Egyptian Book of the Dead

CHAPTER CXIII.

CHAPTER CXIII. Chapter whereby one knoweth the Powers of Nechen. ( 1 ) I know the Mystery of Nechen: Horus, and that which his mother did( 2 ) for him, when she herself uttered the cry: “Let Sebak, the Lord of the Marshes, be brought to us.” He cast the net for them and he found them, and his mother made them fast in their places. Sebak, the Lord of the Marshes, said: “I sought and I found the traces of them under my fingers on the strand. I netted them in a powerful net, as the net proved to be.” And Râ said: “Verily, those are fishes in the hands of Sebak. and he hath found the two arms of Horus for him, which had become fishes.”( 3 ) And Râ said: “A mystery, a mystery, in the Net.” 187 And the hands of Horus were brought to him, and displayed before his face, on the feast of the fifteenth day of the month; when the fishes were produced. Then Râ said: “I grant Nechen to Horus, in the place of his two arms; that his two hands be displayed before his face in Nechen; and I grant to him whatsoever is therein comprised on the feast of the fifteenth day of the month.” And Horus said: “Be it granted to me that Tuamāutef and Kebhsenuf be taken with me, and that they be guards of my body in dutiful service.( 4 ) Let them be this under the god of Nechen.” And Râ said: Be that granted to thee, there and in Sati, and let that be done for them which is done for those who are in Nechen; yea, they are asking to be with thee. And Horus said: Be they with thee, so that they be with me to listen to Sutu invoking the Powers of Nechen: “Be it granted to me that I may make my entry among the Powers of Nechen.” I know the Powers of Nechen: they are Horus, Tuamāutef, and Kebhsenuf. Notes. 1. Nechen , the chief hieroglyphic variants of which are [Source image: ⁂] , [Source image: ⁂] , [Source image: ⁂] and [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , was situated in the third nome ( [Source image: ⁂] Ten ) of Upper Egypt, and was called by the Greeks Hieracōnpolis, ‘city of the Hawks,’ from the hawk-headed divinities mentioned in this chapter as Powers of Nechen, and of which numberless pictures are found on the monuments. 2. Between these words and those which the three old papyri [96] Aa , Ae , and Ib , which unfortunately do not agree together on all points, have a few passages here which do not appear in the later papyri. They read, “Horus and what his mother did, tossing in distressful agitation ( [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , ⲕⲓⲙ , σαλεύεσθαι) over the water.” The mother then addresses persons who are not named, in words of which the sense is not clear; and Rā speaks words of which the only certain ones are “the son of Isis.” Then follows the usual text. 188 3. This legend of Nechen is connected with that of the dismemberment of Horus (τὸ περὶ τὸν Ὥρου διαμελισμὸν), of which we have but very scanty information. [97] It must have been like a repetition of what had happened to his father Osiris. The limbs of Horus had been thrown into the water, and when Sebak threw his net, at the prayer of Isis, he brought up two fishes, into which the arms of Horus had been turned. Reminiscences of this story are preserved in the names of several localities. [Source image: ⁂] , “Two Fish,” is the name of the Mer of the second Northern Nome, and of the pehu of the seventeenth Southern Nome; just as [Source image: ⁂] , “Two Eyes,” is the name of the pehu of the eleventh Northern Nome. The latter name may perhaps have reference to Osiris, but the same stories were probably told of both divinities. 4. On dutiful service [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] [Source image: ⁂] , a word omitted in the Turin and other texts. Brugsch ( Rev. Egypt , I, 22) has discussed the sense of this word, and quoted numerous passages in illustration of it. It is of course ridiculous to identify the word with the Hebrew אדן the meaning of which is radically different. PLATE 31 .