CHAPTER XXIV.
_Chapter whereby the Words of Power are brought to a Person in the
Netherworld._
I am Chepera, the self-produced, on his Mother’s thigh.(1.)
The speed of bloodhounds is given to those who are in Heaven,[37] and
the mettle of hyaenas(2.) to those who belong to the Divine Circle.
Lo, I bring this my Word of Power, and I collect this Word of Power from
every quarter in which it is, more persistently(3.) than hounds of chase
and more swiftly than the Light.
O thou who guidest the Bark of Rā, sound is thy rigging and free from
disaster as thou passest on to the Tank of Flame.
Lo, I collect[38] this my Word of Power from every quarter in which it
is, in behalf of every person whom it concerneth, more persistently than
hounds of chase and more swiftly than Light; the same(4.) who create the
gods out of Silence, or reduce them to inactivity; the same who impart
warmth to the gods.
Lo, I collect this my Word of Power from every quarter in which it is,
in behalf of every person whom it concerneth, more persistently than
hounds of chase and more swiftly than the Light.
NOTES.
This is another of those chapters of which the antiquity is proved by
the coffins of Horhotep and Queen Mentuhotep. And even in the early
times to which these coffins belong it must have been extremely
difficult to understand. In the translation here given I have adhered as
closely as possible to the oldest texts, but these, as the variants
show, are not entirely trustworthy.
1. _Thigh._ This is the usual translation, which accords with the
frequent pictures of the goddess Nut, as the Sky, with the divine Scarab
in the position described.[39] But ⁂⁂⁂ signifies that which
_runs_, from ⁂⁂⁂ _uār_, run, _fugere_; and the noun (_the
runner_) is often applied to _running water_. It is the geographical
name of a river or canal. M. Naville has already pointed out that in the
Book of the Dead it has for variants ⁂⁂⁂ and ⁂⁂⁂, of
which _bath_ is a fair translation.
2. The names of these two animals (especially of the second) vary
greatly in the texts. But if we wish rightly to understand the sense of
the chapter, we must bear in mind that it is not the animals themselves
that are meant, but the characteristics implied by the names of the
animals. And as the Sanskrit _vṛkas_, the Greek λύκος, the old Slavonic
_vluku_, the Gothic _vulfs_, and our own _wolf_, signify the _robber_,
so does the Egyptian ⁂⁂⁂⁂, whether signifying _wolf_,
_wolfhound_, or _bloodhound_, indicate _speed_.
The names of the second animal in the earlier texts, whether they stand
for hyænas ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, or for other animals of the chase
(⁂⁂⁂⁂), imply either _speed_ or _ferocity_. And what must we
understand under the latter term? We must look to the context. It is of
a god speaking of himself and of his attributes. He is proud of them,
and certainly does not wish them to be taken in a bad sense. Nor is it
necessary that we should do so. We have only to remember what we learnt
at school.
Cicero (_de Sen._, 10, 33) contrasts the ‘ferocitas juvenum,’ the high
_pluck_ of the young, with the ‘infirmitas puerorum,’ and the ‘gravitas’
and ‘maturitas’ of later periods of life.
Livy uses the term _ferox_, in the same sense as Cicero.
What we have to understand of the Egyptian expression is, ‘mettlesome,
of high, unbridled spirit.’
In the later texts the _Bennu_ bird has been substituted for the beasts
of the chase.
3. The later texts read ⁂⁂, but all the earlier ones give another
word ⁂⁂ or ⁂⁂. This is often used in a bad sense, when
spoken of the enemy; but it merely implies tenacity, pertinacity,
obstinacy, which are, of course, very bad things in opposition, but in
themselves virtues of a high order.[40]
The word is used as a name for the divine Cynocephali
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ who appear at sunrise over the _Tank of
Flame_.
4.
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂,
_the same who bringeth into being the gods out of Silence, or reduceth
them to inactivity_.
In addition to this interesting utterance of Egyptian theology, we have
to note the idea of _Silence_ ⁂⁂⁂ as the origin of the gods, or
powers of nature. The notion was also current in the Greek world. The
writer of the _Philosophumena_ (VI, 22) speaks of ἡ ὑμνουμένη ἐκείνη
παρὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησι Ζιγή. It was from this source that the early Gnostic
Valentinus borrowed this item of his system. St. Irenaeus (_Haeres_, II,
14) charges him with having taken it from the theogony of the comic poet
Antiphanes.
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Footnote 37:
⁂⁂ _Nu_.
Footnote 38:
⁂.
Footnote 39:
See also in Plate XI the Vignette from chapter 17 in the Turin and all
the later papyri.
Footnote 40:
Columella speaks of the “contumacia pervicax boum.”
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