrata (see chapter 40, [note 1]), that there is a great lake (? that of Konsit) in the middle of the Garden of Ḥotepit, upon which the great gods alight, and that the Achmiu Sekiu, the starry deities who never set, there feed the departed from the wood of life (
lignum vitæ) “upon which they themselves live, in order that he too may live.” Shu and Tefnut are mentioned as divinities of this place. But perhaps the most remarkable fact is that Horus had enemies even here, who, however, were annihilated by the divine weapons at the disposal of the departed worthy, who was led there in order that “he might sit among the stars in heaven.”
And here it was that the beatified personage sat upon his throne of steel, which was decorated in front with faces of the lion-god
Maaḥes, the feet of it being the hoofs of the great Bull Sma-urà, and extended his hand to the coming generation of men (the
), whilst the gods approached him in submissive attitude, and made offerings to him. It was, perhaps, from these offerings that the Garden derived its name.
The Garden of Aarru,
is often mentioned in connection with that of Ḥotepit, and may perhaps be considered as the most notable part of it. It is through its Gate that the Sun-god rises up into Heaven.
It takes its name from a plant
ȧarru (later,
, B.M. 551;
, Ag, Chapter 17;
,[[103]] Ba, Chapter 110, by phonetic dissimilation of rr into nr). The usual form in later times is
, but we find even shorter forms in
, B.M. 32, and
. The determinative
of a reptile, indicates a creeping, climbing, twining plant, such as the convolvulus, hop, or vine.[[104]]
The term ‘Garden’ implies in this connection nothing more than a cultivated enclosure.
The names of different localities which are invoked by the deceased and appear on the vignette of the chapter, have here been made prominent by means of heavy type.
[1.] Rise in Hotepit, or (later on) Hotep,
is the name of one of the localities. The word
as I have often said, has the sense of rising up, coming to light, making an appearance, and like the Greek φαίνομαι is especially applicable to the appearance of daybreak, or the rise of the heavenly bodies.
[2.] Turning,
. The group has the apparent sense of building, but the primitive sense is turning, as in the making of pottery. The preposition
which follows it in this place seems to show that building is not meant.
[3.] This, of course, sounds like nonsense, but so does the original as it has come down to us. The papyrus of Ani, which reads
, forces the sense of day upon the sign
, which in the sense of turn would have been far more intelligible. There was the ‘Portion of Sutu,’ and the ‘Portion of Horus,’ each being half the world, topographically, or half the twenty-four hours as regards time.
I suspect that ‘day’ is a faulty interpretation of the ambiguous
, and that the true sense of the passage is that Sutu is satisfied with the share which comes to his turn, and thereupon delivers Horus from imprisonment in the lower world. The perplexity, or ignorance of the copyists is seen in the very next words. One has ‘he who is in Merit,’ others ‘he who is in my mouth,’ and two ‘he who is in the egg,’ if this be the sense of the very questionable group
, which looks like a mistake for
, a well known title of Anubis.
[4.] Again and again renewed
.
[5.] His papyrus. So the word
meḥit, which occurs in the rubric of Chapter 134, has hitherto been translated. But the vases
or
, as determinatives, rather imply ‘inkstand’ or ‘palette for holding colour.’ In this place it is the writing itself and not the material, paper, ink or inkstand, which is meant. And from the entire context Thoth is the god who is spoken of.
[6.] He reconcileth the two Warrior gods with each other,
. The final words en ȧru-sen show the origin of the Coptic form ⲛ̀ ... ⲉⲣⲏⲟⲩ invicem.
[7.] Grind
, the Coptic from of which is ⲥⲓⲕⲓ. From the notion of ‘reducing to powder,’ that of the frequent word
‘wearing away,’ ‘decay,’ is derived.
[8.] Let my arteries be made fast, and let me have the enjoyment of the Breeze, or that I may have enjoyment. The oldest meaning of the word artery, ἀρτηρία, in Hippocrates, Aristotle and the earlier Latin writers is wind-pipe, and, in the plural, air-ducts. But, even when the word was also applied to what we call arteries, these were supposed to convey air whilst the veins conveyed blood. “Sanguis per venas in omne corpus diffunditur et spiritus per arterias” is the classic doctrine in Cicero (de Natura Deorum, 2, 55). Pliny says (Nat. Hist., XI, 89), “arteriae carent sensu: nam et sanguine.” This error is corrected by Galen, who has a treatise on the question “Whether Blood is naturally (κὰτα φύσιν) contained in the arteries?” The error of the ancients arose from the arteries always being found empty after death. The blood flowing from a wound inflicted upon them was inferred to have been intruded into them by the rupture of the veins. The Egyptian doctrine of the ‘arteries’
(Coptic ϩⲁⲛⲙⲟⲩⲧ) in the head, by means of which air is conveyed to all parts of the person, was first found by M. Chabas in the Berlin Medical papyrus. The passage of the Book of the Dead on which this note is written is no doubt the earliest allusion to the doctrine.
[9.] Hesit [the Cow-goddess]
,
,
,
is one of the many names of Isis or Hathor. She is represented as suckling her son Horus (see picture in Lanzone, p. 844), and it is this which characterizes her and from which she derives her name. She is asked on the Louvre tablet (c. 14) for “the white liquor which the glorified ones love.” This is distinctly called ‘milk’ on the Florentine tablet 2567, and vases of her milk are mentioned (Dümichen, Resultate, 27, 6) in the inscriptions of Dendera. A picture of her given in Dümichen’s Historische Inschriften (II, 32) identifies her with Hathor, and calls her “divine mother, mistress of heaven and sovereign of the gods,” while others call her “the divine mother and fair nurse.”
There can be no doubt about the right reading of the name which is Ḥesit; the
is written in so many texts (see Pepi, I, 306, Amamu, 21, 1, Lepsius, Auswahl, IX, and the form
at Philae), that there is no reason for confounding the name with that of ḥetemit. We must therefore attach no importance to this latter name when applied in the vignette of the Turin Todtenbuch to one of the divine abodes which bears the name of the goddess, and is written exactly like it.
[10.] Uach
blooming, flowering.
[11.] The winged things of Shu are given to me, and my Kau follow me.
,
, is a word of very rare occurrence. Birch and Naville understood it of the netting, and Brugsch, of the pluming of birds. Both meanings may be disputed, but whatever Shu did, was done to birds, and these are said to be given to the deceased.
The prayer that a person may travel over the blissful parts, followed by his kau
, is repeatedly found on the early monuments. Several papyri say that the deceased is followed by ‘the gods and the kau.’
[12.] T’efait
, an abode abounding in
delicacies.
[13.] He is in heaven
. The reading
to which Brugsch at one time attached much importance, has turned out to be one of the many blunders of the text of Sutimes. But the true reading is not without its difficulties. If
is taken as equivalent to
we have a strange anticipation of a change in language of which the “enigmatical” texts of the royal tombs[[105]] give the first intimation, but which first becomes conspicuous in the demotic period. In a previous passage we have
, where Nebseni has
. But the important preposition
had already dropped out of the earlier text of Chāemhait. The demonstrative particle
which occurs in both places may be rendered ‘there [he is],’ ‘le voilà.’
[14.] I salute the stream of T’eserit: a corrupt passage like so many others in this chapter. The first word
‘salute’ is rare but correct and well attested. The proper name is but one of the contradictory readings. It has, however, the advantage of being a real name and suitable to the passage, being that of a goddess mentioned in connection with the next abode.
T’eserit is a name corresponding to the classical Ἀγλαιαv or Clara.[[106]] In the texts of the Royal Tombs she is named as goddess in
Cher-āba. And here[[107]] she is depicted as the goddess with long or flowing locks (εὐπλόκαμος) and armed with horns. She is one of the forms of Isis or Hathor.
[15.] Kankanit is etymologically akin to the verb of beating (see Chapter 17, [note 20]), but there is no reason from the notice here to suppose that this was a place of punishment.
[16.] Userit
is one of the commonest appellatives of Isis, especially in the later texts. The names of all these abodes, situated in that region of the sky where the sun rises, are derived from the notion of daybreak.
[17.] Smait, another of these appellatives, see Chapter 62, [note 1].
[18.] The Emerald ones
, those who are in the emerald light of the dawn. The sun rises (Chapter 109) through two sycomores of emerald.
[19.] Which have the force of purification
. The syllable āb expresses the word signifying horn as well as that signifying purification.
The vignettes of the chapter which are here given from different authorities are explained in their proper place.
[98]. See M. Naville’s remarks, Einleitung, p. 156.
[99]. Mission Arch., I, p. 125.
[100]. Also written =
(Unas, 422 and elsewhere).
[101]. The garden is also called
. Another form is
(Pepi I, 309).
Nebseni,
Sutimes,
in all the later papyri.
[103]. Compared with
in the papyrus of Nesichonsu, published by M. Maspero, Miss. Arch., I, p. 612.
[104]. The Pyramid Texts have the invocations (Unas, 597), “Hail to thee, Horus, in the domains of Horus; Hail to thee, Sutu, in the domains of Sutu; Hail to thee, Lion (
Ȧar), in the Garden of Aarru.”
Another derivation is suggested in the “Destruction of Mankind,” line 39,
(as I read it) an augmented form of
, ar, which does not mean pluck, as in Brugsch’s translation, but bind, fasten, twine, nectere, constringere, convolvere. This sense would explain the ancient determinatives
,
, and lead to still more interesting results. For the ancient word
, ȧarerit, ‘a vine,’ has thus clearly the same etymological sense as our European word vine. “Vî-num ... attaches itself to vî-tis, vî-men, vî-tex, and—exactly like the Greek ϝοῖ-νος—to the Indo-Greek root vei, ‘to twine.’ So that vî-no means first ‘creeper,’ then ‘fruit of the creeper,’ finally ‘drink[‘drink] made from the fruit of the creeper’” (O. Schrader, Prehistoric Antiquities, 324).
Philological speculation might make a further advance.
As
ȧar, is to
ār, so perhaps is
ȧarru to
āru. The first two groups are not phonetically identical, but they are certainly allied and have very much the same meaning; the last has, with some probability, been identified with the Vine-branch, and that, in conjunction with the text
(see Zeitschr., 1878, p. 107, and the plate corresponding). “The Vine-plant is Osiris.” The Greeks, or some of them at least, identified Osiris with Dionysos (Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride, 34, 35). The god is sometimes (as in the papyrus of Nebseni) sitting in a naos under a vine, from which bunches of grapes are hanging.
[105]. Here we already have
,
and
. See my article in the Zeitschr., 1874, p. 102.
[106]. It is also the name of a liquid substance
,
, a produce of the cow, such as cream or clarified butter. It occurs in all the lists of offerings.
[107]. A reference to M. Naville’s collation of this chapter (line 40), will show the corruption and uncertainty of the text which precedes the name of the goddess. If we look beyond the authorities given by M. Naville, the difficulties are multiplied. The papyrus of Queen Net’emit in the Louvre, for instance, instead of
etc., reads,
.