CHAPTER CXV.
Chapter whereby one cometh forth into Heaven, and openeth the Ammehit: and whereby the Powers of Heliopolis are known.
I have grown from yesterday, a Great one among the Great. I have raised myself above all things that come into being.
The Face is revealed to the Eye of the Only One, and the round of darkness is broken through. I am one of you.
I know the Powers of Heliopolis. Doth not the All-powerful One([1]) issue from it like one who extendeth a hand to us?
It is with reference to me that the gods say: Lo, the afflicted one is heir of Heliopolis!
I know on what occasion the Lock of the Male child([2]) was made.
Rā was speaking with Amhauf,([3]) and a blindness came upon him.
Rā said to Amhauf: Take the spear, oh offspring of Men.([4]) And Amhauf said: The spear is taken.
Two brethren came into being: they were Heb-rā and Sotemanes, whose arm resteth not; and he assumed the form of a female with a lock, which became the Lock in Heliopolis.
Active and powerful is the heir of the temple; the Active one of Heliopolis. The flesh of his flesh([5]) is the All-seer, for he hath the might divine as the Son whom the Father hath begotten. And his will is that of the Mighty one of Heliopolis.
I know the Powers of Heliopolis; they are Rā, Shu and Tefnut.
Notes.
The ancient text of this chapter has most unfortunately been lost. A few words only remain in the fragments of Papyrus Pm. M. Naville has also published what is found on an ostracon of the time of the XVIIIth dynasty. There is no doubt that the form of the text which has been handed down in the later papyri has suffered great alterations. And a comparison between the Turin and Cadet papyri shows in how untrustworthy a way this later form of the text has been transmitted.
Special attention has been given to this chapter by Mr. Goodwin (Zeitschr., 1873, p. 104), and by M. Lefébure (Mélanges D’Arch., 1874, p. 155), whose work is very much more valuable than that of his English colleague. But the most important study bearing on the relations between the older and the more recent recension is that of M. Naville, ‘Un ostrakon égyptien,’ in the first volume of the Annales du Musée Guimet.
[1.] All powerful One,
. M. Naville observes that this is substituted for
, which is found on the ostrakon. Both terms are divine names; the latter corresponding to the Greek πολυδερκής or πανδερκής, was the title of the high priest of Heliopolis, who, like his priestly colleagues all over Egypt, bore the titles of the god whom they represented.
[2.] The Lock of the Male child,
, is not a ‘curly wigged woman,’ as generally interpreted, but the side lock borne by Horus, and princes and princesses, as well as by other priests and priestesses, in honour of Horus.
[3.] Amhauf. See emendation proposed infra at chapter 125, [note 33].
[4.] O offspring. I follow the Papyrus Luyne in omitting the preposition
.
[5.] The flesh of his flesh, or the heir of his heir. This may perhaps be an assertion as to the hereditary succession of the high priest of Heliopolis.