CHAPTER XLII.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Renouf, P. Le Page (Peter Le Page) and Naville, Edouard
I have instituted the throne of which I am the master.
As regards my mouth: whether in speech or in silence, I am right and fair.
As regards my attributes: I hasten headlong, I the god Unen,[61] with all that pertaineth to me, hour proceeding from hour, the One proceeding from the One, in my course.
I am the Dweller in the Eye; no evil or calamitous things befall me.
It is I who open the gates of Heaven; it is I who am master of the throne, and who open the series of births upon this day.
I am thethe Babe, who treadeth his path of Yesterday.
I am “This Day” to generation of men after generation.
I am he who giveth you stableness for eternity, whether ye be in heaven or upon earth; in the South or in the North, in the West or in the East—and the fear of me is upon you.
I am he who fashioneth with his eye, and who dieth not a second time.
A moment of mine belongeth to you, but my attributes belong to my own domain.
I am the Unknown one, but the gods of Ruddy Countenance belong to me.
I am the Gladsome one, and no time hath been found, but served to create for me the Heaven and the increase of Earth, and the increase of their offspring.
They sever and join not—they sever my name from all evil things, according to the words which I say unto you.
It is I who rise up and shine forth; strength proceeding from strength(9), the One proceeding from the One.
There is not a day devoid of that which belongeth to it; for ever and for ever(10).
I am Unbu,[62] who proceedeth from Nu, and my mother is Nut.
O thou who hast set me in motion(11)! for I was motionless, a mighty link within the close of Yesterday; my present activity is a link within the close of my hand.
I am not known, but I am one who knoweth thee.
I am not to be grasped, but I am one who graspeth thee.
[Oh Dweller in the Egg! Oh Dweller in the Egg!]
I am Horus, Prince of Eternity, a fire before your faces, which inflameth your hearts towards me.
I am master of my throne and I pass onwards. The present time is the path which I have opened, and I have set myself free from all things evil.
I am the golden Cynocephalus, three palms in height, without legs or arms in the Temple of Ptah(12); and my course is the course of the golden Cynocephalus, three palms in height, without legs or arms in the Temple of Ptah.
Let these words be said—Âbabak ṭer-ek(13).
Notes.
This chapter is in itself most interesting, and it is one of the most important as illustrative of Egyptian mythology. It is impossible at present to explain every detail, but the general drift of the chapter is not to be mistaken. And the same drift is to be recognised in the whole course of Egyptian religious literature from the beginning.
The speaker throughout identifies himself with the divinity whose manifestation is the Sun; he is not the Sun of this or that moment but of Yesterday, To-day and of all eternity, the “One proceeding from the One.”
1.Sutenḥenen. The later texts say the “Netherworld.”
2. The Babe , an appellative applied to the rising Sun. See Brugsch, Rev. II, pl. 71, 3, where this babe is compared to the Lotus coming forth from the great stream .
The word signifies that which is “lifted up,” “un élève,” .
3.Serpent Ab-ur. The two important MSS. Ca and Pb seem to imply a female personage, but as the verb in connection with the name is masculine the final cannot be meant for a feminine ending, and it is peculiar to those two MSS. Ȧb-ur “the very thirsty,” as the appellative of a viper, recalls that of the διψάς, whose bite caused intense thirst. But it may have originated in the fact that these reptiles are in the habit of lying in wait by the water side for the sake of the animals who come there to drink.
4.To soil: is the type of the word in the earlier texts. The late ones have the well known .
5.The Link. Another appellative of the Sun god, applied to Tmu and Horus in the oldest texts. The notion of is that of concatenation, connecting, combining, fastening, binding, setting in order together, σύνταγμα, σύνταξις, as in nectere coronam. Hence its occurrence in words signifying ‘the vertebral column,’ ‘a row of teeth,’ ‘a chain of hills,’ ‘a body of troops’ (σύνταγμα ἱππέων or πέζων), or their ‘captains,’ literary ‘composition’ (Pap. Prisse V, 6), and the seven divine οἱ συντάσσοντες, the first authors of artistic composition. See note to chapter 71.
6.The god within the Tamarisk. The rising sun under his various names is frequently represented as being in a tree or bush, which partly conceals him. This is a mythological way of treating the light cloud or mist which so commonly accompanies the sun’s first appearance. Tamarisk is only a provisional translation of . The god Apuat, who is identical with Osiris, is said in the Pyramid Texts (Unas 107, Teta 66) to come forth from the .
7.Who connecteth. This I believe to be the sense of if the next word is . But the text is quite uncertain.
is a rope or cable (Bonomi, Sarc. II, c, 34), and like the Latin copula or the Semitic חבל, حبل has the sense of tie, bond, connection.[63]
When the prince of Tennu (Berlin Pap. 1, line 31) proposed a family alliance to Senehat, he said to him lie-toi avec moi! And he gave him his daughter to wife.
In the expression , nefrit signifies continuously, connectedly, and the sense of until is only completed by the addition of the preposition .
Instead of ‘the Solar orb,’ some MSS. read , , , or and in each of these cases must be understood as an adjective raised to the comparative degree by the preposition : “More beautiful [my] splendour (colour, hair or veil) than Yesterday.” None of these readings seem very attractive.
8. Here follows the identification of the limbs of the deceased person with those of various gods. There are many similar texts belonging to all the periods of the Egyptian religion. For the Pyramid Texts, see e.g. Unas, line 218 &c., ib. line 570, &c., Pepi I, line 565, &c. Compare the Coffin of Amamu, pl. XXIV, line 11, &c., Naville, Litanie de Râ, p. 96, and Golenischeff, Metternichstele, lines 9-35.