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.
271_d_ _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.

5. ⁂ _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.”

11. ⁂⁂⁂ ‘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.’

12. ⁂⁂. 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 XV^e 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.

-----

Footnote 11:

One of the names of the Uræus on the royal crown.

Footnote 12:

‘The Glorious ones’; see Note 1 on Chapter I.

Footnote 13:

See note 11.

Footnote 14:

An abode of bliss (like the Elysian fields) frequently mentioned and
described in the Book of the Dead.

Footnote 15:

The dragon Âpepi.

Footnote 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.

Footnote 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.

Footnote 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.

Footnote 19:

The _four_ children of Horus are called (_Tempelins._, I, 41, 1)
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.

PLATE IV.

BOOK OF THE DEAD.