The Egyptian Book of the dead

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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]

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)

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 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.’

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 .