Egyptian Book of the Dead

CHAPTER XVIII.

CHAPTER XVIII. [ Introductory. ] The An-māut( 1 ) saith :— I come to you, ye Great Circles of gods( 2 ) in Heaven, upon Earth and in the World below! I bring to you N void of offence towards any of the gods, grant that he may be with you daily. 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. 51 The Se-meri-f saith :— I come to you, O Circle of gods in Restau, and I bring to you N . Grant to him Bread, Water, Air and an allotment in the Sechit-hotepu like Horus. 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. [ Litany. ] 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. The Great Circle of gods in Heliopolis is of Tmu, Shu and Tefnut, and the Sebau who were defeated and extinguished were the associates of Sut on the renewal of his assault. 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 ) The Great Circle of gods in Tattu is of Osiris, Isis, Nephthys and Horus the Avenger of his Father; and they who set up the Tat are the two arms of Horus, Prince of Sechem. They are behind Osiris as bindings of his raiment. 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. The Great Circle of gods in Sechem is of Horus in the Dark,( 5 ) and Thoth, who is of the Great Circle of An-arer-ef. The Eve’s Provender is the dawn upon the Coffin of Osiris. 52 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. The Great Circle of gods in Pu and Tepu is of Horus, Isis, Emsta, Hapi; and the pillars of Horus are erected when Horus saith to those who follow him “let the flag-staffs be erected there.” 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. The Great Circle of gods on the Two Regions of Rechit is of Isis, Nephthys, Emsta and Hapi. 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. The Great Circle of gods in Abydos is of Osiris, Isis and Apuat. 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. The Great Circle of gods on the Highway of the Damned are Thoth, Osiris, Anubis and Astes. And judgment is passed on the Highway of the Damned when the suit is closed [31] against the souls of the Children of Failure. 8. Oh Thoth, who makest Osiris triumphant over his adversaries, 53 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] The Great Circle of gods in An-arer-ef is of Shu, Babai, Rā and Osiris, and the Night of Hiding him who is Supreme of Attributes is when there are at the Coffin, the Thigh, the Head, the Heel and the Leg of Unneferu. 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 ) 54 Notes. 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 order of petitions is somewhat different in the later recensions, and the text has suffered other alterations. Copies of this chapter are extremely numerous, particularly in the later periods. 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 [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , and the other [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] 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 [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] ‘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 [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] is always translated ‘the son who loves him,’ instead of ‘the son he loves,’ 55 which is the right meaning. [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] is ‘the place which he loves’ not ‘the place which loves him.’ And similarly [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] is ‘the wife whom he loves,’ not ‘who loves him.’ 2. There is a short note ( 6 ) on chapter 1, upon the word [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , but the present seems to be the suitable place for a more extended notice of this feminine word, which is a collective noun, and never found in any other sense. The ancient form [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] renders it more than probable that [Source image: ⁂] is not phonetic in the later form, but that as in [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] kai , originally [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] (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 [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , 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 [Source image: ⁂] , which in later texts often appears as the determinative, has its origin in the cursive form of [Source image: ⁂] carelessly written. Instead of [Source image: ⁂] we also find [Source image: ⁂] , which is certainly not phonetic but ideographic of enclosure , as in the word [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] a wall, paries , ἕρκος. This word occurs already in the Pyramid Texts under the form [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] . 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 [Source image: ⁂] or [Source image: ⁂] . The old Egyptian word [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] 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 8 chapter 41, note 8 ) with [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] . 3. The Eve’s Provender. Later authorities read [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , the ‘Provender of the altars,’ but this is a corruption of the ancient 56 [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , 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 [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , upon great gods, his dinner upon gods of middling quality [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , and ‘his supper at even’ [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] upon the minor deities, [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] . [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] is the ancient dialectic variant of [Source image: ⁂] , 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 [Source image: ⁂] 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 [Source image: ⁂] , 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 [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] derives its name, as Goodwin supposes with great probability, from the words [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] 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 [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] but this is no objection, the sign [Source image: ⁂] being here the determinative of the entire group which gives its name to the feast. 57 8. [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] 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 [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] 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 [Source image: ⁂] 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 [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] lie , the later ones [Source image: ⁂] lay . 11. In the formula [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , [Source image: ⁂] 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.’ 30 . [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] . The later recensions read [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] . The first Coffin of Mentuhotep ( Aelteste Texte , 4, 61) has the phonetic [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] . 31 . Literally, “when the things [Source image: ⁂] are shut up.” 32 . [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] . 33 . [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , North and South.