XIV.
1 Mortals extol (him), and the cycle of gods! 2 Awe is felt by the terrible ones; 3 His son(507) is made Lord of all, 4 To enlighten all Egypt.(508) 5 Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile! shine forth! 6 Giving life to men by his oxen: 7 Giving life to his oxen by the pastures! 8 Shine forth in glory, O Nile.
The Solemn Festal Dirge Of The Egyptians
Translated by C. W. Goodwin, M.A.
This dirge or hymn, which is that alluded to by Herodotus,(509) is contained in one of the “Harris Papyri” (No. 500), the same from which I have already translated the “Story of the Doomed Prince.” The first line of the hymn ascribes it to the authorship of King Antuf, one of the Pharaohs of the eleventh dynasty. The papyrus itself is, however, of the time of Thothmes III, eighteenth dynasty, but that is no reason why all the texts in the MSS. should be of the latter date. The translation here given was printed by myself for the first time in the “Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology,” Vol. III, part 1, but the hieroglyphic text remains yet to be published. A fragment of another copy of this identical hymn is to be found in the “_Monumens __ du Musée de Leide_,”
## part iii, pl. 12, and from it several words which were wanting in the
Harris papyrus have been restored.
FESTAL DIRGE
1 (Wanting.)
2 The song of the house of King Antuf, deceased, which is (written) in front of
3 the player on the harp.(510) All hail to the good Prince, the worthy good (man), the body is fated(?) to pass away, the atoms(511)
4 remain, ever since the time of the ancestors. The gods who were beforetime rest in their tombs, the mummies
5 of the saints likewise are enwrapped in their tombs. They who build houses, and they who have no houses, see!
6 what becomes of them. I have heard the words of Imhotep(512) and Hartatef.(513) It is said in their sayings,
7 After all, what is prosperity? Their fenced walls are dilapidated. Their houses are as that which has never existed.
8 No man comes from thence who tells of their sayings, who tells of their affairs, who encourages our hearts. Ye go
9 to the place whence they return not.(514) Strengthen thy heart to forget how thou hast enjoyed thyself, fulfil thy desire whilst thou livest.
10 Put oils upon thy head clothe thyself with fine linen adorned with precious metals
11 with the _gifts_ of God multiply thy good things, yield to thy desire, fulfil thy desire with thy good things
12 (whilst thou art) upon earth, according to the dictation of thy heart. The day will come to thee, when one hears not the voice when the one who is at rest hears not
13 their voices.(515) Lamentations deliver not him who is in the tomb.(516)
14 Feast in tranquillity seeing that there is no one who carries away his goods with him. Yea, behold, none who goes thither comes back again.
Hymns To Amen
Translated by C. W. Goodwin, M.A.
These beautiful poems are contained in the “Anastasi Papyri” in the collection at the British Museum. They have been mostly translated in French by M. F. Chabas, from whose interpretation I have occasionally found reason to differ.
The papyrus itself is considerably mutilated, and bears no date, but from the character of the script there can be little doubt that it is of the period of the nineteenth dynasty.
These hymns have been published by myself with exegetical notes in the “Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology,” vol. II, part 2, 1873, p. 353; and, as before mentioned, in French by M. Chabas in the “_Mélanges Egyptologiques_,” 1870, p. 117.
HYMN TO AMEN(517)
1 “O Amen, lend thine ear to him 2 who is alone before the tribunal, 3 he is poor (he is not) rich. 4 The court oppresses him; 5 silver and gold for the clerks of the book, 6 garments for the servants. There is no other Amen, acting as a judge, 7 to deliver (one) from his misery; 8 when the poor man is before the tribunal, 9 (making) the poor to go forth rich.”
HYMN TO AMEN(518)
1 “I cry, the beginning of wisdom is the way of Amen,(519) 2 the rudder of (truth). 3 Thou art he that giveth bread to him who has none, 4 that sustaineth the servant of his house. 5 Let no prince be my defender in all my troubles. 6 Let not my memorial be placed under the power 7 of any man who is in the house ... My Lord is (my) defender; 8 I know his power, to wit, (he is) a strong defender, 9 there is none mighty except him alone. 10 Strong is Amen, knowing how to answer, 11 fulfilling the desire of him who cries to him; 12 the Sun the true King of gods, 13 the Strong Bull, the mighty lover (of power).”
HYMN TO AMEN(520)
1 “Come to me, O thou Sun; 2 Horus of the horizon give me (help); 3 Thou art he that giveth (help); 4 there is no help without thee, 5 excepting thou (givest it). 6 Come to me Tum,(521) hear me thou great god. 7 My heart goeth forth toward An(522) 8 Let my desires be fulfilled, 9 let my heart be joyful, my inmost heart in gladness. 10 Hear my vows, my humble supplications every day, 11 my adorations by night; 12 my (cries of) terror ... prevailing in my mouth, 13 which come from my (mouth) one by one. 14 O Horus of the horizon there is no other beside like him, 15 protector of millions, deliverer of hundreds of thousands, 16 the defender of him that calls to him, the Lord of An.(523) 17 Reproach me not(524) with my many sins. 18 I am a youth, weak of body.(525) 19 I am a man without heart. 20 Anxiety comes upon me(526) as an ox upon grass. 21 If I pass the night in ...(527) and I find refreshment, 22 anxiety returns to me in the time of lying down.”
Hymn To Pharaoh
[The previous hymns are addressed to the Supreme Being, under the names of Amen, Horus, and Tum, all identical with the Sun. But for the old Egyptians the ruling Pharaoh of the day was the living image and vicegerent of the Sun, and they saw no profanity in addressing the King in terms precisely similar to those with which they worshipped their god. The following address or petition, which also is found in the “Anastasi Papyri,” is a remarkable instance of this:]
HYMN TO PHARAOH(528)
1 “Long live the King!(529) 2 This comes to inform the King 3 to the royal hall of the lover of truth, 4 the great heaven wherein the Sun is. 5 (Give) thy attention to me, thou Sun that risest 6 to enlighten the earth with this (his) goodness. 7 The solar orb of men chasing the darkness from Egypt. 8 Thou art as it were the image of thy father the Sun, 9 who rises in heaven. Thy beams penetrate the cavern. 10 No place is without thy goodness. 11 Thy sayings are the law of every land. 12 When thou reposest in thy palace, 13 thou hearest the words of all the lands. 14 Thou hast millions of ears. 15 Bright is thy eye above the stars of heaven, 16 able to gaze at the solar orb. 17 If anything be spoken by the mouth in the cavern, 18 it ascends into thy ears. 19 Whatsoever is done in secret, thy eye seeth it, 20 O Baenra Meriamen,(530) merciful Lord, creator of breath.”
[This is not the language of a courtier. It seems to be a genuine expression of the belief that the King was the living representative of Deity, and from this point of view is much more interesting and remarkable than if treated as a mere outpouring of empty flattery.]
The Song Of The Harper
Translated by Ludwig Stern
The text of the following song, found in the tomb of Neferhetep at Abd-el-Gurnah, is a good specimen of Egyptian poetry of the eighteenth dynasty. It was first copied by Mr. Dümichen (“_Historische Inschriften_,” ii. 40), and subsequently by myself. In addition to a translation in the “_Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache_,” 1873, p. 58, I gave some critical observations in the same journal of 1875. Professor Lauth of Munich translated it in an appendix to his essay on the music of the ancient Egyptians.
The song is very remarkable for the form of old Egyptian poetry, which like that of the Hebrews delights in a sublimer language, in parallelisms and antitheses, and in the ornament of a burden; no doubt it was sung, and it seems to be even rhythmic, forming verses of equal length—
“_Ured urui pu mā,_ _Pa shau nefer kheper_ _Khetu her sebt ter rek Rā_ _Jamāu her at r ast-sen._”
Though part of the text is unhappily much mutilated, we yet may gather the general ideas of the poem from the _disjecta membra_ which remain.
It is a funeral song, supposed to be sung by the harper at a feast or anniversary in remembrance of the deceased patriarch Neferhetep, who is represented sitting with his sister and wife Rennu-m-ast-neh, his son Ptahmes and his daughter Ta-Khat standing by their side, while the harper before them is chanting. The poet addresses his speech as well to the dead as to the living, assuming in his fiction the former to be yet alive. The room of the tomb, on the walls of which such texts were inscribed, may be thought a kind of chapel appointed for the solemn rites to be performed by the survivors. The song which bears a great resemblance to the “Song of the House of King Antef,” lately translated by the eminent Mr. Goodwin, affords a striking coincidence with the words which Herodotus (ii. 78) asserts to have been repeated on such occasions, while a wooden image of the deceased, probably the figure called “_usheb_,” was circulating among the guests. “Look upon this!” they said; “then drink and rejoice, for thou shalt be as this is.”
THE SONG OF THE HARPER
[Chanted by the singer to the harp who is in the chapel of the Osirian, the Patriarch of Amen, the blessed Neferhotep.]
He says:
The great one is truly at rest, the good charge is fulfilled. Men pass away since the time of Rā(531) and the youths come in their stead. Like as Rā reappears every morning, and Tum(532) sets in the horizon, men are begetting, and women are conceiving. Every nostril inhaleth once the breezes of dawn, but all born of women go down to their places.
Make a good day, O holy father! Let odors and oils stand before thy nostril. Wreaths of lotus are on the arms and the bosom of thy sister, dwelling in thy heart, sitting beside thee. Let song and music be before thy face, and leave behind thee all evil cares! Mind thee of joy, till cometh the day of pilgrimage, when we draw near the land which loveth silence. Not ...(533) peace of heart ...(534) his loving son.
Make a good day, O blessed Neferhotep, thou patriarch perfect and pure of hands! He finished his existence ... (the common fate of men). Their abodes pass away, and their place is not; they are as they had never been born since the time of Rā. (They in the shades) are sitting on the bank of the river, thy soul is among them, drinking its sacred water, following thy heart, at peace ...(535) Give bread to him whose field is barren, thy name will be glorious in posterity for evermore; they will look upon thee ...(536) (The priest clad in the skin)(537) of a panther will pour to the ground, and bread will be given as offerings; the singing-women ...(538) Their forms are standing before Rā, their persons are protected ...(539) Rannu(540) will come at her hour, and Shu will calculate his day, thou shalt awake ...(541) (woe to the bad one!) He shall sit miserable in the heat of infernal fires.
Make a good day, O holy father, Neferhotep, pure of hands! No works of buildings in Egypt could avail, his resting-place is all his wealth ...(542) Let me return to know what remaineth of him! Not the least moment could be added to his life, (when he went to) the realm of eternity. Those who have magazines full of bread to spend, even they shall encounter the hour of a last end. The moment of that day will diminish the valor of the rich ...(543)
Mind thee of the day, when thou too shalt start for the land, to which one goeth to return not thence. Good for thee then will have been (an honest life,) therefore be just and hate transgressions, for he who loveth justice (will be blessed). The coward and the bold, neither can fly, (the grave) the friendless and proud are alike ... Then let thy bounty give abundantly, as is fit, (love) truth, and Isis shall bless the good, (and thou shalt attain a happy) old age.
Hymn To Amen-Ra
Translated by C. W. Goodwin, M.A.
This hymn is inscribed upon a hieratic papyrus, No. 17, in the collection of papyri at the Museum of Boulaq. A fac-simile of the papyrus has been published by M. Marriette (“_Les papyrus Egyptiens du Musée de Boulaq_,” fo. Paris 1272, pls. 11-13). It is not a very long composition, being contained in eleven pages of moderate size, and consisting of only twenty verses. It has the advantage of being nearly perfect from beginning to end, written in a legible hand, and free from any great difficulties for the translator.
From the handwriting of the papyrus it may be judged to belong to the nineteenth dynasty, or about the fourteenth century B.C. It purports to be only a copy, and the composition itself may be very much earlier.
In the original the beginning of each verse is indicated by rubricated letters; each verse is also divided into short phrases by small red points; these are indicated in the translation by colons.
This translation has just been published with exegetical notes in the “Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology,” vol. ii, p. 250.
HYMN TO AMEN-RA
1 Praise to Amen-Rā: the Bull in An(544) Chief of all gods: the good god beloved: giving life to all animated things: to all fair cattle: Hail to thee Amen-Rā, Lord of the thrones of the earth: Chief in Aptu:(545) the Bull of his mother in his field: turning his feet toward the land of the South: Lord of the heathen, Prince of Punt:(546) the Ancient of heaven, the Oldest of the earth: Lord of all existences, the Support of things, the Support of all things.
2 The ONE in his works, _single_ among the gods: the beautiful Bull of the cycle of gods: Chief of all the gods: Lord of truth, Father of the gods: Maker of men, Creator of beasts: Lord of existences, Creator of fruitful trees: Maker of herbs, Feeder of cattle: Good Being begotten of Ptah, beautiful youth beloved: to whom the gods give honor: Maker of things below and above, Enlightener of the earth: sailing in heaven in tranquillity: King Rā true speaker, Chief of the earth: Most glorious one, Lord of terror: Chief creator of the whole earth.
3 Supporter of affairs above every god: in whose goodness the gods rejoice: to whom adoration is paid in the great house: crowned in the house of flame: whose fragrance the gods love: when he comes from Arabia: Prince of the dew, traversing foreign lands: benignly approaching the Holy Land.(547)
4 The gods attend his feet: while they acknowledge his Majesty as their Lord: Lord of terror most awful: greatest of spirits, mighty in ...: bring offerings, make sacrifices: salutation to thee, Maker of the gods: Supporter of the heavens, Founder of the earth.
5 Awake in strength Min(548) Amen: Lord of eternity, Maker everlasting: Lord of adoration, Chief in ...: strong with beautiful horns: Lord of the crown high plumed: of the fair turban (wearing) the white crown: the coronet(549) and the diadem(550) are the ornaments of his face: he is invested with _Ami-ha_: the double crown is his head-gear, (he wears) the red crown: benignly he receives the Atef-crown: on whose south and on whose north is love: the Lord of life receives the sceptre: Lord _of the breastplate_ armed with the whip.
6 Gracious ruler crowned with the white crown: Lord of beams, Maker of light: to whom the gods give praises: who stretches forth his arms at his pleasure: consuming his enemies with flame: whose eye subdues the wicked:(551) sending forth its dart to the roof of the firmament: sending its _arrows_ against Naka to consume him.
7 Hail to thee Rā Lord of truth: whose command the gods were made: Athom Maker of men: supporting their works, giving them life: distinguishing the color of one from another: listening to the poor who is in distress: gentle of heart when one cries unto him.
8 Deliverer of the timid man from the violent: judging the poor, the poor and the oppressed: Lord of wisdom whose precepts are wise: at whose pleasure the Nile overflows: Lord of mercy most loving: at whose coming men live: opener of every eye: proceeding from the firmament: causer of pleasure and light: at whose goodness the gods rejoice: their hearts revive when they see him.
9 O Rā adored in Aptu:(552) high-crowned in the house of the obelisk:(553) King (Ani) Lord of the New-moon festival: to whom the sixth and seventh days are sacred: Sovereign of life health and strength, Lord of all the gods: who art visible in the midst of heaven: ruler of men ...: whose name is hidden from his creatures: in his name which is Amen.(554)
10 Hail to thee who art in tranquillity: Lord of magnanimity strong in apparel: Lord of the crown high plumed: of the beautiful turban, of the tall white crown: the gods love thy presence: when the double crown is set upon thy head: thy love pervades the earth: thy beams _arise_ ... men are cheered by thy rising: the beasts shrink from thy beams: thy love is over the southern heaven: thy heart is not (unmindful of) the northern heaven: thy goodness ... (all) hearts: love subdues (all) hands: thy creations are fair overcoming (all) the earth: (all) hearts are softened at beholding thee.
11 The ONE maker of existences: (creator) of ... maker of beings: from whose eyes mankind proceeded: of whose mouth are the gods: maker of grass for the cattle (oxen, goats, asses, pigs, sheep): fruitful trees for men: causing the fish to live in the river: the birds to fill the air: giving breath to those in the egg: feeding the bird that flies: giving food to the bird that perches: to the creeping thing and the flying thing equally: providing food for the rats in their holes: feeding the flying _things_ in every tree.
12 Hail to thee for all these things: the ONE alone with many hands: lying awake while all men lie (asleep): to seek out the good of his creatures: Amen sustainer of all things: Athom Horus of the horizon:(555) homage to thee in all their voices: salutation to thee for thy mercy unto us: protestations to thee who hast created us.
13 Hail to thee say all creatures: salutation to thee from every land: to the height of heaven, to the breadth of the earth: to the depths of the sea: the gods adore Thy Majesty: the spirits thou hast created exalt (thee): rejoicing before the feet of their begetter: they cry out welcome to thee: father of the fathers of all the gods: who raises the heavens who fixes the earth.
14 Maker of beings, Creator of existences: Sovereign of life, health, and strength, Chief of the gods: we worship thy spirit _who alone_ hast made us: we whom thou hast made (thank thee) that thou hast given us birth: we give to thee praises on account of thy mercy to us.
15 Hail to thee Maker of all beings: Lord of truth father of the gods: Maker of men creator of beasts: Lord of grains: making food for the beast of the field: Amen the beautiful Bull: beloved in Aptu:(556) high crowned in the house of the obelisk:(557) twice turbaned in An: judge of combatants in the great hall: Chief of the great cycle of the gods:
16 The ONE alone without peer: Chief in Aptu: King over his cycle of gods: living in truth forever: (Lord) of the horizon, Horus of the East: he who hath created the soil (with) silver and gold: the precious lapis lazuli at his pleasure: spices and incense various for the peoples: fresh odors for thy nostrils: benignly come to the nations: Amen-Rā Lord of the thrones of the earth: Chief in Aptu: the Sovereign _on his throne_.
17 King alone, _single_ among the gods: of many names, unknown is their number: rising in the eastern horizon setting in the western horizon: overthrowing his enemies: dawning on (his) children daily and every day: Thoth raises his eyes: he delights himself with his blessings: the gods rejoice in his goodness who exalts those _who are lowly_: Lord of the boat and the barge: they conduct thee through the firmament in peace.
18 Thy servants rejoice: beholding the overthrow of the wicked: his limbs pierced with the _sword_ fire consumes him: his soul and body are annihilated.
19 Naka(558) saves _his feet_: the gods rejoice: the servants of the Sun are in peace: An is joyful: the enemies of Athom are overthrown and Aptu is in peace, An is joyful: the giver of life is pleased: at the overthrow of the enemies of her Lord: the gods of Kher-sa make salutations: they of the Adytum prostrate themselves.
20 They behold the mighty one in his strength: the image of the gods of truth the Lord of Aptu; in thy name of Doer of justice: Lord of sacrifices, the Bull of offerings: in thy name of Amen the Bull of his mother: maker of men: causing all things which are to exist: in thy name of Athom Chepra:(559) the great Hawk making (each) body to rejoice: benignly making (each) breast to rejoice: type of creators high crowned: ... (Lord) of the wing: Uati(560) is on his forehead: the hearts of men seek him: when he appears to mortals: he rejoices the earth with his goings forth: Hail to thee Amen-Rā Lord of the thrones of the world: beloved of his city when he shines forth.(561)
Finished well as it was found.(562)
Hymn To Ra-Harmachis
Translated by E. L. Lushington, LL.D., D.C.L.
The hymn to Amen-Rā-Harmachis (the Sun identified with the Supreme Deity), of which a translation is here attempted, is found, with other compositions of a similar nature, among the Berlin papyri. (No. 5, published in Lepsius, “_Denkmäler_,” Abth. vi. Bd. 12, pp. 115-117.)
It probably belongs to the Ramesside period; the writing is careful and for the most part very distinct; some _lacunæ_ are met with toward the end, and in a few passages the characters baffle the present translator’s skill in deciphering.
Citations from this hymn occur not unfrequently in the writings of eminent Egyptian scholars, as Brugsch, Devéria, and others; compare especially Chabas, “_Le Nom de Thèbes_,” p. 16, where the long antithesis of epithets bestowed on Rā and his adversaries is described as “furnishing a page of the Egyptian dictionary.”
As far as I am aware, no complete translation of it was published till the appearance of Professor Maspero’s “_Histoire Ancienne_,” Paris, 1875; where the whole is rendered into French, pp. 32-35. My own translation was made before I had the opportunity of seeing this work; since consulting it I have modified my version of one or two passages in accordance with M. Maspero’s views.
HYMN TO RA-HARMACHIS
Adoration to Rā-Harmachis at the front of the morning.(563) _Say_: Thou wakest beauteous Amen-Rā-Harmachis, thou watchest in triumph, Amen-Rā, Lord of the horizon. O blessed one beaming in splendor, towed by thy mariners who are of the unresting gods, sped by thy mariners of the unmoving gods. Thou comest forth thou ascendest, thou towerest in beauty, thy barge divine careers wherein thou speedest, blest by thy mother Nut each day, heaven embraces thee, thy foes fall as thou turnest thy face to the west of heaven. Counted are thy bones, collected thy limbs, living thy flesh, thy members blossom, thy soul blossoms, glorified is thy august form, advanced thy state on the road of darkness. Thou listenest to the call of thy attendant gods behind thy chamber; in gladness are the mariners of thy bark, their heart delighted, Lord of heaven who hast brought joys to the divine chiefs, the lower sky rejoices, gods and men exult applauding Rā on his standard, blest by his mother Nut; their heart is glad. Rā hath quelled his impious foes, heaven rejoices, earth is in delight, gods and goddesses are in festival to make adoration to Rā-Hor, as they see him rise in his bark. He fells the wicked in his season, the abode is inviolate, the diadem _mehen_ in its place, the _urœs_ hath smitten the wicked.
O let thy mother Nut embrace thee,(564) Lord Rā, those who are with her tell thy glories. Osiris and Nephthys have uplifted thee at thy coming forth from the womb of thy mother Nut. O shine Rā-Harmachis, shine in thy morning as thy noonday brightness, thy cause upheld over thy enemies, thou makest thy cabin speed onward, thou repellest the false one in the moment of his annihilation: he has no rest(565) in the moment when thou breakest the strength of the wicked enemies of Rā, to cast him into the fire of Nehaher,(566) encircling in its hour the children of the profane. No strength have they, Rā prevails over his insensate foes, yea, putting them to the sword thou makest the false one cast up what he devoured.
Arise O Rā from within thy chamber, strong is Rā, weak the foes: lofty is Rā, down-stricken the foes: Rā living, his foes dead: Rā full of meat and drink, his foes ahungered and athirst: Rā bright, his foes engulfed: Rā good, his foes evil: Rā mighty, his foes puny: Rā hath despoiled Apap.
O Rā thou givest all life(567) to the King, thou givest food for his mouth, drink for his throat, sweet-oil for his hair. O blessed Rā-Harmachis thou careerest by him in triumph, those in thy bark exult to quell and overthrow the wicked. Cries of joy in the great seat, the divine cabin is in gladness, acclamation in the bark of millions of years. Rā’s sailors are charmed at heart to see Rā hailed as supreme of the order of great gods, they gain delight in doing adoration to the great bark, homage in the mysterious chamber. O shine Amen-Rā-Harmachis self-sprung, thy sister goddesses stand in Bech,(568) they receive thee, they uplift thee into thy bark, which is perfect in delights before Lord Rā, thou begettest blessings. Come Rā, self-sprung, thou lettest Pharaoh receive plenty in his battlemented house, on the altar of the god whose name is hidden.
Glory to thee, Prince coming forth in thy season, Lord of many faces, diadem producing rays, scattering darkness, all roads are filled with thy splendors, apes make to thee salutations with their arms, they praise thee, they cry aloud to thee, they tell thy glories, their lips exalt thee in heaven, in earth; they conduct thee at thy splendid arising, they open or drive back the gate of the western horizon of heaven, they let Rā be embraced in peace and joy by his mother Nut; thy soul is approved by the tenants of the lower heaven, the divine spirits rejoice at the twofold season of brightness: thou turnest gloom into repose,(569) thou sweetenest pain of Osiris, thou givest breezes in the valley, illuminest earth in darkness, sweetenest pain of Osiris. All beings taste the breath, they make to thee acclamations in thy changes, thou who art Lord of changes, they give adoration to thy might in thy forms of beauty in the morn. Gods hold their arms to thee, those whom thy mother Nut bore.
Come to the King O Rā, stablish his glories in heaven his might on earth.
O Rā heaven rejoices to thee, O Rā earth trembles at thee, O blessed Rā-Harmachis thou hast raised heaven to elevate thy soul, the lower sky has hidden thee in thy mystic forms. Thou hast uplifted heaven to the expanse of thy outstretched arms, thou hast spread out earth to the width of thy stride. Heaven rejoices to thee at thy greatness of soul, thy terror fills earth at thy figure, princely hawk of glittering plume, many colored frame, mighty sailor god, self-existing, traversing paths in the divine vessel, thou roarest in smiting thy foes, making thy great bark sweep on, men hail thee, gods fear thee, thou hast felled thy foes before it. Courier of heaven outstripped by none, to illumine earth for his children, uplifted above gods and men, shining upon us; we know not thy form when thou lookest on our faces, thy bulk passes our knowledge.
O blessed Rā-Harmachis thou penetratest ... Bull at night, Chieftain by day, beauteous orb of _mafek_, King of heaven, Sovran of earth, great image in the horizon of heaven. Rā who hast made beings, Tatanen giving life to mankind, Pharaoh son of Rā has adored thee in thy glories, he has worshipped at thy gracious rising brightness on the Eastern horizon, he makes tranquil thy path, he beats down thy foes before thee in his turning back all thy adversaries, he assigned to thee the _Uta_ on her seat, he makes them ... he assigned to thee honors ... he cleared the way for thee, he established thy rites in Abydos; he opens to thee roads in Rusta, he beats down evil.
The Lamentations Of Isis And Nephthys
Translated by P. J. De Horrack
This papyrus was found by the late Mr. Passalaqua, in the ruins of Thebes, in the interior of a statue representing Osiris. It is divided into two parts, very distinct. The first contains chapters of the funeral ritual in the hieroglyphic writing; the second, of which a translation here follows, consists of five pages of a fine hieratic writing of the lower epoch (probably about the time of the Ptolemies).
This manuscript now belongs to the Royal Museum of Berlin, where it is registered under the No. 1425.
A partial translation of it was published in 1852 by M. H. Brugsch (“_Die Adonisklage und das Linoslied_”). He translated the second page and the beginning of the third, but without giving the hieratic text. I have since published and completely translated this interesting document (“_Les Lamentations d’Isis et de Nephthys_,” Paris, 1866), and now give the English translation revised.
The composition has a great analogy with the “Book of Respirations,” a translation of which will be added here. Both refer to the resurrection and renewed birth of Osiris (the type of man after his death), who, in this quality, is identified with the sun, the diurnal renewal of which constantly recalled the idea of a birth eternally renewed. The object of the prayers recited by Isis and Nephthys is to effect the resurrection of their brother Osiris, and also that of the defunct to whom the papyrus is consecrated.
LAMENTATIONS OF ISIS AND NEPHTHYS
Recital of the beneficial formulæ made by the two divine Sisters(570) in the house of Osiris who resides in the West, Great god, Lord of Abydos, in the month of Choiak, the twenty-fifth day. They are made the same in all the abodes of Osiris, and in all his festivals; and they are beneficial to his soul, giving firmness to his body, diffusing joy through his being, giving breath to the nostrils, to the dryness of the throat; they satisfy the heart of Isis as well as (that) of Nephthys; they place Horus on the throne of his father, (and) give life, stability, tranquillity to Osiris-Tentrut(571) born of Takha-aa, who is surnamed Persais the justified. It is profitable to recite them, in conformity with the divine words.
Evocation By Isis.(572) (She says:)
Come to thine abode, come to thine abode! God An,(573) come to thine abode! Thine enemies (exist) no more. O excellent Sovereign, come to thine abode! Look at me; I am thy sister who loveth thee. Do not stay far from me, O beautiful youth. Come to thine abode _with haste, with haste_. I see thee no more. My heart is full of bitterness on account of thee. Mine eyes seek thee; I seek thee to behold thee. will it be long ere I see thee? Will it be long ere I see thee? (O) excellent Sovereign, will it be long ere I see thee? Beholding thee is happiness; Beholding thee is happiness. (O) god An, beholding thee is happiness. Come to her who loveth thee. Come to her who loveth thee. (O) Un-nefer,(574) the justified. Come to thy sister, come to thy wife. Come to thy sister, come to thy wife. (O) Urt-het,(575) come to thy spouse. I am thy sister by thy mother; do not separate thyself from me. Gods and men (turn) their faces toward thee, weeping together for thee, whenever (they) behold me. I call thee in (my) lamentations (even) to the heights of Heaven, and thou hearest not my voice. I am thy sister who loveth thee on earth; no one else hath loved thee more than I, (thy) sister, (thy) sister.
Evocation By Nephthys. (She says:)
O excellent Sovereign, come to thine abode. Rejoice, all thine enemies are annihilated! Thy two sisters are near to thee, protecting thy funeral bed; calling thee in weeping, thou who art prostrate on thy funeral bed. Thou seest (our) tender solicitude. Speak to us, Supreme Ruler, our Lord. Chase all the anguish which is in our hearts. Thy companions, who are gods and men, when they see thee (exclaim): Ours be thy visage, Supreme Ruler, our Lord; life for us is to behold thy countenance; let not thy face be turned from us; the joy of our hearts is to contemplate thee; (O) Sovereign, our hearts are happy in seeing thee. I am Nephthys, thy sister who loveth thee. Thine enemy is vanquished, he no longer existeth! I am with thee, protecting thy members forever and eternally.
Invocation By Isis.(576) (She says:)
Hail (O) god An! Thou, in the firmament, shinest upon us each day. We no longer cease to behold thy rays. Thoth is a protection for thee. He placeth thy soul in the bark Ma-at, in that name which is thine, of God Moon. I have come to contemplate thee. Thy beauties are in the midst of the Sacred Eye,(577) in that name which is thine, of Lord of the sixth day’s festival. Thy companions are near to thee; they separate themselves no more from thee. Thou hast taken possession of the Heavens, by the grandeur of the terrors which thou inspirest, in that name which is thine, of Lord of the fifteenth day’s festival. Thou dost illuminate us like Rā(578) each day. Thou shinest upon us like Atum.(579) Gods and men live because they behold thee. Thou sheddest thy rays upon us. Thou givest light to the Two Worlds. The horizon is filled by thy passage. Gods and men (turn) their faces toward thee; nothing is injurious to them when thou shinest. Thou dost navigate in the heights (of Heaven) and thine enemy no longer exists! I am thy protection each day. Thou who comest to us as a child each month, we do not cease to contemplate thee. Thine emanation heightens the brilliancy of the stars of Orion in the firmament, by rising and setting each day. I am the divine Sothis(580) behind him. I do not separate myself from him. The glorious emanation which proceedeth from thee giveth life to gods and men, reptiles and quadrupeds. They live by it. Thou comest to us from thy retreat at thy time, to spread the water of thy soul, to distribute the bread of thy being, that the gods may live and men also. Hail to the divine Lord! There is no god like unto thee! Heaven hath thy soul; earth hath thy remains; the lower heaven is in possession of thy mysteries. Thy spouse is a protection for thee. Thy son Horus is the king of the worlds.
Invocation By Nephthys. (She says:)
Excellent Sovereign! come to thine abode! Un-nefer the justified, come to Tattu. O fructifying Bull, come to Anap. Beloved of the Adytum, come to Kha. Come to Tattu, the place which thy soul prefers. The spirits of thy fathers second thee. Thy son, the youth Horus, the child of (thy) two sisters,(581) is before thee. At the dawn of light, I am thy protection each day. I never separate myself from thee. O god An, come to Sais. Sais is thy name. Come to Aper; thou wilt see thy mother Neith.(582) Beautiful Child, do not stay far from her. Come to her nipples; abundance is in them.(583) Excellent Brother, do not stay far from her. O son, come to Sais! Osiris-Tarut, surnamed Nainai, born of Persais the justified, come to Aper, thy city. Thine abode is Tab. Thou reposest (there) by thy divine mother, forever. She protecteth thy members, she disperseth thine enemies, she is the protection of thy members forever. O excellent Sovereign! come to thine abode. Lord of Sais, come to Sais.
Invocation By Isis.(584) (She says:)
Come to thine abode! come to thine abode. Excellent Sovereign, come to thine abode. Come (and) behold thy son Horus as supreme Ruler of gods and men. He hath taken possession of the cities and the districts, by the grandeur of the respect he inspires. Heaven and earth are in awe of him, the barbarians are in fear of him. Thy companions, who are gods and men, have become his, in the _two hemispheres_ to accomplish thy ceremonies. Thy two sisters are near to thee, offering libations to thy person; thy son Horus accomplisheth for thee the funeral offering: of bread, of beverages, of oxen and of geese. Toth chanteth thy festival-songs, invoking thee by his beneficial formulæ. The children of Horus are the protection of thy members, benefiting thy soul each day. Thy son Horus saluteth thy name (in) thy mysterious abode, in presenting thee the things consecrated to thy person. The gods hold vases in their hands to make libations to thy being. Come to thy companions, Supreme Ruler, our Lord! Do not separate thyself from them. When this is recited, the place (where one is) is holy in the extreme. Let it be seen or heard by no one, excepting by the principal _Khereb-heb_(585) and the _Sam_.(586) Two women, beautiful in their members, having been introduced, are made to sit down on the ground at the principal door of the Great Hall.(587) (Then) the names of Isis and Nephthys are inscribed on their shoulders. Crystal vases (full) of water are placed in their right hands; loaves of bread made in Memphis in their left hands. Let them pay attention to the things done at the third hour of the day, and also at the eighth hour of the day. Cease not to recite this book at the hour of the ceremony!
It is finished.
The Litany Of Ra
Translated by Edouard Naville
The following Litany of Rā is the translation of a long text which is to be found at the entrance of several of the largest tombs of the kings, in the valley called Biban el Moluk at Thebes. It is a kind of introduction to the long pictures which adorn the walls of the royal sepulchres, and which generally represent the course of the sun at the different hours of night.
Although very nearly connected with the “Book of the Dead,” this text has not yet been found complete in any funereal papyrus; the second section of the fourth chapter only is contained in a papyrus of the British Museum.
The importance of this text consists in this, that it gives us an idea of the esoteric doctrine of the Egyptian priests, which was clearly pantheistic, and which certainly differed from the polytheistic worship of the common people.
The present translation has been made from the book “_La Litanie du Soleil_” (Leipzig, 1875, _avec un vol. de XLIX planches_), where this text has been first translated in French, with a commentary. Among the different tombs where this inscription was collected, that of Seti I, commonly called Belzoni’s tomb, has been chosen as the standard text.
THE LITANY OF RA
## CHAPTER I
_Title._ The beginning of the book of the worship of Rā in the Ament(588) of the worship of Temt(589) in the Ament. When anyone reads this book, the porcelain figures are placed upon the ground, at the hour of the setting of the Sun, that is of the triumph of Rā over his enemies in the Ament. Whoso is intelligent upon the earth, he is intelligent also after his death.
1 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the master of the hidden spheres who causes the principles to arise, who dwells in darkness, who is born as(590) the all-surrounding universe.
2 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the beetle that folds his wings, that rests in the empyrean, that is born as his own son.
3 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, Tonen(591) who produces his members,(592) who fashions what is in him, who is born within his sphere.
4 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who discloses the earth and lights the Ament, he whose principle has (become) his manifestation, and who is born under the form of the god with the large disk.
5 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the soul that speaks, that rests upon her high place, that creates the hidden intellects which are developed in her.
6 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the only one, the courageous one, who fashions his body, he who calls his gods (to life), when he arrives in his hidden sphere.
7 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who addresses his eye, and who speaks to his head,(593) he who imparts the breath of life to the souls (that are) in their place; they receive it and develop.
8 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the spirit that walks, that destroys its enemies, that sends pain to the rebels.
9 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who shines when he is in his sphere, who sends his darkness into his sphere, and who hides what it contains.
10 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who lights the bodies which are on the horizon, he who enters his sphere.
11 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who descends into the spheres of Ament, his form is that of Tum.
12 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who descends into the mysteries of Anubis, his form is that of Chepra (Atmu).
13 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he whose body is so large that it hides his shape, his form is that of Shu.
14 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who leads Rā into his members, his form is that of Tefnut.
15 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who sends forth the plants in their season, his form is that of Seb.
16 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the great one who rules what is in him, his form is that of Nut.
17 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who goes always toward him who precedes him, his form is that of Isis.
18 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he whose head shines more than he who is before him, his form is that of Nephthys.
19 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the urn(594) of the creatures, the only one, that unites the generative substances, its form is that of Horus.
20 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the brilliant one who shines in the waters of the inundation, his form is that of Nun.
21 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who creates the water which comes from within him, his form is that of Remi.(595)
22 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the two vipers that bear their two feathers, their form is that of the impure one.
23 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who enters and comes forth continually from his highly mysterious cavern, his form is that of At.(596)
24 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the spirit that causes his disappearance, his form is that of Netert.(597)
25 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the spirit that sets up (those whom he has created), that creates(598) his descendants, his form is that of Ntuti.(599)
26 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who raised his head and who lifts his forehead, the ram, the greatest of the creatures.
27 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the light that is in the infernal regions, its form is that of Ament.
28 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the penetrating spirit who is in the Ament, his form is that of Kerti.(600)
29 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the timid one who sheds tears, his form is that of the afflicted.
30 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who raises his hand and who glorifies his eye(601) his form is that of the god with the hidden body.
31 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the spirit who is raised upon the two mysterious horizons, his form is that of Chentament.(602)
32 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power; the god with the numerous shapes in the sacred dwelling, his form is that of the beetle.
33 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who puts his enemies into their prison, his form is that of the lion.
34 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the ray of light in his sarcophagus, its form is that of the progenitor.
35 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the covering of the body, which develops the lungs, its form is that of Teb-ati.(603)
36 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who calls the bodies into the empyrean, and they develop, who destroys their venom, his form is that of the transformer.
37 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the being with the mysterious face, who makes the divine eye move, his form is that of Shai.
38 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the supremely great one who embraces the empyrean, his form is that of the spirit who embraces (space).
39 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who hides his body within himself, his form is that of the god with the hidden body.
40 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who is more courageous than those who surround him, who sends fire into the place of destruction, his form is that of the burning one.
41 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who sends destruction, and who causes the development of his body in the empyrean, his form is that of the inhabitant of the empyrean.
42 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the wonderful one who dwells in his eye,(604) who lights the sarcophagus, his form is that of Shepi.(605)
43 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who unites the substances, who founds(606) Amto, his form is that of one who joins substances.
44 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who invents(607) secret things, and who begets bodies, his form is that of the invisible (progenitor).
45 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who furnishes the inhabitants of the empyrean with funeral things, when he enters the hidden spheres, his form is that of Aperto.(608)
46 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, his members rejoice when they see his body, the blessed spirit who enters into him, his form is that of the joyful one.
47 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the adult who dilates his eyeball, and who fills his eye,(609) his form is that of the adult.
48 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who makes the roads in the empyrean, and who opens pathways in the sarcophagus, his form is that of the god who makes the roads.
49 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the moving spirit who makes his legs stir, his form is that of the moving one.
50 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who sends forth the stars and who makes the night light, in the sphere of the hidden essences, his form is that of the shining one.
51 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who makes the spheres and who creates bodies; from thy person emanating from itself alone, thou hast sent forth, Rā, those who are and those who are not, the dead, the gods, the intellects; his form is that of creator of bodies.
52 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the mysterious, the hidden one, he whom the spirits follow as he conducts them, he gives the step to those surrounding him, his form is that of Ameni.
53 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the horn, the pillar of the Ament, the lock of hair that shines in ...(610) its form is that of the horn.
54 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the eternal essence who penetrates the empyrean, who praises the spirits in their spheres, his form is that of the eternal essence.
55 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, when he arrives in the good Ament, the spirits of the empyrean rejoice at sight of him, his form is that of the old man.
56 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the great lion that creates the gods, that weighs words, the chief of the powers inhabiting the holy sphere, his form is that of the great lion.
57 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, when he speaks to his eye and when he addresses his eyeball, the bodies shed tears; his form is that of the being who speaks to his eye.(611)
58 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who raises his soul, and who hides his body, he shines and he sees his mysteries, his form is that of Herba.(612)
59 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the high spirit who hunts his enemies, who sends fire upon the rebels, his form is that of Kaba.(613)
60 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the substance which hides the intestines and which possesses the mind and the limbs, its form is that of Auai.(614)
61 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the great eldest one who dwells in the empyrean, Chepri who becomes two children, his form is that of the two children.
62 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the great walker who goes over the same course, the spirit who anoints the body, Senekher, his form is that of Senekher.(615)
63 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who creates his body and who detaches his members by the sacred flame of Amto, his form is that of the flame of Amto.(616)
64 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the master of the hooks (who struggles) against his enemies, the only one, the master of the monkeys, his form is that of Anteti.(617)
65 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who sends the flames into his furnaces, he who cuts off the head of those who are in the infernal regions, his form is that of the god of the furnace.
66 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the parent who destroys his children, the only one who names(618) the earth by his intelligence, his form is that of Tonen.
67 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who sets up the _urshi_(619) themselves upon their foundation, no one sees their mysteries, his form is that of the _urshi_.
68 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the vessel of heaven, the door of the empyrean, he who makes the mummy come forth, his form is that of Besi.
69 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the monkey ...(620) the being in his nature, his form is that of the monkey of the empyrean.
70 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who opens the earth and who shows the interior of it, the speaking spirit who names his members, his form is that of Smato.(621)
71 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, he who is armed with teeth, who consumes his enemies, the flame that lights the wick, his form is that of Nehi.(622)
72 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the walker, the moving luminary, who makes darkness come after his light, his form is that of the walker.
73 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the master of souls who is in his obelisk, the chief of the confined gods, his form is that of the master of souls.
74 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the double luminary, the double obelisk, the great god who raises his two eyes, his form is that of the double luminary.
75 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, the master of the light, who reveals hidden things, the spirit who speaks to the gods in their spheres, his form is that of the master of the light.
76 Homage to thee, Rā! Supreme power, O Rā of the sphere, O Rā who speakest to the spheres, O Rā who art in thy sphere, homage to thee, Rā Keschi, four times. They sing praises to the spirit Keschi,(623) the spheres honor his spirit, they glorify thy body which is in thee, saying, Homage to thee, great Keschi! four times. They sing praises in thy honor, spirit Keschi in thy seventy-five forms which are in thy seventy-five spheres. The royal Osiris knows them by their names, he knows what is in their bodies, all their hidden essences. The royal Osiris speaks to them in their forms, they open to the royal Osiris, they display the hidden doors to his spirit which is like thy spirit, thou createst them, thou createst the royal Osiris; the development of his body is like thine because the royal Osiris is one of thy companions, who are in their spheres, and who speak in their caverns, those who are blessed through thy creation and who transform themselves when thou commandest it. The royal Osiris is like one of those who speak in their hidden spheres. Ha! he has arrived, he advances in the train of the spirit of Rā. Ha! he has completed the journey from Chepri.(624) Hail! he has arrived. The royal Osiris knows all that concerns the hidden beings. Hail! he has arrived in the midst of you; homage to his spirit Keschi! four times.
77 O Rā of the Ament, who hast created the earth, who lightest the gods of the empyrean, Rā who art in thy disk, guide him on the road to the Ament, that he may reach the hidden spirits; guide him on the road which belongs to him, guide him on the Western road; that he may traverse the sphere of Ament, guide him on the road to the Ament, that the King may worship those who are in the hidden dwelling, guide him on the road to the Ament, make him descend to the sphere of Nun. Hail, Rā! the royal Osiris is Nun. Hail Rā! the royal Osiris is thyself and reciprocally. Hail, Rā! thy spirit is that of Osiris, thy course is his in the empyrean. Hail, Rā! he dwells in the empyrean, he traverses the good Ament. Such as thou art, such is the royal Osiris. Thy intellect, Rā, is his. Osiris worships the hidden gods, he praises their spirits, these latter say to one another that thy course (Rā!) is that of Osiris, that thy way is his, great god who dwellest in the empyrean. Hail! god of the disk with the brilliant rays, praise be to the spirit Keschi! four times.
78 Hail to thee, universal covering, who createst thy soul and who makest thy body grow; the King traverses the most secret sphere, he explores the mysteries contained in it. The King speaks to thee like Rā, he praises thee with his intelligence, the King is like the god; and reciprocally. He moves by himself, he moves by himself. The all surrounding universe says: Ah, guide him unto the interior of my sphere; four times.
79 This chapter is said to the most mysterious god, these words are written like those upon the two sides of the door of the empyrean ...(625) this book is read every day, when he has retired in life, according to custom, perfectly.
## CHAPTER II
1 Worship of the Spheric Gods, when Rā sets in life. Hail, gods of the spheres, gods who are in the Ament, perfect gods ...(626) the enemies of Rā, you make the universal covering(627) grow ...(628) you worship the god who is in his disk ...(629) thou commandest thy enemies, great god who art upon the horizon; four times. Thou commandest thy enemies, Osiris Temt; four times.
2 The royal Osiris commands his enemies in heaven and upon earth, by authority of all the gods and all the goddesses, by authority of Osiris Chentament, because the royal Osiris is Rā himself, the great inhabitant of the heavens, he speaks in the presence of Ament. The King governs by favor of the great powers. The royal Osiris is pure, what is in him is pure, the royal Osiris governs the two worlds, the royal Osiris commands his enemies; four times.
3 He is powerful, Rā in the empyrean, he is powerful, Rā in the empyrean. He traverses the empyrean with joy, for he has struck Apap;(630) there is joy for thee, god of the horizon, Osiris, King of the Ament, there is joy for thy triumphant spirit, for thou destroyest his enemies; thou art delighted, Tesherti, red spirit who openest the Ament. Thou givest thy hand to Osiris, thou art received in the good Ament, and the gods rejoice over thee. Osiris gives thee his hand, thou art received by Chentament. He is brilliant, the spirit of Rā in the empyrean, he is brilliant, the body of Teb Temt. Rā commands in the empyrean, because he has struck Apap. Teb Temt commands; he worships the spirit of the two horizons; the spirit of the two horizons worships him.
4 The royal Osiris receives dominion over his enemies from the great powers of the mysterious avenger, he who reveals the mysterious empyrean, who dissipates the darkness, who chases away the rain, he who hurries, and who makes the blessed servants of Rā come forth. He(631) sees the body of the god when he assumes forms with a mysterious name, when he sheds his rays in obscurity, and when he hides the uncovered bodies; when he traverses the mysterious spheres and when he gives eyes to their gods; they themselves see him, and their spirits are blessed.
5 Hail, Rā! give eyes to the royal Osiris, give him divine eyeballs, and may they guide the royal Osiris. Hail, Rā! give a heart to the royal Osiris; he traverses the earth, he traverses the world like Rā.
6 Thou takest care that what thou commandest to exist, exists; thou rulest the royal Osiris like Chuti(632) and the King honors thy spirit, he glorifies thee.
7 Thou commandest Osiris to be like Khuti, the brilliant triangle which appears in the shining place.
8 Thou commandest Osiris to be like the mysterious spirit which comes forth from the mysterious place.
9 Thou commandest Osiris to be like the blessed spirit which comes forth from the blessed place.
10 Thou commandest Osiris to be like the destructive spirit which comes forth from the place of destruction.
11 Thou commandest Osiris to be like the revealing spirit which comes forth from the opening.
12 Thou commandest Osiris to be like the elevated spirit which comes forth from the high place.
13 Thou commandest Osiris to be like the hidden spirit which comes forth from the Ament.
14 Deliver him from the crocodiles which frighten the spirits, like geese; let them not do their work upon the royal Osiris, in the presence of the gods armed with swords; may Osiris never fall into their furnaces, may their nets never entangle him; his spirit flies away and soars into the heavens, his spirit returns and enters into the empyrean, because the royal Osiris knows the mysteries which are in the empyrean, the secret forms of Osiris, that none of his servants know, in the secret of his hidden dwelling. Hail! the royal Osiris knows thy form, great and mysterious god.
15 Deliver the royal Osiris from the agile demons furnished with legs, from the cruel gods who pluck out hearts and who throw them into their furnaces. May they never do their work upon the royal Osiris, may they never put him in their furnaces, because Osiris is Rā; and reciprocally. His soul is that which is in the disk. His body is in the middle of the hidden gods; they make Osiris rule, Osiris makes them rule; he commands, and he rests as you rest in the Ament.
16 The soul of Rā shines in his shape, his body rests amid the invocations which are addressed to him; he enters into the interior of his white disk, he lights the empyrean with his rays, he creates it, he makes the souls remain in their bodies, they praise him from the height of their pedestal. He receives the acclamations of all the gods who open the doors, the hidden essences who prepare the way for Rā’s soul, and who allow the King of souls access to the fields. He traverses his disk himself; he calls (to life) the body of Kat;(633) he places the gods of the stars upon their legs; these latter make the god An(634) come at their hours; the two sisters join themselves to him, they decorate his head, as a spirit worthy of adornment.
17 O, Rā, place the royal Osiris in thy train; he is the divine key which opens his haunts, he knows admirable means of obtaining the great victory over his enemies; Osiris is powerful through thy two eyes; walking god, the course of Osiris is thy course. Rā, the journeys of Osiris are thy journeys, Osiris makes thee rule over thy enemies, thou makest Osiris rule over his enemies, by means of the great splendor which is the splendor of Rā in the empyrean, they cry to him: Bull of the country of the dead, thou art Rā, thy body rests in peace, thou art blessed in thy mysteries.
## CHAPTER III
1 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. Highly glorious Teb Temt.
2 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. Thou makest thy soul young again and thou givest birth to thy body.
3 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. Lead him into the holy dwelling.
4 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. Guide him on the good ways.
5 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. Guide him on the roads of Nun.
6 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. Guide him on the roads of Nut.
7 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. He restores the body of Osiris.
8 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. He places the corpse upon its foundation, in its place that no one knows.
9 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. He calls his body Osiris.
10 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. He sees him who is in the sarcophagus.
11 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. The rays of Aten(635) are upon his person.
12 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. He has taken the good ways.
13 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. He worships thy soul upon the horizon.
14 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. Thou speakest to him as to the god who is upon the ground.
15 O, Rā, come to the King! truly. He is one of thy Nine Gods.
## CHAPTER IV
_Section I_
1 Thou art what he is, Rā, thou givest birth to the royal Osiris, thou makest him exist like thyself, god of the two horizons; the birth of Osiris is the birth of Rā in the Ament, and reciprocally; the birth of Osiris in the heavens is the birth of the soul of Rā in the heavens, and reciprocally; the life of Osiris is the life of Rā, and reciprocally; the development of his body is the development of Rā’s body. Rā conceived, Tum gave birth to Osiris; it is the young Chepra; Nut brings Osiris into the world, she nourishes Osiris, like Rā’s soul which issued from her.
2 O, Rā who art in the Ament ...(636) who art in the empyrean, deliver Osiris from thy conductors who separate souls from their bodies, the agile beings who move quickly in thy places of torment. May they never seize Osiris, may they never take him, may they never quicken their steps toward him, may they never put him in their places of torture, may they never cast their toils round him, may they never place him upon their altars, may he never tremble in the land of the condemned, may he never be lost in the Ament. He walks as the god of the horizon walks, he takes Rā’s steps, he worships the god who is on the earth, he honors the mysterious bodies ...(637) they say to Osiris: Hu and Sa; they call him this, because he is like the spirit of Hu and Sa(638) in his creations; he makes the sacred tree grow he is not ignorant of it. There are cries of joy in the mysterious region, for Rā sets under the form of Osiris, and reciprocally. Rejoice, you the dead, render praises to Rā, and Rā renders praises to you. Rā comes forth from the cow Mehur,(639) he sets in Netur;(640) Osiris comes forth from Nehur like the sun, he sets in Netur like Temt. The name of the King is the name of Rā, Ammehur,(641) the setting of Osiris, it is his setting, Amnetur.(642)
3 The gods of the empyrean bless him, the hidden gods rejoice over him; they say to him: thy person is the god of the country of the dead, thy form is Teb Temt. The hidden gods speak to the royal Osiris, they rejoice on seeing him; (they say to him:) Hail, blessed and perfect one, who comest forth from Tonen, the god who destroys the forms; it is great, thy essence, spirit, shadow that no one destroys, that lives where you live. He knows the essences of the primitive beings, he knows the mysterious flames of the empyrean, for he attains to holy and mysterious things.
4 The two gods speak to the royal Osiris, they rejoice on seeing him, this blessed, perfect spirit; (they say to him:) This is one of us. The gods speak to the royal Osiris, they rejoice when they see him, him, the splendor of Rā, the splendor of the two goddesses that appears in Heset,(643) the supplicant Heset addresses the guardians who watch over the doors, who devour souls and who swallow the shades of the dead; when they approach them, they are led by them to the place of destruction: O guardians who watch over your doors, who swallow souls and devour the shades of the dead; when they approach you, you lead them to the place of destruction; Oh! allow this blessed this most holy spirit, to be in the dwelling of the Akher;(644) it is a spirit like Rā glorious like Osiris. This is what Heset the supplicant says before the royal Osiris.
5 O Heset, make him come, O Heset, guide the royal Osiris, O Heset open to him the empyrean, give him the lot of the god of the empyrean; he puts the veil _nems_(645) upon his head at the bottom of the dwelling of the Ament. Hail to thee, he has reached thee; Heset, guide him on the good way, he speaks to thee, he glorifies thee by his invocations, and thou rejoicest on seeing his spirit; Heset, the supplicant, open the doors which are in the empyrean, open his spheres to him, for the club is in the hand of Osiris, and he grasps his lance; his club strikes the enemies, and his lance destroys the rebels; his dwelling is that of the god of the two horizons; his throne is Rā’s throne; for he is the Horus of the two horizons.(646) He is beautiful, this spirit, he is perfect, he is powerful in both his hands.
6 The two great gods speak to the royal Osiris; they rejoice on his account; they celebrate his victorious strength, they give him their protection, they send him their spirit of life; (they say to him:) He is brilliant like the spirit of the horizon that is the dwelling of Rā in the heavens;(647) they communicate their words to him, they give him the power by their authority. He opens the door of heaven and earth like his father Rā; a spirit shining in the place where they burn the offerings, in the arms of Osiris. The royal Osiris rests in the mysterious dwelling, he shines like the god of the luminary, the dwelling of Rā of the horizon.(648) The royal Osiris is Rā; and reciprocally, he is the spirit of Osiris, he rests (in him).
7 He reaches the gods of the pyramid; these latter praise him on seeing the happy arrival of Osiris; they address him as Rā of the horizon; praise be to Rā! cheers for the spirit of the horizon, praises to the spirit of Rā! Praise his spirit that inhabits the empyrean, invoke him who is in his disk, bear him to him who created you, carry him unto the pyramid, since you are the gods who accompany Rā Osiris. Here is Osiris, carry him into the hidden sanctuary of Osiris, the lord of years(649) who is under the care of the two Rehti. Carry him into the hidden dwelling where Osiris resides, carry him into the funeral monument which is in the Ament, the mysterious sanctuary of the god who is at rest; bear him, open your arms to him, stretch out your hands to him, take off your veils before him, for he is the great essence whom the dead spirits do not know; it is Rā, the god of the two horizons, and Osiris, the King of the Ament, who send him.
8 The royal Osiris is one of you, for his diadem is a vulture; his face is a sparrow-hawk, his head is Rā; his eyes are the Rehti, the two sisters; his nose is Horus of the empyrean; his mouth is the King of the Ament; his lungs are Nun; his two hands are the god Secheni;(650) his fingers are the gods who seize him; his body is Chepra; his heart is Horus, the creator; his chest is the goddess of life; his spleen is the god Fenti;(651) his lungs are the goddess Heti; his stomach is Apu; his intestines, the god with the mysterious names;(652) his back is the corpse-god; his elbows are Makati; the nape of his neck, Horus Thoth; his lips Mehur; his phallus is Tonen;(653) ...(654) the goddess of Cher; ...(655) the two hidden gods; his sitting posture the two goddesses; his legs, he who traverses the hidden places; his shin-bones are _uræus_. His members are gods, he is throughout a god, no one of his members is without a god, the gods are of his substance. The royal Osiris is an intelligent essence, his members guide him, his flesh opens the way to him, those who are born of him create him, they rest when they have given birth to him. The royal Osiris is he who gives them birth, it is he who begets them, it is he who makes them exist; his birth is that of Rā in the Ament, Rā gives birth to the royal Osiris, he causes his own birth.
_Section II_
1 O Rā, open to his spirit, for the royal Osiris knows what there is in the empyrean, he is the great mummy, Osiris, the King of the Ament; he is Osiris, he is perfect like Osiris, he is blessed like Osiris, his club is that of Osiris, his sword is that of Chentament, his sceptre is that of Sahou, he is the great one, the King of the blessed, for he is the original one, he who knows the mysteries, the greatest of the holy ones in the empyrean. He is happy, the spirit Keschi who makes his own law in the Ament, he speaks to what is born of him,(656) Osiris Chentament.
2 Hail to thee, inhabitant of the empyrean, praised be what is in thee; hail to thee, inhabitant of the empyrean, the weeping gods cut their hair in honor of thee, they clap their hands, they revere thee, they weep before thee, thy spirit rejoices in their fear, thy body is blessed.
3 Hail to thee, inhabitant of the empyrean, god seated upon his throne, who boldest the sceptre _hik_,(657) King of the empyrean, Prince of the Aker, great Prince crowned with the _urer_,(658) great god who hides his dwelling, Lord of wisdom, Chief of the powers.
4 Hail to the inhabitant of the empyrean, thy son Horus rests in thee, thou communicatest thy orders to him, thou permittest him to shine like An of the empyrean, the great star who creates his names,(659) who knows the empyrean and who traverses the interior of it, he, the son of Rā, proceeding from Tum. The royal Osiris is thy son, thou communicatest thy orders to him, thou permittest him to shine like An of the heavens, the great star who creates his names,(660) who knows the empyrean and who traverses the interior of it, he the son of Rā, proceeding from Tum. He rests in the empyrean, he rejoices in the dusk, he enters in there and comes forth, the arms of Tonen receive him, the blessed lift him, they stretch out their hands toward him, the ...(661) guide him. Praise him ye blessed, exalt the royal Osiris, ye blessed! Rejoice over him, as over Rā, extol him like Osiris, he has placed your offerings before you, he accords you the favor of receiving your portion as his father Rā commanded. He is his darling, he is his descendant upon the earth, and the blessed show him the way. Let him arrive in the empyrean, and let him penetrate into the good Ament. The royal Osiris fixes the crown upon the head of Osiris, he offers his casket to Seb, he presents Sah with the sceptre, he gives the royal diadem to him whose name is Ammon.
5 Look at him, ye blessed, let him receive a perfect intelligence, let him shine like the god of mysteries, deliver him from the gods of the pillory who fasten to their posts. May they never bind Osiris to their posts, may they never put him in the place of destruction, for he is the descendant of Osiris who permits him to receive the diadem in the empyrean.
6 He is sublime, the spirit of Rā in the Ament, his body is blessed there, the spirits rejoice when they develop their forms in the zones of the empyrean, before the soul of Rā, the inhabitant of the empyrean, and Teb Temt who rests in his covering. Hail, yes, hail! Hail spirit of Rā, hail, spirit of the royal Osiris like Temt! Hail, royal Osiris who art Rā, and reciprocally! O Temt who art Rā, and reciprocally, hail!
7 The royal Osiris is one of you. He gives birth to you, he gives you your names, he makes you perfect; ha! he sends his body into you; ha! he is your creator. Look at him, he shines like him who proceeds from you; he honors his father, perfect, blessed, blessing his mother; look at him, make his essence sublime and make him like him who destroys his forms;(662) show the way to his spirit, set him upon your pedestals, make him rest in his members, show him his dwelling in the midst of the earth, open your doors to him, unfasten the bolt.
8 O Rā, O Teb-Temt, guide the royal Osiris following the direction of the spirits, following the course of the gods. The royal Osiris is in his gateway (in presence of the) navigating gods; the royal Osiris is the only one, the guardian of his doors, he who puts the gods in their places. He is upon his pedestal in the empyrean, he is the possessor in the midst of the possessors, he is at the extremities of the empyrean, he is blessed in the infernal regions. He rests in the Ament among the spirits who are in the members of the Ament. The royal Osiris is Rā’s darling, he is the mysterious phœnix, he enters in peace into the empyrean, he leaves Nut in peace; the royal Osiris has his throne in heaven, he traverses the horizons in Rā’s train, he is at peace in the heavens, in Rā’s fields, his share is upon the horizon in the fields of Aalu; he traverses the earth like Rā, he is wise like Thoth, he walks at will, he hastens in his course, like Sahu with the mysterious names, who becomes two divinities. The royal Osiris becomes two divinities. What Rā produces, the royal Osiris produces; he gives a spiritual existence to what he loves; he does not give it to what he hates. The royal Osiris is the Chief of the gods who make offerings to the spirits, he is powerful in his course, he is the courageous being who strikes his enemies.
9 O ye gods, O ye blessed who precede Rā and who escort his spirit, do to the royal Osiris as to Rā, tow him with you in the same way that you conduct Rā and the two navigating gods in the heavens; the royal Osiris is Rā himself, and reciprocally; he is the Chief of his worshippers who gives life to the forms.
_Section III_
1 O Ament, O Ament, O good, O good, O strong, O strong, O powerful, O powerful, O protecting, O protecting, O mysterious, O mysterious (Ament), the royal Osiris knows thee, he knows thy form, he knows the name of thy companions. Ament, hide my corpse, good Ament, hide my body. O resting-place, let me rest in thee; O strong one, may the royal Osiris be strong with thy strength; O powerful one, may he be powerful with thy power! O Ament, open thy arms to him; O protectress, cover his body; O mysterious being, stretch out thy hand to him. Hail, holy Ament of Osiris with the mysterious names, the most holy of the gods, thou who art the most hidden of all mysteries. Hail! the royal Osiris worships thee; he addresses the great god who is within thee. Hail! he worships thee; open thy mysterious doors to him. Hail! he worships thee; (open to him) thy hidden spheres, for he has his dwelling in the heavens like Rā, and his throne is upon the earth like Seb; he is seated upon the throne of Seb, upon the seats of Horchuti; his spirit soars into the heavens, it rests there; his body descends to the earth in the midst of the gods. He walks with Rā, he follows Tum, he is like Chepra, he lives as thou livest in truth.
2 When this book is read he who reads it purifies himself at the hour when Rā sets, who rests in the Ament of the Ament, when Rā is in the midst of hidden things, completely.
The Book Of Respirations
Translated by P. J. De Horrack
The manuscript a translation of which here follows belongs to the Museum of the Louvre, in Paris, where it is registered under the No. 3284 (_Devéria, Catalogue des MS. égypt._, p. 132). It probably dates from the epoch of the Ptolemies. It is in hieratic writing and generally known by the name of “Book of Respirations” or “Book of the Breaths of Life,” according to Mr. Le Page Renouf’s ingenious interpretation. This book seems to have been deposited exclusively with the mummies of the priests and priestesses of the god Ammon-Rā, if we may judge from the titles inserted into the manuscripts.
Dr. Brugsch, in 1851, first directed the attention of Egyptologists to this curious work, by publishing a transcription in hieroglyphics of a hieratic text in the Berlin Museum, with a Latin translation, under the title of “_Shaï an Sinsin, sive liber Metempsychosis_,” etc. He added to this a copy of a hieratic text of the same book found in Denon (“_Voyage en Egypte_,” pl. 136).
A full analysis of this literary composition has also been given by Dr. Samuel Birch, in his Introduction to the “_Rhind Papyri_,” London, 1863.
The Paris manuscript is as yet unpublished, but a copy of it will be produced ere long by the present translator. A few passages corrupted by the ancient scribe have been restored from copies of the same text, which are in the Egyptian Museum of the Louvre.
The “Book of Respirations” has a great analogy with that of the “Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys.” It not only makes allusion to the _formulæ_ and acts by means of which the resurrection is effected, but also treats of the life after death, thus greatly increasing our knowledge of the religious system of the ancient Egyptians.
THE BOOK OF RESPIRATIONS
1 Commencement of the Book of Respirations made by Isis for her brother Osiris, to give life to his soul, to give life to his body, to rejuvenate all his members anew; that he may reach the horizon with his father, the Sun; that his soul may rise to Heaven in the disk of the Moon; that his body may shine in the stars of Orion on the bosom of Nu-t;(663) in order that this may also happen to the Osiris, divine Father, Prophet of Ammon-Ra, King of the gods, Prophet of Khem, of Ammon-Ra, bull of his mother, in his great abode, Asar-aau, justified, Son of the Prophet of the same order, Nes-paut-ta-ti, justified, Conceal (it), conceal (it)! Let it not be read by anyone. It is profitable to the person who is in the divine Nether-World. He liveth in reality millions of times anew.
2 Words spoken: Hail to the Osiris N!(664) thou art pure; thy heart is pure, thy fore-part is purified, thy hind-part is cleansed, thy middle is in _Bat_(665) and natron. No member in thee is faulty. The Osiris N is (made) pure by the lotions from the Fields of Peace, at the North of the Fields of Sanehem-u.(666) The goddesses Uati (and) Suben have purified thee at the eighth hour of the night and at the eighth hour of the day. Come Osiris N! Thou dost enter the Hall of the Two Goddesses of Truth. Thou art purified of all sin, of all crime. Stone of Truth is thy name.
3 Hail to the Osiris N! Thou, being very pure, dost enter the Lower Heaven. The Two goddesses of Justice have purified thee in the Great Hall. A purification hath been made to thee in the Hall of Seb. Thy members have been purified in the Hall of Shu.(667) Thou seest Rā in his setting, (as) Atum(668) in the evening. Ammon is near to thee, to give thee breath, Ptah, to form thy members. Thou dost enter the horizon with the Sun. Thy soul is received in the bark Neshem(669) with Osiris. Thy soul is divinized in the Hall of Seb. Thou art justified forever and ever.
4 Hail to the Osiris N! Thine individuality is permanent. Thy body is durable. Thy mummy doth germinate. Thou art not repulsed from heaven, (neither from) earth. Thy face is illuminated near the Sun. Thy soul liveth near to Ammon. Thy body is rejuvenated near to Osiris. Thou dost breathe forever and ever.
5 Thy soul maketh thee offerings, each day, of bread, of drinks, of oxen, of geese, of fresh water, of condiments. Thou comest to justify it. Thy flesh is on thy bones, like unto thy form on earth. Thou dost imbibe into thy body. Thou eatest with thy mouth. Thou receivest bread, with the souls of the gods. Anubis doth guard thee. He is thy protection. Thou art not repulsed from the gates of the Lower Heaven. Thoth, the doubly great, the Lord of Sesennu, cometh to thee. He writeth for thee the Book of Respirations, with his own fingers. Thy soul doth breathe forever and ever. Thou dost renew thy form on earth, among the living. Thou art divinized with the souls of the gods. Thy heart is the heart of Rā Thy members are the members of the great god.(670) Thou livest forever and ever.
6 Hail to the Osiris N! Ammon is with thee each day to render thee life. Apheru openeth to thee the right way. Thou seest with thine eyes; thou hearest with thine ears; thou speakest with thy mouth; thou walkest with thy legs. Thy soul is divinized in Heaven, to make all the transformations it desireth. Thou makest the joy of the sacred _Persea_ in An. Thou awakenest each day. Thou seest the rays of Rā. Ammon cometh to thee with the breath of life. He granteth to thee to breathe in thy coffin. Thou comest on earth each day, the Book of Respirations of Thoth being thy protection. Thou breathest by it each day. Thine eyes behold the rays of the disk. Truth is spoken to thee before Osiris. The _formulæ_ of justification are on thy body. Horus, the defender of his father, protecteth thy body. He divinizeth thy soul as well as (those) of all the gods. The soul of Rā giveth life to thy soul. The soul of Shu filleth thy respiratory organs with soft breath.(671)
7 Hail to the Osiris N! Thy soul doth breathe in the place thou lovest. Thou art in the dwelling of Osiris, who resideth in the West. Thy person is most pure. Thou dost arrive in Abydos. He (Osiris) filleth thy dwelling Hotep with provisions.
8 Hail to the Osiris N! The gods of all Egypt come to thee. Thou art guided toward the end of centuries. Thy soul liveth. Thou dost follow Osiris. Thou breathest in Rusta. Secret care is taken of thee by the Lord of Sati(672) and by the great god.(673) Thy body liveth in Tattu (and in) Nifur. Thy soul liveth in Heaven forever.
9 Hail to the Osiris N! Sechet prevaileth against what is injurious to thee. Har-aa-hetu taketh care of thee. Har-shet doth form thy heart. Har-maa doth guard thy body. Thou continuest in life, health (and) strength. Thou art established upon thy throne in Ta-ser. Come, Osiris N! Thou appearest in thy form. Strengthened by thine ornaments(674) thou art prepared for life. Thou remainest in a healthful state; thou walkest, thou breathest everywhere.(675) The Sun doth rise upon thine abode. Like unto Osiris, thou breathest, thou livest by his rays. Ammon-Ra giveth life to thee. He doth enlighten thee by the Book of Respirations. Thou dost follow Osiris and Horus, Lord of the sacred bark. Thou art as the greatest of the gods among the gods. Thy beautiful face liveth (in) thy children. Thy name doth always prosper. Come to the great temple in Tattu. Thou wilt see him who resideth in the West, in the Ka-festival. Delicious is thy perfume as that of the blessed; great thy name among the elect.
10 Hail to the Osiris N! Thy soul liveth by the Book of Respirations. Thou unitest thyself to the Book of Respirations. Thou dost enter the Lower Heaven; thine enemies are not (there). Thou art a divine soul in Tattu.(676) Thy heart is thine; it is (no longer) separated from thee. Thine eyes are thine; they open each day. 11_a_ Words spoken by the gods who accompany Osiris, to the Osiris N: Thou dost follow Ra. Thou dost follow Osiris. Thy soul livest forever and ever.
11_b_ Words spoken by the gods who dwell in the Lower Heaven (like) Osiris of the West, to the Osiris N: Let them open to him at the gates of the Lower Heaven. _He is received_(677) in the divine Nether-World, that his soul may live forever. He buildeth a dwelling in the divine Nether-World. He is rewarded.(678) He hath received the Book of Respirations, that he may breathe.
12 Royal offering to Osiris who resideth in the West, great god, Lord of Abydos, that he may give offerings of bread, of _hak_, of oxen, of geese, of wine, of the liquor _aket_, of bread _Hotep_, of good provisions of all kinds, to the Osiris N. Thy soul liveth. Thy body doth germinate, by order of Rā himself, without pain, without injury, like unto Ra forever and ever.
13 O Strider, coming out of An,(679) the Osiris N hath not committed any sin. O Mighty of the Moment, coming out of Kerau, the Osiris N hath not done any evil. O Nostril, coming out of Sesennu,(680) the Osiris N hath not been exacting. O Devourer of the Eye, coming out of Kerti, the Osiris N hath not obtained anything by theft. O Impure of visage, coming out of Rusta, the Osiris N hath not been angry. O Lion-gods, coming forth from heaven, the Osiris N hath not committed any sin by reason of hardness of heart(?) O Fiery-Eyed, coming out of Sechem, the Osiris N hath not been weak.
14 O ye gods who dwell in the Lower Heaven, hearken unto the voice of Osiris N. He is near unto you. There is no fault in him. No informer riseth up against him. He liveth in the truth. He doth nourish himself with truth. The gods are satisfied with all that he hath done. He hath given food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked. He hath given the sacred food to the gods, The funeral repasts to the pure Spirits. No complaint hath been made against him before any of the gods. Let him enter (then) into the Lower Heaven without being repulsed. Let him follow Osiris, with the gods of Kerti. He is favored among the faithful,(681) (and) divinized among the perfected. Let him live! Let his soul live! His soul is received wherever it willeth. (He) hath received the Book of Respirations, that he may breathe with his soul, (with) that of the Lower Heaven, and that he may make any transformation at his will, like (the inhabitants) of the West;(682) that his soul may go wherever it desireth, living on the earth forever and ever.
He is towed (like) Osiris into the Great Pool of Khons. When he has retaken possession of his heart(683) the Book of Respirations is concealed in (the coffin). It is (covered) with writing upon Suten, both inside and outside (and) placed underneath his left arm, evenly with his heart;... When the Book has been made for him then he breathes with the souls of the gods forever and ever.(684)
It is finished.
THE EPIC OF PENTA-OUR
Translated by C. W. Goodwin, M.A.
The commencement of the epic of Penta-our is wanting in the papyrus, and the end is also defective, but the date of the composition and the name of the writer have fortunately escaped. It appears to have been written in the ninth year of the King whose valor it celebrates. Champollion saw this papyrus, and had formed some notion of the nature of its contents, but to M. de Rougé belongs the honor of having first given a complete translation of it. This was published in the “_Revue Contemporaine_,” 1856, p. 389. The scene of the exploit lies in the neighborhood of the city of Katesh,(685) the capital of the Hittites, which stood on the banks of a river named Anrata (or Aranta, as it is sometimes written), perhaps the Syrian Orontes. It appears, from the sculptures and inscriptions of Ibsamboul and the Theban Ramesseum, that Rameses II, in the fifth year of his reign, made an expedition into Asia to suppress a revolt of the Asiatic tribes headed by the Prince of Heth. Arrived near Katesh, upon the south side of the city, certain wandering Arabs came to inform him that the forces of the Hittites had retired toward the south, to the land of the Khirbou. These Arabs were, however, in the service of the enemy, and were sent with the intention of entrapping the Egyptians, the fact being that the Hittites and their allies were assembled in force to the north of the town. Rameses fell into the trap, and advanced to the northwest of Katesh while the body of his army proceeded to the south. Shortly after two Hittite spies were caught and brought to the King, and under the pressure of the bastonnade, confessed the true state of the affair. The prince of the Hittites had in the meantime executed a movement to the south of the city, and thus the King was cut off from the body of his troops, and only escaped destruction by the dashing exploit which his admiring subjects seem to have been never weary of commemorating, and which furnished Penta-our, the court poet, with a brilliant theme. A few extracts from the recital shall be given, based upon M. de Rougé’s version, from which I venture in a few respects to deviate. The papyrus begins in the middle of a sentence, at the moment when the King had discovered his mistake.
“[The Prince of] Heth advanced with men and horses well armed [or full of provender?]: there were three men to each chariot.(686) There were gathered together all the swiftest men of the land of the vile Hittites, all furnished with arms ... and waited stealthily to the northwest of the fortress of Katesh. Then they fell upon the bowmen of Pharaoh, into the middle of them, as they marched along and did not expect a battle. The bowmen and the horsemen of his Majesty gave way before them. Behold they were near to Katesh, on the west bank of the river Anrata. Then was [fulfilled?] the saying of his Majesty. Then his Majesty, rising up like the god Mentou [Mars], undertook to lead on the attack. He seized his arms—he was like Bar [Baal] in his hour. The great horse which drew his Majesty his name was Nekhtou-em-Djom, of the stud of Rameses-Meiamen ... His Majesty halted when he came up to the enemy, the vile Hittites. He was alone by himself—there was no other with him in this sortie. His Majesty looked behind him and saw that he was intercepted by 2,500 horsemen in the way he had to go, by all the fleetest men of the prince of the base Hittites, and of many lands which were with him—of Artou [Aradus], of Maausou, of Patasa, of Kashkash, of Aroun, of Kadjawatana, of Khirbou, of Aktra, Katesh, and Raka. There were three men to each chariot, they were ... but there were neither captains, nor squires, nor leaders of bowmen, nor skirmishers [with the King], ‘My archers and my horsemen forsook me, not one of them remained to fight with me.’ Then said his Majesty, ‘Where art thou now, my father Amen? Behold, does a father forget his son? But do I confide in my own strength? Walking or standing, is not my face toward thee? Do I not inquire the counsels of thy mouth? Do I not seek for thy mighty counsels, O thou great lord of Egypt, at whose approach the oppressors of the land are scattered? What now is the hope of these Aamou? Amen shall abase those who know not god. Have I not made for thee many and great buildings of stone? have I not filled thy temple with my spoils, building for thee a temple to last myriads of years? ... The whole earth unites to bring thee offerings ... [to enrich] thy domain. I have sacrificed to thee 30,000 oxen, with all kinds of sweet-scented herbs. Have I not put behind me those who do not thy will? ... I have built thee a house of great stones, erecting for thee eternal groves; I have brought for thee obelisks from Abou [Elephantine]; I have caused the everlasting stones to be fetched, launching for thee boats upon the sea, importing for thee the manufactures of the lands. When was it ever before said that such a thing was done? Confounded is every one who resists thy designs; blessed is every one who obeys thee, O Amen. That which thou doest is dear to my heart[?] I cry to thee, my father, Amen. I am in the midst of many unknown people gathered together from all lands. But I am alone by myself; there is none other with me. My bowmen and my horsemen have forsaken me; they were afraid; not one of them listened when I cried to them. Amen is more helpful to me than myriads of bowmen, than millions of horsemen, than tens of thousands of chosen youths, though they be all gathered together in one place. The arts of men prevail not, Amen is more powerful than they; they follow not the commands of thy mouth, O sun! Have I not sought out thy commands? have I not invoked thee from the ends of the earth?’ ”
This invocation is heard, and the King proceeds to make a vigorous charge against the enemy, who are scattered in all directions. The prince of the Hittites rallies, and succeeds in bringing them again to the combat, but they are repulsed by the King. It will be observed that sometimes the writer himself speaks, but generally the narrative is put into the mouth of the King—a poetical artifice which gives a certain liveliness to the composition—
“ ‘I ran toward them, like the god Mentou, I fleshed my hand upon them in the space of a moment[?]. I smote them, I slew them, so that one of them cried to another, saying, “It is no man” [superhuman]. Mighty was he who was among them, Soutech, the most glorious. Baal was in my limbs; why was every enemy weak? his hand was in all my limbs. They knew not how to hold the bow and the spear. As soon as they saw him, they fled far away with speed, but his Majesty was upon them like a greyhound. He slew them, so that they escaped not.’ ”
The King’s squire or armor-bearer is seized with terror, and conjures his master to fly. The King comforts him; and after charging the enemy six times, returns victorious from the field. Rameses, on rejoining his troops, addresses a long tirade to his captains upon their cowardice, and enlarges upon his own valor without any modest scruples. In the evening the rest of the troops came dropping in, and were surprised to find the whole country strewed with the bodies of the dead. The whole army joins in singing the praises of the courageous leader—
“ ‘Hail to the sword, thanks to the bold warrior, strengthener of hearts, who deliverest thy bowmen and thy horsemen, son of Toum, subduing the land of the Hittites with thy victorious sword. Thou art King of victories; there is none like thee, a King fighting for his soldiers in the day of battle. Thou art magnanimous, the first in battle. The whole world joined together cannot resist thee. Thou art the mighty conqueror, in the face of thy army. The whole earth falls down before thee saying homage. Thou rulest Egypt, thou chastisest the foreigners, thou crushest, thou bowest the back of these Hittites forever.’ Then said his Majesty to his bowmen and his horsemen, likewise his captains, ‘Ye who did not fight, behold none of you have done well, in that ye left me alone among the enemy. The captains of the vanguard, the sergeants of the infantry, came not to help me. I fought against the myriads of the land alone. I had the horses Nechtou-em-Djom and Becht-herouta; they were obedient to the guidance of my hand, when I was alone by myself in the midst of the enemy. Therefore I grant to them to eat their corn in the presence of Ra continually, when I am in the gate of the palace, on account of their having been found in the midst of the enemy: and as for the armor-bearer who remained with me, I bestow upon him my arms, together with the things which were upon me, the habiliments of war.’ Behold his Majesty wore them in his great victory, overthrowing myriads assembled together with his conquering sword.”
The battle is renewed the next day, and the Hittites are thoroughly routed. An envoy from the chief is now announced, suing for mercy. Rameses acts the part of a magnanimous conqueror, and grants pardon to the repentant rebels. He then returns peaceably to Egypt, leaving the terror of his arms in all the countries of the East.
At the end of the last page of the manuscript are the date and dedication, unfortunately somewhat mutilated. The writer Penta-our dedicates it, not to the King, but to a chief librarian, probably Amen-em-an, with whom he carried on a correspondence. This poem was so highly appreciated by the King that he caused it to be engraved in hieroglyphics upon the walls of one of his palaces, where some remains of it may be still seen. If the date be correctly read, it would appear to have been written four years after the event it celebrates, and, notwithstanding the exaggerated style of adulation which pervades it, there can be little doubt that some such occurrence as that which it represents really took place.
FOOTNOTES
_ 1 I.e._, the mountain of sunset.
_ 2 I.e._, Maāt.
3 The following petition, “Oh, grant thou unto me a path,” etc., is written once only, and at the end of the Litany, but I think it is clear that it was intended to be repeated after each of the nine addresses. This is proved by the Saīte Recension (see Lepsius, op. cit, Bl. 5) where the words, “Grant thou the sweet breath of the north wind to the Osiris Auf-ānkh,” are written in two places and are intended to be said after each of the ten addresses above them.
_ 4 I.e._, “the place where nothing groweth,” the name of a district in the underworld.
5 The name of the sanctuary of the goddess Nekhebet in Upper Egypt, the Eileithyiapolis of the Greeks.
_ 6 I.e._, the two lands Atebui, which were situated one on each side of the celestial Nile.
_ 7 I.e._, the land on each side of the Red Sea and on the coast of Africa.
_ 8 I.e._, “Lady of life,” a name of Isis.
_ 9 I.e._, the mountain of the sunset.
_ 10 I.e._, the mountain of the sunset.
_ 11 I.e._, An-rut-f, the place where nothing groweth.
_ 12 I.e._, the mountain of sunrise, but the scribe appears to have written “Baakha” instead of “Manu.”
_ 13 I.e._, the Sun and the Moon.
_ 14 I.e._, the Sun and Moon.
_ 15 I.e._, the dead.
16 The name of the deceased is wanting.
_ 17 I.e._, “Osiris, Governor of Amentet.”
18 Pe and Tepu were two famous sanctuaries of northern Egypt.
_ 19 I.e._, An-rut-f.
20 “Ab” is undoubtedly the “heart,” and “hat” is the region wherein is the heart; the word may be fairly well rendered by “breast,” though the pericardium is probably intended.
21 “Erpat,” _i.e._, “tribal chief.”
22 The Papyrus of Mes-em-neter (Naville, “Todtenbuch,” Bd. II. p. 92) adds: “His heart goeth forth to take up its abode in his body, his heart is renewed before the gods, and he hath gained the mastery over it.”
23 The words within brackets are from the Papyrus of Mes-em-neter.
_ 24 I.e._, the god of the “Large Face.”
_ 25 I.e._, the deceased.
26 The words within brackets are translated from the Papyrus of Nebseni (sheet 4).
_ 27 I.e._, Mycerinus, a king of the fourth dynasty.
_ 28 I.e._, “He of two teeth” (or two horns); the Saīte Recension (Lepsius, op. cit., Bl. 16) reads “Bent,” _i.e._, “ape.”
_ 29 I.e._, “Thy face is of right and truth.”
30 We should probably add the word “tep” and read “Tep tu-f,” “He that is upon his hill,” _i.e._, Anubis.
31 The Theban texts mention four crocodiles only.
32 So far back as 1867 the late Dr. Birch identified the animal “maftet” with the lynx.
33 Read, “the lord of the city of Shennu” _i.e._, of Kom Ombos.
34 Or, “I report [my] message to Nebes” (or Nebses).
35 The two opponent goddesses, or Isis and Nephthys(?).
36 These words are from the Papyrus of Ra.
37 The words within brackets are supplied from the Papyrus of Mes-em-neter.
_ 38 I.e._, The “land of cold and refreshing water.”
39 Literally, “eat.”
40 A king of the first dynasty. See also the rubric to the longer version of the 64th from the Papyrus of Nu, infra, p. 47.
41 These words are added from the Papyrus of Nebseni.
42 From the Papyrus of Nu, sheet 13.
43 From Papyrus of Nu, sheet 21.
44 He was the son of Cheops, the builder of the Great Pyramid at Gîzeh.
45 Here follows the text of Chapter of “Preserving the Heart,” page 25.
_ 46 I.e._, the souls of Horus and Rā.
47 This Rubric is taken from the Papyrus of Thenna (see Naville, op. cit., Bd. II. p. 153).
48 From the Papyrus of Ani (Brit. Mus. No. 10,470, sheet 6).
49 The words in brackets are supplied from Naville, op. cit., Bd. II. p. 158.
50 Literally, “Thou hast given unto me.”
51 The variants are Aahet At, Aahet Ateh, and one papyrus gives the words, “I am the great god”; see Naville, op. cit., Bd. II. p. 167.
52 Literally, “I flew.”
53 I believe that “Turtle” is the correct translation.
54 Literally, “dilated with years.”
55 Added from the Papyrus of Nebseni.
56 Added from the Papyrus of Nebseni.
57 The Papyrus of Nebseni has, “make thou me to see my soul and my shade.”
58 This rubric is taken from the Papyrus of Ani, sheet 17.
59 The Papyrus of Ani contains what are, apparently, two versions of this chapter.
_ 60 I.e._, the “Governor of Amenti,” or Osiris.
61 This title is taken from the Saïte Recension.
_ 62 I.e._, the four pillars at the south, north, west, and east of heaven upon which the heavens were believed to rest.
63 In the Saïte Recension this chapter is about twice as long as it is in the Theban Recension.
64 The words in brackets are from the Papyrus of Nebseni.
65 Or, “I am at peace with the god of the city.”
_ 66 I.e._, “Existence in Peace,” the name of the first large section of the Elysian Fields.
67 The name of a pool in the second section of the Elysian Fields.
68 The name of a pool in the first section of the Elysian Fields.
69 The name of a pool in the second section of the Elysian Fields.
70 The name of a district in the third section of the Elysian Fields.
71 The name of a pool in the first section of the Elysian Fields.
72 The name of a pool in the third section of the Elysian Fields.
73 The name of a pool in the third section of the Elysian Fields.
74 A name of the city of Mendes, the metropolis of the sixteenth nome of Lower Egypt.
_ 75 I.e._, he lost his temper and raged.
_ 76 I.e._, Cusæ, the metropolis of the fourteenth nome of Upper Egypt.
77 The words in brackets are from the Papyrus of Neb-qet (sheet 3).
78 A fuller title of this chapter is, “The Chapter of knowing the name of Osiris, and of going into and of coming forth from Re-stau.”
79 For the text see Naville, op. cit., Bd. I. Bl. 130.
80 The words in brackets are from the Papyrus of Amen-em-heb. See Naville, op. cit., Bd. II. p. 267.
81 The Papyrus of Mes-em-neter adds, “bringing right unto thee the divine being who loveth her.”
_ 82 I.e._, Heliopolis, Mendes or Busiris, Heracleopolis, Abydos, Panopolis, and Sennu (a city near Panopolis).
83 The words in brackets are from the Saïte Recension (see Lepsius, op. cit., Bl. 46).
_ 84 I.e._, the “Land of the inundation,” a name of Egypt.
85 In other papyri this chapter is called: (1) “The Chapter of going into the Hall of double Maāti;” (2) “The Chapter of [the Hall of] double Maāti and of knowing what is therein;” and (3) “The Book of entering into the Hall of double Maāti.” See Naville, op. cit., Bd. II. p. 275.
86 Variant, “I have not caused misery, I have not caused affliction.”
87 The words in brackets are added from the Papyrus of Amen-neb (Brit. Mus. No. 9,964). See Naville, op. cit., Bd. II. p. 282.
88 Variant, “I have not defrauded the gods of their chosen meat offerings.”
_ 89 I.e._, the month called by the Copts Mekhir, the sixth month of the Egyptian year.
90 These words are added from the Papyrus of Nebseni.
91 These words are added from the Papyrus of Ani.
92 A city near Memphis.
93 The “Qerti,” or caverns out of which flowed the Nile, were thought to be situated between Aswān and Philæ.
94 Variant, Neha-hra.
95 Variant, “like fire.”
_ 96 I.e._, the ninth nome of Lower Egypt, the capital of which was Per-Ausar or Busiris.
97 The “City of the Sycamore,” a name of a city of Upper Egypt.
98 The thirteenth nome of Lower Egypt.
99 The metropolis of the nineteenth nome of Upper Egypt.
_ 100 I.e._, “lost my temper and become angry.”
101 These words are added from Brit. Mus. No. 9,905. Other papyri introduce the address with the words: (1) “To be said when [the deceased] cometh forth victorious from the Hall of double Maāti;” (2) “To be said when he cometh forth to the gods of the underworld;” (3) “The words which [are to be said] after the Hall of double Maāati.”
102 The ordinary reading is, “For I have heard the word which was spoken by the Ass with the Cat.”
103 A people who dwelt, probably, on the northeast frontier of Egypt, and who have been by some identified with the Phœnicians.
104 These words are added from the Papyrus of Nebseni.
105 The Papyrus of Nu continues: “ ‘I will not open unto thee and I will not let thee pass by me,’ saith the Guardian of this door, ‘unless thou tellest [me] my name’; ‘Ox of Seb’ is thy name.” See above, l. 30.
106 Here the Papyrus repeats a passage given above.
107 The words “sema-kua” are superfluous.
108 After “Osiris” a Paris papyrus adds, “He shall come forth in whatsoever form he is pleased to appear as a living soul forever and ever.”
109 This chapter has no title either in the Theban or in the Saïte Recension.
110 The words in brackets are added from Brit. Mus. No. 9,913.
_ 111 I.e._, districts or divisions of the underworld.
112 A name of the city of Abydos.
113 “The Book of making the soul to live forever. [To be recited] on the day of embarking in the boat of Rā to pass over to the chiefs of flame.” See Naville, op. cit., Bd. II. p. 338.
114 Read “Shu” instead of “maat.”
115 Or, “images.”
116 Or, “The chapter of making the way into heaven nigh unto Rā.”
117 In the Saïte Recension (see Lepsius, op. cit., Bl. 54) the house is said to be “in the underworld.”
118 Another papyrus adds the words, “I have advanced, and behold, I have not been found light, and the Balance is empty of my affair.”
119 The Papyrus of Nebseni has, “The Osiris Nebseni is the lord of transformations in the presence of the hawk of gold.”
120 The Papyrus of Ani has “seven cubits.”
121 The words “or thy father” are from the Papyrus of Ani.
122 These words are from the Brocklehurst Papyrus (see Naville, op. cit., Bd. II. p. 334). There are three copies of this rubric extant, and no one of them is complete!
123 In the Papyrus of Nebseni the title of this chapter reads: “The Chapter of embarking in the boat of Rā and of being with those who are in his following.”
124 Read “god Osiris”?
125 Added from the Papyrus of Nebseni.
126 In the Papyrus of Nebseni the deceased is here addressed.
127 This name, frequently found in the letters, is the Egyptian “Neb-mat-ra,” or Amenophis III.
128 As the Amorite “z” or “s” seems sometimes to represent the Hebrew “sh,” this name might be compared with the Philistine “Achish.”
129 “Katna” is the present Katanah, on the south of Hermon, west of Damascus.
130 Others read “Nuhasse.” It was a Hittite country, and appears to be that of Mer’ash, under the Taurus, where a number of important Hittite remains are found (see especially B. 31, 32).
131 Throughout the letters the enemy is always called a “slave,” a “slave dog,” or “son of a dog,” as also in Egyptian texts.
132 Where breaks occur they are due to fractures of the tablet.
133 This appears, as throughout the letters, to apply to the King of Egypt. All the Egyptian kings were regarded as descendants of gods, and are so addressed in Egyptian records.
134 “Aidugama” does not appear to be a Semitic name, but, as we should expect in Hittite, it is Mongol, and compares with “Akkadian,” as meaning “the victorious lord.” He is called “Edagama” by the King of Tyre (B. M. 30), who mentions his fighting with Neboyapiza, and Aziru’s also.
135 Probably “Lapana” is Lybo, now Lebweh, north of Baalbek.
136 Probably R’aith (or R’ais), on the east side of the Buka’ah plain, east of Zahleh, on the way from the Hittite country.
137 Perhaps should read “Zinaar” for “Senaar,” the Shinar of the Bible. Merash and Ni have been noted above.
138 This word “bitati” always applies (and it is used very often) to Egyptian soldiers. It seems to be an Egyptian word. Compare “pet” (“foot”) and “petet” (“to invade or march”) in Egyptian.
139 Huba is identified by Dr. Bezold with the land of Hobah (Gen. xiv. 15), which was at the “entering in” north of Damascus. The “entering in” here and at Hamath means a pass between hills leading to the city. It has been objected that Hobah would be “Ubatu” in Assyrian; but this fails in view of the detailed topography, which shows that Dr. Bezold was right. The Hebrew heh is often replaced by Aleph or vau in Aramaic.
140 The land Am or Amma, several times mentioned, appears to be the Old Testament land of Ham, in northern Bashan, near Damascus (Gen. xiv. 5). The Hebrew is spelled with the soft aspirate, not the hard guttural. It may perhaps be connected with the name of the “Amu” of Egyptian records.
141 Damascus according to Dr. Bezold.
142 This name can be read “Namyapiza” or “Zimyapiza,” but probably means “Nebo is holy,” Nebo being a well-known deity.
143 Gidisi or Cidisi is apparently Kadesh of the Hittites—now Kades on the Orontes—north of the city of Neboyapiza. It is called “Cidsi” by the King of Tyre (B. M. 30), and “Ciidsa” in the proclamation (92 B.).
144 “Paka” is one of the words used to designate Egyptian residents or generals. It seems to be Egyptian, and simply means “Pa-ka” (“chief man”).
145 Ammusi might be the ancient name of Emesa, now Homs, immediately north of Kadesh.
146 “Elohim” is in the plural, as several scholars have remarked. It often applies to the King of Egypt.
147 “Khazi” is evidently Ghazzeh, near the south end of the Baalbek plain, south of the Damascus road.
148 This is doubtful, as the text is broken, and only gives “Belgi ...” Baal Gad was, as I have attempted recently to show, probably near ’Ain Ju-deideh, on the north of Hermon, and close to the great pass.
149 “Maguzi,” or Mukhzi, is probably Mekseh, on the Damascus road, west of Stora.
150 May be read “Yanuamma.” It seems to be M’araba, north of Damascus, which agrees with the context. The great pass mentioned here in connection with Damascus was apparently that by which the main road from the west came down the Barada at Abila. This is the “entering in” to Damascus, which (Gen. xiv. 15) was in the land of Hobah. This agrees with the position of Neboyapiza’s town Kamid, west of Baal Gad, and to the west of the pass. The scribe here wrote “east of me,” and corrected to “behind me.”
151 Probably not Ashtoreth Carnaim, which is mentioned in another letter, but rather Stora, in the Baalbek plain, northwest of Baal Gad. Arzaya’s town seems to have been Mekseh, west of Stora (125 B. M.).
152 “Buzruna” is probably Batruna, on the mountain west of the west end of the pass, and immediately east of Baal Gad (perhaps mentioned again in the fragment 205 B.).
153 “Khalavunni,” or Halabunni, is the Helbon of the Bible (Ezek. xxvii. 18), now Helbon, north of Damascus, and five miles north of the middle of the pass. It must have been an important city because of the term “King.” It was noted for wine, not only in Ezekiel’s time, but, as Strabo mentions, the kings of Persia brought wine from Chalybon.
154 “Gizza” is perhaps the important town Jezzin, in the Lebanon, southwest of Kamid, unless it be Jizeh, in Bashan, between Edrei and Bozrah.
155 “Saddu” is perhaps Nebi Shit, south of Baalbek, or possibly, though less probably, Sh’ait, south of Kamid, on the southwest slope of Hermon.
156 “Cumidi,” or Kamid, was important as a central station between Damascus and the coast cities of Sidon and Beirut.
157 Or, perhaps, “hard-pressed.”
158 “Mikhiza,” perhaps the same as Maguzi, written by another scribe—the modern Mekseh, as given above. “Maguzi” might be otherwise transliterated as “Mukhzi.”
159 “Tubakhi” is the Tabukhai of the “Travels of an Egyptian” in the reign of Rameses II (Chabas, p. 313), mentioned with Kadesh on Orontes, and is the Tibhath of the Bible (1 Chron. xviii. 8), otherwise Berothai. It may perhaps be the present Kefr Dubbeh, west of Baalbek, and south of Kadesh, while Berothai is thought to be the present Brithen (see 2 Sam. viii. 8), a few miles south of Baalbek. The letter shows Aziru in league with the Hittites. David conquered these cities from the King of Damascus.
160 Dr. Sayce calls this “the fields of Bashan”; probably, when taken with the next letters, we may place the site at Zora, in Bashan, now Ezra. De Rougé and Mariette showed that Thothmes III conquered Bashan.
161 “Gubbu” is perhaps Jubbata, on the south side of Hermon, near the places mentioned in the next letter.
162 Yankhamu, an Egyptian commander, appears in these letters in all parts of the country, from the extreme south to the north, and in Phœnicia as well as in Bashan. His name does not seem to be Semitic.
163 This letter does not say who the enemies were or in which direction they advanced. Perhaps “Bikhisi” may be regarded as the present “’Abbaseh” (by inversion of the guttural), which is fifteen miles southwest of Damascus, near the main road to the town of Jabesh, whence the letter comes.
164 The word “rabizi,” which is here made equivalent to “zukini,” gives great difficulty. In Hebrew the root means “to rest,” and the word is still applied in Palestine to resting of flocks. “Zukini” appears, as Dr. Bezold points out, to be the same as the Phœnician word “Soken” (which has exactly the required letters); but the meaning of this also is doubtful. Renan translates it either “inhabitant” or “senator.” The word occurs in the Bible (1 Kings i. 2, 4; Ezek. xxviii. 14), with the meaning also doubtful, but the root means “to cherish.” Perhaps “friends” suits best the various recurrences.
165 This word seems to mean “glory of the sun,” the Egyptian “Khu-en-Aten.” The explanation throws light on a difficult passage in a letter from Elishah (B. M. 5). If “Khu-en-Aten” (Amenophis IV) is intended, he may have been commander while still only a prince, since the events seem to belong to the reign of Amenophis III.
166 “Astarti” seems here to be Ashtoreth Carnaim, the present “Tell Ashterah.”
167 “Udumu,” now Dameh, the Dametha of Maccabean times.
168 “Aduri”—Edrei in Bashan, now Edhr’a.
169 “Araru”—’Ar’ar, nine miles southeast of Ashtoreth.
170 “Meispa”—Ramath-Mizpah of Basnan, now Remtheh.
171 “Macdalim,” probably Mejdel Shems, east of Banias.
172 “Khini”—Hineh, south of Hermon, near the last.
173 “Zaar”—Zora of Bashan, now Ezra.
174 “Yabisi”—Yabis, a few miles northwest of the last.
175 The Egyptians would cross the Jordan near Megiddo, and come from the southwest to oppose an enemy on the north and east, and reach ’Abbâseh, on the north, later than Yabis.
176 Saskhi is probably S’as’a, east of Banias, and northwest of Yabis.
177 Lupackhallu, a non-Semitic Hittite name. As a Mongol word, “the very swift.”
178 Zitatna was King of Accho—a somewhat similar name; but probably the King of Arvad is meant, as appears later.
179 This letter belongs to a late period in the war, since Ullaza has been taken. It is given here as referring to the land of Ham. It may very well have been written after Ribadda, the King of Gebal, left the city (see 71 B.).
180 “Ammia,” mentioned again, appears to be Amyun south of Simyra.
181 “Ardata” is Ardi, near the last.
182 Kefr Khullis, north of Gebal, agrees with the required position for Ullaza, which is mentioned often.
183 Nariba is Nereb, on the Euphrates, in the Hittite country.
184 An Egyptian name; perhaps to be compared with “han” (“kind”) in Egyptian. An envoy of this name was sent to Dusratta, King of Armenia, by Amenophis III, as an “interpreter” (21 B.).
185 Perhaps the Hittite King of Kadesh, or some other city.
186 Or perhaps “oil.”
187 Dodo in the Bible (1 Chron. xi. 12), from the same root as “David.” He was not really Aziru’s father, but apparently a friend in Egypt.
188 “Beiti beitac” is still a polite phrase of welcome in Palestine.
189 The text is clear, but the epigram is not. He appears to mean the King of Egypt when speaking of his gods, as also a few lines lower.
190 Meaning the King of Egypt.
191 “Khai” is also an Egyptian name, meaning “distinguished” in that language. He is perhaps the “Khaia” of another letter by Ribadda (57 B.). It would seem that his embassy to Aziru had occurred between the first and second visits of the envoy Khanni.
192 Mer’ash was in the west of the Hittite country, seventy-five miles northwest of Tunep. The distance fits well, since thirty-seven and one-half miles may be considered a forced march.
193 We cannot rely on Aziru’s protestations. If Khatib was a Hittite King, it is certain that both were intriguing against Egypt.
194 Probably the pass in the valley of the ’Afrin River, near Kyrrhus, twenty miles north of Tunip, is meant, being on the direct road to Mer’ash.
195 “Abuca” (“your father”) might be understood in the sense in which it is used every day in the East, where abûc means, “God curse your father!”
196 Ni was to the east of Aziru’s country near Tunip.
197 “Khat-ib” may mean “Hittite hero.” The name of the Hittites means probably “the confederates”; and the sign used on Hittite monuments for the nation seems to be that which represents two allies facing each other.
198 Abdasherah, as Dr. Sayce points out, means the servant of the goddess Asherah (“the grove” of the Bible), and this is rendered certain by the sign for Deity prefixed in one instance. It has no connection with the name of Ashtoreth.
199 An Egyptian name, “Pa-Khemt” or “Pa-Khent,” meaning “very strong” (see B. M. 24, Pakhamnata). It appears from Ribadda’s letter that the station of this Paka was Simyra, and apparently the Amorites killed him later on.
200 The word “Gur” is used in these letters as in the Bible, and, like the Arab “Jâr,” to mean a man of one tribe or race protected by a powerful tribe or person of another country.
201 In each case “gate” might be rendered “port,” as both of the cities had famous ports.
202 The word “Khazanu,” commonly used in these letters for a ruling class, apparently native, and in communication with the “Paka,” or “head man,” who was Egyptian, appears to come from a root which means “to treasure.” The word “Khazanutu” appears to mean “a government.”
203 “Canaan” in these letters, as on the Phœnician coins and in the Bible, is used in its strict sense as a geographical term for the “lowlands” of Phœnicia and Philistia.
204 “Pisyari” appears to be a Hittite name, like the “Pisiris” of an Assyrian inscription (Schrader), being the Mongol “bisir” (“rich”), with the indefinite nominative in s, which marks the Hittite as a non-Semitic tongue. The other names are also apparently non-Semitic, and may refer to Hittites.
205 “Pabahaa” is perhaps the “Papaa,” conquered by Thothmes III (Karnak List, No. 296), which was somewhere in North Syria, not far from Tunip. The wickedness of this chief is said to have caused the war.
206 Gutium, mentioned in Assyrian texts, was a country on the northeast, near the Caucasus. It has been compared with the word “Goim,” for “Gentiles,” in Hebrew. Perhaps “Jebel Judi” (“Ararat”) is intended, being Dusratta’s country allied to Egypt.
207 Probably ’Arkah, a well-known Phœnician city north of Tripoli, but south of Simyra (Gen. x. 17). Aziru killed its king (91 B.).
208 “Yapaaddu” (“Adonis is beautiful”) is often mentioned again. He (see 61 B.) fell into the hands of Aziru, and seems to have been a king of one of the cities near Simyra, apparently Sigata. This letter was probably written about the time of the siege of Tyre, at a late period in the war.
209 Ugariti is mentioned in a letter from Tyre (B. M. 30) in a connection which shows that it was the present Akrith, between Tyre and Accho.
210 “Sigata” appears to be Shakkah, north of the great pass of Shakkah (Theouprosopon), where the King of Gebal was defeated by Aziru.
211 “Ambi” is now ’Aba, immediately east of Shakkah.
212 Simyra was on the low hills above the sea-plains, by the river Eleutherus.
213 The last words explain how the letter got to Egypt.
214 These ships of the men of Misi are mentioned by Ribadda as failing in an attempt to assist him. We may, perhaps, understand Egyptian ships, and compare the Egyptian name “Mesti” applied to part of the Delta.
215 From Dusratta’s great Hittite letter (27 B.) it appears that the King of the Minyans, whose country was called Mitani, west of Lake Van, in Armenia, claimed to be King of all the Hittites; and this is what appears to be here intended. In other letters he is mentioned among the invaders.
216 Arada, a city mentioned again as assisting Aziru with ships, appears to be Aradus, the Arvad of the Bible, now Er Rûad, the island town north of Simyra.
217 “Gula” is perhaps the town of Jûneh, north of Beirût, on the way to Gebal.
218 “Ammiya” is Amyun, north of Gebal; and “Ardata” is Ardi near the preceding.
219 Arpad is the city close to Tennib, which is mentioned in the Bible in several passages (2 Kings xvii. 34; xix. 13; Isa. x. 9; Jer. xlix. 23, etc.), now Tell Erfûd. It is remarkable that Aleppo is not mentioned in this correspondence, for it is referred to in Egyptian texts.
220 “Ribadda” (as the name is spelled in some of the letters in syllables) may mean “child of Adonis.” Compare the Chaldee “Ribah” for “girl,” in the feminine. That “Adda” was Adonis seems to be derivable from the name “Adoram” (2 Sam. xx. 20), otherwise Adoniram (1 Kings iv. 6).
221 “Gebal,” now “Jubeil,” was apparently the chief city of Phœnicia. Its goddess Baalath is mentioned in the famous inscription of Yehumelec (about 800 B.C.), found in the ruins of Gebal. She is also mentioned in the “Travels of an Egyptian” (Chabas, p. 312).
222 Hamath was half-way from Aziru’s country to that of Ribadda.
223 A name very like Jeremiah.
224 “Mitana,” the later Matiene, Dusratta, its king, claimed to rule the Hittites. The Amorites joined this league.
225 The region called “Casi” in the inscription of Usurtasen I (Brugsch, “Hist.,” i., p. 139) was in Upper Egypt, and the Cush of the Bible is apparently intended—a very vague term for the southern deserts from the Euphrates to Nubia. There were, however, Cushites also in Babylonia. In the present case the Cassites who lived on the Euphrates, east of the Hittites, and who were Mongols, are probably intended.
226 Literally “boys.” It seems often in these letters to be used as the word “weled” (“a boy”) is still used in Syria to mean “a fellow,” applied often to very old men.
227 This letter shows that the war lasted several years, over which the Gebal letters (written by three or four different scribes) extend; that the attack on Sidon preceded the taking of Gebal; and that Ribadda was not deceived by Amorite promises, knowing their co-operation with their Mongol allies of Armenia and the Hittite country.
228 The letter in question may have been the proclamation against Aziru given above.
229 “Milukha,” or Meroe, in Assyrian inscriptions means, according to Dr. Brugsch, Nubia.
230 This perhaps refers to Khanni’s proclamation already given, and to the Khai who had been sent at an earlier period to Aziru. The rebels are named in the proclamation of the later embassy, which we thus see to have had no effect. An envoy without a military force behind him usually fails.
231 Durubli is probably the city which the Greeks called Tripoli, the largest town between Simyra and Gebal. There is a village called Turbul, on the northeast of Tripoli (Trâblus).
232 “Kau Pa-ur,” Egyptian words in the plural. “Kau” signifies “men,” and “Pa-ur” (as in the letter from Jerusalem, B. 103) means “very important.”
233 Probably the “Pakhanata” (97 B.) who was the “Paka,” or chief, of whom Abdasherah speaks in the letter about the town of Ullaza, near Gebal. He seems to have been the resident in Simyra (B. 80).
234 “Abur” is perhaps Beit-Abura, in the valley north of the great pass Theouprosopon, between Gebal and Tripoli. The enemy had not as yet forced the pass.
235 The second sign is doubtful, and the place does not suggest identification (see 60 B.).
236 This agrees with the Jerusalem letters, as showing that the troops had been withdrawn to Egypt. Amenophis sent commissioners and summoned native levies, but does not appear to have been able to send Egyptian forces.
237 The name “Saarti” perhaps survives in that of the Sha’arah district of Lebanon, immediately south of Simyra, and near Yapaaddu’s town of Sigata (Shakkah).
238 In Assyria we find the “measure of Istar.”
239 The Berbers are mentioned in Egyptian texts as inhabitants of Upper Egypt.
240 “Khaia,” now in Egypt, had no doubt already become known to Ribadda as an envoy.
241 A god Sausbe is mentioned in Dusratta’s Hittite letter.
242 Sigata (Shakkah) was just outside the great pass between Batrûn and Tripoli.
243 Ambi (’Aba) was close to the last.
244 Only—rari is left, which Dr. Bezold thinks refers to Amenophis IV; but it is doubtful if this letter can be placed so late.
245 “Kappa” is Keffa. The plain of Keffa is close to Amyun, north of the great pass of Theouprosopon (Shakkah). Amyun follows at once.
246 “Batruna” is the well-known town Batrûn, the “Botrys” of classical writers, which lies south of the wild pass of Râs Shakkah, where apparently one of the battles of the war occurred (22 B. M.). When the pass was taken, Batrûn seems still to have held out with Gebal, being no doubt provisioned by sea.
247 “Kalbi” is Kelbata, in the heart of the great pass. I visited all these places in 1881.
248 In this case the modern name “Akka” is nearer to the spelling of these letters than is the Hebrew. This is the case with Shiloh and other important towns, showing the Canaanite extraction of the modern peasantry in Palestine. The Hebrews hardly ever renamed towns, and the nomenclature preserves the ancient Canaanite forms found in the lists of Thothmes III a century earlier than these letters. Many towns were named from Canaanite and Philistine gods (Shamash, Dagon, etc.), and the forms of the names in the Karnak lists are Aramaic, and not Hebrew.
249 “Patzil” I understand to be equivalent to the Arabic “Fadl,” meaning to do pleasure or honor to a person.
250 The Amorite chief had more than one son, as is clear in some cases. Benmabenat (or Bumabuat) was Aziru’s brother.
251 Perhaps the name survives in that of the river Kadisha, near Tripoli.
252 Ardata (Ardi), Ambi (’Aba), and Sigata (Shakkah) were north of the pass; Yahlia, representing I’al, rather farther north than the others.
253 Ullaza (Kefr Khullis) was close to Batrûn, on the south.
254 “Caphar Yazu,” or Alu-yazu, seems to be Kefr Yashit, near the others.
255 Perhaps “Takheda” of another letter (58 B.).
256 See letter 71 B. The sign has the meaning “oracle,” “prophet.” No doubt Ribadda had his diviners, like the kings of Assyria in later times.
257 No. 53 B. is another short letter, much injured, which mentions Batrûn; and in this a town called “Sina” is apparently noticed, which, if the broken tablet can be so read, would be “Kefr Zina.” In 54 B. a city “Zina” occurs, but seems to be a clerical error for “Sidon.” The land of Mitana is also mentioned in 53 B.
258 Neboyapiza had his own difficulties, as appears from his letters (96 B., 142 B., 43 B. M.).
259 Zimridi of Sidon is mentioned as a fugitive, while Gebal still held out. Aziru marched from (ina) Gebal, no doubt, to attack the south. In later ages the shore cities often held out while invaders from the North marched on Egypt.
260 Amanabba was not really his father; it is a title of courtesy. His father was Rabzabi (81 B., 82 B.), and Amanappa is an Egyptian name. A certain captain Amenemhib has left an account of his services in North Syria, at Aleppo, Carchemish, Kadesh, and at Ni, where he hunted elephants; but this is supposed to have been a century earlier. The site of Ni is settled by these letters and by the Karnak lists as being in Mesopotamia, and there is a picture of an elephant among the Asiatic spoils of Thothmes III. It is very curious to find elephants so far west in Asia at this period.
261 Probably “outside” means north of the pass, and Ribadda made the serious military mistake of defending his pass from outside instead of inside.
262 This would seem to have been about the time of the proclamation against Aziru, or rather earlier.
263 “Sapi” is probably the famous fortress Safita, northwest of Simyra.
264 The reinforcements were expected by sea, no doubt in the ships of the Misi, or Delta men, the soldiers being Nubians from near Tell Amarna, which was 180 miles south of Memphis.
265 Or Zabanba. Perhaps this is the Subandi, who writes letters from an unknown town.
266 King of Beirût (B. M. 26, 27).
267 This translation is confirmed by the independent letter of Ribadda’s friend Ammunira (B. M. 36).
268 Egada is no doubt the land of Ikatai mentioned in the “Travels of an Egyptian” (Chabas, p. 312); it there occurs with Aleppo and the country of the Hittites. In the letter of the Hittite Prince of Rezeph (north of Palmyra) we hear of his country as Egait (B. 10). Rezeph was not far south of Tiphsah, on the Euphrates, and southeast of Aleppo. Bikhuru is, however, mentioned (18 B. M.) in connection with the town of Cumidi.
269 I misread this name at first. The Amorite chief seems to have had five sons including Aziru and (p. 224) Ben-mabenat (or Bumabula).
270 The paragraphs are marked off in many of the letters by the word “sacunu” (“pause”).
271 “Taratzi” may perhaps be Tarsus. Baal Tarzi is the legend on Phœnician coins of that city. Its king naturally would have a common border with Abdasherah on the north, if his fortresses (or land) were outside the northern Lebanon, which was the Amorite country, and he was therefore regarded as a possible ally.
272 Comparing the letters from Beirût and Sidon (27 B. M., 90 B.) it will be seen that the city whose freemen were on the side of Aziru was Sidon.
273 If Ukri be the right reading, the town of ’Akkar in Lebanon, east of Tripoli, would be probable. It gives its name to the district of Jebel ’Akkâr, and is at the source of the river ’Akkår, which agrees with the mention of the “waters.”
274 “Maar”(ah) is probably the Mearah of the Bible (Josh. xiii. 4), now “el Mogheiriyeh,” six miles northeast of Sidon. This conquest may have just preceded the fall of Sidon.
275 Gebal and Batrûn are ten miles apart. Ribadda’s kingdom had extended at least twenty miles along the coast; and if Beirût and Tripoli were not independent, his land would have reached much farther—to Simyra and Sidon.
276 This letter shows very clearly that the taking of Sidon preceded the fall of Byblos (Gebal).
277 From 75 B. it seems that Amanabba had been sent to Gebal (probably in consequence of the former letters from Ribadda), but it seems he fled again.
278 In later times the small mina of Palestine was £8 6s. 8d., and the large was £16 13s. 4d. (see Conder’s “Handbook to the Bible,” p. 81). This represents, therefore, at least £500 or perhaps £1,000; but in this early age the value of money was probably higher.
279 Ribadda has said (63 B.) that his sons fell into the power of the enemy when in ships. He also sends a list of property to Egypt (85 B.). Probably when these ships were sent his father went to Egypt, whence he wrote (82 B.), and a copy was sent to the King. There is one other letter in the collection, which was written from Egypt, by Amenophis III to the King of Babylon (B. M. 1), which seems to be a copy, unless in both cases the letters were not sent. (See Appendix.)
280 Gebal was celebrated for its papyrus. It grew in the river Adonis, close to the city. The enemy were now closing in.
281 The salutations in the last letters are very curt as compared with the earlier ones.
282 The King of Babylon refused to help the Canaanites in the reign of Amenophis III.
283 The younger brother was not the one left in charge.
284 “Buruzizi” probably Beit Ziza, east of Batrûn, in the range which runs out to the great pass of Ras Shakkah. Batrûn was perhaps still holding out, and the town was a refuge high up in the wild mountains. “Buru” means “well”; and “Beit” “house” of Ziza.
285 As regards the final outcome of these wars in the north we obtain light from the letters of Dusratta, King of Mitani. He was a younger man than Amenophis III, and his sister married the said King of Egypt. His daughter Tadukhipa married Amenophis IV, and there were friendly relations with Egypt in the latter as well as in the former reign. In his Hittite letter (27 B.) Dusratta speaks of the boundaries of a region which seems to have been conceded to him as his daughter’s wedding-gift. He calls himself “Great Chief of the Hittites,” and the border was to run to Harran, Chalcis (south of Aleppo), and the “Phœnician West.” Thus Dusratta, who says in another letter (apparently his first) that he has conquered the Hittites, would seem to have swallowed up the Hittite King of Mer’ash and part, if not the whole, of Aziru’s country; and the Mongol populations were thus to be ruled from Armenia, which was much nearer than Egypt. What became of the King of Kadesh these letters do not say; but he was independent in later times, when Seti I went up “to conquer the city of Kadesh in the land of the Amorites” (Brugsch, Hist., ii. p. 15), and Kadesh was taken by Rameses II, the successor of Seti I, after which a commercial treaty was made with Kheta Sar, the King of Kadesh, whose daughter Rameses II married. There was thus, perhaps, Hittite blood in the veins of the Pharaohs of the nineteenth dynasty. In the treaty papyrus (see Chabas’ “Voyage,” p. 336), it is mentioned that the same terms—of equality—had existed in the time of the writer’s father and grandfather that were claimed of Rameses II, and that war had occurred later. This seems to show that Kadesh was independent shortly after the time of the rebellion detailed in the Tell Amarna letters. The relations with the Hittites were still friendly in the reign of Rameses III, when the Aryan hordes from Asia Minor overran the Hittite country, and came down even to Egypt. In David’s time, the border between his kingdom and those of the Hittites and Phœnicians was drawn from Hermon to Danjaan, south of Tyre (2 Sam. xxiv. 6), and Solomon married Hittite princesses. The Hittite independence was only finally destroyed about 700 B.C. by the Assyrians.
286 The mulberry is still found in large gardens at Beirût and throughout the Lebanon. Since Justinian’s time it has been the food of silkworms.
287 This repetition may perhaps be regarded as only a phonetic explanation of the preceding ideograms; but perhaps the words were added to show with certainty that by the terms God and Sun he meant the King of Egypt.
288 The name “Abimelech” at Tyre is interesting. It occurs as the name of a Phœnician king in the time of Assurbanipal (885-860 B.C.). The chief deity of Tyre was Moloch, or Melkarth; and the name means “my father is Moloch,” claiming a divine descent. The son of Gideon and certain Philistine kings are so named in the Bible.
289 Huzu is probably the modern el Ghazîyeh, near Sidon. It is at the foot of the hills, and there is a stream (Nahr ez Zahrâny, “flowery river”) four miles to the south, which accounts for the notice of the waters. It seems clearly to have been in the direction of Sidon.
290 “Belu amil neru,” literally “a lord, a chief man of the yoke (or government).”
291 See the letters from Hazor after those from Tyre. This petty monarch was an enemy to the southern possessions of the King of Tyre.
292 The site of Zarbitu is probably the Sarepta, or Zarephah, of the Bible (1 Kings xvii. 9, etc.), which is now Sarafand, half way between Tyre and Sidon. The decision was therefore just; but though apparently satisfied Abimelec did not get what he asked in the preceding letter—if that demand was really the earlier one. There is a fine fountain (’Ain el Kantarah, “spring of the arch”) to the north of Sarepta, and the region generally is well watered. The town was famous in the Byzantine age for wine.
293 “Danuna” is probably the Danjaan of the Bible, now the ruin Dâniân, four miles north of Achzib, and on the border between Tyre and Accho (see 2 Sam. xxiv. 6).
294 “Hugarit” is probably ’Akrîth, eight miles east of Danjaan. It has been mentioned as taken by Aziru, in Yapaaddu’s letter (128 B.). Perhaps the attack was from the east; and the King of Hazor seems to have joined the Hittites (see 99 B.).
295 Edagama has been mentioned as “Aidugama” in Akizzi’s letter from Katna, which was east of Neboyapiza’s city Cumidi (Kamid). See B. M. 37.
296 In the former letters (B. M. 31, B. 99) Abimelec has spoken of the Paka as distinct from himself. Perhaps the Egyptian residents withdrew when the troops were withdrawn.
297 Irib is probably ’Arab Salim, fourteen miles southeast of Sidon, on the highest part of the mountains. It stands on a precipice 400 feet above the gorge of the Zahrany River (Robinson, “Later Bib. Res.,” p. 47), and was a stronghold.
298 Aziru’s allies from Arvad no doubt attacked Tyre by sea.
299 Dr. Bezold has remarked that want of water was always the weakness of Tyre. In the reign of Rameses II the Egyptian traveller (Chabas, p. 313) speaks of water sent to the island of Tyre in boats. Tyre is called by him the city of “two ports,” one being on the north, called the Sidonian, and one on the south, called the Egyptian.
300 This letter agrees with others preceding. Neboyapiza’s town Kamid, in Lebanon, was about sixty miles to the northeast of Accho, and Ziza was perhaps his sister or daughter, married to the king of an adjoining kingdom. The soldiers to be sent to Megiddo would obtain news, perhaps, of his fate, from a force on its way to Yabis, in Bashan, which his enemies reached after taking Damascus. Makdani is probably the Megiddo of the Bible, on the way to Bashan, at the great ruin of Mujedd’a, near Beisân. The situation agrees with that of the city of Makta, or Megiddo, mentioned by the Egyptian traveller near the Jordan fords (Chabas, p. 207). The Magid— of the previous passage is probably another spelling of the same name. The lady seems to have intended to go there with a guard, and perhaps to obtain a detachment to go to Kamid. In the lists of Thothmes III, Megiddo (Makdi) stands second, after Kadesh of the Hittites; and it was at Megiddo that the chief victory of Thothmes was won. It was then already a fortress which stood a siege, and was the key to the road from Accho to Damascus. The form “Makdani” is explained by the Megiddo of Zechariah (xii. II); and this final “n” is represented by the guttural “’Ain” of the modern Arabic “Mujedd’a.” There is no reason at all for placing the site at Legio, west of the plain of Esdraelon, a site which does not agree with any monumental notice, or with the Biblical accounts (see “Memoirs of the Survey of Western Palestine,” vol. ii.).
301 There were several Hazors in the north of Palestine. Perhaps the most likely site is the Hazor of the Egyptian traveller. It is mentioned as on a mountain (Chabas, p. 313), between Aksap (Achzib, north of Accho) and the Sea of Galilee. This might be the Hazor which Joshua took (Josh. xi. 1) from Jabin, which was above the Hûleh. The name only remains, west of the probable site, in the Arabic “Jebel Hadireh,” a high mountain of Upper Galilee. The King of Hazor’s name is unfortunately not quite clear in the text, but seems to be either Abdebaenu, or more probably Iebaenu (Jabin). There was another Jabin of Hazor later on in history (Judges iv. 2). It was no doubt a family name.
302 The nearest places to Hebron seem to have been Nezeb in the valley of Elah, easily reached by a broad, flat road, and on the south Kanana (Kana’an), a fortress taken by Seti I, which is only two miles southwest of Hebron. This was (if the identification be accepted) the limit of conquest (see Brugsch, “Hist.,” vol. ii., p. 13), when Seti (about 1366 B.C.) conquered the Beersheba plains, advancing by Rehoboth and Bethlebaoth. The land of Zahi was south of Hebron, and famous for its wine and trees (Brugsch, vol. i., p. 330), Hebron still possessing fine vineyards. But the Amorites of Hebron were never apparently disturbed by the chariots, and appear in these letters as marauders of Egyptian stations. There is no mention of any advance of the Egyptians into Moab, though Seir and Edom are noticed very early, when the Sinaitic copper-mines were being worked, and before chariots came into use. In the time of the twelfth and thirteenth dynasties, however, the political conditions in Syria were different. The Akkadian King Kudea—a Mongol—was ruling in 2500 B.C. in North Syria, and sent for granite to Sinai. At this time also, according to the Bible, there were Hittites in Hebron, who had been driven to the north by Ahmes about 1700 B.C. So that the population in 1500 B.C. seems to have been entirely Semitic.
303 Gulata is an interesting name to find in the south, as it may have some connection with that of Goliah.
304 The sign of deity is attached to this name, showing that Dagon, the Philistine god, is intended; and it appears to mean “Thou, Dagon, art a shield.” Compare Yamirdagan (B. 136).
305 The word “Khazanu” is here used of an Egyptian official, but with the qualification “chief Ka” introducing the Egyptian word. This agrees with the view that “Pa-ka” means “principal man.”
306 The sign meant originally “cup.” It is remarkable that wine is not mentioned in the letters, unless the drink here noticed was wine. There was plenty of wine in Syria and in Hebron as early as 1600 B.C.
307 The text is damaged. It seems perhaps to read “Citam Mizpi.” If this is right, Mizpah near Jerusalem might be intended, or it may mean “below the heights.”
308 Gazri is the Gezer of the Bible, now Tell Jezar, at the foot of the Jerusalem hills.
309 Tabu is probably Taiyibeh, seven miles northwest of Hebron, on a hill at the head of the valley of Elah. This fits in with the rest of the topographical notices.
310 Probably the same Khaia who appears in the north as an envoy to the Amorites—an Egyptian official.
311 Takanu (see B. 199, 70 B. M.) lived near Givti, and perhaps was the chief of that town, which may be Gibeah of Judah, near the valley of Elah, south-east of Makkedah. It is mentioned with Hareth, which was close by Gibeah.
312 Referring to the King’s order on papyrus. In Dusratta’s Hittite letter a royal decree on papyrus is also mentioned.
313 Biruyapiza was probably the second son of Labaya.
314 Macdalim may be Mejdel, in the Philistine plain, which is still a place of importance, with a market.
315 Cuuzbe is probably the Chezib of the Bible (Gen. xxxviii. 5), in the low hills east of Gath, now ’Ain Kezbeh. The marauders seem to issue from the mountains, destroying the commerce of the plains (compare 59 B. M.). Chezib is again mentioned (104 B.).
316 This letter is perhaps explained by another (104 B.), in which the King of Jerusalem sends his wives to Egypt with the Egyptian envoy, on account of the war with the Hebrews.
317 Chief of Keilah, whose letters follow.
318 If Takanu’s town was Givti, and Givti was Gibeah of Judah, he is referring to the southern route by the Valley of Elah.
319 “Tarka” instead of “Paka.” In Egyptian the word “tar” means “to drive” or “compel,” preceding the sign of a man with a stick. “Tarka” is thus apparently an “overseer” of the people.
320 “Yapa’a” is the same name as “Japhia,” mentioned as the King of Lachish (Josh. x. 3), who was the enemy of Joshua. He appears here as King of Gezer, and the King of Gezer is called in the Bible Horam (x. 33). The words Gezer and Lachish would not look unlike in the writing of the earlier Hebrew (about the Christian era), but it is not impossible that the two towns may have had the same king. Indeed, the letter seems to show this, as Mer’ash is near Lachish.
321 “Mu(ra)’azi” seems clearly to be “Mer’ash,” the Hebrew “Moresheth Gath” (Micah i. 14). The modern name is nearer to the Amorite than to the Hebrew, having a guttural at the end; and, as in other cases, the Amorite “z” stands for a Hebrew “s.” The site is south of Gath, and not far from Lachish, close to Beit Jibrîn.
322 The name of the King of Jerusalem is rendered “Abdhiba” by Dr. Winckler, and “Abd Tobba” by Dr. Sayce. The second reading is possible in all cases but one (B. 102), when the sign used was not the syllabic value “Tob,” but only “Khi” or “Hi.” This would mean “servant of the Good One.” Adonizedek was the name of the King of Jerusalem killed by Joshua (x. 3). It is to be remembered that many of the names in these letters are written, not in syllables, but by ideograms. Ribadda’s name is hardly ever spelled syllabically, though it is rendered certain by the cases in which it is so spelled. I am inclined, therefore, to suppose that we have to deal, not with an unusual name, like Abdhiba or Abdtobba, which is unknown in history, but with the name of Joshua’s contemporary, spelled “US” (= “Adoni” “Lord”), and “KHI” × “BA,” “good do” = “zedec” (“justice”). There must, however, always be some doubt as to personal names, unless checked by variant readings.
323 Adonizedek is meditating flight. His letters speak of a raid on Gezer, Ascalon, and as far as Lachish, after the taking of Ajalon by the Hebrews, but they say nothing of Makkedah. From the book of Joshua we learn that after the battle of Ajalon the Hebrews pursued to Azekah, perhaps the ruin of Zak, east of Gaza, and to Makkedah (x. 11), and then returned to Gilgal (15). An interval of unstated duration occurred, while the five kings, Adonizedek, Japhia, Hoham, Piram, and Debir (ver. 3), fled to Makkedah, where they were found hid in a cave. It was during this interval, apparently, that these Jerusalem letters were written.
324 The sign is unusual. The words are “icalu, ca-ar (Irhu) zabbatu,” or perhaps “icalu-ca ar(unu) zabbatu.” The latter would mean “They prevail over thee; they have been swift to seize.”
325 “I have no father and no army.” It either means this or “Have I no father and no friend?” It might refer to his father’s death, or to the King of Egypt not being his father and friend. Dr. Sayce renders “neither father nor mother” (“SAL um” for “rag um”); but it is very unusual for orientals to refer to their female relations or wives, though in the case of the King of Accho (95 B.) the writer speaks of his wife; but this is for a special reason (see also 104 B.).
326 “’Abiri.” This is read by others “Habiri” (“allies”); but the political circumstances do not agree with this explanation, and the sign is used throughout the letters for the guttural “’Ain” (as, for instance, in the name of Azzah or Gaza). There is no mention in the southern letters of Aziru, Abdasherah, Aitugama, or any of the northern allies; and the sign for “allies” or “helpers” in the northern letters is quite different. On the other hand, the ’Abiri are never mentioned, except in the south, near Jerusalem. They are called people of the “blood” or “tribe” of the ’Abiri (B. 106), and of the “land” of the ’Abiri (B. 199), showing that the term is derived from the ’Abarim, or mountains east of Jordan. The Abiru chiefs are mentioned in the singular (B. 102, 104), and none of these facts can be reconciled with the view that they were “allies.” They are distinctly said to have come from Seir (Edom) in one letter (B. 104), and to have left their pastures (B. 103), and are probably the “desert people” of the Gezer letter (51 B. M.). Their actions are those recorded of Joshua’s first campaign, and the date agrees, as does also the notice in the letters of Jabin, Japhia, and Adonizedek, the contemporaries of Joshua. Another suggestion has been that they were Hebronites; but in such case the “n” would not be absent, and the sign for city would no doubt occur. They have also been supposed to be Babylonians, but this is indirect contradiction to the relations noticed in the letters between Egypt and Babylon at this time.
327 Ilimelec is a name found in the Bible (Ruth i. 2; ii. 1) as the name of Ruth’s father-in-law, a native of Bethlehem, in the time of the Judges. It is therefore a Hebrew name.
328 Milcilu was the King of Gezer, and Suardata of Keilah; his letters follow. This represents the league of kings before the battle of Ajalon.
329 Givti is probably one of the Gibeahs, perhaps Gibeah of Judah, now Jeb’a, southwest of Jerusalem, in the direction of Keilah (Josh. xv. 57), eight miles west of Bethlehem; unless we should read Gimtzi, in which case it would be Gimzu (2 Chron. xxviii. 18), now Jimzu, east of Lydda, and north of Gezer. The former reading seems the better (see 199 B.).
330 “Kielti” is “Keilah” (Josh. xv. 44), now Kilah, east of the Valley of Elah, in the direction of Hebron.
331 Rubute is Rabbah of Judah, now the ruin Rubba, in the same district, four miles east of Beit Jibrîn (Josh. xv. 60).
332 “Beth Baalath” is probably Baalath of Judah, the old name of Kirjath Jearim, now Erma, in the Valley of Sorek. The word “gur” may either mean that the city was “near” Jerusalem, or that it had been an ally of Jerusalem. It is clear that if the forces of the lowlands were marching to assist Jerusalem by the highway, past Kirjath Jearim, the revolt of that town would delay the forces from Gezer, which would naturally take that route.
333 “Beth Amilla” is evidently the “Beth ham Millo” of the Bible (2 Sam. v. 9); “house of the chief,” as we now know. It was the royal palace in the lower city (Akra), north of Zion. There was also a Millo in Shechem (Judges ix. 6, 20), evidently the palace of that city.
334 When Adonizedek sent away his women he was preparing for his own flight, by the advice, it would seem, of Egypt. The Egyptian resident also retired. Suta has already been mentioned as an Egyptian official in the north (48 B.); he is also mentioned in a letter from Babylon (4 B. M.), and by the King of Accho, who was a contemporary of Neboyapiza and of Aziru (95 B.), which with other indications shows that Aziru’s revolt was contemporary with the Hebrew invasion—at least, within a few years.
335 This shows the enemy as coming from Mount Seir or Edom.
336 This “Givti” would seem to be one of the Gibeahs, unless we should read “Gimtzi” as before.
337 Perhaps this is capable of being rendered, “I am breaking to pieces; the chief is becoming master.”
338 What is meant is that the Egyptians, having come by sea to Ascalon or Gaza, are to march to Jerusalem by the Valley of Elah, the highway by which the Philistines came up against Saul. “Cazib” (“Chezib”) is in this valley, now ’Ain Kezbeh; and north of it is a valley with the unique name “Naheir” (“the little river”). The road becomes difficult when the Valley of Elah turns to the south, which is alluded to in the next letter (B. 103). (For Chezib see also 73 B. M.)
339 “Tu-ur ba-zu” appears to be spelled phonetically, but does not sound like a Semitic name. If it were taken as an ideogram it might be rendered “Ben Zicaru.”
340 “Zelah” has been proposed (Heb. “Zel’a”), but the final sign does not seem to be used to represent the “’Ain.” There were two Zelahs, one being Petra, the other north of Jerusalem (now probably the ruin of Salah); it appears to me more probable that Shiloh is intended. The Amorite “z” or “s” occasionally stands for a Hebrew “sh”; and the modern name “Seilûn” has always presented the difficulty that the “s” is not the proper representative of the Hebrew “sh.” Perhaps, as in other cases, the peasant pronunciation represents the Amorite rather than the Hebrew sound. Shiloh is remarkable for the great pass it commands.
341 There was a siege of Lachish by Joshua (Josh. x. 33).
342 Rimmon is probably the Rimmon of Benjamin, not far south of Shiloh, now the village of Rummon (Judges xx. 45, etc.).
343 The name spelled in other cases “U-ru-sa-lim” is here spelled “Uru-sa-lim,” showing that the usual explanation, “city of peace,” is probable. It has been proposed to translate “city of the god Salim,” a deity who is not known otherwise; but in these letters the names of gods have the prefix AN (“deity”), which does not occur in any instance in the name of the city. The word “salim” for “peace” has just been used in the letter, and occurs elsewhere in these letters.
344 “Casipi.” It has been read “Casia” (“Cushites”), but the word before is in the plural, and the plural could not end in “a.” Any great success is still attributed to sorcery in the East. It may, however, only mean “malicious,” according to its use in Hebrew.
345 There was an Egyptian known to history who bore the name of Paur (Brugsch, “Hist.” i. p. 462); he was a governor in Nubia, somewhat later than the present events. The name, however, must have been common, since “Paur” stands for “Paka” in some cases. It has been already explained as an Egyptian word.
346 The participle is feminine.
347 There had been four previous letters, agreeing with my arrangement.
348 Ajalon (now Yâlo) is at the foot of the Bethhoron Pass, where the battle against the five kings occurred. The women were apparently sent away before the battle of Ajalon, after which the easiest road to the plains, by Bethhoron and Ajalon, was closed. The flight of Adonizedek took place, according to the Biblical account, after the battle of Ajalon, while Joshua was at Gilgal, where the news was brought.
349 This appears to be the meaning, and refers to the road, mentioned in the last letter, by the Valley of Elan—less easy than that by Ajalon.
350 “Casi,” or Cush, as in Egyptian records, appears to mean upper Egypt. See what has been said as to this name in Ribadda’s letter (61 B.).
351 “Harti Cirmiel” is evidently Hareth Carmel, representing the Hebron country from Hareth (Kharas), on the northwest, above the Valley of Elah, to Carmel of Judah on the southeast. This would agree with placing Givti at Jeb’a.
352 Apparently the southern Gibeah of Judah, mentioned before (106 B.). Dr. Sayce reads Gath, but when Gath is mentioned it it called Giti (154 B.).
353 “Labaya” may mean, according to a common form of expression, the land of Labaya.
354 “Salabimi,” Shaalbim (Judges i. 35; 1 Kings iv. 9) or Shaalabbin (Josh. xix. 42), is probably Selbît, lying southeast of Lydda, near Ajalon.
355 In Judges i. 35 we read of the Amorites remaining in this district.
356 This name may be read various ways, as “Addamaru” or “Abu Amaru.” Perhaps the name “Ithamar” may be compared (Exod. vi. 23; xxviii. 1). See also Yabitiri of Joppa (Abiather?).
357 The only difficulty in identifying this place, “Ci el-ti,” with Keilah lies in the spelling with “Caph” instead of “Koph.” The name contains the required guttural found in the Hebrew; this has disappeared from the modern name, “Kilah.” The sign for “Ki” does not seem to be used in these letters; and there are several other instances of confusion of the two letters, as when “Ka” is written for “Ca” (“thee”) in a few cases.
358 “Ra” is apparently an Egyptian name. The order for withdrawal of the troops appears to have arrived.
359 This quarrel between the King of Jerusalem, the King of Makkedah, and the King of Keilah is probably early, before the appearance of the Hebrews; for Adonizedek says that the sons of Labaya (103 B.) were his contemporaries at that time, and Suyardata becomes his ally (106 B.) in presence of the common danger. If “behind” means to the west (the front being always the east), the attack was from the Valley of Elah. Keilah has very rough mountains on the east, and is easily reached on the west.
360 The meaning seems to be that Adonizedek had seized the flocks and herds.
361 “Basmath,” meaning “balsam” or “sweet,” was no doubt a common woman’s name. It occurs as the name of Ishmael’s daughter whom Esau married (Gen. xxxvi. 3, 4, 13), and as that of one of Solomon’s daughters (1 Kings iv. 15). She may have been the wife of Milcilu, King of Gezer, and pleads for her sons after her husband’s death. He had apparently been seized by the Hebrews (106 B.).
362 Zorah, now Sur’ah (Josh. xix. 41; Judges xiii. 2, etc.), was not far south of Ajalon, and near Gezer on the southeast.
363 This name cannot be identified, as has been proposed, with that of Abdasherah, since “Ashtoreth” and “Asherah” are different words.
364 If it is to be read simply as a syllabic name, it would be perhaps “Musi-huna.” There is a “Mes-hah” (“place of unction”) in lower Galilee. I have here supposed “huna” to come from the root “hana” (Heb. “hanah”), “to inhabit.”
365 “Tuser Atta,” a Mongol name, “father of conquest.” “Arta Sumara” appears to mean “destroying hero.”
366 “Mitani” or Matiene (Herod, i. 72, 189, 202; iii. 94; v. 49, 52; vii. 72) extended from the sources of the Araxes to the Halys River, and thus included all Armenia west of Lake Van: other names for the region were, the “Land of Khani Rabbe” (or Khani Rabbatu) and the “Land of the Minyans.” (See 27 B.)
367 The Hittites clearly did not live in Matiene, but in the adjacent country of northern Syria.
368 “Gilukhipa,” a Mongol name, “possessing glory.”
369 “Gilia” and “Tunipripi,” Mongol names, “glorious” and “very reliable.”
370 This may be dated late in the reign of Amenophis III, as Dusratta survived him.
371 Possibly Queen Teie or Thi.
372 Amanu, the Egyptian god Amen.
373 The word “Khatanu” means any kinsman by marriage, and “emu” is still used generally of any “kinsman” or even for “friend.” Some have translated “son-in-law” and “father-in-law,” but the latter word would be “khamu,” not “emu.” Dusratta was the father-in-law of Amenophis IV, but brother-in-law of Amenophis III.
374 “Binti,” not “Bintiya” (“my daughter”). The word “Bint” is still used generally for “a young woman.” Perhaps Queen Teie is intended.
375 “Targumanu” (“interpreter”) is the modern “dragoman.” Khani (see p. 201) was sent to Aziru, showing that the Canaanite rebellion may have occurred in the reign of Amenophis III.
376 “Assat mariya elme,” or perhaps “Assutti elme” (“in marriage to the youth”). There is no statement that shows Dusratta’s daughter to have married Amenophis III. She married his son, and is called “daughter-in-law” of Queen Teie (11 B. M.).
377 The gold came from Nubia and Abyssinia. (See Brugsch, “Hist. Egypt,” i. pp. 287, 310.)
378 In Aramaic “Gilia,” in the native tongue “Gilias,” with the Mongol termination of the nominative indefinite.
379 “Ikhibin,” possibly Kaban Maden in Armenia.
380 “Si-migi-s” is apparently a Mongol title for some deity, “the eye of night” (or “of sunset”), either the moon or the evening star.
381 “Khalci,” either Chalcis near Aleppo, or the “Land of the Khal” or “Phœnicians.” (Karnak list, No. 140.)
382 The Minyans (Jer. li. 27; and in Ps. xlv. 8, Targum) lived west of Lake Van. The Hyksos are called Men, or Menti in Egyptian texts. Apepi, the Hyksos King, adored Set, or Sut, who was adored also by the Hittites, and from whom Dusratta’s father, Sut-tarna (“Set is his lord”) was probably named. It would appear that the Hyksos, Hittites, and Armenians, were of the same race. The land of the Men is said to have been near Assyria, and east of Syria, which agrees. (See Brugsch, “Hist. Egypt,” i. pp. 210, 233, 234, 239.) The Minyæ of Herodotus (i. 146; iv. 145-148) are noticed as mixed with Aryans in Ionia, and in Lacedæmon were regarded as descendants of sailors in the Argo—perhaps from Colchis and the Caucasus. See what is said as to the similarity of the presents from Armenia (26 B.), and the art of Mycenæe and Troy, which is of Asiatic origin.
383 Harran (Gen. xi. 31, etc.), now Harrân, was on the south border of Dusratta’s kingdom, marching with Assyria. (Compare 24 B.)
384 “Tadukhipa,” a Mongol name, “possessing sweetness.”
385 Probably Teie is here meant, as there is no notice of Gilukhipa. She may have died.
386 “Walk after” for “obey” or “worship,” is used just as in Biblical Hebrew.
387 The broken name was “Nabkhuriya,” or Amenophis IV, as is clear from the next paragraph. He was also the husband of Tadukhipa, as here stated. (See 11 B. M.)
388 “Sitatama,” a Mongol name, apparently “fair-faced.” “Suttarna,” also Mongolic, “Sut is his Lord.”
389 As Gilukhipa was married during the reign of Suttarna (apparently from Egyptian sources in the tenth year of Amenophis III, or about 1490 B.C.), it is possible that “Teie” is here intended; but her father’s name was Iuaa, or Ivaa, and it is not clear what relation she was to Dusratta. From 11 B. it seems clear that they were related, and later in the present letter he mentions the “father of Teie,” apparently as living with him after his own father’s death. The syllables “Ivve” (perhaps for “Ivaa”) precede the father’s name, but as the text is here broken, it is not certain that these syllables represent a personal name. Perhaps Teie was Dusratta’s cousin. She was certainly of royal birth, and is represented as very fair, but with dark hair. The words “a daughter” may mean only “a young woman.”
390 Khai was sent to Aziru (31 B.), which again shows the date of the Canaanite rebellion to have been early.
391 This agrees with 27 B. as regards Dusratta’s conquests in the Hittite country.
392 As Amenophis IV was married already in the reign of Amenophis III, his mother’s marriage evidently took place some twenty years at least before the date of this letter.
393 Apparently this was written at least four years after the death of Amenophis III, or about 1450 B.C. at earliest.
394 The lands given when Tadukhipa was married.
395 “Mazipalali,” a Mongol name, “hero with the sword.”
396 Indicating that these Mongols were not monogamists.
397 Mongol name, “Ar-Tessupas,” “worshipper of Tessupas” (Rimmon). Other Mongol names occur in 27 B. (in the native speech) including Asali (“joyful”) and Artatan (“strong soldier”). If Teie’s name was Mongolic, it would mean “bright.”
398 Similar extradition is noticed in the treaty between Rameses II and Kheta Sar, the Hittite king, a century later.
399 The signs _IZCU_, _SAK_, _TAK_ (“weapon, stone, head”) seem to indicate a stone axe such as the Carians used. Battle-axes of flint are noticed in the time of Thothmes III. (Brugsch, “Hist. Egypt,” i. p. 342.)
400 This letter may, perhaps, be earlier than the preceding.
401 From a later letter (1 B. M.) it seems that the foreign ladies were shown to envoys from their parents, to enable them to report as to their health.
402 Or “the curious things.”
403 Or, perhaps, “but letters are received.”
404 This agrees with the letters from Babylonia in showing the disturbed state of the countries between Armenia and Egypt early in the reign of Amenophis IV, due to the revolts of Hittites, Amorites, and Hebrews.
405 The two-headed eagle was a Hittite emblem; it is also found at Mycenæ.
406 Iron from Asia is believed to have been known yet earlier (Brugsch. “Hist. Egypt,” i. pp. 342, 354). It was known in the fourteenth century B.C. by its Semitic name, “berzil.”
407 Clearly written to Teie, as Amenophis IV is mentioned as her son.
408 “Yuni,” as a Mongol name, would mean “true.”
409 “Rimmon Nirari” is an Assyrian name, but the king so called lived a good deal later. The rank of this writer is evidently inferior, but not as inferior as that of the Canaanite chiefs. He may have been an Assyrian prince, and perhaps wrote to Amenophis III. “Nukhasse” Dr. Bezold supposes to be the “Anaugas” of the records of Thothmes III, an unknown region in Syria. I have supposed it to be Merash, reading “Markhasse.”
410 This king, unknown before, was probably older than Amenophis III, who married his daughter, who was marriageable before the writer’s father died.
411 As in the previous case (82 B.). See p. 236.
412 Probably Irtabi (1 B.).
413 The month names are written in ideograms of Accadian origin.
414 This King’s date has been placed as late as 1400 B.C., but the dates are not accurately fixed. His daughter appears to have married Burnaburias of Babylon before 1450 B.C. (“Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch.” i. p. 69). His predecessor, Buzur, Assur, had settled the Assyrian boundary with Burnaburias. (Ibid., p. 68.)
415 This interruption (see also the letter from Chaldea, 18 B., in the later reign of Horus) was probably due to the Syrian revolt (compare 23 B., 7 B., and 8 B.), showing that the power of Egypt, broken in 1480 B.C., was still unrecognized as late as 1400 B.C., which brings us near the time when Rameses II recognized the independence of the Hittites, about 1360 B.C. (See p. 241.)
416 Supposed to have reigned about 1550 B.C.: presents from Assyria were received by Thothmes III even earlier (Brugsch, “Hist. Egypt,” i. p. 328), including chariots and cedar-wood.
417 Burnaburias appears to have reigned about 1450 B.C., or a little later. As regards the dates of Egyptian kings, they rest on the statement (see Brugsch, “Hist.,” i. p. 395) that the star Sothis rose on the 28th of Epiphi, in the reign of Thothmes III, and on the date of the new moon of various months in the same reign. The Egyptian year was a year of 365 days, and therefore vague as regarded the sidereal year. The risings of Sothis (Sirius) are recorded (“Decree of Canopus”) in the later Ptolemaic times as they occurred in connection with the Egyptian year, changing one day every four solar years; and the Rosetta stone fixes the calendar. From the rising of Sothis we should obtain a date about 1598 B.C. as falling in the reign of Thothmes III; and from the coincidences of the new moon we should obtain 1574 B.C. as the thirty-fourth and 1585 B.C. as the twenty-third years of his reign. He would, therefore, accede 1608 B.C. Dr. Brugsch places his accession about 1600 B.C.
418 This indicates the beginning of the Syrian wars in the reign of Amenophis III.
419 Apparently a Babylonian princess was to be sent to Egypt, and an Egyptian princess to Babylon. The two royal families were already allied by the marriage of Irtabi, and yet earlier of the sister of Callimmasin (1 B. M.), even if no Egyptian princess had been granted to the latter. The writer’s son was probably Carakhardas, who succeeded him.
420 Zalmu was a Babylonian. See the next letter.
421 Khai was still living in the reign of Amenophis IV.
422 “Siiri,” “a company of merchants,” as in Hebrew.
423 Or “advised this.” The foes attacking Egypt were at some distance from Babylonia, and the news only came by the envoy from Egypt.
424 “Sumatta.” Compare “Shammah” (Gen. xxxvi. 13-17), a proper name, perhaps, from the same root.
425 “Khinna tuni” would mean “inhabiting Khinna,” see Khini (64 B. M., p. 25), but more probably Hannathon in lower Galilee, east of Accho, is intended, now Kefr’ Anân.
426 See Zatatna and Surata, kings of Accho (93 B., 95 B.), p. 249. This, taken with the name of Neboyapiza in the latter letter, indicates a date early in the reign of Amenophis IV.
427 Alasiya was apparently a maritime region beyond the tributary Egyptian States, and not either in Babylonia (Shinar) nor in the Hittite country (5 B. M.); probably it is the Elishah of the Bible on the south shores of Asia Minor. (See my note “P. E. F. Quarterly Statement,” January, 1892, p. 44.) Elishah (Gen. x. 4; Ezek. xxvii. 7) was a maritime region. The diffusion westward of a Semitic population in Cilicia has long been suspected to have occurred early.
428 Semitic personal names, showing the worship of Ea and Baal in Elishah.
429 The signs SAL US indicate “female servants.”
430 “Lukki,” perhaps the Lycians, or perhaps the Ligyes of Herodotus, on the borders of Matiene (vii. 72). They appear to be the Laka who lived in the Taurus, the Leku of Egyptian records (Brugsch, ii. pp. 44, 54, 116, 124) mentioned with other tribes of north Syria, and with the Shakalisha—perhaps Cilicians.
431 “An-Amar-ut” (“sun-disk”) I have supposed to be the name of Khu-en-Aten (“glory of the sun-disk”), a title apparently of Amenophis IV (Brugsch, “Hist. Egypt,” i. p. 441); but it may, of course, refer to the god so called (see note, p. 198). The King of Egypt is called the sun-god in many of the letters in this collection.
432 The sign KHU means “bird,” but also “glory” and “prince.” “Ilid KHUMES” I take to mean “born of princes.” Others have rendered it “who trains birds,” but it would rather mean “who gives birth to birds,” which is impossible.
433 The name of the King is everywhere written in full, with the two cartouches.
434 Here and in other places a gap in the tablet has been filled up by the corresponding sentence in the inscription of Medinet Habou.
435 The plants.
436 Allusion to the festival of the coronation.
437 The τριακονητηρις here and in the title of the King has been employed as we should say a “century.”
438 Literally, life, health, and strength.
_ 439 I.e._, the flocks of the temple’s estates.
440 The defaced passages ran thus, “Adoration of Osiris by the steward of the flocks (Amen-mes), son of the Lady Nefer-t-ari.”
441 Ave!
442 Vide Goodwin, in Chabas; Mélanges III, Tom. I, pl. 257.
443 Hermopolis magna.
444 The entrance to the dwelling of the dead.
445 The words “paut” and “paut-ti,” or double-paut, are connected with the idea of “creation.”
446 ΝΟΥΝ, νουν, abyssus.
447 “Mesess,” sky, vault, and veil.
448 Ritual, ch. XVIII. Lepsius, “Todtenbuch,” xi. ch. XVIII. ix. e. 17. I. 62.
449 Literally, “for a number of times.”
450 The two long feathers which adorn the head-attire of the Sun-god.
451 “Sensen,” fraternize.
452 Sam.
453 Beneficent force.
454 The great dwelling of Seb is the earth itself.
_ 455 I.e._, To the lord of justice.
456 The entire north.
457 Or, satiating abundance.
458 The exact meaning is the French “combler.”
459 The papyrus is much worn here. The name of the place is perhaps “Pamakar of the sky.”
460 Indian fig.
461 “Sestsou-em-païf-nakhtou Ousormara” is the name of a fortress built by Rameses II, in Syria or Palestina, and different from Ouati. The name means “Rameses II in his victories.”
462 The order is quite contradictory. How can it be disobeyed, and how obeyed?
463 Or, gone to the gap to which the dead went in the Sun-boat.
464 Syrians as prisoners of war.
465 Negroes.
466 Cedar or acacia.
467 A kind of balsam.
468 Syria.
469 Or cattle.
470 Or industrious, “rut.”
471 Dead or departed.
472 If this rendering is correct, the meaning must be that the god of the Nile is the secret source of light; see § 3, l. 5, and § 8, l. 1. The attributes of Egyptian gods, who represent the unknown under various aspects, are interchangeable to a great extent; here the Nile is Ammon, doing also the work of Ra. Dr. Birch suggests that the rendering may be, “hiding his course night and day.”
473 Ra, the Sun-god, who is represented as delighting in flowers; see Ritual, c. lxxxi, “I am the pure lily which comes out of the fields of Ra.”
474 The Nile-god traverses heaven; his course there corresponds to that of the river on earth.
475 See x. 6. This is obscure, but it may mean that the Nile-god protects the newly sown fields from the birds.
_ 476 I.e._, he sets them at work. Thus Ritual, c. xv. 20, “Ra, the giver of food, destroys all place for idleness, cuts off all excuse.”
477 As they are by idleness; see Ritual, cxxv. p. cclv. (Birch).
_ 478 I.e._, he makes it ready for cultivation.
479 Their joy and gratitude respond to his advance.
480 Num is the Nile-god regarded as giving life.
481 The Egyptian word corresponds to Αρσαφης, which, according to Plutarch, signifies τὸ ἀνδρεῖον. (Isis et Osiris, c. 37.) The Egyptians, like all ancient people, identify terror with strength or greatness.
482 This scriptural phrase comes in abruptly. It is probably drawn from some older source.
483 The true Deity is not represented by any image. This is a relic of primeval monotheism: out of place as referring to the Nile, but pointing to a deeper and sounder faith. Compare the laws of Manu, i. 5-7.
484 See last line of § 13. There are no shrines covered, as usual, with colored hieroglyphics. The whole of this passage is of extreme importance, showing that, apart from all objects of idolatrous worship, the old Egyptian recognized the existence of a supreme god, unknown and inconceivable, the true source of all power and goodness. Compare the oldest forms of the 17th chapter of the funeral Ritual in Lepsius’s “Aelteste Texte.”
485 1 Ki. viii. 27.
486 Is. xi. 13, 14.
487 Or “thou givest them counsels, orderest all their goings.”
_ 488 I.e._, “all magistrates are the servants of the deity, and administer his law from South to North.”
489 Maspero “par lui est bue l’eau (les pleurs) de tous les yeux,” _i.e._ “he wipes away tears from all eyes.”
490 Dr. Birch, to whom I am indebted for this rendering, observes that the goddess Neith is often represented with two crocodiles sucking her breasts.
_ 491 I.e._, “The Nile fills all mortals with the languor of desire, and gives fecundity.”
_ 492 I.e._, “without needing rain, the gift of the goddess of heaven.” Such seems to be the meaning of a very obscure passage.
493 See note on § 1.
494 The meaning is, evidently, that he combines the attributes of Ptah the Demiurge, and Kabes, an unknown god.
495 All things serviceable to man—arms, implements, etc.
496 This seems to mean, “he gives oracles at his shrine.” Observe the inconsistency of this with § 5.
497 Causing scarcity of food in the land. See Ex. viii. 18, 21.
498 In a season of scarcity prayers are offered for supply of water. The following lines seem to describe great haste when the inundation comes on; none wait for their clothing, even when valuable, and the nightly solemnities are broken up: but the passage is obscure.
499 Literal answer, “_i.e._, with thanks and prayers, when thou bringest the water in abundance.”
500 See II. 2.
501 The gold represents the preciousness of the gift of food.
502 This is often mentioned in the inscriptions among the most precious stones.
503 See note on II. 4.
504 Which he ate when he could get nothing else.
505 An allusion to the legend that the Nile comes forth from two openings in the South.
506 See V, last line.
507 The Pharaoh.
508 The two regions.
509 “At the entertainments of the rich, just as the company is about to rise from the repast, a small coffin is carried round, containing a perfect representation of a dead body; it is in size sometimes of one, but never more than two cubits, and as it is shown to the guests in rotation the bearer exclaims, ‘Cast your eyes on this figure; after death you yourself will resemble it: drink, then, and be happy.’ ”—Herodotus, “Euterpe,” xxviii.
510 “The Song of the Harper” in the tomb of Nefer-hotep bears a great resemblance to this composition. See Dümichen, “Historische Inschriften,” ii. pl. 40.
511 Or, perhaps, “the little ones, the children.”
512 Imhotep, the son of the primeval deity Ptah, was the mythical author of various arts and sciences. The Greeks spelled the name Ἰμούθης, Imouth, but more frequently substituted the name Ἀσκλήπιος, Asclepios.
513 Hartatef was the son of King Menkera (Mycerinus), to whom the discovery of part of the Ritual, cap. lxiv. is attributed, and who was the author of a mystical work.
514 Compare the Assyrian phrase “The land men cannot return from,” “Descent of Ishtar,” “Records of the Past,” Vol. i. p. 143, p. 5.
_ 515 I.e._, “of the mourners.”
516 Here follows a lacuna.
517 2 Anastasi, p. 8, l. 5, to p. 9, l. 1.
518 2 Anastasi, p. 9, l. 2, to p. 10, l. 1.
519 The phrase which I have translated “the way of Amen” is literally “the water of Amen.” In Egypt the river Nile was the great road or highway, hence by an easy metaphor the water was used to signify “the way”; that is, the will, command, or rule
520 2 Anastasi, p. 10, l. 1.
521 Tum or Atum (the setting sun), Lord of Heliopolis.
522 Heliopolis, the city of Tum.
523 Heliopolis, the city of Tum.
524 Or, “do not censure me.”
525 Literally, “without his body.” It seems to mean weakness, mutilation, or disability.
526 Literally, “upon my mouth.”
527 Lacuna.
528 2 Anastasi, p. 5, l. 6.
529 Literally, “in health, life, and strength”; but the King being the subject of the wish, I have ventured to Anglicize the phrase as above.
530 The King Meneptah, son of Rameses II, and his immediate successor.
531 The Sun.
532 A form of the Sun-god of the West, the chief god of Heliopolis.
533 Lacuna.
534 Lacuna.
535 Lacuna.
536 Lacuna.
537 The panther’s skin was the special characteristic of the dress of the priest of Khem the Vivifier.
538 Lacuna.
539 Lacuna.
540 Rannu, an Egyptian goddess who presided over the harvest.
541 Lacuna.
542 Lacuna.
543 Lacuna.
544 An or On, “the house of the Obelisk,” or Heliopolis.
545 Thebes.
546 Arabia.
547 Palestine or Arabia.
548 Chem.
549 Mahennu.
550 Uati.
551 Frequent allusions are made in the papyri to the production of created things from the eyes of Ra or of Horus. Noxious things were supposed to be produced from the eye of Set or Typhon.
552 Thebes.
553 Heliopolis.
554 The name Amen means “secret,” or “hidden.”
555 Harmachis.
556 Thebes.
557 Heliopolis.
558 The serpent
559 Creator.
560 The diadem.
561 Many of the phrases in this beautiful hymn are ambiguous, even where the original text is perfect.
562 This note is subscribed in the original papyrus.
563 “At the front of the morning.” Some prefer rendering the words “every morning.”
564 Perhaps “Approach thou thy mother Nut.” “Neb Ra,” “Lord Ra,” seems clearly the reading of the text given in Lepsius, unless the scribe has twice put the hieratic character for “nuter” instead of the usual form of “h”; “neb heh,” “lord of eternity,” as Maspero renders it, is what might rather have been expected. In the following, “Isis and Nephthys” is the version of M. Maspero; the text appears to me to give Osiris.
565 Perhaps, “he cannot advance.”
566 Nehaher, “ghastly faced,” an infernal demon, sometimes represented as a serpent.
567 “Thou givest life;” this may be understood also as imperative, “give life.”
568 Bech, the Eastern hill of sunrise. Its opposite height was called Manu.
569 “Thou turnest gloom into repose.” I am not confident that the meaning of the original, “ta-k neshen enti ster,” is correctly given in these words; perhaps “thou makest the adversary prostrate” may more truly convey the sense.
570 Isis and Nephthys.
571 The name of Osiris is invariably prefixed to that of the deceased, the latter being always assimilated to this god.
572 The first two sections are evocations addressed to Osiris defunct, expressing the grief of his two sisters at the loss of their brother, and referring to the search made by them after him.
573 One of the names of Osiris.
574 Surname of Osiris.
575 Surname of Osiris.
576 The following sections are invocations addressed to Osiris under the forms of the Moon and the Sun, expressing the joy of his two sisters at having thus perceived him.
577 The Sacred-Eye here indicates the disk of the moon.
578 The sun in all his power.
579 The setting sun.
580 The star of Sirius, where the soul of Isis dwelt.
581 Isis having with the aid of her sister Nephthys reunited the parts of Osiris’s body, dispersed by Set, formed of them the infant Horus.
582 Neith personified the Lower Hemisphere, whence Osiris, the Rising Sun, appeared under the form of Horus.
583 The sun nightly sinks into the bosom of his mother Neith, who personifies the Lower Hemisphere of heaven.
584 Osiris, again coming forth under the form of Horus-conqueror (or the Rising Sun), becomes the Lord of the Universe.
585 The high-priest, reader in the panegyrics.
586 The high-priest presiding over funeral ceremonies and rituals.
587 The Great Hall wherein the Judgment-scene was painted.
588 The heavenly region.
589 The universal being.
590 “Under the form of.”
591 The earth.
592 Gods.
593 “Who speaks to himself.”
594 Crater.
595 The weeper.
596 A fish, most likely the “phagros,” the appearance of which was connected with the inundation.
597 The divine eye.
598 Vivifies.
599 The meaning of this name is doubtful.
600 The god of the spheres.
601 Glorifies himself.
602 A title of Osiris, literally “He who resides in the West.”
603 The covering of Ati, the air(?).
604 Solar disk.
605 The splendid one.
606 Gives a body to.
607 Creates.
608 Perhaps Anubis.
609 Solar disk.
610 Lacuna.
611 Who speaks to himself.
612 “He who raises his soul.”
613 “The high spirit.”
614 Flesh, or substance.
615 Literally, “the shining face.”
616 “He who is on the ground.”
617 Doubtful meaning.
618 “Creates,” “fashions.”
619 The genii of the watches of the night.
620 Lacuna.
621 He who opens the earth.
622 He who is armed with teeth.
623 Doubtful meaning.
624 Ra under the form of a scarab.
625 Lacuna.
626 Lacuna.
627 Teb Temt.
628 Lacuna.
629 Lacuna.
630 Apophis, the great serpent of evil.
631 The royal Osiris.
632 The god of the two horizons.
633 Unknown constellation.
634 The moon.
635 The solar disk.
636 Lacuna.
637 Lacuna.
638 Hu, the creative life; Sa, the intelligence.
639 The water of the East.
640 The water of the West.
641 He who comes forth from Mehur.
642 He who is in Netur.
643 One of the halls of the empyrean, which is here personified as a goddess.
644 The lower region.
645 The striped headdress generally worn on the statues of the kings.
646 The planet Mars.
647 Thoth.
648 Thoth.
649 The eternal being.
650 He who embraces.
651 The God of the Nose. Each part of the body of the deceased becomes a god. The same is found in the funereal texts, and especially in the “Book of the Dead,” ch. xlii.
652 Osiris.
653 The Osiris is an hermaphrodite being.
654 Lacuna.
655 Lacuna.
656 His own form.
657 The sceptre which has the form of a hook, and commonly held in the hand of Osiris.
658 The white and red crown, which is the emblem of dominion over both Upper and Lower Egypt.
659 His existences.
660 His existences.
661 Tonen.
662 Tonen.
663 Nut personified the Upper Hemisphere of heaven.
664 Here was written the name of the deceased.
665 Probably a substance used for purifying and perfuming.
666 The earth.
667 Heaven.
668 The setting sun.
669 The solar bark.
670 Osiris.
671 Another version: uniteth itself (to) the breath of thy nostrils.
672 Another version, “by thy Lord, Ra.”
673 Osiris.
674 Those of the mummy.
675 This is the acknowledgment of the resurrection effected by the ceremonies of the mummification. I am indebted to the friendly aid of M. Chabas for the translation of this and one or two other passages.
676 Corrupted passage restored by means of the manuscripts of the Louvre.
677 Another version: “thou art received.”
678 Corrupted passage: translation uncertain.
679 Heliopolis.
680 Hermopolis.
681 Another version: “the living.”
682 Literally, “the Westerners.”
683 Illegible passage restored by means of the manuscripts of the Louvre.
684 Another version: “this volume of the Book of Respirations is made for him and the souls of the gods.”
685 M. de Rougé reads “Atesch,” but there are very strong reasons for believing that the first syllable in this word is to be read “Kat,” not “At.” Of this opinion is M. Brugsch. The Syrian name was probably “Kadesh” (the Holy City), which the Egyptians, not having the letter “d,” wrote “Katesh.” There were several places so called in the East, but the Kadesh here mentioned has not been satisfactorily identified with any of them.
686 The word “horse” is used in the original for a chariot, Homer uses the plural _ippoi_ in a similar manner.