CHAPTER XV.
Hymn I([1]).
Adored be Râ, when he riseth up from the eastern horizon of Heaven; they who accompany him extol him.
Here is the Osiris N, the Victorious, and he saith:—
O thou radiant Orb, who arisest each day from the Horizon, shine thou upon the face of the Osiris N who adoreth thee at dawn, and propitiateth thee at the gloaming.
Let the soul of N come forth with thee into heaven, let him journey in the Mââtit boat and finish his course in the Sektit boat([2]) till he reach in heaven unto the Stars which set([3]).
He saith, as he invoketh his Lord, the Eternal one:—
Hail to thee, Horus of the Two Horizons([4]), who art Chepera Self-originating([5]); Beautiful is thy rising up from the horizon, enlightening the two Earths with thy rays. All the gods are in exultation when they see thee the King of Heaven, with the Nebt Unnut[[11]] established upon thy head (and the diadem of the South and the diadem of the North upon thy brow) which maketh her abode in front of thee.
Thoth abideth at the prow of thy bark that he may destroy all thine adversaries.
They who dwell in the Tuat are coming forth to meet thy Majesty, and to gaze upon that beautiful semblance of thine.
And I too come to thee that I may be with thee to see thine Orb each day; let me not be detained, let me not be repulsed.
Let my limbs be renewed by the contemplation of thy glories, like all thy servants, for I am one of those who honoured thee upon earth.
Let me reach the Land of Ages, let me gain the Land of Eternity; for thou, my Lord, hast destined them for me.
The Osiris N; he saith:—
Hail to thee who risest up from the Horizon as Râ in union with Maāt; thou dost traverse heaven in peace and all men see thee as thou goest forward. And after being concealed from them thou presentest thyself at the dawn of each day.
Brisk is the bark under thy Majesty.
Thy rays are upon men’s faces; the golden glories they cannot be told: not to be described are thy beams.
The Lands of the gods, the colours of Punit([6]) are seen in them; that men may form an estimate of that which is hidden from their faces.
Alone art thou when thy form riseth up upon the Sky; let me advance as thou advancest, like thy Majesty, without a pause, O Râ, whom none can outstrip.
A mighty march is thine; Leagues by millions, and hundreds of thousands, in a small moment thou hast travelled them, and thou goest to rest.
Thou completest the hours of the Night, according as thou hast measured them out. And when thou hast completed them according to thy rule, day dawneth.
Thou presentest thyself at thy place as Râ, as thou risest from the Horizon.
The Osiris N, he saith, as he adoreth thee when thou shinest; He saith to thee when thou risest up at dawn, as he exalteth thine appearance;
Thou comest forth, most glorious one, fashioning and forming thy limbs, giving birth to them without any labour, as Râ rising in heaven.
Grant that I may attain to the Heaven of eternity and the abode of thy servants; let me be united with the venerable and mighty Chu[[12]] of the Netherworld; let me come forth with them to see thy glories, as thou shinest at the gloaming, when thy mother Nut([7]) enfoldeth thee.
And when thou turnest thy face to the West, mine hands are in adoration to thy setting as one who liveth;[[13]] for it is thou who hast created Eternity.
I have set thee in my heart unceasingly, who art more mighty than all the gods.
The Osiris N, he saith:—
Adoration to thee, who arisest out of the Golden, and givest light to the earth on the day of thy birth. Thy mother bringeth thee forth upon her hands, that thou mayest give light to the whole circumference which the Solar Orb enlighteneth.
Mighty Enlightener, who risest up in the Sky and raisest up the tribes of men by thy Stream, and givest holiday to all districts, towns and temples; and raising food, nourishment and dainties.
Most Mighty one, master of masters, who defendest every abode of thine against wrong, Most Glorious one in thine Evening Bark, Most Illustrious in thy Morning Bark.
Glorify thou the Osiris N in the Netherworld, grant that he may come into Amenta without defect and free from wrong, and set him among the faithful and venerable ones.
Let him be united with the souls in the Netherworld, let him sail about in the country of Aarru[[14]] after a joyful journey.
Here is the Osiris N.
Come forth into Heaven, sail across the firmament and enter into brotherhood with the Stars, let salutation be made to thee in the Bark, let invocation be made to thee in the Morning Bark. Contemplate Râ within his Ark and do thou propitiate his Orb daily. See the Ant fish in its birth from the emerald stream, and see the Abtu fish and its rotations.([8])
And let the offender[[15]] fall prostrate, when he meditates destruction for me, by blows upon his back-bone.
Râ springs forth with a fair wind; the Evening Bark speeds on and reaches the Haven; the crew of Râ are in exultation when they look upon him; the Mistress of Life, her heart is delighted at the overthrow of the adversary of her Lord.
See thou Horus at the Look-out of the ship,([9]) and at his sides Thoth and Maāt. All the gods are in exultation when they behold Râ coming in peace to give new life to the hearts of the Chu, and here is the Osiris N along with them.
[Litany.]([10])
Adored be Râ, as he setteth in the Land of Life.([11])
Hail to thee, who hast come as Tmu, and hast been the creator of the cycle of the gods,([12])
Hail to thee, who hast come as the Soul of Souls, August one in Amenta,
Hail to thee, who art above the gods and who lightenest up the Tuat with thy glories,
Hail to thee, who comest in splendour, and goest round in thine Orb,
Hail to thee, who art mightier than the gods, who art crowned in Heaven and King in the Tuat,
Hail to thee, who openest the Tuat and disposest of all its doors,
Hail to thee, supreme among the gods, and Weigher of Words in the Netherworld.
Hail to thee, who art in thy Nest, and stirrest the Tuat with thy glory,
Hail to thee, the Great, the Mighty, whose enemies are laid prostrate at their blocks,
Hail to thee, who slaughterest the Sebau and annihilatest Âpepi,
[Each invocation of this Litany is followed by]
Give thou delicious breezes of the north wind to the Osiris N.
Horus openeth; the Great, the Mighty, who divideth the earths, the great one who resteth in the Mountain of the West, and lighteneth up the Tuat with his glories and the Souls in their hidden abode, by shining into their sepulchres.
By hurling harm against the foe thou hast utterly destroyed all the adversaries of the Osiris N.
Hymn II.([13])
The Osiris N; he saith when he adoreth Râ, the Horus of the Two Horizons, when setting in the Land of Life.
Adoration to thee, O Râ; Adoration to thee, O Tmu, at thy coming in thy beauty, in thy manifestation, in thy mastery.
Thou sailest over the Heaven, thou travellest over earth and in splendour thou reachest the zenith; the two divisions of Heaven are in obeisance to thee, and yield adoration to thee.
All the gods of Amenta are in exultation at thy glory. They whose abodes are hidden adore thee, and the Great Ones make offerings to thee, who for thee have created the soil of earth.([14])
They who are on the Horizon convey thee, and they who are in the Evening Bark transport thee, and they say—Adoration at the approach of thy Majesty, Come, Come, approach in peace, Oh to thee, Welcome, Lord of Heaven, King of Akerta.
Thy mother Isis([15]) embraceth thee, seeing in thee her son, as the Lord of Terror, the All-Powerful, as he setteth in the Land of Life at night.
Thy father Tatunen([16]) carrieth thee, and his arms are stretched out behind thee, and that which hath taken place is made last upon earth.
Wake up from thy rest, thine abode is in Manu.
Let me be entrusted to the fidelity which is yielded to Osiris.
Come, O Râ, Tmu, be thou adored. Do thy will daily. Grant success in presence of the cycle of the mighty gods.
Beautiful art thou, O Râ, in thine Horizon of the West; O Lord of Law, in the midst of the Horizon.
Very terrible art thou, rich art thou in attributes, and great is thy love to those who dwell in the Tuat.
To be said, when Râ sets in the Land of Life; with hands bent downward.([17])
Hymn III.([18])
Adoration to Tmu as he setteth in the Land of Life.
The Osiris N; he saith:—
Adoration to Tmu as he setteth in the Land of Life.
The Osiris N; he saith, adoring Tmu, when setting in the Land of Life and shedding his rays on the Tuat;
Hail to thee setting in the Land of Life, O Father of the gods, thou art united to thy mother in Manu. Her two hands receive thee daily. Thy Majesty hath part in the house of Sokaru. Exult thou because the doors are opened of the Horizon, at thy setting in the Mountain of the West.
Thy rays, they run over the earth to enlighten the dwellers in Amenta. Those who are in the Tuat worship thee with loud acclaim, and cherish hope when they see thee daily.
Thou grantest to the gods to sit upon the earth; to those, namely, who follow thee and come in thy train.
O august Soul, who begettest the gods, and dost invest them with thine attributes; the Unknowable, the Ancient One, the Mighty in thy mystery.
Be thy fair face propitious to the Osiris N, oh Chepera, Father of the gods([19]).
Freedom for ever from perdition is derived through this Book, and upon it I take my firm stand.
He hath written it who spake it, and his heart resteth on the reward.
Let there be given me armfuls of bread and drink, and let me be accompanied by this Book after my life.
Notes.
The fifteenth chapter as it stands in the later recension (represented by the Turin Todtenbuch) is of very recent origin. It is in fact a collection of texts originally independent of each other; (1) a hymn to Râ at his rising, (2) a litany, (3) a hymn to Râ at his setting, (4) a hymn to Tmu at his setting, followed by a statement respecting the spiritual importance of the document.
Of the last hymn there are no copies of ancient date, but the other three compositions are found more or less perfect as far back as the XIXth dynasty. The discrepancies, however, between the ancient texts furnish so much evidence of free composition on the part of the scribes, that it is impossible to suppose that they had before them documents recognised as sacred and canonical. M. Naville has found it necessary to publish four different forms of the hymn to the rising, and three of the hymn to the setting sun. The ideas and expressions throughout these hymns are current in the religious texts of the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties.
In the translation here given I have followed the form adopted by the later recension, correcting the text when necessary by the copies written in the better periods.
[1.] The text of the Papyrus of Ani has been taken as the basis of the translation of Hymn I. It is the only ancient text which gives the hymn in the form subsequently acknowledged as canonical.
[2.] The sun was represented from the earliest period, as we may see in the pyramid texts, as performing his celestial journey in a boat, which during the morning was called the Māāṭit
and in the evening the Sektit
.
[3.] The stars which set were called the
ȧḫmiu ureṭu. The stars which never set, but are always above the horizon were called
ȧḫmiu seku. The word ȧḫmiu has often been taken for a mere negative, but it occurs by itself with the sign of stars as a determinative
,
. And the whole term is written
(Denkm. III. 271d twice).
As one of the meanings of
ḫem is minuere, and as the ordinary meaning of the Demotic
is “small,” like the Coptic ϣⲟⲙ = λεπτὸς, it is not improbable that the stars received this appellation on account of their tiny size as compared with the Sun and Moon. They were what Horace called the “ignes minores.”
The Sun and Moon, as we all know, are called in Gen. i, 16, the “Two Great Lights.”
[4.] Both the Eastern and the Western horizon are mentioned in this chapter, but “Horus of the Two Horizons,” has no reference to this distinction. Whatever the Sun passes through or over is always conceived as double. The Two Earths imply simply the Earth as divided by the passage of the Sun above it. It is to M. Grébaut that we are indebted for the discovery of this important key to many Egyptian expressions.
ḫeper, like the German Werden, has primarily the sense of turning, hence of becoming. It never has the sense of creating.
ḫeper t’esef is the equivalent of the Greek αὐτογενής, like that word is sometimes used for spontaneous productions of the mineral kingdom, as salt or natron as contrasted with artificial products of the same nature. It cannot be used for plants, as they have an origin in something external to themselves.
[6.] The Land of the Gods and Punit are the countries lying east of Egypt. When it is said that gods ‘come from Punit,’ it is not meant by this that they are of Arabian origin, but simply that Sun, Moon, and Stars, and Daylight rise in the East. “Ex oriente Lux.”
[7.] In many places the divine name Nut has for determinative the sign
. Is this an oversight on the part of the scribe, or is it one more proof that the Egyptians certainly believed in a sky below the horizon? If so, I have never seen it misplaced.
[8.] The Ant and the Abṭu are sometimes represented by the side of the solar bark. From the egg of the Abṭu there rises the great Cat, the Sun. It is, as M. Loret has proved, the Tortoise of the Nile. As
ȧbṭu, ‘the month,’ is phonetically homonymous with
ȧbṭu, the Tortoise, and that the latter is characterised by
,
, ‘its rotation, revolving or turning,’ the word ȧbṭu, whether applied to ‘month’ or ‘tortoise’ clearly signifies ‘the revolving one.’ Our modern words Tortoise, Tortue, Tortuga, rather express the turning or twisting of the creature’s feet. In some texts, e.g., the inscriptions of Amenhotep, the son of Hapu, Mariette, Karnak, pl. 36, line 22, and at the beginning of the Ani Papyrus, the word is written
abtu. In the later part of the Ani Papyrus it is written with the initial
.
[9.] The Look-out of the ship, in Egyptian
, or more fully
nefrit, is written
in the Papyrus of Ani. This interesting variant is of extreme value. It not only explains a word, the very existence of which has been called in question, but tells us the Egyptian name for that seat of Horus at the prow of the Solar Bark about which I wrote a note in Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch. of Nov. 3, 1891. See the plates attached to the note, and the corresponding vignettes in Todtenbuch, Pl. VI and IX.
[10.] The Litany here translated is that of the Turin Todtenbuch. It is found, but in a very mutilated condition, in the Papyrus of Nechtuamon at Berlin (Ba), a manuscript of the XIXth dynasty.
Another Litany, preceding Hymn I, is found in the Papyrus of Ani. It is addressed to “Osiris, the everlasting Lord, Unneferu, Horus of the Two Horizons, of many forms and mighty of attributes. Ptah Sakru, Tmu in Heliopolis, Lord of the Unseen World, who hath built up Memphis and its gods.”
“Hail to thee, Chabasu[[16]] in Heliopolis, Hammemit in Cher-âbau, and Unta[[17]] more potent than the unseen gods in Heliopolis.
Hail to thee, An in An ... Horus in the Two Horizons, who extendeth his steps and traverseth the Heaven; he is Horchuta;
Hail to thee, eternal Soul, Soul which is in Tattu, Unneferu, Son of Nut; he is Lord of Acherta;
Hail to thee, as thou reignest in Tattu, the royal crown is fixed upon thy brow. Thou art the Only One, the author of his own attributes, thou restest in Tattu;
Hail to thee, Lord of Heracleopolis, for whom the Bark of Sokru is placed upon its sledge; who repellest the Sebau, the doers of wrong; and who puttest the Ut’at into its place;
Hail to thee, Potent One, at thine appointed moment, Most Mighty One, Prince of An-arr-ef, Eternal Lord, author of eternity, Thou art the Lord of Suten-henen;
Hail to thee, who restest upon Maāt; Thou art the Lord of Abydos, thy limbs reach to Ta-tsert; Thou art he who abominatest wrong;
Hail to thee, in the midst of thy Bark, who bringest the Nile from his fountain; upon whose dead body the light shineth; he is the One who is in Nechen;
Hail to thee, author of the gods, King of North and South, Osiris, the triumphant one, possessing the entire universe in his beneficent alternations; He is the Lord of the Universe;
Grant me passage in peace. I am righteous, I speak not falsehood knowingly, I am not guilty of duplicity.”
‘the Land of Life,’ one of the names given to the realm of Osiris after death, is not, as far as I can discover, mentioned anywhere in the earlier MSS. of the Book of the Dead.
Instead of “resting in the Land of Life,” the older texts have
‘in Amenta’ or
‘in life in Amenta,’ or as ‘one living, in Amenta.’
. The word
pat implies going round like a wheel or in a circle;
‘going round on high with the Sun.’ Hence the use of it as synonymous with
, in the expressions
=
‘never’ and
=
‘the first time, the beginning of time, prima vice.’ A sacrificial cake is called
(Denkm., II, 28) on account of its shape, like the Latin rotundula, also written
.
And, like the Greek κύκλος, the word comes to signify a circle of persons. This circle is not necessarily of gods. The Bremner Papyrus in the British Museum (14, line 8), says an apage not only to Âpepi, who was no god, and to his soul and body, and ghost and shadow and children, and to his kith and kin, but, also to his
, that is all associated with him, “ceux de son entourage.”
That
should express the ‘feast of the New Moon’ is only natural, though Lepsius has pointed out serious difficulties on the subject.
But
also expresses the number nine. Whence in this relation arises the Egyptian conception of the number nine? Is it the round (we should say the ‘square’) number, three times three? It certainly is merely a round number in many instances, but what is still more certain is that the same expression meaning ‘circle of gods’ and ‘nine gods,’ the circle was supposed to consist of nine gods, and was enlarged to companies of eighteen or twenty-seven. It is, I am sure, perfectly idle work to look for more profound reasons for the theory of the ‘Ennead.’[[18]] Every god of importance had his
,[[19]] and the best theory that has ever been given is that given at the beginning of Chapter 17.
[13.] The Turin text seems better adapted for the basis of a translation of Hymn II than the older papyri. These have been used for checking the later text whenever possible.
[14.] A difficult passage, but the readings are unanimous. What is
? Brugsch translates it “the Talisman of the Earth,” and Pierret “le salut de la terre.” No objection can be raised against the truth of either of these meanings taken by itself. But we have to look at the entire context. The expression literally signifies “the back of the earth.” In Latin we say sinus, gremium and viscera terrae. The Egyptians themselves talk of the back of Seb,
, out of which the plants grow, and in a place quoted by Duemichen (Zeitschrift, 1871, p. 92, note)
ta the Earth, is substituted for Seb. I believe then that
is best translated by Soil of the Earth.
[15.] Thy mother Isis. So Ba. The Turin text has Nut, which is inconsistent with what follows.
[16.] La gives Tatunen; Af, Tunen; the Turin recension Tanen, names belonging to the god also called Ptah, Sokru and Osiris. See the inscriptions in Mariette’s Abydos, I, pl. 16, 6, on the Tat figures.
Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, seems to be here addressed.
[17.] This rubric does not occur in the older MSS.
[18.] This hymn has not yet been found in the older MSS. A text carefully corrected from the papyri of the Louvre will be found in M. Lefébure’s Traduction comparée des Hymnes au Soleil composant le XVe chapitre du Ritual Funéraire Egyptien. Paris, 1868.
[19.] ‘Chepera, father of the gods.’ Expressions like this are liable to be misunderstood by superficial readers. They are not meant to imply that ‘father of the gods’ was the special attribute of Chepera. ‘Father of the gods’ is predicated in Chapter 8 of Sutu, and it is predicated elsewhere of many other divinities. As in mathematics any point in space may be conceived as the origin of a given line or surface, so in Egyptian mythology any god may be rightly called the father of the gods. And for the same reason. The Day precedes the Night, but not more truly than Night precedes, or in mythological language gives birth to Day. But we may begin at Daybreak, or at Noon, or at Sunset, or with the Sun or the Moon, or with the rising of the Nile or any other natural phenomenon which obeys an evidently permanent fixed Law.
[11]. One of the names of the Uræus on the royal crown.
[12]. ‘The Glorious ones’; see [Note 1] on Chapter I.
[14]. An abode of bliss (like the Elysian fields) frequently mentioned and described in the Book of the Dead.
[15]. The dragon Âpepi.
[16]. Both Chabasu and Hammemit have the sign of the plural, which may arise from the omission of who art above before the first of these words. Unfortunately we have no other copy to check the readings. But it is certain that the sign of plurality is often affixed to words which though in plural form (like the Latin moenia, literae, tenebrae) have a singular meaning. Chabasu means a lamp, and the stars, especially the decans, were called by this appellation. Hammemit is the name given to those yet unborn.
[17].
Un-tȧ, signifies the god who assumes the face or form of a Hare
, just as Mau-tȧ signifies the god with the face or form of a Cat, Tehuta, the god with the head or form of an Ibis.
[18]. I am deeply grieved that in my conversation and correspondence with Goodwin (see my Miscellaneous Notes on Egyptian Philology, p. 15), I hit upon ‘Ennead’ as a translation of
. Goodwin took it up, and it has since been productive of much mischief. The word in itself (like Triad), is perfectly innocent and correct, yet every word has its ‘cycle’ of associations, and some of them lead the unwary astray. I had just been lecturing on Plotinus when Goodwin asked me for the word.
[19]. The four children of Horus are called (Tempelins., I, 41, 1)
.