CHAPTER XV
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[Illustration: Horus at the Look-out of the Ship.]
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The later recensions add an interpolation (not without very different readings) to the effect that the Sun made his first appearance when Shu raised the Sky from the height of Chemennu, where he destroyed the ‘Children of Failure’ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
The raising of the Sky by Shu is very frequently represented in pictures. Seb (the Earth) and Nut (the Sky) have been sleeping in each other’s arms during the night; Shu (Daylight at sunrise) parts them, and the sky is seen to be raised high above the earth.
⁂⁂⁂, Shu, who is of course the son of Râ, is in consequence of this act called ⁂⁂ _Ȧn-ḥeru_, ‘The Lifter up of the Heaven.’
_Chemennu_ is the geographical name of the town called by the Greeks Hermopolis. The mystical Chemennu, however, is alone referred to in this place. The word itself means Eight, and Lepsius sees here a reference to eight elementary deities. (We must remember that the passage itself is an interpolation, of which there is no trace in the older texts.)
The ‘children of _Failure_’ (⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂ _deficere_, _dissolvi_, _deliquium_[28]) are the elements of darkness which melt away and vanish at the appearance of Day. This mythological expression here found in an interpolated passage is met later on in a genuine portion of the older text.
2. It would be impossible to find a more emphatic assertion of the doctrine of _Nomina Numina_; and that more than 3000 years before Christ.
The _Names_ of Râ, the Sun-god, are said, when taken together, to compose ‘the cycle of the gods.’ ⁂⁂. Or the names which he has created, to which he has given rise, that is the names of all the solar phenomena, recurring as they do, day after day, to the eyes of all beholders, compose “the cycle of the gods,” who are also called the limbs or members of Râ.
The scholia contained in the papyri of the XVIIIth and later dynasties explain the text as follows:—
“It is Râ as he creates the _names_ of his _limbs_ (⁂) which _become_ the gods who accompany him.”
And the present chapter later on says of Chepera, the rising Sun, that the “cycle of the gods is his body.”
The god who has hitherto been spoken of is Râ. In glaring contradiction to the whole text, a later note states that the resistless god is “the Water, which is _Nu_”; that is Heaven.[29] ⁂⁂⁂ _Nu_ is not alluded to at all in the primitive text, but the papyrus of Nebseni already exhibits the corruption of the fine passage, “I am he who closeth and he who openeth, and I am but One.” This is itself an addition, the true meaning of which was afterwards destroyed by the interpolation of the words ⁂⁂⁂⁂. These are ambiguous. They might mean that the god was alone ‘in heaven,’ or that he was alone ‘_as_ Heaven.’ The papyrus of Ani has ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, “I was born from Nu.” These attempted improvements do not give a favourable impression of the exegetical acumen of Egyptian theologians.
But the mention of ‘Water’ in the scholion has nothing whatever to do with the doctrine of Thales, and to suppose that it has implies a confusion between two very different realms of human thought.
3. ‘The kinsman of the Morrow,’ literally ‘I know the Morrow.’ The word ⁂ signifies _can_, _ken_, and _kin_.
The papyrus of Nebseni and all the subsequent texts give the explanation that Yesterday means Osiris, and the Morrow means Râ. And the vignette in the papyrus of Ani gives the name of Yesterday to one of the Lions and of Morrow to the other.
4. The earliest texts have either ⁂ ‘speak,’ or ⁂⁂ ‘command.’ The meaning is the same in both readings. Strife arose among the gods at the bidding of Râ: that is every force in nature began its appropriate career of activity, necessarily coming into contact and conflict with the other forces. And of all this collision the first cause, the origin of all activity and motion, is the Sun.
This mythological cosmology reminds one of the saying of Heraclitos that “Strife is the father and the king of all things,” and the doctrine that all becoming must be conceived as the product of warring opposites—παν´ντα κατ’ ἔριν γίνεσθαι.
5. The Heron is the bird called ⁂⁂⁂ _bennu_, the numerous pictures of which enable us to identify it with the Common Heron or Heronshaw. The reason for connecting this bird with the Sun-god has to be sought in the etymology of its name. ⁂⁂ _ben_ is a verb of motion, and particularly of ‘going round.’ ⁂⁂ _benenu_ is a ring, also a ‘round pill.’ The Sun therefore is very naturally called _bennu_, an appellative like κυκλοέλικτος in the Orphic hymns.
⁂⁂, ‘of that which is, and of that which cometh into being.’ Here, as in many other places, ⁂, which is a verb of motion, and really signifies ‘rise up, spring forth,’ is pointedly distinguished from ⁂, that which (is). So far from signifying ‘being, that which is,’ it very much more nearly corresponds to ⁂ in the frequent expression ⁂⁂, ‘that which is and that which is not yet.’ The sense of ‘good being’ so commonly given to the divine name Unnefer is utterly erroneous.
6. The reading of the name ⁂ is proved by the numerous variants of this passage to be _Ȧmsu_. In M. Naville’s edition, II, pl. 41, the name, as written in _Ce_, would seem to be ⁂⁂⁂ _ȧm._ But I already in _Zeitschr._, 1877 (p. 98) pointed out, that in this manuscript the last sign ⁂ is at the top of a column, and that at the foot of the preceding column there is a space where the signs ⁂, following ⁂⁂ (_as they still do in the next passage_), have been obliterated. No one from merely looking at M. Naville’s copy would guess that there was any interval between ⁂ and ⁂.
The god’s name is written ⁂⁂⁂ on a tablet, Denkm. III, 114 i. And the name is also written ⁂ or ⁂, which are ligatures of ⁂ and ⁂.
7. Note that in this scholion Horus, ‘the avenger of his father,’ calls his father not Osiris but Tmu. In the more recent texts there are many interpretations of the two Feathers. One is “his two _Eyes_F are the Feathers.” But the favourite one is “Isis and Nephthys, who have risen up as two kites” ⁂⁂⁂⁂.
8. The ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ _reḫit_, by whom the oblation is made, the _present_ generation as contrasted with the ⁂⁂⁂ _pāit_, the _past_, and ⁂⁂⁂⁂ _hammemit_, the _coming_ generations.
9. ⁂⁂⁂⁂ _Māāāait_ is supposed to be nitre or salt, or some other substance used in the process of embalming.
The more recent recensions thus answer the question about the lakes. “_Eternity_ is the name of one, and the _Great green one_ that of the other, the lake of Natron and the lake of Māāt.”
10. See the picture of this gate on the Vignette, which shows the Sun-god passing through. One of the later explanations is that from this gate Shu raised up Heaven. Another is that it was the gate of the Tuat. _Haukar_, ⁂⁂⁂⁂, means “behind the Shrine.”
11. _Hu_ and _Sau_, sons of Tmu, and his companions in the Solar bark, are, like so many other gods, Solar appellatives. ⁂⁂⁂⁂ _Hu_ is the Nourisher, ⁂⁂⁂⁂ _Sau_, ‘the Knowing One.’ The god is also called ‘the Seer’ ⁂, ‘He who heareth’ ⁂⁂. These names are not personifications of the senses but, as in all cases, appellatives expressing attributes.
12. See Note 2 on