CHAPTER XXIII.
Chapter whereby the Mouth of a person is opened for him in the Netherworld.
He saith: Let my mouth be opened by Ptah, and let the muzzles which are upon my mouth be loosed by the god of my domain.([1])
Then let Thoth come, full and equipped with Words of Power,[[35]] and let him loose the muzzles of Sutu which are upon my mouth, and let Tmu lend a hand to fling them at the assailants.
Let my mouth be given to me. Let my mouth be opened by Ptah with that instrument of steel([2]) wherewith he openeth the mouths of the gods.
I am Sechit([3]) Uat’it who sitteth on the right side of Heaven: I am Sahit encircled by the Spirits of Heliopolis.[[36]]
And all the Words of Power, and all the accusations which are uttered against me—the gods stand firm against them: the cycles of the gods unitedly.
Notes.
[1.] Osiris. On the sense of
, literally ‘the god of the domain,’ see the articles of M. Naville and Professor Piehl, Zeitschr., 1880, 146; 1881, 24 and 64. I hold with Dr. Piehl that the domain meant in this formula is Abydos, and that the god is Osiris.
[2.] The word here translated ‘steel’ is
, upon which see M. Devéria’s dissertation, “Le Fer et l’Aimant” in the Mélanges d’Archéologie Egyptienne et Assyrienne, tome I, p. 2.
A description of the Ceremonies of the Opening of the Mouth as performed at the tomb will be found in the Introduction to this translation.
[3.] The name of this goddess is phonetically written
Sḫt in the Pyramid texts of Unas (l. 390), where the Murray Papyrus and other texts have the ordinary
. The reading Sechemet is indefensible. Cf. Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., XII, p. 365.
[35].
.
[36]. Tmu, Shu and Tefnut.