10. Oh Thoth, who makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, let N be made triumphant over his adversaries, even as thou makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries before the Great Circle of gods in Restau on the Night when Anubis lieth([10]) with his hands upon the objects behind Osiris, when Osiris is made to triumph over his adversaries.
The Great Circle of gods in Restau is of Osiris, Horus, and Isis. The heart of Horus rejoiceth, the heart of Osiris is glad and the two Parts[[33]] of Heaven are satisfied when Thoth effecteth the triumph of N before these ten Great Circles about Rā and about Osiris and the Circles of gods attached to every god and every goddess before the Inviolate god. All his adversaries are destroyed and all that was wrong in him is also destroyed.
Let the person say this chapter, he will be purified and come forth by day, after his death, and take all forms for the satisfaction of his will, and if this chapter be recited over him, he will be prosperous upon earth, he will come forth safe from every fire, and no evil thing will approach him: with undeviating regularity for times infinite.([11])
Notes.
The eighteenth chapter is one of those found in the earliest copies of the Book of the Dead, on the wooden coffins of the ‘Old’ and ‘Middle’ Empires; the most complete ancient copy being on the coffin of Queen Mentuhotep of the eleventh dynasty.
It consists of a Litany addressed to Thoth, who is invoked for securing the triumph of the departed against his adversaries in presence of the gods of certain localities. Each petition has reference to some mythological event, and is supplemented by the enumeration of the gods constituting the divine company presiding at the locality named, and sometimes by a short comment on the myth referred to.
The order of petitions is somewhat different in the later recensions, and the text has suffered other alterations.
Copies of this chapter are extremely numerous, particularly in the later periods.
The chapter really begins with the petitions to Thoth. The preceding portion is, as far as I know, found only in the Papyrus of Ani. But as the vignette which belongs to this portion has a place in the great Leyden Papyrus of Kenna, the text cannot have been confined to a single manuscript. It is particularly valuable as illustrative of the ritual use of portions of the Book of the Dead.
[1.] The deceased person is supposed to be presented to the gods by two priests in succession, one called An-maut-ef