chapter is read by one who is in the boat of Rā, he is towed like the
gods, he is like one of them, and he prescribes what is done to him in
the Netherworld.
When this chapter has been read to its end, this is the copy of the
order of offerings made when the Eye is full: four burning altars for
Rā, four for the Eye, and four for these gods; what there is on each of
them is: five good pointed white loaves; five pointed fruit cakes, five
baskets of pastry, one measure of incense, one of fruit and one of roast
meat.
NOTES.
The ancient papyri do not contain this chapter. The translation is made
from the Turin _Todtenbuch_, supplemented and corrected from hieratic
papyri in Paris. Its real meaning is difficult to understand. It seems
that under symbolical expressions it refers to an astronomical
phenomenon, the renewal of the sun after the winter solstice. According
to the principle which I have adopted, to maintain my predecessor’s
interpretations, I translated ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “the Eye is full”
(_cf._ Notes on ch. 125, p. 214). But as it seems evident that here the
two eyes of the sun are the two periods of his apparent course, the
decrease and the growth, I should translate “the period is
accomplished,” this period being that of the decrease after which the
sun enters its ascending course, or according to Egyptian ideas begins
again to grow. It is natural that the completing of the period should be
hailed with joy by Rā, since it is the final victory over his enemies,
which sets him free and allows him to rise again as at the beginning.
The sign of his triumph is that he puts the ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ on his
head, as we see in the vignette.
1. Why this list of gods comes here, it is difficult to understand. It
seems quite out of place. Their number varies according to the papyri.
In some of them, they are put after the text in vertical columns. I
presume they are the divinities often alluded to as _these gods_. They
are the witnesses of the scene of Rā rising with the Eye on his head.
2. I have adopted the reading of the Paris papyrus, III, 58,
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
The vignettes consist, in the Turin papyrus, of the deceased worshipping
a black Anubis lying down on a naos, and having on his back the sign
⁂. This god is the ⁂⁂ first mentioned. Behind him are the
⁂⁂⁂⁂, a human form with the Eye on its head, and Harmachis.
Several papyri have only the Eye and Harmachis.
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PLATE XLIV.
BOOK OF THE DEAD.
[Illustration: CHAPTERS CXLI AND CXLII. =Berlin Mus., 2.=]
[Illustration: