CHAPTER XVIII.
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Renouf, P. Le Page (Peter Le Page) and Naville, Edouard
The old Egyptian word invariably implies an association of persons, and this is why in consequence of its etymology I translate it as ‘Circle of gods.’ It is synonymous (cf. chapter 41, note 8chapter 41, note 8) with .
3.The Eve’s Provender. Later authorities read , the ‘Provender of the altars,’ but this is a corruption of the ancient , which had probably ceased to be intelligible. According to this pantheistic system the deceased through his identification with the Sun absorbed and consumed all that came in his way. And this is expressed in somewhat brutal style. Men and gods disappear before Unas, he makes his breakfast at dawn , upon great gods, his dinner upon gods of middling quality , and ‘his supper at even’ upon the minor deities, . is the ancient dialectic variant of , which however is really the older form. This word which means ‘things’ has, like the Latin res, a wide application. It frequently means property, estate, and sometimes suit.
4. On the last day of the month of Choiak the great solemnity of setting up the Tat as the symbol of Osiris was observed down to the latest periods. The tablets of Pasherenptah, high priest of Ptah at Memphis, speak of this great dignitary as the king’s second or deputy in ‘Raising the Tat.’ But Brugsch has published a picture (Thesaurus, V, 1190), copied by Dr. Erman from a tomb of the XVIIIth dynasty, in which Amenophis III himself helps to raise the Tat, and the queen Ti and the royal princesses take part in the ceremony. The procession is described as marching four times round the sanctuary of Ptah-Seker-Osiris. See Plate IX.
5. On Horus in the Dark, or Blindness, or Invisibility , see note, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., June, 1886.
6. Pu and Tepu are named together in the earliest texts as one locality, which is recognised by Brugsch as the metropolis of the northern nome called by the Greeks Φθενότης.
7. The feast of derives its name, as Goodwin supposes with great probability, from the words ha-k-er-ȧ, ‘Come thou to me,’ said of a legendary incident like that mentioned at the end of note 15 on chapter 17. The early papyri read but this is no objection, the sign being here the determinative of the entire group which gives its name to the feast.
8. literally the dead, that is those who have died ‘the second death.’
9. The vignette is given by M. Naville from the tracing taken by Lepsius of the now lost Papyrus Busca. It represents ‘the Great Hoeing in Tattu.’ The long text at Dendera (Mariette, tom. IV, pl. 39) contains directions to be observed the festival commemorative of the ancient myth. Two black cows are put under a yoke of ȧm wood, the plough is of tamarisk wood and the share of black bronze. The plougher goes behind, with a cow led by a halter. A little child with the lock attached to its head is to scatter the seed in the field of Osiris, a piece of land of which the dimensions were given in the text (now imperfect). Barley is sown at one end, spelt at the other, and flax between the two. And the Cher-heb in chief recites the Office for the Sowing of the Field.
10. The older texts have lie, the later ones lay.
11. In the formula , šes is “the measuring line used by builders,”builders,” and em šes signifies ‘ad amussim,’ ‘nach der Schnur,’ ‘au cordeau,’ ‘according to the line,’ hence ‘with the strictest accuracy.’ Hibbert Lectures, 1879, p. 121. ‘According to the line of Maāt’ means ‘with undeviating regularity.’
Source notes
30. . The later recensions read . The first Coffin of Mentuhotep (Aelteste Texte, 4, 61) has the phonetic .
31. Literally, “when the things are shut up.”
32. .
33. , North and South.