Egyptian Literature (Routledge Revivals)

Vol. I: Legends of the Gods

E.A. Budge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781135078201
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Egyptian Ancient History
• Index: History

Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (1857-1934) was Keeper of the British Museum's department of oriental antiquities from 1894 until his retirement in 1924. Carrying out many missions to Egypt in search of ancient objects, Budge was hugely successful in collecting papyri, statues and other artefacts for the trustees of the British Museum: numbering into the thousands and of great cultural and historical significance. Budge published well over 100 monographs, which shaped the development of future scholarship and are still of great academic value today, dealing with subjects such as Egyptian religion, history and literature.

First published in 1912, this work is the first of two volumes which deal explicitly with ancient Egyptian literature. Budge reproduces the most typical literature in hieroglyphic form, with the intention of providing the beginner with a series of books to read alongside translations. They are arranged here with English translations next to the original writing, and are complemented by a detailed introduction which provides a contextual framework for this fascinating material. Also including a number of other texts and a range of detailed images and hieroglyphics, this classic work will be of interest to scholars and students of Ancient Egyptian literature, language and history.

VIII.

THE LEGEND OF THE DEATH AND BESURRECTION OF HORUS, AND OTHER MAGICAL TEXTS.

THE magical and religious texts of the Egyptians of all periods contain spells intended to be used against serpents, scorpions, and noxious reptiles of all kinds, and their number, and the importance which was attached to them, suggest that Egypt must always have produced these pests in abundance, and that the Egyptians were always horribly afraid of them. The text of Unȧs, which was written towards the close of the Vth Dynasty, contains many such spells, and in the Theban and Saïte Books of the Dead several Chapters consist of nothing but spells and incantations, many of which are based on archaic texts, against crocodiles, serpents, and other deadly reptiles, and insects of all kinds. All such creatures were regarded as incarnations of evil spirits, which attack the dead as well as the living, and therefore it was necessary for the well-being of the former that copies of spells against them should be written upon the walls of tombs, coffins, funerary amulets, etc. The gods were just as open to the attacks of venomous reptiles as man, and Rā himself, the king of the gods, nearly died from the poison of a snake-bite. Now the gods were, as a rule, able to defend themselves against the attacks of Set and his fiends, and the poisonous snakes and insects which were their emissaries, by virtue of the “fluid of life,”

, which was Be peculiar attribute of divinity, and the efforts of Egyptians were directed to the acquisition of a portion of this magical power, which would protect their souls and bodies and their houses and cattle, and other property, each day and each night throughout the year. When a man cared for the protection of himself only he wore an amulet of some kind, in which the

was localized. When he wished to protect his house against invasion by venomous reptiles he placed statues containing the

in niches in the walls of various chambers, or in some place outside but near the house, or buried them in the earth with their faces turned in the direction from which he expected the attack to come.

PLATE XVII

The Metternich Stele—Observe.

Towards the close of the XXVIth Dynasty, when superstition in its most exaggerated form was general in Egypt, it became the custom to make house talismans in the form of small stone stelae, with rounded tops, which rested on bases having convex fronts. On the front of such a talisman was sculptured in relief a figure of Horus the Child (Harpokrates), standing on two crocodiles, holding in his hands figures of serpents, scorpions, a lion, and a horned animal, each of these being a symbol of an emissary or ally of Set, the god of Evil. Above his head was the head of Bes, and on each side of him were solar symbols, i.e., the lily of Nefer-Tem, figures of Rā and Harmakhis, the Eyes of Rā (the Sun and Moon), etc. The reverse of the stele and the whole of the base were covered with magical texts and spells, and when a talisman of this kind was placed in a house, it was supposed to be directly under the protection of Horus and his companion gods, who had vanquished all the hosts of darkness and all the powers of physical and moral evil. Many examples of this talisman are to be seen in the great Museums of Europe, and there are several fine specimens in the Third Egyptian Room in the British Museum. They are usually called “Cippi of Horus.” The largest and most important of all these “cippi ” is that which is commonly known as the “Metternich Stele,” because it was given to Prince Metternich by Muḥammad ‘Ali Pâshâ; it was dug up in 1828 during the building of a cistern in a Franciscan Monastery in Alexandria, and was first published, with a translation of a large part of the text, by Professor Golénischeff.¹ The importance of the stele is enhanced by the fact that it mentions the name of the king in whose reign it was made, viz., Nectanebus I., who reigned from B.C. 378 to B.C. 360.

PLATE XVIII

The Metternich Stele—Reverse.

The obverse, reverse, and two sides of the Metternich Stele have cut upon them nearly three hundred figures of gods and celestial beings. These include figures of the great gods of heaven, earth, and the Other World, figures of the gods of the planets and the Dekans, figures of the gods of the days of the week, of the weeks, and months, and seasons of the year, and of the year. Besides these there are a number of figures of local forms of the gods which it is difficult to identify. On the rounded portion of the obverse the place of honour is held by the solar disk, in which is seen a figure of Khnemu with four ram’s heads, which rests between a pair of arms,

and is supported on a lake of celestial water; on each side of it are four of the spirits of the dawn, and on the right stands the symbol of the rising sun, Nefer-Temu, and on the left stands Thoth. Below this are five rows of small figures of gods. Below these is Harpokrates in relief, in the attitude already described. He stands on two crocodiles under a kind of canopy, the sides of which are supported by Thoth and Isis, and holds Typhonic animals and reptiles. Above the canopy are the two Eyes of Rā, each having a pair of human arms and hands. On the right of Harpokrates are Seker and Horus, and on his left the symbol of Nefer-Temu. On the left and right are the goddesses Nekhebet and Uatchet, who guard the South of Egypt and the North respectively. On the reverse and sides are numerous small figures of gods. This stele represented the power to protect man possessed by all the divine beings in the universe, and, however it was placed, it formed an impassable barrier to every spirit of evil and to every venomous reptile. The spells, which are cut in hieroglyphics on all the parts of the stele not occupied by figures of gods, were of the most potent character, for they contained the actual words by which the gods vanquished the powers of darkness and evil. These spells form the texts which are printed on p. 142 ff., and may be thus summarized:—

The first spell is an incantation directed against reptiles and noxious creatures in general. The chief of these was Āpep, the great enemy of Rā, who took the form of a huge serpent that “resembled the intestines,” and the spell doomed him to decapitation, and burning, and hacking in pieces. These things would be effected by Serqet, the Scorpion-goddess. The second part of the spell was directed against the poison of Āpep, and was to be recited over anyone who was bitten by a snake. When uttered by Horus it made Āpep to vomit, and when used by a magician properly qualified would make the bitten person to vomit, and so free his body from the poison.

The next spell is directed to be said to the Cat, i.e., a symbol of the daughter of Rā, or Isis, who had the head of Rā, the eyes of the uraeus, the nose of Thoth, the ears of Ḳeb-er-tcher, the mouth of Tern, the neck of Neheb-ka, the breast of Thoth, the heart of Rā, the hands of the gods, the belly of Osiris, the thighs of Menthu, the legs of Khensu, the feet of Ȧmen-Horus, the haunches of Horus, the soles of the feet of Rā, and the bowels of Meh-urit. Every member of the Cat contained a god or goddess, and she was able to destroy the poison of any serpent, or scorpion, or reptile, which might be injected into her body. The spell opens with an address to Rā, who is entreated to come to his daughter, who has been stung by a scorpion on a lonely road, and to cause the poison to leave her body. Thus it seems as if Isis, the great magician, was at some time stung by a scorpion.

The next section is very difficult to understand. Rā-Harmakhis is called upon to come to his daughter, and Shu to his wife, and Isis to her sister, who has been poisoned. Then the Aged One, i.e., Rā, is asked to let Thoth turn back Neḥa-ḥer, or Set. “Osiris is “in the water, but Horus is with him, and the Great “Beetle overshadows him,” and every evil spirit which dwells in the water is adjured to allow Horus to proceed to Osiris. Rā, Sekhet, Thoth, and Heka, this last-named being the spell personified, are the four great gods who protect Osiris, and who will blind and choke his enemies, and cut out their tongues. The cry of the Cat is again referred to, and Rā is asked if he does not remember the cry which came from the bank of Netit. The allusion here is to the cries which Isis uttered when she arrived at Netit near Abydos, and found lying there the dead body of her husband.

At this point on the Stele the spells are interrup...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• I. THE LEGEND OF THE CREATION—
• II. THE LEGEND OF THE DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND—
• III. THE LEGEND OF RĀ AND THE SNAKE-BITE—
• IV. THE LEGEND OF HORUS OF EDFÛ AND THE WINGED DISK—
• V. THE LEGEND OF THE ORIGIN OF HORUS—
• VI. A LEGEND OF KHENSU NEFER-HETEP AND THE PRINCESS OF BEKHTEN—
• VII. THE LEGEND OF KHNEMU AND A SEVEN YEARS’ FAMINE—
• VIII. THE LEGEND OF THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF HORUS—
• IX. THE LEGEND OF ISIS AND OSIRIS ACCORDING TO CLASSICAL WRITERS