CHAPTER XCIX.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Renouf, P. Le Page (Peter Le Page) and Naville, Edouard
2.Fasten my tackle, . Cf. Unas, 508 and 639. In the latter place the ropes are said to be made of , palm leaf (?).
3. Comp. chapter 44 on the cavern where the dead fall into the darkness, ‘but the Eye of Horus supporteth me, and Apuat reareth me up.’ There may be an allusion here, as there is elsewhere, to shooting stars. It is worth noticing that—a group which ought, I think, to be read (Ca and Ac) has in most papyri the wrong determinative instead of , which was misunderstood, and that Ab has even .
4. A corrupt passage, like the next.
5. The corruption of the whole passage between [ ] will be best understood on comparing it with the names of “the Rudders of Heaven” as given in chapter 148; the earliest text of these names being (I think) the fine tablet in Denkm. III, 25 bis a. Three out of four of these names are represented by the phrases here printed in italics. The rest is incoherent and was certainly not understood by the copyists. I have followed Aa in my translation.
6. ‘The Leathers,’ or , leathern thongs, or straps, like the Greek τροποί for fastening the oars,
Ἠρτύναντο δ’ ἐρετμὰ τροποῖς ἐν δερματίνοισι: Odyss. 4, 782.
See note of Scholiast and cf. Aesch. Pers., 376.
7.Look out, see chapter 15, note 9.
8.Grounds. is, technically, the superficial land measure corresponding to the quarter of the Egyptian arura. The more general sense of the word () is land enclosed and parted out for cultivation.
The very ancient magical text (Unas 302) speaks characterically of , the Hippopotamus who maketh his appearance at the garden (vineyard, field, &c. Cf. Psalm lxxx, 13).
In the great inscription published in Mariette’s Denderah, IV, 35, is used, in a sense like that of the Ἀδώνιδος κῆποι, for a stone vessel in which seeds were sown for ritual purposes.
9.Tiller.bait, or (as it is also written) ȧbait; see chapter 76, note 1.
10.Merit. (sometimes written with and other determinatives; Bekenranef adds ) is the name of each of the two divine sisters, Isis and Nephthys, see chapter 37, note; who are called and . But, at Edfu, Denderah and Philae, Merit is a synonym of the Ut’at, and one of the names of Hathor.
11.Shallow; a conjectural meaning for , which has not only the determinative of land, but those of water, and . And in some texts it would seem to mean marsh, fen, swamp.