CHAPTER LXXVIII.
_Chapter whereby one assumeth the form of the Sacred Hawk._(1.)
Oh Horus! come thou to Tattu, make clear to me the paths, and help me to
make the round of my dwelling places.
Look thou upon me and exalt me, impart to me Terror, and rouse in me
Might, so that the gods of the Tuat may fear me, that their battlements
war in my behalf there; and that _he_ may not assail and slay me in the
house of darkness, who enwrappeth the dead; the god who hideth his name;
or that the like be done by them.
Oh ye gods who give ear to the words; ye foremost ones, ye who are in
the train of Osiris; hush ye up, gods, that which a god speaketh with a
god who is giving ear to a case of Divine Law!
And that which I have said to him say thou, Osiris.
Grant to me that change of existence which hath issued from thy mouth on
my behalf, that I may see thine own attributes and survey thy
Powers.(2.)
Grant that I may come forth and have the mastery of my two feet, and
that I may be there like the Inviolate One on high; that the gods of the
Tuat may fear me and their battlements war on my behalf.
Grant that I may run together with thy Runners, but remain firm upon my
pedestal like the Lord of Life; let me be united with Isis the Mighty;
may they protect me against slaughter, from him who looked upon death.
Let me advance to the goal(3.) of Heaven. I claim words from Seb, and I
pray for sustenance from the Inviolate one on high, so that the gods of
the Tuat may fear me, and that their battlements may war on my behalf,
when they see thy supplies for me.
I am one of those Bright ones in Glory: may my attributes be fashioned
like the attributes of him who cometh forth to Tattu; may I be
invested(4.) with the Soul of him who telleth thee what concerneth me.
Oh impart to me Terror and rouse in me Might that the gods of the Tuat
may fear me and their battlements war on my behalf.
I am the Bright one in Glory, whom Tmu himself hath called into being,
and my origin is from the apple of his eye,(5.) who hath made and
glorified and honoured those who are to be with him. For he is the
Unique in Heaven, whom they extol as he cometh forth from the Horizon,
and the gods and glorified ones who are with him fear him.
I am one of the worms which the eye of the Lord of Oneness hath brought
into being.
Verily, before Isis was, who gave birth to Horus, I grew up and waxed
old, and was honoured beyond those in Glory, who were with me.
And I arose as the Sacred Hawk, whom Horus had invested with his own
Soul for the seisin of his inheritance from Osiris at the Tuat.
And the god in Lion form, who presideth over those who are at the House
of the Nemmes(6.) which is in its caverns, said to me:—
“Go back to the confines of Heaven, for thou art invested with the
attributes of Horus: for thee the Nemmes is not, but free utterance is
thine, even to the confines of Heaven.”
And I took possession of the inheritance of Horus from Osiris at the
Tuat, and Horus repeated to me that which his father Osiris had said to
him in the early time, on the Burial Day of Osiris.
“The Nemmes hath been given to me by the god in Lion form, that thou
mayest advance and go upon the path of Heaven, so that those who are on
the confines of the Horizon may see thee and that the gods of the Tuat
may fear thee, and that their battlements may war on thy behalf.”
[Aahat.(7.)]
At the divine words all they who are at the funereal shrine of the Lord
of Oneness bend low.
Oh thou who art raised above thy coffin and bereft of the Nemmes, the
god in Lion form hath reached the Nemmes to me, and wings are given to
me.
He hath given me strength through his back, through his back, and
through his most powerful might, that I fall not upon Shu.(8.)
I propitiate my fair brother, the Master of the two Uræi.
I, even I, am he who knoweth the paths of Heaven; its breezes are upon
me, the raging Bull stoppeth me not as I advance whithersoever there
lieth a wreck in the Field of Eternity, and I pilot myself towards the
darkness and the suffering of the deceased ones of Osiris.
I come daily through the house of the god in Lion form, and I pass forth
from it to the house of Isis the Mighty, that I may see glorious,
mysterious and hidden matters, even as she hath caused me to see the
divine offspring of the Great One.
I am invested with the soul of Horus, so that I see what is in it, and
when I speak hard by the Doors of Shu they respond to the moment.(9.)
It is I who have charge of the seisin of the inheritance of Horus from
Osiris at the Tuat.
It is I, even I, who am Horus in Glory. I am master of his diadem, I am
master of his Light, and I advance to the Goal of Heaven. Horus is on
his seat, Horus is upon his throne.
My face is that of the Sacred Hawk, my back that of the Sacred Hawk: I
am equipped as his master.
I come forth to Tattu, that I may see Osiris.
I incline myself before him, I incline myself to Nut: they behold me,
and the gods behold me; the Eye of Horus and the Flame which is in the
Two Eyes. They stretch out their arms to me. And I stand erect and
prevail in opposition to evil.
They open to me the bright paths; they open to me the bright paths; they
see my attributes, they listen to my words.
Hail to you, ye gods of the Tuat, ye of repellent face and aggressive
front, who tow along the Stars which set, and make the bright paths of
the Hematit(10.) for the Lord of the Soul Most Mighty: Horus hath
ordained that ye should lift up your faces and look upon me.
And I display myself as the Sacred Hawk whom Horus hath invested with
his soul for taking the possession of his inheritance from Osiris at the
Tuat.
I set aside the long-haired gods and passed on through those who had
charge of their dens in my sight: I made my way and passed on and
reached those who presided over their caverns, and those who had charge
of the House of Osiris; and I speak to them, and make them recognize the
god of Mighty Terrors, who is armed with horns against Sutu. I make them
recognize who it is that hath seized for himself the divine provisions
and hath equipped himself with the powers of Tmu.
A gracious pass grant they to me, the gods of the Tuat, as many as there
are who preside over their caverns and have charge of the House of
Osiris.
Behold me, I am come to you and have carried off and put together my
forms....(11.)
I make bright the paths which are in the Horizon and the Hematit in
Heaven. I make firm the battlements on behalf of Osiris, and I make the
paths bright in his behalf.
I have done according to the command that I should come forth to Tattu
to see Osiris, and tell him of the fortunes of that great Son of his
whom he loveth, and who hath pierced the heart of Sutu. I have seen the
death.
Yea, I tell them the divine plans which Horus carried out in the absence
of his father Osiris.
O Lord of the Soul Most Mighty, behold me; I come, raise thou me up that
I may see the Tuat.
May all the paths which are in Heaven and upon earth be open to me, and
let there be no repulse for me.
Thou art exalted upon thy throne, Osiris; thine hearing is good, Osiris;
thy back is strong, Osiris; thy head, Osiris, is firmly fastened, thy
throat is made fast, thine heart is glad, thou art confident in the
strength and courage of those around thee. Thou art established in
strength as the Bull of Amenta.
Thy son Horus is seated upon thy throne, and all that liveth is subject
to him. Endless generations are at his service, endless generations are
in fear of him; the cycle of the gods is in fear of him, the cycle of
the gods is at his service. So saith Tmu, the Sole Force of the gods;
not to be altered is that which he hath spoken.
Horus is the offering and the altar of offering; twofold of aspect; it
is Horus who hath reconstituted his father and restored him. Horus is
the father, Horus is the mother, Horus is the brother, Horus is the
kinsman. Horus proceedeth from the essence of his father and the
corruption which befell him.
He ruleth over Egypt, and the gods are in his service. He hath carried
off endless generations, and given life to endless generations with his
Eye; the sole one of its Lord, the Inviolate one.
NOTES.
This chapter is seldom found in the complete shape which it has in the
Turin _Todtenbuch_. The shortest copy of it is that in the tomb of
Horhotep (_Miss. Arch. Fr._, p. 158); it has but a few lines; but they
are very important, as giving the earliest form of the formula
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, which is an invocation to
the battlements. The common reading, which adds the pronominal suffix
⁂ both to the verb and to its subject, is ungrammatical. The papyri
_Au_, _Pg_, and _Ij_, rightly omit the suffix after the verb, in the
early part of the chapter.
The coffin of Amamu has a chapter of the same title, but with quite a
different text.
1. _Sacred Hawk._ Between this and the _Golden Hawk_ of the last chapter
the vignettes make no distinction but that of colour, which is
indicative of age rather than of kind. The typical Egyptian Hawk may be
identified with the Falco Lanarius, or with the Peregrinus, but
naturalists tell us that “the Lanier of Buffon is the perfect state of
the male Peregrinus,” and that “the Lanner of Pennant is a young female
Peregrine.”
2. _Thy powers_, ⁂ _baiu_.
3. _The goal_ ⁂⁂⁂ or ⁂⁂⁂, a word we have already met
in chapter 72 (_see_ Note 3), and which occurs later on in the present
chapter. It is apparently connected with the verb of motion,
⁂⁂⁂, and seems here to correspond to the Greek βαλβῖδες, or the
Latin _carceres_, the two posts which were at once the starting point
and the goal.
“signum unde reverti.
Scirent, et longos ubi circumflectere cursus.”[88]
4. _Invested_ ⁂⁂⁂⁂, which is connected with ⁂⁂⁂.
The determinative ⁂ is the symbol of investiture, which is also
expressed by the sign ⁂. A mummied person is called _Sāhu_, in virtue
of his investiture.
5. _Apple of the eye_, literally _point_, _thorn_; ⁂⁂⁂⁂.
6. The _Nemmes_ ⁂⁂ is the royal head-dress in the form of a wig.
This chapter is the only one in the Book of the Dead in which it is
referred to, but other religious texts mention it. It is one of the
objects provided for the deceased in the pictures of ancient coffins.
(See _Aelteste Texte_, p. 35.)
7. [Aahat.] In this place different MSS. introduce one or more words
followed by the sign ⁂, determinative of divinity. But the whole text
which follows is extremely unsatisfactory. The prudent scribe who copied
_Pg_ has the words “I am the great god,” and with them ends the chapter.
8. _Fall upon Shu_, or _before_ Shu, who represents Daylight.
9. The passage is obscure through the absence of the right determinative
⁂ after ⁂⁂. The portals of Shu, the gates of Morning, answer
the summons of the god who comes as Horus. ⁂ has the sense of _obviam
ire_, _occurrere_.
10. _Hematit_ ⁂⁂⁂, a place near the Horizon, not mentioned in
the Book of the Dead except in this chapter. It has disappeared in the
later recensions.
11. Here follow one or two divine names unknown to the copyists, and by
them written at random.
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Footnote 88:
_Aeneid_, V, 130.
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