So in the month Hator, after thirty-four years of rule, died the Pharaoh Mer-Amen-Ramses XII, the ruler of two worlds, the lord of eternity, the giver of life and every happiness.
He died because he felt that his body was growing weak and useless. He died because he was yearning for his eternal home and he wished to confide the cares of earthly rule to hands that were more youthful. Finally he died because he wished to die, for such was his will. His divine spirit flew away, like a falcon which, circling for a time above the earth, vanishes at last in blue expanses.
As his life had been the sojourn of an immortal in the region of evanescence, his death was merely one among moments in the existence of the superhuman.
Ramses XII woke about sunrise; leaning on two prophets, surrounded by a chorus of priests, he went to the chapel of Osiris. There, as usual, he resurrected the divinity, washed and dressed it, made offerings, and raised his hands in prayer. Meanwhile the priests sang:
Chorus I. "Honor to thee who raisest thyself on the horizon and coursest across the sky."
Chorus II. "The pathway of thy sacredness is the prosperity of those on whose faces thy rays fall."
Chorus I. "Would that I might go as Thou goest, O sun! without halting."
Chorus II. "Mighty wanderer in space, Thou who hast no lord, for thee hundreds of millions of years are merely the twinkle of an eye."
Chorus I. "Thou goest down, but endurest. Thou multipliest hours, days, and nights, and remainest in solitude according to thy own laws."
Chorus II. "Thou dost illumine the earth, offering thy own self with thy own hands, when under the form of Ra Thou comest up on the horizon."