CHAPTER LIV.

_Chapter whereby air is given in the Netherworld._


I am the god in Lion-form(1.), the Egg in the Great Cackler, and I watch
over that great Egg which Seb hath parted from the earth(2.); my Life is
the Life thereof, and the same is true of my advance in life and of my
breathing of the air.

I am the god who keepeth opposition in equipoise(3.) as his Egg circleth
round. For me dawneth(4.) the moment of the most mighty one, Sut.

O ye gods who are pleasant through the alternate successions of the
Earth, who preside over sustenance and who live in the Blue(5.), do ye
keep watch over him who abideth in his Nest; the Infant god who cometh
forth towards you.

NOTES.

The text here followed is that of _Pa_ which is much preferable to that
of Ani. There is a far older text, that of Horhotep, line 344 and
_sqq._, but it is too inaccurate to serve as the basis of a translation.
It is however very valuable for other purposes.

1. _The god in Lion form._ These words are not in Horhotep, the chapter
beginning as in later texts “Oh Tmu let there come to me the air which
is in thy nostrils.” The word for air is written ⁂⁂⁂ (lines 344
and 346) as in other places.

2. It is a mistake to speak of a _mundane_ egg, of which there is no
trace in Egyptian mythology. Seb, the great cackling goose, lays the
golden egg, which is the Sun; but ⁂⁂ does not mean ‘lay upon the
earth,’ but ‘_divide_, _separate_ from the earth.’ The egg springs from
the back of Seb.

3. _Who keepeth opposition in equipoise._ This sense may be inferred
from _Pa_, but is made very clear by the ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ of
Horhotep. The equilibrium of forces is maintained by the revolution of
the Sun.

4. _Dawneth_, ⁂⁂⁂, Horhotep; whose text breaks off without a
word on Sutu.

5. _The Blue_, ⁂⁂⁂ ‘lapis lazuli.’ The French _l’azur_ exactly
corresponds to the Egyptian, for the word _azure_ is derived from
_lazulum_.

Ancients and modern differ greatly, as is well known, from each other as
to the impressions derived from colour. It seems strange to read in the
tale of the _Destruction of Mankind_ that the ‘hair of Râ was of real
_chesbet_,’ that is ‘dark blue.’ But we have an exact parallel to this
in Greek. Κύανος is _lapis lazuli_ in Theophrastus, who even mentions
the artificial lapis made in Egypt. But in the Homeric poems the hair of
Hector (_Il._, 22, 401), and the hair and beard of Odysseus (_Od._, 16,
176), as well as the eyebrows of Zeus (_Il._,1, 528; 17, 209) are
described as κυάνεαι.

------------------------------------