CHAPTER CLIV. The Chapter of not letting the body decay(1) in the Netherworld.
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Renouf, P. Le Page (Peter Le Page) and Naville, Edouard
Hail to thee, my father Osiris. I have come to embalm thee. Do thou embalm this flesh of mine, for I am perfect like my father Chepera, who is my image, he who does not know corruption.
Come, take hold of my breath of life, lord of the breath, lofty above his equals; vivify(2) me, build me up, thou lord of the funeral chest.
Grant me to go down into the land of eternity, as thou doest when thou art with thy father Tmu, he whose body never decays, he who does not know destruction.
I have not done what thou hatest, the command (which I obey) is that which thy ka loveth,(3) I have not transgressed it.
I have been delivered, being thy follower, O Tmu, from the rottenness which thou allowest to come over every god, every goddess, every animal, every creeping thing which is corruptible.
After his soul has departed he dies,(4) and when it has gone down he decays; he is all corruption; all his bones are rottenness, putrefaction(5) seizes his limbs and makes his bones break down, his flesh becomes a fetid liquid, his breath is stink, he becomes a multitude of worms.
(As for me) there are no worms(6). He is impotent whoever has lost the eye of Shu(7) among all gods and goddesses, all birds and fishes, all snakes and worms, all animals altogether, for I cause them to crawl before me, they recognise me and the fear of me prevails over them, and behold every being is alike dead among all animals, all birds, all fishes, all snakes, all worms, their life is like death.
Let there be no food for the worms all of them. Let them not come to me when they are born, I shall not be handed over to the destroyer in his cover, who destroys the limbs, the hidden one who causes corruption, who cuts to pieces(8) many dead bodies, who lives from destroying.
He lives who performs his commands, but I have not been delivered into his fingers, he has not prevailed upon me, for I am under thy command, lord of the gods.
Hail to thee, my father Osiris! thy limbs are lasting, thou dost not know corruption; there are no worms with thee, thou art not repugnant, thou dost not stink, thou dost not putrefy, thou wilt not become worms.
I am Chepera, my limbs are lasting for ever. I do not know corruption. I do not rot, I do not putrefy, I do not become worms. I do not lose the eye of Shu.
I am, I am, I live, I live, I grow, I grow, and when I shall awake in peace, I shall not be in corruption, I shall not be destroyed in my bandages. I shall be free of pestilence, my eye will not be corrupted, my skin (?) will not disappear. My ear will not be deaf, my head will not be taken away from my neck, my tongue will not be torn away, my hair will not be cut off, my eyebrows shall not be shaven off. No grievous harm shall come upon me, my body is firm, it shall not be destroyed. It shall not perish in this earth for ever.
Notes.
This Chapter is not frequently met with in the papyri; it was written on the wrappings and the bandages of the dead; for instance, on the funeral cloth of King Thothmes III, where it is not complete. This Chapter is interesting, as it shows how repulsive to the Egyptians was the idea of corruption, of the decay of the body, which is described here in most realistic terms. This is one of the reasons why they gave such importance to mummification.
Parts of this Chapter are very obscure. The translation has been made from the text on the mummy cloth of Thothmes III, supplemented by the Papyrus of Nu.
The only vignette we have is that of the Turin Papyrus, showing a mummy lying on the bed, and illumined by the rays of the sun.
1., “to pass away, to disappear through corruption or decay.” Sometimes it seems to have an active sense: to let something pass away, to lose it.
2., is generally translated “firm, stable, abiding” (Chapter 1, note 9), but I believe in most cases it has another sense: “to vivify, to impart the breath of life,” as one may judge from the title of Chapter 182, which mentions two acts, one of which is the consequence of the other, : “the book of vivifying Osiris, giving breath to him whose heart is motionless.”
In the mythological or celestial geography is the East (Pl. IV). There life originates; there also the deceased inhales the breath of life (Chapter 57, p. 110; Naville, Todt., Einl., p. 28).
3. See Sphinx, V, p. 199.
4.. I consider as being here the adverb afterwards. His soul goes out, and afterwards he dies, it goes down and afterwards he decays.
5., litt. the destroyers; the word occurs again further on: the destroyer who is in his bush(?) or cover, the hidden one. It is evidently a metaphor, for the sense is obvious; it is putrefaction. The word in the Turin papyrus , litt. locks, might apply to the vegetation or the excrescences which are often the sign of putrefaction.
6.. The passage is very obscure. I believe the drift of the idea is this: after having described very thoroughly what corruption is, the deceased says: as for me I am protected against those evils. Even should every being fall into corruption, having lost the eye of Shu, it is nothing to me, because I am feared by all.
“worms do not exist.” is explained by two passages. At Abydos the priest says to the god (Mar., Abydos, I, p. 34) . “I have come to perform the ceremonies, for I have not come to do nothing, I have not come in vain.” In the poem of Pentaur, when Rameses II, addressing Amen, recalls all he has done to honour the god, he says: : “is it nothing, this thy terrace which I built for thee?”
7. The eye of Shu is either an amulet or a magic power residing in some part of the body, which prevents it from becoming worms. It is the defence against corruption. Further the deceased says: “I do not become worms; I do not lose the eye of Shu.”
8. Litt. ploughs into dead bodies.