Egyptian Literature

Comprising

Egyptian Tales,

Hymns, Litanies, Invocations,

The Book Of The Dead,

And

Cuneiform Writings

Edited And With A Special Introduction By

Epiphanius Wilson, A.M.

New York And London

The Co-Operative Publication Society

The Colonial Press

CONTENTS

Special Introduction. The Book Of The Dead A Hymn To The Setting Sun Hymn And Litany To Osiris Litany Hymn To Rā Hymn To The Setting Sun Hymn To The Setting Sun The Chapter Of The Chaplet Of Victory The Chapter Of The Victory Over Enemies. The Chapter Of Giving A Mouth To The Overseer The Chapter Of Giving A Mouth To Osiris Ani Opening The Mouth Of Osiris The Chapter Of Bringing Charms To Osiris The Chapter Of Memory The Chapter Of Giving A Heart To Osiris The Chapter Of Preserving The Heart The Chapter Of Preserving The Heart The Chapter Of Preserving The Heart The Chapter Of Preserving The Heart The Heart Of Carnelian Preserving The Heart Preserving The Heart Preserving The Heart Rubric Beating Back The Crocodile Beating Back The Crocodile Repulsing Serpents Against Snakes Against Serpents Driving Away Apshait Driving Back The Merti Living By Air Living By Air Driving Back Rerek Repulsing The Eater Of The Ass Abolishing The Slaughterings Abolishing The Slaughterings Air And Water Dominion Over Elements Dominion Over Elements Dominion Over Elements Preservation Of The Soul Of Drinking Water Of Drinking Water Preservation From Scalding On Coming Forth By Day Chapter Of Knowledge Of Gaining Mastery Over Enemies Victory Over Enemies Coming Forth By Day Opening The Underworld Coming Forth By Day Coming Forth By Day Coming Forth By Day Coming Forth By Day Coming Forth By Day Of Lifting Up The Feet Of Journeying To Annu Of Transformation Of Performing Transformations Of Transformation Into A Hawk Of Transformation Into A Governor Of Transformation Into A God Transformation Into A Lotus Transformation Into A Lotus Transformation Into Ptah Transformation Into A Bennu Bird Transformation Into A Heron Of The Living Soul Of The Swallow The Serpent Sata Of The Crocodile Soul And Body Of Evil Recollections Of Rescue Of Opening The Tomb Of Not Sailing To The East Of The Ink-Pot And Palette Of Being Nigh Unto Thoth Of Being Nigh Unto Thoth Of Bringing A Boat Along In Heaven Of Bringing The Makhent Boat Of Entering The Boat Of Ra Of Protecting The Boat Of Ra Of Going Into The Boat Of Ra Of Knowing The Souls Of The East Of Sekhet-Hetepet Of Knowing The Souls Of Pe Of Knowing The Souls Of Nekhen Of Knowing The Souls Of Khemennu Of Coming Forth From Heaven Of Knowing The Souls Of Khemennu Of Receiving Paths Of Coming Forth From Re-Stau Of Coming Forth From Re-Stau Of Going About In The Underworld Of Entering Into The Great House Of Entering The Presence The Introduction To Maati The Introduction To Maati The Negative Confession Address To The Gods Of The Underworld Of The Hour Apes Of The Praise Of The Gods Adoration Of The Gods Of The Qerti Hymn Of Praise To Osiris Of Making Perfect The Khu Of Living Nigh Unto Ra Of Bringing Men Back To Earth Of Making Perfect The Khu Of Making Perfect The Khu For The New Moon Of Travelling In The Boat Of Ra Of Making Perfect The Khu Sailing In The Great Boat Of The Four Flames Egyptian Tales The Taking Of Joppa The Doomed Prince Anpu And Bata Setna And The Magic Book Tales Of The Magicians The Peasant And The Workman The Shipwrecked Sailor The Adventures Of Sanehat The Tell Amarna Tablets The Hittite Invasion Of Damascus The Amorite Treachery The War In Phœnicia Northern Palestine Southern Palestine Royal Letters Cuneiform Inscriptions And Hieratic Papyri The Great Tablet Of Rameses II At Abu-Simbel Hymn To Osiris Travels Of An Egyptian In The Fourteenth Century B.C. Dirge Of Menephtah Hymn To The Nile The Solemn Festal Dirge Of The Egyptians Hymns To Amen Hymn To Pharaoh The Song Of The Harper Hymn To Amen-Ra Hymn To Ra-Harmachis The Lamentations Of Isis And Nephthys The Litany Of Ra The Book Of Respirations The Epic Of Penta-Our Footnotes

SPECIAL INTRODUCTION.

The wonders of Egyptian archæology are the latest and most precious harvest of scholars and explorers. From Belzoni to Flinders Petrie there has been a succession of discoveries in the valley of the Nile with which it is hard for ordinary students to keep pace. Our knowledge of Egyptian life to-day is far clearer and more complete than Bentley’s or Porson’s acquaintance with the antiquities of Greece and Rome, and we have far more complete access to the treasures of Egyptian literature than Dante or Thomas Aquinas had to the remains of Attic poets and mystics. We know exactly how an Egyptian of the twelfth dynasty dressed; what was the position of women in Egypt; and what uniform was worn by the Egyptian soldiers who took part in the campaign against Khitasis. We can see Rameses II riding in his war-chariot; we know the very names of the horses by whose side his tame lion is running and thirsting for the blood of his master’s foes. We know all about the domestic animals, the funeral customs, the trades, the gods, the agriculture of the Nile valley thirty centuries ago. We see the whole many-sided civilization portrayed in the brightest colors in the poetry, the books of ritual, the hieratic inscriptions, the tablets, papyri, and hieroglyphics which day by day come to light in exhaustless abundance from the mounds and ruins of that fertile plain that stretches from Thebes to the Mareotic lake.

For instance, we can learn exact particulars about the mode in which Rameses II made war, from the poem of Penta-Our, a Theban writer of the fourteenth century B.C. It is only by a figure of speech that this poem can be called an epic; it is rather a historical narrative couched in terms of poetic exaggeration with the object of flattering the royal vanity of Pharaoh.

The campaign in which Rameses then engaged was directed against Kadesh, a city built on an island in the Orontes. It is, according to Penta-Our, inhabited by a people known as Khita, whose spies are brought into the tent of Rameses and questioned as to the whereabouts of the King of Kadesh. The spies are forced by blows to answer, and they tell the Egyptian monarch that the King of the Khita “is powerful with many soldiers, and with chariot soldiers, and with their harness, as many as the sand of the seashore, and they are ready to fight behind Kadesh.”

The King is very angry; for he had been deceived by false news to the effect that his enemy had fled in terror to Khilibu. “The fault is great,” he cries, “that the governors of the land and the vassal princes of Pharaoh have committed, in neglecting to watch the movements of the Khita.” He sends to bring back the legions he had sent away, and meanwhile the approach of the enemy is announced. The camp of Rameses is surprised by the Asiatics; many foot-soldiers are killed before they can seize their weapons, but a faithful band rallies in front of the royal quarters. Suddenly a cry is heard; Rameses has quickly put on his armor, seized his lance, ordered his war lion to be loosed, and dashed into the fight. Pharaoh with his master of the horse, Menni, is soon hemmed in by foes. “My Lord, O generous King!” cries Menni, “Egypt’s great protector in the day of battle! behold we stand alone in the midst of the enemy, for the archers and the chariots have left us. Let us return, that our lives may be saved. Save us, O my Lord, Rameses Miamun!” Then Rameses called upon Amen, his god, and under his protection charged the enemy, and “his hand devoured them in the space of an instant.” Five times he rushed upon them, and five times they repulsed him. The sixth time he breaks their ranks and regains his own lines. Then the legions of Ptah, which had returned to the camp, join the battle, and the Asiatics are routed. The first care of Rameses is to refresh his brave horses, Victory-in-Thebes and Maut-is-Satisfied. Neither they nor Rameses and his lion are wounded, though all stained with blood and dust, while the head-plumes of the team are torn and tattered and their caparison broken.

This is a brief account of the main incident in this Egyptian epic, which is written with life-like detail and animation. The war concludes with a treaty, and the marriage of Rameses with the daughter of the King of Kadesh, so that henceforth “the people of Egypt were of one mind with the princes of Khita, which had not been the case since the god Rā.”

The Egyptians have always been deeply impressed by the fact of human mortality, and much of their religious belief and religious ritual is taken up with the rites of burial, and detailed doctrines as to the experience of the soul after parting from the body. Their elaborate embalming of the dead springs from the desire to keep the mortal tenement prepared for the soul’s return to it. In their Book of the Dead is a full series of prayers, songs, and incantations to be employed at funerals, and by the individual in his journey beyond the tomb. The funeral procession was a very noisy company; lamentations were heard through its whole length, but the burden of the hymns was always, “To the West.” This was enlarged upon, “To the West, the dwelling of Osiris; O Chief, as thou goest to the West, the Gods themselves lament, as thou goest to the West.”