Chapter 112 relates how, owing to an imprudent request, Horus was the
victim of Sutu, who inflicted a wound on his eye, which caused him great
suffering, and the text adds: ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, _lo! he
ate his heart_. Renouf translates, “and wrath devoured his heart.” I
should prefer, “he regretted sorely (his foolish request).” I believe to
eat one’s heart to mean, “to feel regret, repentance, or remorse.” There
the abstract meaning is not difficult to find out; but in other cases,
as long as we have not discovered the key to the metaphor, we may go far
astray, or if we do not go beyond the literal explanation, we miss the
abstract sense, which is the true one.
However, because the work will not bear the character of finality,
because some obscurities will not be removed, and some difficulties
remain unsolved, there is no reason why a scholar like Renouf should
have shrunk from attempting the translation of the Book of the Dead, a
work which he had before his eyes for years, and which he considered as
the crown of his Egyptological labours.
The lecture quoted above gives us Renouf’s ideas as to the purpose and
the sense of the book: it is the beatification of the dead considered in
three aspects:
The renewed existence “as upon earth.” The deceased enjoys an existence
similar to that which he has led upon earth; he has the use of his
limbs, he eats and drinks and satisfies every one of his physical wants
exactly as in his former life. The gods themselves minister to him
occasionally, and contribute to his welfare and to his pleasures. The
bliss of the future state consists chiefly in the pleasures of
agricultural life.
Transformation. The deceased has the range of the entire universe in
every shape and form he desires. He can assume any appearance he likes.
But these transformations are not forced upon him; he has no definite
series to go through; they depend simply on his pleasure.
Identification with Osiris and other gods. The identification with
Osiris, which is already mentioned in the earliest parts of the book, is
taken for granted later on, since the name of the deceased is always
preceded by “Osiris.” He may be assimilated to other gods; for instance,
in the 42nd chapter every limb is assimilated to a different deity. This
Osirian nature gives the deceased the power to triumph over the numerous
enemies whom he has to face.
To these three benefits which the book confers on the deceased we should
add a fourth: viz., complete preservation from dismemberment and decay.
There is evidently in some of the prayers a remembrance of a time when
the deceased were dismembered at their burial; and this way of treating
the corpse is for the deceased an object of horror. The frequent mention
of reconstituting the body, the promises that no part of it shall be
taken away, all this shows of what supreme importance it was for him
that his body should remain intact. Without a well preserved body there
could be no life in the other world; its destruction implies the
destruction of the whole individual. This belief is the origin of
mummification, for decay is the strongest agent of dismemberment and the
certain ruin of the body.
These are the outlines of the principal tenets of the Book of the Dead.
If we inquire where they originated, there is no doubt that the bulk of
the book came from Heliopolis. It is the doctrine of that ancient city
and of its priests. Some of the chapters may be attributed to the
priests at Abydos, as M. Maspero suggests; but it seems certain that,
except for a small part, the birthplace of the Book of the Dead is the
city of Ra Tmu, the place connected with the oldest religious traditions
of the country, and which may rightly be called the religious capital of
Egypt.
_January, 1904._
EDOUARD NAVILLE.
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Footnote 1:
See _Introductory Note to Chapter CXL_.
Footnote 2:
The Hibbert Lectures, 1879, p. 172.
Footnote 3:
See also _Life Work_, t. III, p. 51, “The title of the Book of the
Dead,” and p. 59, “The Egyptian Book of the Dead.”
Footnote 4:
_Das Aegyptische Todtenbuch der XVIII bis XX Dynastie_,
zusammengestellt und herausgegeben von Edouard Naville, Berlin, 1886.
BOOK OF THE DEAD.