Rebirth: Coffin Text 335a glossed - Invisible Books

Rebirth: Coffin Text 335a glossed
“Jj.n.j m njwt.j, pr.n.j m ta.j,
“haa.j r spat, wnn.j h2na2 jt.j Jtm
“m h4rt-nt2r hrw nt ra2 nb;”
101

Isle of Fire: Part Three
This describes the soul’s trip to the western horizon, home of Atum,
who is the setting sun.
“for my sins and wrongdoings are chased off, driven from me,”
This separation from sin is, so to speak, the cutting of the umbilical
so the deceased may be reborn.
“any crime of mine is taken away.”
This is the bathing of the newborn soul in the two sacred pools
outside the temple in Herakleopolis, where Ra himself dwells. This
occurs on the day when people make the great offering to Ra. The names
of the pools are Liquid Infinity and Ocean: the one purifies, the other
vindicates,
“I go a road I recognize,
“the one that leads to the island of the blessed dead.
“I travel to the horizon of existence, to the land of bright,
transfigured souls,
“I come through the holy portal.”
This is the route taken by Atum when he sets, finally leading back to
the Eastern Reeds where he re-arises each morning, the reborn sun.
Pty rf st? Ah3t pw nt Jtm.
“drw jwyt.j, h3srw dwt.j,”
Pty rf st? S2a2d h4paw pw n X.
“sh2rw jsft jryt.j,”
Pty rf st? Wa2b.tw.j pw hrw msj.tw.j m ss2wy wrwy a2awy nty m Nnj-Nsw, hrw
a2abt rh3yt n nt2r pw a2a nty jms.
Pty rf sw? Ra2 pw d2s.f.
Pty rf ss2wy? H2h2 rn ny wa2, Wa2d2-Wr rn ny ky. S2 pw n h2smn h2na2 s2
n ma2at.
“s2m.j h2r wat rh3t.n.j tp-m jw n ma2atyw,
“spr.j r ta ah3tyw, pr.j m sba d2sr.”
Pty rf st? Wat s2mt.n Jtm h2r.s h3ft wd2a.f r sh3t-jarw.
102

Rebirth: Coffin Text 335a glossed
103

Isle of Fire: Part Three
The Eastern Reed Marsh is a land of pleasure that brings forth food
for the gods. It is somewhere along the Red Sea to the east of Egypt, and
somewhere beyond the grave.
The holy portal is also called the gate of Shu. Shu (the air) holds Nut
(the sky) up over Geb (the earth), and his portal is the horizon. On the
journey of the dead, this portal is the entrance into the afterlife.
“O my ancestors,
“reach me your hands, you who brought me into being!”
The word for ancestor, “who is before,” and the word “before” are
written with the glyph for penis, since a man’s penis stand out before him.
So we can deduce from the spelling of the word “ancestors” here that the
text alludes to the gods Hu (Command) and Sia (Thought). These came
into existence from the drops of blood that fell when Ra-Atum
circumcised himself. Now these two, Hu and Sia, are Atum’s constant
companions.
“I helped Thoth restore the eye of Horus when Seth had wounded it,
on the day that pair fought for the kingship.”
This eye is the moon, attacked every month by the forces of darkness.
The moon’s changes mime eternally how Osiris died and Horus restored
him. The moon is one of Horus’ eyes. It was injured during the his battle
with Seth in which Seth threw dung in Horus’ face, and Horus in turn tore
off Seth’s testicles.
“I calmed the rage (nesheni) of Atum’s right eye, the sun, by freeing it
of an irritating eyelash hair (sheni).”
Pty rf st? Sh3t-jarw pw mst rf d2faw n nt2rw h2a karw. Jr grt sba pwy d2sr, sba
pw n st2sw S2w.
Ky d2d: Sba pw n Dwat.
“Jmyw bah2, jmj n.j a2wy.tn! Jnk pw h3pr jm.tn.”
Pty rf st? Snf pw ha(j)w m h2nn n Ra2 m wat.f r jrt s2a2t.f d2s.f. A2h2a.n h3pr
nt2rw jmyw bah2 Ra2: H2w pw h2na2 Sja, wnnw m h3t jt Jtm m h4rt nt ra2 nb.
“Jw mh2.n.j jrt m-h3t h4qs.s hrw pn ny a2h2a rh2wy.”
Pty rf sw? Hrw pw a2h2.a n H2r jm.f h2na2 Sts2 m wdt.f sd2aw m h2r n H2r,
m jt2t H2r h4rwy Sts2.
104

Rebirth: Coffin Text 335a glossed
“Jw t2s.n.j s2ny m wd2at m tr ns2ny.”
105

Isle of Fire: Part Three
This allusion depends on puns. Atum’s eye, the sun, was angry (sheni ).
Appropriately, for he had sent it off to punish wicked mankind. When
justice had been scorchingly performed, Thoth calmed down the eye,
brushing back into place an eyelash hair (sheni ) that was irritating it. Then
he sent it back to Ra, content and none the worse.
One can also read this as an allusion to a much earlier event. Before
the creation, when Atum still floated in the waters of primordial chaos, he
created Shu and Tefnut and sent them off to explore, dispatching his eye
along with them to light their way. But the eye missed its partner, and thus
it was sick with loneliness when it returned. Thoth, whose saliva is a
magical medicine, put it right by spitting on it.
“I saw the birth of rising Ra, the dawn, Yesterday’s child,
I saw him emerge from between the thighs of Hathor:
Hathor, the great wader, who slogged up from the waters of Chaos
to become our sky, like a cow wading out of the Nile.”
Hathor is the sky, bestriding our world, one leg on each cardinal
point. Because she stands in Egypt’s water-clear air as a cow might stand
in the the Nile’s air-clear water, she is called “the great wader.”
Another view is that the passage refers only to the sun, the great eye of
Ra, which is called ‘the great wader’ because it surfaces in the dawn sky as
if emerging from watery depths.
Pty rf sy? Jrt pw wnmt nt Ra2 m s2nyt.s rf m h3t hab.f sy. Jn grt D2h2wty jt2
s2ny jm.s jnt.f sy a2-w-s. nn bag.s nb.
Ky d2d: Wnn jrt.f pw mr h2r wnn.s rmyt n snwt.s. A2ha2.n jn D2h2wty psg r.s.
“Jw ma.n.j Ra2 pwy, msy m sf r h3pdw Mh2t-Wrt.
“Wd2a.f, wd2a.j, t2s-ph4r . . .”
Pty rf st? Nwy pw ny nwyt nt pt.
Ky d2d: Twt pw n jrt Ra2 dwayt r mst.f ra2 nb. Jr grt Mh2t-Wrt, Wd2at pw nt
ra2 nb.
(No further portion of the glossed version can be clearly interpreted.)
106

Rebirth: Coffin Text 335a glossed
107

Part Four
Gaining Magic Powers

Isle of Fire: Part Four
Pyramid Text 273-4
This is a propaganda poem of the 1st dynasty: it describes the original unification of
the country. Southern Egypt conquered the north, making “the kingdom of the two
lands,” and inaugurating the long series of Egyptian dynasties.
Hilly southern Egypt, without the rich farmlands of the delta, depended more on
hunting and herding, and its astral pantheon reflected this circumstance. Its neighbor to
the north, in the fertile valley, practiced agriculture and so had a highly cthonic
pantheon. The contrast, not to say conflict, is fully brought out in our poem.
The idea of absorbing power by eating its possessor is as archaic and universal as
possible, and this is the classic, unabashed example of it.
To my knowledge, I am the first to place this poem in its obvious historical context.
It has long been overlooked, due to the usual scholarly squeamishness.
Let the sky itself be clouded over, let the very stars be darkened,
let a global shudder earthquake across the world’s nine nations.
The bones of Aker, two-headed lion, guardian of the round flat
earth’s outer rim —
let Aker’s bones be shaken! Every single moving thing stands still
when the king has manifested, a powerful ghost, a ba,
who lives on the gods who made him, who feeds on the goddesses
who fostered him.
The king is a master of cunning, his own mother didn’t realize his true
nature.
His magnificence lights the sky, his power fills the horizon like the
setting sun, Atum,
like Atum, his father, androgynous total Atum, who both begot and
birthed him,
yet he is stronger than Atum!
The king’s vital spirits, his kas and hemewsets, stand behind him and
sustain him;
gods in the form of serpents are a live crown for his head,
like a cobra looming, neck spread, above his forehead,
leading him, scanning for enemies,
like a dazzling ba, like a fiery eye that scorches when it looks.
The king’s head is set on his neck like an archer on a battlement.
Jgp pt, jh2y sbaw,
nmnm psd2t-pd2wt, sda qsw Akr:
grr.sn, gnmw, ma.n.sn nsw X h3jw, ba,
m nt2r a2nh3 m jtw.f, ws2b m mwt.f.
Nsw X pw nb sabwt, h3mj.w.n mwt.f rn.f.
Jw s2psw nsw X m pt.
110

Gaining Magic Powers: Pyramid Text 273-4
Jw wsr.f m ah3t mj Jtm jt.f msj sw.
Jw msj.n.f sw, wsr sw r.f.
Jw kaw nsw X h2a.f. Jw h2mwswt.f h4r rdwy.fy.
Jw nt2rw.f tp.f. Jw ja2rwt.f m wpt.f.
Jw ss2mwt nsw X m h3at.f, ptrt, ba, ah3t ntb.s.
Jw wsrwt nsw X h2r mkt.f. 1
1 Puns on wsrt, neck, and wsrwt, powers, as on mkt, right place, and mkt, protection.
111

Isle of Fire: Part Four
The king is the bull of heaven, who bellows out thunder, his heart full
of rage,
he lives off the life force of all the gods,
he eats up their hearts, their lungs, their livers, when these are full of
magic,
when the gods return, renewed, from the Isle of Fire.
The king is ready, he’s connected to all his spirit powers,
he manifests as this great creature: prime minister of Hell
with full authority over its officials, for he shares the throne of Hell with (the
earth god) Geb.
It is the king who will judge the dead, accompanied by Hell’s chief
executioner
He-who-must-not-be-named, on the day the revered gods are slaughtered.
The king orders sacrifices, he alone controls them.
The king eats humans, feeds on gods.
He has them presented on an altar to himself.
He has agents to do his will. He fires off the orders!
Nsw X pw ka pt, nhd m jb.f,
anh3 m h3pr n nt2r nb,
wnm wsmw.sn, jww,
mh2w 1 h4t.sn m h2kaw m jw nsjsj (=nsrsr).
Nsw X pw a2prw, ja2b ah3w.f.
Jw nsw X h3a2(j) m wr pw nb jmjw-st-a2,
h2ms.f sa.f r Gb. Jn nsw X wd2a2 mdw.f
h2na2 Jmn-rn-f hrw pw n rh3s smsw.
Nsw X pw nb h2tpt, t2s a2qa. 2
Nsw X pw jrj awt.f d2s.f.
Nsw X pw wnm rmt2w, a2nh3 m nt2rw.
Nsw X pw nb jnw h3aa2 wpwt.
1 Past passive sd2m.w.f
2 “Who knots the cord,” a boating term, equivalent to “who is in control.”
112

Gaining Magic Powers: Pyramid Text 273-4
113

Isle of Fire: Part Four
The cauldron-demon Grab-’Em-By-The-Hair lassos and catches
victims for him,
the demon Head-Raised-Like-An-Angry-Cobra’s brings them under
control, then guards them,
the demon Out-for-Blood ties them to the slaughter block.
The moon god Khonsu, pendulum of heaven, precise divider of
months,
Khonsu, most mathematical aspect of Thoth,
Khonsu, precise as a knife-edge in the service of his masters,
slits them open and pulls out their guts.
He’s the officer sent by the king to carry out the sentence.
It’s Shemsu, red-stained god of the winepress, who’ll cut the bodies
up,
he cooks them into an offering-meal for the king, roasts them over
an open fire in the evening.
The king eats their magic, he gulps down their souls,
the adults he has for breakfast,
the young are lunch,
the babies he has for supper,
the old ones are too tough to eat, he just burns them on the altar as an
offering to himself.
It’s the circumpolar stars, unsetting lords of the northern sky, who
light his fire
under the pots for the gods, filled with their chiefs’ thigh-meat.
The stars bustle like kitchen-boys to serve the king
as the kettles are filled with the tender legs of the slaughtered wives of
the gods.
Jn H3ma2-Wpwt-Jmy-Kh2aw sph2 sn n nsw X.
Jn D2sr-Tp saa sn n nsw X h3sf.n.f sn.
Jn H2ry-T2rwt (= t2r) qas sn n nsw X.
Jn H3nsw, mds nbw, d2ad sn n nsw X
s2dy.f n.f jmyt h4t.sn:
wpwty pw hab.w nsw X r h3sf.
Jn S2smw rh3s.f sn n nsw X,
fss (= psj) n.f jh3t jm.sn m ktwt ms2rwt.
Nsw X pw wnm h2kaw.sn, ja2m (= a2m) a2h3w.sn.
Jw wrw.sn n js2t.f (=jh3t.f) dwat.
Jw h2ryw-jb.sn n ms2rwt.f.
114

Gaining Magic Powers: Pyramid Text 273-4
Jw s2rrw.sn n js2t h3awj.
Jw jaw.sn jawt.sn n kapt.f.
Jn a2aw mh2tyw pt wdjw.f sd2t
r wh2awt h4ryt.sn, m h3ps2w nw smsw.sn.
Jw ph4r jmyw-pt n nsw X
s2sr.tw n.f ktwt m rdw nw h2mwt.sn.
115

Isle of Fire: Part Four
The king has traveled from the eastern horizon to the western one,
he’s journeyed all through both the banks that make up rivered Egypt,
but he’s the greatest power he’s found, a force beyond all forces;
He’s the falcon of falcons, most rapacious and holy of all,
if he finds anyone in his path he eats him raw.
The home of the king is the place the sun rises, he’s foremost among
the spirits and gods.
His servants are infinite: immense the number of his worshippers.
He was given all power in heaven and earth by Rigel, the brightest star
in Orion,
brightest in the whole southern sky, Rigel, father of the gods.
The king shines out anew in the sky, victorious, a rising sun,
he wears the white crown of Southern Egypt, he’s king of the gods,
enthroned on the horizon.
He snapped the spines, pulled out the hearts of the gods.
He ate the red crown of Northern Egypt, gulped down its goddess
the great cobra Wadjet,
he embodies the country’s unity, swallows it up in one-ness.
Jw dbn.n.f pty tmty. Jw ph4r.n.f jdbwy,
nsw X pw sh3m wr, sh3m m sh3mw;
nsw X pw a2s2m (=ah4m), a2s2m a2s2mw wrw,
gmy(w).f m wat.f, wnm.f n.f sw mwmw.
Jw mkt nsw X m h2at sa2h2w nbw jmyw ah3t.
Nsw X pw nt2r smsw r smsw.
Jw ph4r n.f h3aw. Jw wdn n.f s2wt.
Jw rdj.w n.f a2 sh3m wr jn Sah2 jt nt2rw.
Jw wh2m.n nsw X h3a2w m pt. Jw.f snb.w nb m ah3t.
Jw h2sb.n.f t2sw bqsw,
jw jt2j.n.f h2atyw nt2rw.
Jw wnm.n.f Ds2rt. Jw a2m.n.f Wad2t.
116

Gaining Magic Powers: Pyramid Text 273-4
117

Isle of Fire: Part Four
He’s eaten the perceptive power the gods had in their sensory organs,
their life he absorbed from their hearts, their magic he ate with their
brains. These content him.
The king licks his lips, savoring the silty richness of Lower Egypt’s
papyrus swamps. He’s conquered, absorbed that kingdom.
He’s deliciously gorged as the fields when the Nile floods. His belly is
filled with all the gods’ magic.
No one will snatch away the king’s powers or rank, he’ll hold them
always.
He has swallowed the intelligence of every god.
The lifetime of the king is eternity, everlasting is his reign,
his title is is Does-What-He-Wants-To-Do-And Does-Nothing-He-
Doesn’t-Like,
dweller in the distance, lord of the horizon, forever and ever.
Now he has digested the physical power, the ba, of the gods, and he
controls their ak, their occult forces.
Fed full with the flesh of gods and the broth boiled out of their bones,
now he controls their ak, he leaves them nothing but their shadows.
Ws2b nsw X m smaw saaw. 1
Htp.f m a2nh3 m h2atyw h2kaw.sn jst2.
{Fjw nsw X nsb.f sbs2w jmyw ds2rt}. 2
Jw wah3j.f. Jw h2ka.sn m h4t.f.
Nn nh2m m sa2h2w nw nsw X m a2.f.
Jw a2m.n.f. sja n nt2r nb.
A2ha2w pw n nsw X nh2h2h,
d2r pw d2t m sa2h2.f pn n
“Mrr(w).f jrr(w).f msd2d2d(w).f n jrr(w).f”
jmy d2rw a2h3t, d2t r nh2h2.
1 The lungs were seen as sense organs. See line 56 of the widely translated Memphite
Theology on the Shabaka stone.
2 Quite unclear. I wouldn’t be surprised if fjw were originally Jw.f, which would
parallel the next line. Or even jwf, “meat,” which could give the reading Jwf nsw nsb.w.f
sbs2w ds2rt, “for the meat of the king, which he eats, is the sbs2w of Upper Egypt.” Since
no one knows what sbs2w are, one can only conjecture. The reading fjw, “is disgusted,” is
very unlikely to be right in the context of the king’s gourmandise, especially since the
next word is nsb.f “he licks up.”My translation posits an original Jw.f and assumes (with
Sethe) that sbs2w is part of the crown. 118

Gaining Magic Powers: Pyramid Text 273-4
Sk (=jst2) ba.sn m h4t nsw X, ah3w.sn h3r nsw X
{m h2aw jh3t r nt2rw} krrt.n nsw X m qsw.sn. 1
Sk ah3.sn h3r nsw X, s2wt.sn m a2 jryw.sn.
1 This is a little garbled, and no one has any great ideas about what to do with the r;
still, the overall sense seems clear enough.
119

Isle of Fire: Part Four
These last lines are probably a later addition to make this astral poem less incongruous
for inclusion in a pyramid:
Among the gods the king shines forth like the sun,
and like the sun he endures,
for no evil man will be able to dig up his tomb
nor loot the chosen place of the Pharaoh X,
no, not one of all who’ll live in this land
henceforth, forever and ever.
Jw nsw X m nn h3a2j h3a2j, jmn jmn.
n sh3m jr(j)w jrwt m h3bs
st jb nt nsw X m anh3w m ta pn d2t r nh2h2.
120

Gaining Magic Powers: Pyramid Text 273-4
121

Isle of Fire: Part Four
Coffin Text 5
You who are deceased! take over the sky, claim the earth as your
inheritance!
Who could take the sky away from that young and beautiful god you
are,
you who are Ra, eldest of the gods; you who are Horus, heir of Osiris;
you, declared innocent by the underworld court—all the hexes of
your enemies annulled?
Ha Wsjr X: jt2 n.k pt, jwa2 n.k ta!
Nm jrf nh2m.w.f pt tn m-a2.k, m nt2r pn rnpj nfr,
Ra2 js, smsw nt2rw, H2r js stj Wsjr,
maa2-h3rw r h3ftyw.k, h2mwt-ra?
122

Gaining Magic Powers: Coffin Text 5
123

Part Five
Perils of the Other World

Isle of Fire: Part Five
Coffin Text 335b
I omit the glosses that accompany this spell, which are mere lists of names and obscure
epithets, along with the opaque final ten lines.
O Ra, you who hatch every morning from the sky’s blue shell, rising
as the sun disk,
glinting gold from the horizon, you who make the sky dazzle like
polished bronze,
without peer among the gods, you who sail the open heavens, the vast
vault held up by Shu (god of the air),
who set the winds in motion by the fiery breath of your mouth, who
make the Two Lands (Upper and Lower Egypt) resplendent:
protect me from that god whose shape is so strange,
whose eyebrows are the arms of the balance that weighs the heart on
the day every thief is called to account,
who ropes the wicked and drags them to his chopping block, the
slaughterer of souls;
save me from the assassins, the sharp-clawed butchers! Don’t give me
up to their flint knives,
don’t let me go down into their cauldrons, don’t let me walk into their
slaughterhouse!
I know all of your names! On earth I walk with Ra, and when I finally
moor life’s boat it will be beside Osiris!
Don’t let them make me a sacrificial animal to roast on their altar! I am a
follower of the Lord of All Things (Osiris).
I will become a victorious Horus, fly up like a falcon! I shall be like the
goose who heralded all existence, whose great creative ONK! transformed the
primordial silence!
I will exist through all the eternities like Neheb-Kaw,
the two-headed serpent, who was the Chaos ocean before Atum
separated himself out of it,
the original unity of being, to which all things shall return.
Jj Ra2 jmy swh2t.f, wbn m jtn.f,
psd2 m ah3t.f, nbw h2r bja.f,
jwty snw.f m nt2rw, sqdd h2r st2sw S2w,
dd t2aw m hh n r.f, sh2d tawy m ah3w.f
Nh2m.k wj m-a2 nt2r pw s2ta jrw, wnn jnh2wy.fy m a2wy mh3at hrw pf n h2sb
a2wa, dd sph2w n jsftyw r nmt.f, dnd baw;
Nh2m.k wj m nw n jry-st2aw, jmnh2yw spdw d2ba2w! Nn sh3m dsw.sn jm.j,
nn h2ay.j r wh2awt.sn, nn a2q.j r jatt.sn, h2r-ntt rh3.kwj rnw.t2n, h2r-ntt jnk
wd2a.j tp ta h3r Ra2, mnj.j h3r Wsjr.
Nn h3pr a2abt.sn jm.j n na n h2ryw ah3w.sn. Jw.j m s2ms n nb-h3t, a2h4y.j m
bjk, ngg.j m smn, sky.j nh2h2 mj Nh2b-Kaw!
126

Perils of the Other World: Coffin Text 335B
127

Isle of Fire: Part Five
O Ra-Atum, king in the palace of the gods, save me from the hand of
that god who lives by slaughter, with the head of a dog but the body of a
man, the one who lives in the middle of the lake of fire, who gulps down
the shadows that once had bodies, stealer of souls, the god Decay, eater
of myriads, invisible and stinking.
J Ra2-Jtm, jmy h2wt-a2at, jty nt2rw nbw, nh2m.k wj m-a2 nt2r pw anh3 m
h3ryt, nty h2r.f m t2sm, jnm.f m rmt2; jmy qab pw n s2 nsrt, a2m s2wt, h3np
h2atjw, wdd st2j, n ma.n.tw.f.
128

Perils of the Other World: Coffin Text 335B
129

Isle of Fire: Part Five
Book of the Dead 7
Spell to be recited over a wax doll of Apep
the serpent long as the fall into nonexistence.
This spell allows one to tread on the ugly neck of that monster
who is neck from the neck down.
O thing of wax, mere image of Apophis, the soul-snatcher who feeds
on those weak ones,
the dead souls whose life force is exhausted, I will not tire and
become your prey,
because your poison, the weariness of the dead, hasn’t penetrated my
body
— my body is the body of Atum! If I don’t weaken, your venom
won’t enter me.
I am one with Atum when he still floated alone in Nun, the waters of
chaos, before any of his strength had gone into creating the cosmos.
I am Atum at his most inexhaustible — the potence and potential of
all that is to be.
This is my magic protection and it’s older and greater than all the
gods together!
There isn’t even a name for who I am, and since I have no name, no
one can use it to magically control me. I am holy, royal, more so than all
the millions of beings I go among.
R n jwt h2r t2s qsn ny A2app: d2d-mdw jn X:
J wa2 mnh2, jt2(j) m a2wa, a2nh3 m nnyw!
Nn nny.j n.k, nn gnn.j n.k, n a2q mtwt.k m a2wt.j: a2wtj a2wt Jtm.
Jr tm gnnw.j n.k, nn a2q gmwt.k m a2wt.j jptn.
Jnk Jtm h2r-h3nt Nnw. Jw mkt.j m nt2rw nbw d2t.
Jnk ss2ta-rn: d2sr-st r h2h2 jnk jmytw.
Spr n.j h2na2 Jtm. Jnk nty n jp.tw.f, wd2a.kwy sp sn.
130

Perils of the Other World: Book of the Dead 7
131

Part Six
Daily Life
in the World of the Dead

Isle of Fire: Part Six
Coffin Text 472
Note: there is no etymology for the word schwabty.
Spell for causing a schwabty to do work for its owner in the
underworld. To be recited over the schwabty, which will be made either
of tamarisk or thorn wood. This shall be carved to resemble its owner as
he appeared in life, and placed in the tomb.
Look upon this man, ye gods, transfigured souls and spirits of the
dead,
for he has acquired force, seized his moment, taken on royal
authority,
he’s a pharaoh, ruling mankind, controlling them like cattle.
They were created to serve him. The gods themselves ordained it.
Now, schwabty:
If, in the world of the dead, X is ordered to perform the yearly stint of
public work all Egyptians owe their pharaoh,
be it to move bricks, level off a plot of ground, re-survey land when
the Nile-flood recedes or till new-planted fields,
you will say: “Here I am!” to any functionary who should come
looking for X while he is trying to enjoy his meal of funerary offerings.
Take up your hoe, schwabty, your pick, your demarcation pegs, your
basket, just as any slave would for his master.
O schwabty made for X, if X is called for his obligations to the state
you will pipe up: “Here I am!” whether X is summoned to oversee
workers in the new-planted fields, tend to irrigation, move sand from
East to West or vice versa —
“Here I am!” you will say and take his place.
R n rdjt jry s2wabty kat n nb.f m h4rt-nt2r:
Ma sw jr-t2n, nt2rw ah3w mtw jmyw pt ta,
jt2.n.f. ph2ty.f at.f, jt2.n.f n.f nsty.f,
h2qa.n.f. m a2wt jrt n X pn h3ft wd2 nt2rw.
Jr jp.tw X pn r jwa n d2bt, r drdrw n wa2rt, n sph4r wd2b, r sh3rt sh3wt mawt n
nsjw jmy haw.f,
“Mk wj!” ka.k n wpwty nb jwt.f n X pn m snw.f,
T2a n.k jmrt.k, h2nn.k, nbaw.k, h2nkw.k m a2.k, my jrt h4rd nb n nb.f.
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Daily Life in the World of the Dead: Coffin Text 472
J s2wabty jry n X pn, jr jp.tw X pn n h4rt.f . . . “Mk wj!” ka.k.
Jr jp.tw X pn r nwa jrrw jm n sh3rt sh3wt mawt, r srdt wd2b, r h4nt s2aj jmnty
dyw n jabtt, t2s-ph4r, “Mk wj!” ka.k n.f r.s.
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Isle of Fire: Part Six
D2d-mdw h2r ss2m n nb, n tpj-ta, jrw m jsr m nbs, djw m kar n ah3.
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Daily Life in the World of the Dead
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Isle of Fire: Part Six
Book of the Dead 15b
An adoration of Ra, falcon lord of both horizons, as he sets in the
western one:
Greetings to you, Ra, in your aspect of Atum (“the complete”), the
setting sun, at the end of your solar falcon flight,
holy god, self-creator, primordial, he who is since the beginning!
Shouts of joy meet you, maker of the gods, you who hold up the sky
for the passage of sun and moon
which are your eyes, you who made earth to be the great hall of your
radiance,
you whose light lets man see man.
Mesketet (the barque of morning) feels its heart expand with joy as it
carries you across the day sky;
Mandjet (the night barque) rejoices in turn to carry you beneath the
earth, across that under-sky.
Nun is satisfied, its chaos remains in abeyance; your crew is at ease
because each time you cross the border of light and darkness
the bright uraeus on your crown shoots down your enemies, and the
serpent Apophis winds itself back in fear.
May you always be as beautiful as you are now, may your mother Nut
each evening take your setting self
into her arms which are the night sky.
May your heart be glad as you set foot on Manu (the western
mountain).
The noble dead rejoice as you send the first rays down
into the eternal dead-zone of Osiris,
your power penetrates their graves. The painted coffin-lids slide
open. The dead stiffly lift their arms in adoration, greeting your beams.
They tell you all their problems, because you are the one who shines
for them;
the lords of hell are happy as well, your red gleam sweetens even
these.
In the sunset west, the land of death, eyes open at your glance, dead
faces smile again at the sight of you,
Dwa Ra2 H2r-ah3ty m htp.f m ah3t jmntt nt pt:
J-nd2-h2r.k Ra2 m htp.f, Tm-H2r-Ah3ty, nt2r nt2ry, h3pr d2s.f, pawty, h3pr
m h2at.
Hnw n.k, jrj nt2rw, ah3j pt r h2pt jrty.fy, jrj ta r sh3w jah3w.f r rdjt ma s nb snnw.f.
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Daily Life in the World of the Dead: B. D. 15B
Jw Msktt m aw-jb, Ma2nd2t m ha2y nmj.n.sn n.k; Nnw m htp, jst.k htp.tj,
sh3r.n ah3t ja2rt h3ftyw.k, nh2m.n n.k nmtt A2app.
Nfr.tj m Ra2 ra2 nb; h2pt tw mwt.k Nwt; htp.k, jb.k aww m ah3t nt Manw,
jmtayw (=mtw) s2psw m ha2jw sh2d2.k jm n nt2r aa2 Wsjr h2qa d2t;
nbw qrswt m t2ph2wt.sn, a2wy.sn m jat n ka.k,
d2d.sn n.k sprw.sn nbw m-h3t jr.k psd2.k n.sn;
nbw Dwat, jbw.sn nd2mw, sh2d2.n.k jmaw;
jmntyw, jrwt.sn swsh3w n maa.k, h2a2a2 jbw.sn maa.sn tw,
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Isle of Fire: Part Six
because you listen to their complaints, to all the sorrows of the dead.
You take away their pain, you make things right again.
You'll give them back the breath in their nostrils as they touch the
mooring rope
to draw you to that further shore, when you dock on Mt. Manu.
May Ra always be this beautiful when his mother Nut takes him
into her arms which are the night sky.
sd2m.k.sn, nmh2w n nty m d2bat; dr.k hamw.sn, h3sf d2w.sn.
Dj.k t2aw r fndw.sn ss2p.sn h2att nt wja.k m ah3t Manw.
Nfr.tj Ra2 ra2 nb qnj tw mwt.k Nwt.
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Daily Life in the World of the Dead: B.D. 15B
141

Part Seven
Anatomy of the Soul

Isle of Fire: Part Seven
Book of the Dead 15a
This spell is particularly valuable for its description of the soul’s three aspects. The ak or
“shining one,” ascends to the sky. The ka, represented in the glyphs as a pair of arms
extended in a gesture of giving, is the part of the soul that resides in the grave. It is the
buried ancestor imparting paternal protection, an earth-merged entity that bestows
fertility. Finally there is the ba, represented as a bird with a human head. This is the
vehicular form of the soul, that in which it moves about in our daylit world like a ghost.
This complex and compartmentalized view of the soul is to some degree universal.
The Roman genius, lar and manes correspond roughly to the ak, ka and ba. Even we
desacralised moderns are no tidier. We can talk of a dead person having a soul which
survives the body on another plane, the enduring influence of someone’s spirit, and
even the existence of ghosts, without ever feeling these differing conceptions need to be
harmonized.
An adoration of Ra who rises on the horizon,
when he makes his ba, the visible form of his soul, rise like a powerful
ghost from the underworld —
his ba, the shining spectre of Ra that is our physical sun; when he
raises himself, rejoicing in the power of his ka;
an adoration of Ra, his ba and his ka, when he has the sun-boat’s
steersman shove off from the east and head out into deep sky
while addressed in these words by the deceased:
Hail Ra!
Hail to your ba!
Hail to your ka!
The deceased knows your name, and the names of your ba and your
ka in all their aspects.
Dwa Ra2 wbn.f m ah3ty, swas2.f ba.f, sh2tp.f kaw.f, rd(j).f ss2 h3rp-wja
h3ft njs jn Wsjr X.
J.nd2-h2r.k Ra2, sp fdw!
J.nd2-h2r.k ba.k, sp sfh3!
J.nd2-h2r.k kaw.k, r sp md2-fdw!
Jw wsjr X maa2-h3rw rh3.f rn.k,
jw.f rh3.f rnw nw ba.k,
jw.f rh3.f rnw nw ka.k.
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Anatomy of the Soul: Book of the Dead 15a
145

Isle of Fire: Part Seven
Shining Ra, in your celestial aspect, as an ak,
you are Atum within the sky,
an old man as you set on the horizon,
a judge within your palace — which is the heavens,
a king enthroned in the sunset,
and when you've sunk west into the underworld, a king down there as
well.
Atum, ancient one, who first dawned from Nun, from the black deep
of her primordial night.
The deceased knows the names of your ba, the form in which you
travel our world — the sun:
ba pure of body,
health-embodying ba,
ba bright and unharmed,
ba of magic,
ba who causes himself to appear,
male ba,
ba whose warm energy encourages coupling.
The deceased, may he rest in peace, knows the names of your ka, the
aspect of your soul that abides in the ground:
Mk ntk ah3w, Tm jmy pt, smsw jmy ah3t, sd2m jmy h2wt-a2at, nsw jmy ah3t
jmy dwat, nh3h3 jmy Nnw.
Jw wsjr X rh3.f rnw ba.k:
ba wa3b h2a2w; ba wd3a h2aw; ba ah3 wd2a; ba h2ka; ba jr qj; ba t2ay; ba
snk!
Jw wsjr X rh3.f rnw nw ka.k:
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Anatomy of the Soul: Book of the Dead 15a
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Isle of Fire: Part Seven
nourishing ka,
ka of food,
lordly ka,
ka the ever-present helper,
ka which is a pair of kas begetting more kas,
healthy ka,
sparkling ka,
victorious ka,
ka the strong,
ka that strengthens the sun each day to rise from the world of the dead,
ka of shining resurrection,
powerful ka,
effective ka.
ka h2w; ka d2fa; ka s2ps; ka s2ms; kawy jr kaw; ka wd2a; ka t2h2n; k nh3t;
ka wsr; ka wbn; ka psd2; ka was2; ka spd!
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Anatomy of the Soul: Book of the Dead 15a
149

Isle of Fire: Part Seven
Book of the Dead 42
A spell for withstanding the judgement of the dead each dawn,
the sunrise-red slaughter of the forces of darkness
which Ra enacts every morning as he rises from his Island of Fire in
the Eastern Sea.
This spell affords protection on the Island of Fire, because it is
recited in Neni-Nesew, city of Ra’s sacred tamarisk tree,
Neni-Nesew, where the solar eye once slew rebellious mankind,
where Horus once fought with Seth,
Neni-Nesew, which the Greeks call Herakleopolis, city of solar
victories!
This spell is being read by the deceased.
Land of Ra’s tamarisk, White Crown of Egypt’s cities, White Crown
on the statue of Ra, splendid as his standard carried in procession, city of
Neni-Nesew which means “Son of Upper Egypt’s King,” I am become
that Horus, that prince for whom the city is named.
O Yebew-Weret, guardian of the slaughter-site of Ra’s Day of
Judgement,
today you have said and said again: “The butcher-block of justice is
ready — you know what to expect.”
(line unintelligible)
I am Ra, ever honored, the ruler, the god who dwells in
Neni-Nesew’s sacred tamarisk. How much greater is Today than
Yesterday, how much greater is who I am than who I was!
Long live this day, long live Today!
R n h3sf s2a2t jrrt m Nnj-Nsw: d2d mdw jn X:
Ta n h3t, h2d2t nt twt, jat h4nt, jnk h3y!
Ya jbw-wrt,
jw d3d.n.k mjn a2prw nmt m rh3t.n.k.
Jnk Ra2, mn h2swt, t2sw, nt2r m h4nw jsr: nfr wy jtn r sf!
Wd2a.tw, wd2a.tw hrw pn!
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