CHAPTER XVIII.

[_Introductory._]


_The An-māut(1.) saith_:—

I come to you, ye Great Circles of gods(2.) in Heaven, upon Earth and in
the World below! I bring to you _N_ void of offence towards any of the
gods, grant that he may be with you daily.

Glory to Osiris, Lord of Restau, and to the great gods who are in the
World below. Here is _N_ who saith:—Hail to thee, Prince of Amenta,
Unneferu who presidest in Abydos, I come to thee with Righteousness;
without sin upon me. I am not knowingly a speaker of wrong; I am not
given to duplicity; grant me Bread, the right of appearance at the
tables of the Lords of Maāt, entering in and going out of the
Netherworld, and that my soul may not suffer repulse in its devotion to
the orb of the Sun and the vision of the Moon-god for ever.

_The Se-meri-f saith_:—

I come to you, O Circle of gods in Restau, and I bring to you _N_. Grant
to him Bread, Water, Air and an allotment in the Sechit-hotepu like
Horus.

Glory to Osiris, the Lord of Eternity and to the Circle of gods in
Restau. Here is _N_ and he saith:—I come to thee, I know thy will, and I
am furnished with thine attributes of the Tuat. Grant me an abiding
place in the Netherworld by the Lords of Maāt, my permanent allotment in
the Sechit-hotepu, and the receiving of cakes before thee.

[LITANY.]

1. 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 Circle of gods about Rā and
about Osiris and the Great Circle of gods in Heliopolis, on that Night
of the _Eve’s Provender_(3.) and the Night of Battle when there befel
the Defeat of the Sebau, and the Day of the extinction of the
adversaries of the Inviolate god.

The Great Circle of gods in Heliopolis is of Tmu, Shu and Tefnut, and
the Sebau who were defeated and extinguished were the associates of Sut
on the renewal of his assault.

2. 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
Tattu, on the Night wherein the Tat is set up in Tattu.(4.)

The Great Circle of gods in Tattu is of Osiris, Isis, Nephthys and Horus
the Avenger of his Father; and they who set up the Tat are the two arms
of Horus, Prince of Sechem. They are behind Osiris as bindings of his
raiment.

3. 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
Sechem on that Night of the _Eve’s Provender_ in Sechem.

The Great Circle of gods in Sechem is of Horus in the Dark,(5.) and
Thoth, who is of the Great Circle of An-arer-ef.

The _Eve’s Provender_ is the dawn upon the Coffin of Osiris.

4. 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 Pu
and Tepu,(6.) on that Night of erecting the flag-staffs of Horus, and of
establishing him as heir of his Father’s property.

The Great Circle of gods in Pu and Tepu is of Horus, Isis, Emsta, Hapi;
and the pillars of Horus are erected when Horus saith to those who
follow him “let the flag-staffs be erected there.”

5. 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 of the
Two Regions[30] of Rechit, on that Night when Isis lay watching in tears
over her brother Osiris.

The Great Circle of gods on the Two Regions of Rechit is of Isis,
Nephthys, Emsta and Hapi.

6. 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
Abydos on the night of Hakra,(7.) when the evil dead are parted off,
when the glorious ones are rightly judged, and joy goeth its round in
Thinis.

The Great Circle of gods in Abydos is of Osiris, Isis and Apuat.

7. 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 on the
Highway of the Damned,(8.) upon the Night when judgment is passed upon
those who are no more.

The Great Circle of gods on the Highway of the Damned are Thoth, Osiris,
Anubis and Astes. And judgment is passed on the Highway of the Damned
when the suit is closed[31] against the souls of the Children of
Failure.

8. 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 at the
Great Hoeing in Tattu, on the Night of Hoeing in their blood and
effecting the triumph of Osiris over his adversaries.

The Great Circle of gods at the Great Hoeing in Tattu(9.) when the
associates of Sut arrive, and take the forms of goats, slay them before
the gods there, while their blood runneth down; and this is done
according to the judgment of those gods who are in Tattu.

9. 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
An-arer-ef on the Night of Hiding him who is Supreme in Attributes.[32]

The Great Circle of gods in An-arer-ef is of Shu, Babai, Rā and Osiris,
and the Night of Hiding him who is Supreme of Attributes is when there
are at the Coffin, the Thigh, the Head, the Heel and the Leg of
Unneferu.

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_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂, and
the other ⁂⁂ _Se-meri-f_. Both names are titles of Horus, and it
is the usual thing for Egyptian priests to bear divine titles; their
ritual observances being dramatic and symbolical representations of the
actions of the gods. _An-maut-ef_ literally signifies ‘column (support)
of his mother.’ Horus is called ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ ‘the
_An-maut-ef_ of the Great Company of the gods’ (Mariette, _Abydos_, I,
p. 34), and in _Denkmäler_, III, 206 _e_, he is called the _An-maut-ef_
of Osiris (_cf._ _Abyd._ II, 54).

_Se-meri-f_ signifies ‘the Beloved Son,’ and the priest of this name in
the funereal rites personified Horus in his dutiful offices to his
father Osiris. I do not know why ⁂⁂ is _always_ translated ‘the
son who loves him,’ instead of ‘the son he loves,’ which is the right
meaning. ⁂⁂⁂ is ‘the place which he loves’ not ‘the place which
loves him.’ And similarly ⁂⁂ is ‘the wife whom he loves,’ not ‘who
loves him.’

2. There is a short note (6) on chapter 1, upon the word
⁂⁂⁂⁂, but the present seems to be the suitable place for a
more extended notice of this feminine word, which is a collective noun,
and never found in any other sense.

The ancient form ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ renders it more than probable that
⁂ is not phonetic in the later form, but that as in ⁂⁂ _kai_,
originally ⁂⁂ (whence the Coptic ⲕⲟⲧ, ⲕⲱⲧⲉ, a circle, a round
vessel, to go round), it is ideographic of _roundness_. This concept is
certainly to be found in the word ⁂⁂⁂, the Coptic ϫⲱϫ, a head
(or rather top of the head), as in the Latin _vertex_, akin to _vortex_,
from the same root as _vertere_. The sign ⁂, which in later texts
often appears as the determinative, has its origin in the cursive form
of ⁂ carelessly written. Instead of ⁂ we also find ⁂, which is
certainly not phonetic but ideographic of _enclosure_, as in the word
⁂⁂⁂⁂ a wall, _paries_, ἕρκος. This word occurs already in
the Pyramid Texts under the form ⁂⁂⁂. See Pepi I, 571, which M.
Maspero renders ‘la Grande _Enceinte_ d’On.’ The evident etymological
relationship to the Coptic ϫⲱϫ has led some scholars to translate the
Egyptian word as signifying _chiefs_, _princes_. But though the lexicons
give _dux_ and _princeps_ as meanings of the Coptic word, these are but
secondary applications of _head_. We have to enquire why ϫⲱϫ means
_head_, or _top of the head_. And the reason is its roundness, as
indicated by the ideographic signs ⁂ or ⁂.

The old Egyptian word ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ invariably implies an
association of persons, and this is why in consequence of its etymology
I translate it as ‘Circle of gods.’ It is synonymous (_cf._ chapter 41,
note 8) with ⁂⁂⁂.

3. _The Eve’s Provender._ Later authorities read
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, the ‘Provender of the altars,’ but this is a
corruption of the ancient ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, which had probably
ceased to be intelligible. According to this pantheistic system the
deceased through his identification with the Sun absorbed and consumed
all that came in his way. And this is expressed in somewhat brutal
style. Men and gods disappear before Unas, he makes his breakfast at
dawn ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, upon great gods, his dinner upon gods of
middling quality ⁂⁂, and ‘his supper at even’
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ upon the minor deities, ⁂⁂. ⁂⁂ is
the ancient dialectic variant of ⁂, which however is really the older
form. This word which means ‘things’ has, like the Latin _res_, a wide
application. It frequently means _property_, _estate_, and sometimes
_suit_.

4. On the last day of the month of Choiak the great solemnity of setting
up the Tat ⁂ as the symbol of Osiris was observed down to the latest
periods. The tablets of Pasherenptah, high priest of Ptah at Memphis,
speak of this great dignitary as the king’s second or deputy in ‘Raising
the Tat.’ But Brugsch has published a picture (_Thesaurus_, V, 1190),
copied by Dr. Erman from a tomb of the XVIIIth dynasty, in which
Amenophis III himself helps to raise the Tat, and the queen Ti and the
royal princesses take part in the ceremony. The procession is described
as marching four times round the sanctuary of Ptah-Seker-Osiris. See
Plate IX.

5. On Horus in the Dark, or Blindness, or Invisibility ⁂, see note,
_Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch._, June, 1886.

6. Pu and Tepu are named together in the earliest texts as one locality,
which is recognised by Brugsch as the metropolis of the northern nome
called by the Greeks Φθενότης.

7. The feast of ⁂⁂ derives its name, as Goodwin supposes with
great probability, from the words ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ _ha-k-er-ȧ_,
‘Come thou to me,’ said of a legendary incident like that mentioned at
the end of note 15 on chapter 17. The early papyri read ⁂⁂⁂⁂
but this is no objection, the sign ⁂ being here the determinative of
the entire group which gives its name to the feast.

8. ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ literally the _dead_, that is those who have
died ‘the second death.’

9. The vignette is given by M. Naville from the tracing taken by Lepsius
of the now lost Papyrus Busca. It represents ‘the Great Hoeing in
Tattu.’ The long text at Dendera (Mariette, tom. IV, pl. 39) contains
directions to be observed the festival commemorative of the ancient
myth. Two black cows are put under a yoke of ⁂⁂⁂ _ȧm_ wood, the
plough is of tamarisk wood and the share of black bronze. The plougher
goes behind, with a cow led by a halter. A little child with the lock
⁂ attached to its head is to scatter the seed in the field of Osiris,
a piece of land of which the dimensions were given in the text (now
imperfect). Barley is sown at one end, spelt at the other, and flax
between the two. And the Cher-heb in chief recites the Office for the
Sowing of the Field.

10. The older texts have ⁂⁂ _lie_, the later ones ⁂ _lay_.

11. In the formula ⁂ ⁂⁂, ⁂ _šes_ is “the measuring
line used by builders,” and _em šes_ signifies ‘ad amussim,’ ‘nach der
Schnur,’ ‘au cordeau,’ ‘according to the line,’ hence ‘with the
strictest accuracy.’ _Hibbert Lectures_, 1879, p. 121. ‘According to the
line of Maāt’ means ‘with undeviating regularity.’

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Footnote 30:

⁂⁂⁂⁂. The later recensions read ⁂⁂⁂. The
first Coffin of Mentuhotep (_Aelteste Texte_, 4, 61) has the phonetic
⁂⁂⁂.

Footnote 31:

Literally, “when the things ⁂ are shut up.”

Footnote 32:

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.

Footnote 33:

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, North and South.

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