CHAPTER CXL.

The book read on the last day of Mechir, when the Eye is full on the last day of Mechir.

There rises a form which shines on the horizon. Atmu rises pouring out his dew, and the bright one who shines in the sky. The abode of the obelisk is in joy because of them, because they are complete. There are shouts of joy in the sanctuary and loud cheering fills the Tuat. They fall down before Atmu Harmachis. For His Majesty gave orders to the cycle of his followers. His Majesty ordered to give praise to the Eye, and behold, my flesh he gave it strength, and all my limbs are renewed, as soon as the order came out of the mouth of Rā.

His glorious Eye rests on its place on His Majesty in this hour of the night. When the fourth hour is accomplished, the world is joyous in the last day of Mechir, for the Majesty of the Eye is in the presence of the cycle of the gods, and His Majesty rises as from the beginning, with the Eye on his head as Rā Atmu.

The([1]) eyes of Shu, Seb, Osiris, Suti, Horus, Menthu, Ptah, Raneheh, Thoth, Chati, Nai, Eternity, Necht, Mert, the land, he who is born by himself. After the computation of the eye has been made in the presence of this god, and when it is full and completed, all these gods are joyous on that day, they who were silent;([2]) and behold there is a festival made to every god; and they say: hail to thee, praise from Rā, the boatmen tow his boat, Apepi is struck down. Hail to thee, praise from Rā who causes the form of Chepera to exist; hail to thee, praise from Rā, there is joy in him, his enemies are conquered; hail to thee, praise from Rā, who has repelled the chiefs of the sons of the rebellion. Acclamation to thee and praise to Osiris N.

Said on an eye of pure lapis-lazuli or mak stone, ornamented with gold; an offering is made before it of all things good and holy, when Rā puts it on (on his head) on the last day of Mechir; another one is made of jasper, which a man will put on any of his limbs he likes. When this chapter is read by one who is in the boat of Rā, he is towed like the gods, he is like one of them, and he prescribes what is done to him in the Netherworld.

When this chapter has been read to its end, this is the copy of the order of offerings made when the Eye is full: four burning altars for Rā, four for the Eye, and four for these gods; what there is on each of them is: five good pointed white loaves; five pointed fruit cakes, five baskets of pastry, one measure of incense, one of fruit and one of roast meat.

Notes.

The ancient papyri do not contain this chapter. The translation is made from the Turin Todtenbuch, supplemented and corrected from hieratic papyri in Paris. Its real meaning is difficult to understand. It seems that under symbolical expressions it refers to an astronomical phenomenon, the renewal of the sun after the winter solstice. According to the principle which I have adopted, to maintain my predecessor’s interpretations, I translated

“the Eye is full” (cf. Notes on ch. 125, p. [214]). But as it seems evident that here the two eyes of the sun are the two periods of his apparent course, the decrease and the growth, I should translate “the period is accomplished,” this period being that of the decrease after which the sun enters its ascending course, or according to Egyptian ideas begins again to grow. It is natural that the completing of the period should be hailed with joy by Rā, since it is the final victory over his enemies, which sets him free and allows him to rise again as at the beginning. The sign of his triumph is that he puts the

on his head, as we see in the vignette.

[1.] Why this list of gods comes here, it is difficult to understand. It seems quite out of place. Their number varies according to the papyri. In some of them, they are put after the text in vertical columns. I presume they are the divinities often alluded to as these gods. They are the witnesses of the scene of Rā rising with the Eye on his head.

[2.] I have adopted the reading of the Paris papyrus, III, 58,