CHAPTER LXXI.
Chapter whereby one cometh forth by day.([1])
O Divine Hawk, who comest forth in Heaven, Lord of Mehurit.([2])
Make thou me sound,([3]) even as thou hast made thyself sound, who revealest thyself,([4]) who disrobest thyself, and presentest thyself to the Earth.
May his will towards me be done by the Lord of the Lord of the One Face([5]).
I am the Hawk in the Tabernacle and I pierce through [that which is upon] the Vail.([6])
Here is Horus, the Son of Isis: Horus the Son of Isis.
Make thou me sound, even as thou hast made thyself sound, who revealest thyself, who disrobest thyself, and presentest thyself to the Earth.
May his will towards me be done by the Lord of the One Face.
I am the Hawk in the Southern Heaven, and Thoth in the Northern Heaven, who appease the Flame when raging and who convey Law to the god who loveth it.
Here is Thoth: Thoth.
Make thou me sound, even as thou hast made thyself sound, who revealest thyself, who disrobest thyself, and presentest thyself to the Earth.
May his will towards me be done by the Lord of the One Face.
I am Unbu of En-areref, the Flower of the Abode of Occultation.
Here is Osiris: Osiris.
Make thou me sound, even as thou hast made thyself sound, who revealest thyself, who disrobest thyself, and presentest thyself to the Earth.
May his will towards me be done by the Lord of the One Face.
O thou who art upon thy two legs [or who art terrible upon thy two legs], at thine own hour, owner of the Two Twin Souls, and who livest in Two Twin Souls.
Make thou me sound, even as thou hast made thyself sound, who revealest thyself, who disrobest thyself, and presentest thyself to the Earth.
May his will towards me be done by the Lord of the One Face.
O thou who circlest round, within thine Egg, Lord of Mehurit.
Make thou me sound, even as thou hast made thyself sound, who revealest thyself, who disrobest thyself, and presentest thyself to the Earth.
May his will towards me be done by the Lord of the One Face.
Sebak standeth erect, surrounded by his high places, and Neith standeth erect in the midst of her alluvial grounds, in order to reveal themselves, to disrobe themselves and to present themselves to the Earth.
May his will towards me be done by the Lord of the One Face.
Oh ye Seven Divine Masters,([7]) who are the arms of the Balance on the Night wherein the Eye is fixed; ye who strike off the heads and cleave the necks, who seize the hearts and drag forth the whole hearts, and accomplish the slaughter in the Tank of Flame: ye whom I know and whose names I know, know you me as I know your names.
I advance to you, advance ye to me: live in me and let me live in you. Convey to me the Symbol of Life which is in your hands, and the Sceptre which ye grasp.([8])
Award to me the life of yearly speech through countless years of life in addition to my years of life; countless months in addition to the months of my life; countless days in addition to the days of my life; and countless nights in addition to the nights of my life, that I may come forth and beam upon my own images, with breath for my nostrils, and eyes which see, amid those who are at the Horizon, on that day when brute Force([9]) is brought to a reckoning.
If this Chapter is known there is well-being on earth with Rā and a fair abode with Osiris, and the person is glorified in the Netherworld. There are granted to him the sacred cakes and the coming forth into the presence,[[83]] in the course of each day, undeviatingly, for times infinite.
Notes.
[1.] The title as here translated is taken from the oldest known MS., that of Nebseni. But the Papyrus Pc, which is of the same period, has “Chapter for entering after going forth by day, and for making transformations in all forms,” and this title or a very similar one is found on other papyri. The most recent form is that in the Turin copy—Chapter for coming forth by day and repelling brute Force, so that the person may not be seized in the Netherworld, but that his soul may be made sound in the Ta-t’ eserit.
[2.] Lord of Mehurit = Lord of Heaven, that is the Sun-god. The invocation is repeated a little farther on, “O thou who circlest within thine Egg, Lord of Mehurit.” The god is also said to be the owner of “the Two Twin Souls,” namely Rā and Osiris.
[3.] The verb is here in the second person, not in the first. This is shown by those texts which give the name of the person, instead of the pronominal suffix, as the object of the verb.
[4.] Thyself = Here, in all but the later copies, the pronoun of the third person is used, in accordance with a well known Egyptian idiom.
[5.] Lord of the One Face = μονοπρόσωπος in opposition to πολυπρόσωπος which is an epithet of the Sky, on account of its many changes of aspect. The Moon too has a variety of phases, whereas the Sun is eminently the “Lord of One Face.” From another point of view the god, at the beginning of chapter 64, is called the “Lord of Two Faces,” the bright and the dark. The Pyramid Texts have the parallel conception of the Two Eyes of Horus, one white and one black,
(Unas 37).
[6.] This passage receives illustration from the great inscription of Piānchi, who at Heliopolis paid a visit to the great Tabernacle (
) of the Sun-god, the doors of which he opened and afterwards sealed up with the royal seal. Before going up the steps to it he had to lift the Vail (
) or Curtains which concealed it, and perform sprinklings and offer incense and flowers. Two important words (of which the first has the interesting variant
and the second is written
in the oldest texts) are thus made clear.
The god is said, according to the different readings, to pierce “through, the Vail” or “through what is upon the Vail.”
It will be remembered that the Hebrew Holy of Holies was separated from the Sanctuary by a curtain upon which the figures of Cherubim were woven, that before the curtain of the Holy of Holies stood the altar upon which incense was offered each morn and evening, and that in sin-offerings the priest sprinkled blood seven times before the Vail of the Sanctuary.
[7.] The Seven Divine Masters,
or
,[[84]] were the offspring of Mehurit, and assumed the form of Hawks.[[85]] They were the inventors and patrons of all the arts and sciences, and they assisted Thoth in composition and in the measurement of the earth. See references in Brugsch’s article, Zeits., 1872, p. 6.
They are, I believe, to be identified, like the Seven Rishis of the later Sanskrit literature, with the seven stars of the Great Bear. In this conception the Polar star is represented by Thoth.
[8.] The Symbol[Symbol] of Life and the Sceptre, the
and
.
[9.] Brute Force
, see chapter 57, [note 5].
[83]. Namely, “of the great god.” This ellipse is very frequent.
[84]. In the Prisse Papyrus this word is to be understood of a scholar or sage, whose word is of authority.
[85]. They have human heads on the Louvre Sarcophagus D. 7.