CHAPTER CXXIII.
Chapter([1]) whereby one entereth into the Great House.
Hail to thee, O Tmu, I am Thoth.
I have equally balanced the Divine Pair, I have put a stop to their strife, I have ended their complaints.
I have rescued the Âtu from his backward course.
I have done what thou hast prescribed for him.
And I rest since then within my own Eye.
I am free from obstruction; and I come that thou mayest see me in the house where I repeat the ancient ordinances and words, as a guidance wherewith thou shalt guide posterity.([2])
Notes.
[1.] This chapter (which is repeated in Chapter 139) is like the repetition of an important passage in Chapter 110. But the differences are very considerable, and it is for criticism to decide the question of priority between the two recensions.
Whichever be the earlier recension, the present one is of very great interest and importance. It is found on two of the most carefully written papyri of the eighteenth dynasty. But the most interesting feature is the mythological allusion at this date (at latest) to an astronomical phenomenon, with reference to which later researches may furnish fresh evidence.
The speaker in this chapter is said (not merely implied, as in Chapter 110, see [note 5]) to be Thoth, who is the measurer of all things in heaven and earth, and the author and regulator of all science. He is here said to have established the equilibrium
between the Divine Pair, Horus and Sutu; that is Day and Night. Such an equilibrium, strictly speaking, never exists except at the Equinoxes.
But the most important passage is, “I have rescued the Âtu from his backward course.” The
Âtu is a mythological fish, who is represented as following the course of the Bark of Rā. The meaning of the name is, the Cleaver, Divider, Cutter in two
. It is one of the appellatives of the Sun-god, with reference to his path through the sky. But what is that solar phenomenon specially deserving to be characterised by its motion backwards
?
I do not think any astronomer would hesitate to answer, that Precession is meant. The cause of Precession could only be known to really scientific philosophers (which is out of question in this case), but the phenomena would necessarily be noted by those who had important interests in keeping their calendar correct.[[109]] Even the Chinese, by dint of records and without any mathematics, came to infer the precession of the equinoxes; so did the Egyptians apparently at a very much earlier period; and Hipparchus, who has the credit of the discovery, may have learnt it from them.
Although
is commonly represented as a fish, the same name is given to a Crustacean
,
whose organs of locomotion are specially adapted for backward motion.
“Rescuing the Âtu from its backward course” can mean nothing less than being able to correct or (in technical language) to equate the phenomena.
It might perhaps be suggested that the backward course here spoken of has reference to the year of 360 days, corrected at an early period by the addition of the five supplementary days. This would certainly have been a very probable explanation of the clause, but for the direct connection which this has with what precedes, concerning the equilibrium between Day and Night; that is, the Equinox.
[2.] Posterity,
literally, minores. The word in the present context seems to have a different meaning from what it has in Chapter 110, where it is put in contrast with
violent ones, against whom Thoth interposes his protection.