The Egyptian Book of the dead

3. M. Déveria has produced excellent evidence showing that maāt-ḫeru has the sense of ‘victorious, triumphant.’ But the sense of véridique is untenable. ḫeru is ‘voice’ not ‘speech.’ In Proceedings S.B.A., Vol. VI, p. 192, note, I have quoted a passage from a chapter (now numbered 181 in M. Naville’s edition) in which signifies ‘want of success, failure.’

maāt ḫeru really signifies “one whose voice is Law.” It is essentially a divine title (see “Altar at Turin,” Transactions, III, pl. II, line 10, appended to Mr. Bonomi’s article), and in no Egyptian text is it used of mortals supposed to be living. The translation “juste de voix,” limits the conception of maāt to one of its secondary acceptations.

4.ȧn in this place as in very many others is not a preposition, still less is it a verb. It is a demonstrative particle, like the Latin en, ecce, or the Hebrew הֵו. Nothing is more common than this particle followed only by a proper name, e.g., on the funereal figures. There is not the slightest reason for supposing that there is an ellipse of the verb ‘saith.’ The particle is used like the corresponding Latin one under the Scottish picture of Edward I—

6.T’at’at. This word is often wrongly translated ‘judges.’ The divine judges are called t’at’at, but the proposition is not simply convertible. There were the not only of Osiris, but (Todt., 22, 2) also of every god and every goddess. And all the ancient towns of Egypt had their divine . It is a term used (cf. p. 55) as exactly synonymous with . In a mythological system like the Egyptian no god stood alone; every god involved others in close connection with himself, and every act of his necessitated corresponding acts on their part.

9. or , the ‘firm, stable, unalterable, abiding, eternal one,’ whose origin and progress are in eternity. The city or has a name like the Palestinian עַוָֹה, Gazah, the ‘strong’ city, and many other Hebrew names connected with the root עזז.

17. The speaker now assumes the persons of various priests in succession, the āb, the ḥen nutȧr (prophet), the sem, and the ura ḫerp ḥem;[7] and he describes himself as performing certain religious ceremonies. It must never be forgotten when reading these texts that the Egyptian priests had divine titles, and that their ceremonies were dramatic, and symbolical of the acts performed by the gods.

Instead of exalt, several MSS. have , which has been rendered anoint with oil. One might translate the Turin text, “I lustrate with water in Tattu and with oil in Abydos, exalting him who is in the heights (in excelsis),” for this text combines different readings. But , as it is written, may have another meaning. beq, signifies ‘clear, bright, shining,’ and the olive tree derives its name from this. The determinative and the causative furnish the sense, ‘I make bright, illustrious, glorious,’ ‘I celebrate or glorify.’ ‘He is who on the height’ (= עליון) is, according to Chapter 17, the Sun.

20. One of the designations of Osiris. Perhaps the word Ba should be translated Ram, for in the Mendesian Nome Osiris was worshipped under this form, and was called ḣeru šefit, ‘god of the strong face.’ The fact is that whether applied to the soul or to a ram, the word ba is expressive of ‘power, force.’ The same word under the form is used in Chapter 120, 2 (= 12, 2) in the sense of ‘splitting up.’ And this is clearly the Egyptian concept of the soul—‘the internal force, that which works within us,’ τὸ ἐνεργοῦν.

The word is ideographically written or ,[8] both the Ram and the cranelike bird being called ba. Some have cleverly inferred that the Egyptians thought that the soul was of a birdlike form, and others have not hesitated to consider ba as expressive of the cry of the ram. The odd thing is that only the ram has this name, not the sheep or the lamb, who nevertheless indulge in the same cry. The truth is that in spite of appearances the word ba is not onomatopoeic here. Whether applied to the ram or to the heron, the word is expressive of human action and signifies ‘digging through, cleaving, piercing, splitting.’ The hieroglyphic variants are very expressive: , , , , , (the last is already found in Denkm. II, 51).

21. The sem, and the urȧ ḫerp ḥem, were priests in the service of Ptah. The latter, who held perhaps the highest sacerdotal office in Egypt, as high priest of Ptah at Memphis, is repeatedly found combining with his own special office that of the sem. The ceremony which is here referred to consisted in a grand procession round the walls of the great sanctuary of Ptah, conveying upon a sledge the bark in which the coffin of the god was supposed to rest. Sokaru signifies ‘the coffined,’ and Ptah Sokaru is only a form of Osiris. Abundant details of the ceremony will be found in the plates of M. Mariette’s Abydos, I, pl. 36 and following. The king Seti I is represented as a Sem priest presiding at the festival.

In the later recensions this chapter is lengthened out by other petitions. The deceased asks, among other things, to appear “before thee, O Lord of the gods, to attain the region of Maāt, may I rise up a living god, let me shine like the divine host which is in heaven, let me be as one of you. Let my steps be lifted up in Cher-ābaut. Let me see the ship[9] of the holy Sahu [Orion], traversing the sky; let me not be prevented from seeing the lords of the Tuat [the Netherworld], smelling the fragrance of the sacrificial offerings made to the divine host, and sitting with them. Let the Cher-heb [the priestly ministrant] make invocation over my coffin. Let me hear the prayers of propitiation. Let the divine ship Neshemet advance for me, let not my soul and its possessor suffer repulse.”

“Hail to thee, Prince of Amenta, Osiris, lord of Nifura; grant that I may advance in peace towards Amenta, and that the Lords of Tasert may receive me and say to me, ‘Salutation! Salutation! in Peace!’ let them make for me a seat by the Prince of the divine Powers, let the two Chenemta goddesses [Isis and Nephthys] receive me, in presence of Unneferu, the Victorious. Let me be a follower of Horus in Re-stau, and of Osiris in Tattu. Let me assume all forms for the satisfaction of my heart in every place that my Genius [Ka] wisheth.”

“If this discourse is learnt upon earth, or is written upon the coffin, he (the deceased) may come forth upon every day that he pleaseth and again enter his house without impediment. And there shall be given to him bread and beer and flesh meat upon the table of Râ: he shall receive allotment in the Fields of Aarru [the Elysian fields of Egyptian mythology], and there shall be given to him there wheat and barley, for he shall be flourishing as when he was upon earth.”

Chapter 1 is followed in M. Naville’s edition by another, which the learned editor calls 1 B. This chapter is found in so very few copies that the text cannot as yet be restored. The two texts published by M. Naville differ widely from each other. It was known however down to the Roman period, though not inserted into copies of the Book of the Dead.

It is called Chapter of introducing the Mummy into the Tuat on the day of burial. The 124th chapter bears a similar title. The word here translated mummy is probably not to be understood of the visible mummy, but of the living personality which it enclosed. The chapter opens with an invocation, “Hail to thee, who art in the sacred region of Amenta, the Osiris, [the deceased] knows thee and thy name, defend him from those Worms which are in Restau, who live upon the flesh of men and swallow their blood.” The names of the Worms were given, but in consequence of the gaps in the text they cannot now be recovered. The chapter finished with prayers in which the deceased identifies himself with Horus, who has taken possession of the throne which his father has given him; he has taken possession of heaven, and inherited the earth, and neither heaven nor earth shall be taken from him, for he is Râ, the eldest of the gods. His mother suckles him and offers him her breast, which is on the horizon at Dawn.