Egyptian Literature
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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Egyptian Literature This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license Title: Egyptian Literature Release Date: March 8, 2009 [Ebook 28282] Language: English ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EGYPTIAN LITERATURE*** 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 Copyright, 1901 The Colonial Press Contents Special Introduction. 2 The Book Of The Dead . 7 A Hymn To The Setting Sun . 7 Hymn And Litany To Osiris . 8 Litany . 9 Hymn To R ....................... 11 Hymn To The Setting Sun . 15 Hymn To The Setting Sun . 19 The Chapter Of The Chaplet Of Victory . 20 The Chapter Of The Victory Over Enemies. 22 The Chapter Of Giving A Mouth To The Overseer . 24 The Chapter Of Giving A Mouth To Osiris Ani . 24 Opening The Mouth Of Osiris . 25 The Chapter Of Bringing Charms To Osiris . 26 The Chapter Of Memory . 26 The Chapter Of Giving A Heart To Osiris . 27 The Chapter Of Preserving The Heart . 28 The Chapter Of Preserving The Heart . 29 The Chapter Of Preserving The Heart . 30 The Chapter Of Preserving The Heart . 30 The Heart Of Carnelian . 31 Preserving The Heart . 31 Preserving The Heart . 32 Preserving The Heart . 33 Rubric . 34 Beating Back The Crocodile . 34 Beating Back The Crocodile . 36 Repulsing Serpents . 38 Against Snakes . 38 iv Egyptian Literature Against Serpents . 39 Driving Away Apshait . 39 Driving Back The Merti . 40 Living By Air . 40 Living By Air . 41 Driving Back Rerek . 42 Repulsing The Eater Of The Ass . 44 Abolishing The Slaughterings . 45 Abolishing The Slaughterings . 46 Air And Water . 49 Dominion Over Elements . 50 Dominion Over Elements . 51 Dominion Over Elements . 51 Preservation Of The Soul . 52 Of Drinking Water . 52 Of Drinking Water . 53 Preservation From Scalding . 54 On Coming Forth By Day . 54 Chapter Of Knowledge . 58 Of Gaining Mastery Over Enemies . 62 Victory Over Enemies . 63 Coming Forth By Day . 64 Opening The Underworld . 64 Coming Forth By Day . 65 Coming Forth By Day . 66 Coming Forth By Day . 68 Coming Forth By Day . 68 Coming Forth By Day . 71 Of Lifting Up The Feet . 72 Of Journeying To Annu . 73 Of Transformation . 74 Of Performing Transformations . 74 Of Transformation Into A Hawk . 75 Of Transformation Into A Governor . 80 v Of Transformation Into A God . 82 Transformation Into A Lotus . 83 Transformation Into A Lotus . 83 Transformation Into Ptah . 84 Transformation Into A Bennu Bird . 85 Transformation Into A Heron . 86 Of The Living Soul . 87 Of The Swallow . 88 The Serpent Sata . 90 Of The Crocodile . 90 Soul And Body . 91 Of Evil Recollections . 92 Of Rescue . 93 Of Opening The Tomb . 94 Of Not Sailing To The East . 95 Of The Ink-Pot And Palette . 96 Of Being Nigh Unto Thoth . 96 Of Being Nigh Unto Thoth . 97 Of Bringing A Boat Along In Heaven . 98 Of Bringing The Makhent Boat . 99 Of Entering The Boat Of Ra . 103 Of Protecting The Boat Of Ra . 104 Of Going Into The Boat Of Ra . 105 Of Knowing The Souls Of The East . 106 Of Sekhet-Hetepet . 107 Of Knowing The Souls Of Pe . 112 Of Knowing The Souls Of Nekhen . 113 Of Knowing The Souls Of Khemennu . 114 Of Coming Forth From Heaven . 115 Of Knowing The Souls Of Khemennu . 116 Of Receiving Paths . 117 Of Coming Forth From Re-Stau . 118 Of Coming Forth From Re-Stau . 118 Of Going About In The Underworld . 119 vi Egyptian Literature Of Entering Into The Great House . 120 Of Entering The Presence . 121 The Introduction To Maati . 122 The Introduction To Maati . 124 The Negative Confession . 127 Address To The Gods Of The Underworld . 130 Of The Hour Apes . 135 Of The Praise Of The Gods . 136 Adoration Of The Gods Of The Qerti . 138 Hymn Of Praise To Osiris . 140 Of Making Perfect The Khu . 141 Of Living Nigh Unto Ra . 146 Of Bringing Men Back To Earth . 147 Of Making Perfect The Khu . 148 Of Making Perfect The Khu . 150 For The New Moon . 152 Of Travelling In The Boat Of Ra . 152 Of Making Perfect The Khu . 153 Sailing In The Great Boat . 155 Of The Four Flames . 157 Egyptian Tales . 160 The Taking Of Joppa . 160 The Doomed Prince . 162 Anpu And Bata . 166 Setna And The Magic Book . 176 Tales Of The Magicians . 187 The Peasant And The Workman . 197 The Shipwrecked Sailor . 202 The Adventures Of Sanehat . 206 The Tell Amarna Tablets . 219 The Hittite Invasion Of Damascus . 219 The Amorite Treachery . 231 The War In Phœnicia . 241 Northern Palestine . 278 vii Southern Palestine . 291 Royal Letters . 322 Cuneiform Inscriptions And Hieratic Papyri . 361 The Great Tablet Of Rameses II At Abu-Simbel . 361 Hymn To Osiris . 368 Travels Of An Egyptian In The Fourteenth Century B.C.374 Dirge Of Menephtah . 382 Hymn To The Nile . 384 The Solemn Festal Dirge Of The Egyptians . 392 Hymns To Amen . 395 Hymn To Pharaoh . 398 The Song Of The Harper . 399 Hymn To Amen-Ra . 403 Hymn To Ra-Harmachis . 411 The Lamentations Of Isis And Nephthys . 415 The Litany Of Ra . 423 The Book Of Respirations . 444 The Epic Of Penta-Our . 454 Footnotes . 461 [iii] 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. Special Introduction. 3 The campaign in which Rameses then engaged was directed against Kadesh, a city built on an island in the Orontes. It is, [iv] 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.