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The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians by E. A. Wallis Budge

E >> E. A. Wallis Budge >> The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians





"Pyramid Texts" is the name now commonly given to the long hieroglyphic
inscriptions that are cut upon the walls of the chambers and corridors
of five pyramids at Sakkarah. The oldest of them was built for Unas, a
king of the fifth dynasty, and the four others were built for Teta, Pepi
I, Merenra, and Pepi II, kings of the sixth dynasty. According to the
calculation of Dr. Brugsch, they were all built between 3300 and 3150
B.C., but more recent theories assign them to a period about 700 years
later. These Texts represent the oldest religious literature known to
us, for they contain beliefs, dogmas, and ideas that must be thousands
of years older than the period of the sixth dynasty when the bulk of
them was drafted for the use of the masons who cut them inside the
pyramids. It is probable that certain sections of them were composed by
the priests for the benefit of the dead in very primitive times in
Egypt, when the art of writing was unknown, and that they were repeated
each time a king died. They were first learned by heart by the funerary
priests, and then handed on from mouth to mouth, generation after
generation, and at length after the Egyptians had learned to write, and
there was danger of their being forgotten, they were committed to
writing. And just as these certain sections were absorbed into the great
body of Pyramid Texts of the sixth dynasty, so portions of the Texts of
the sixth dynasty were incorporated into the great Theban Book of the
Dead, and they appear in papyri that were written more than 2000 years
later. The Pyramid Texts supply us with much information concerning the
religious beliefs of the primitive Egyptians, and also with many
isolated facts of history that are to be found nowhere else, but of the
meaning of a very large number of passages we must always remain
ignorant, because they describe states of civilisation, and conditions
of life and climate, of which no modern person can form any true
conception. Besides this the meanings of many words are unknown, the
spelling is strange and often inexplicable, the construction of the
sentence is frequently unlike anything known in later texts, and the
ideas that they express are wholly foreign to the minds of students of
to-day, who are in every way aliens to the primitive Egyptian African
whose beliefs these words represent. The pyramids at Sakkarah in which
the Pyramid Texts are found were discovered by the Frenchman, Mariette,
in 1880. Paper casts of the inscriptions, which are deeply cut in the
walls and painted green, were made for Professor Maspero, the Director
of the Service of Antiquities in Egypt, and from these he printed an
edition in hieroglyphic type of all five texts, and added a French
translation of the greater part of them. Professor Maspero correctly
recognised the true character of these old-world documents, and his
translation displayed an unrivalled insight into the true meaning of
many sections of them. The discovery and study of other texts and the
labours of recent workers have cleared up passages that offered
difficulties to him, but his work will remain for a very long time the
base of all investigations.

The Pyramid Texts, and the older texts quoted or embodied in them, were
written, like every religious funerary work in Egypt, for the benefit of
the king, that is to say, to effect his glorious resurrection and to
secure for him happiness in the Other World, and life everlasting. They
were intended to make him become a king in the Other World as he had
been a king upon earth; in other words, he was to reign over the gods,
and to have control of all the powers of heaven, and to have the power
to command the spirits and souls of the righteous, as his ancestors the
kings of Egypt had ruled their bodies when they lived on earth. The
Egyptians found that their king, who was an incarnation of the "Great
God," died like other men, and they feared that, even if they succeeded
in effecting his resurrection by means of the Pyramid Texts, he might
die a second time in the Other World. They spared no effort and left no
means untried to make him not only a "living soul" in the Tuat, or Other
World, but to keep him alive there. The object of every prayer, every
spell, every hymn, and every incantation contained in these Texts, was
to preserve the king's life. This might be done in many ways. In the
first place it was necessary to provide a daily supply of offerings,
which were offered up in the funerary temple that was attached to every
pyramid. The carefully selected and duly appointed priest offered these
one by one, and as he presented each to the spirit of the king he
uttered a formula that was believed to convert the material food into a
substance possessing a spiritual character and fit to form the food of
the _ka_, or "double," or "vital power," of the dead king. The offerings
assisted in renewing his life, and any failure to perform this service
was counted a sin against the dead king's spirit. It was also necessary
to perform another set of ceremonies, the object of which was to "open
the mouth" of the dead king, _i.e._ to restore to him the power to
breathe, think, speak, taste, smell, and walk. At the performance of
these ceremonies it was all-important to present articles of food,
wearing apparel, scents and unguents, and, in short, every object that
the king was likely to require in the Other World. The spirits of all
these objects passed into the Other World ready for use by the spirit of
the king. It follows as a matter of course that the king in the Other
World needed a retinue, and a bodyguard, and a host of servants, just as
he needed slaves upon earth. In primitive times a large number of
slaves, both male and female, were slain when a king died, and their
bodies were buried in his tomb, whilst their spirits passed into the
Other World to serve the spirit of the king, just as their bodies had
served his body upon earth. As the king had enemies in this world, so it
was thought he would have enemies in the Other World, and men feared
that he would be attacked or molested by evilly-disposed gods and
spirits, and by deadly animals and serpents, and other noxious reptiles.
To ward off the attacks of these from his tomb, and his mummified body,
and his spirit, the priest composed spells of various kinds, and the
utterance of such, in a proper manner, was believed to render him immune
from the attacks of foes of all kinds. Very often such spells took the
form of prayers. Many of the spells were exceedingly ancient, even in
the Pyramid Period; they were, in fact, so old that they were
unintelligible to the scribes of the day. They date from the time when
the Egyptians believed more in magic than religion; it is possible that
when they were composed, religion, in our sense of the word, was still
undeveloped among the Egyptians.

When the Pyramid Texts were written men believed that the welfare of
souls and spirits in the Other World could be secured by the prayers of
the living. Hence we find in them numerous prayers for the dead, and
hymns addressed to the gods on their behalf, and extracts from many
kinds of ancient religious books. When these were recited, and offerings
made both to the gods and to the dead, it was confidently believed that
the souls of the dead received special consideration and help from the
gods, and from all the good spirits who formed their train. These
prayers are very important from many points of view, but specially so
from the fact that they prove that the Egyptians who lived under the
sixth dynasty attached more importance to them than to magical spells
and incantations. In other words, the Egyptians had begun to reject
their belief in the efficacy of magic, and to develop a belief of a more
spiritual character. There were many reasons for this development, but
the most important was the extraordinary growth of the influence of the
religion of Osiris, which had before the close of the period of the
sixth dynasty spread all over Egypt. This religion promised to all who
followed it, high or low, rich or poor, a life in the world beyond the
grave, after a resurrection that was made certain to them through the
sufferings, death, and resurrection of Osiris, who was the incarnation
of the great primeval god who created the heavens and the earth. A few
extracts illustrating the general contents of the Pyramid Texts may now
be given.

I. Mention has already been made of the "opening of the mouth" of the
dead king: under the earliest dynasties this ceremony was performed on a
statue of the king. Water was sprinkled before it, and incense was
burnt, and the statue was anointed with seven kinds of unguents, and its
eyes smeared with eye paint. After the statue had been washed and
dressed a meal of sepulchral offerings was set before it. The essential
ceremony consisted in applying to the lips of the statue a curiously
shaped instrument called the PESH KEF, with which the bandages that
covered the mouth of the dead king in his tomb were supposed to be cut
and the mouth set free to open. In later times the Liturgy of Opening
the Mouth was greatly enlarged and was called the Book of Opening the
Mouth. The ceremonies were performed by the Kher-heb priest, the son of
the deceased, and the priests and ministrants called Sameref, Sem, Smer,
Am-as, Am-khent, and the assistants called Mesentiu. First of all
incense was burnt, and the priest said, "Thou art pure," four times.
Water was then sprinkled over the statue and the priest said, "Thou art
pure. Thou art pure. Thy purifications are the purifications of
Horus,[1] and the purifications of Horus are thy purifications." This
formula was repeated three times, once with the name of Set,[2] once
with the name of Thoth,[3] and once with the name of Sep. The priest
then said, "Thou hast received thy head, and thy bones have been brought
unto thee before Keb."[4] During the performance of the next five
ceremonies, in which incense of various kinds was offered, the priest
said: "Thou art pure (four times). That which is in the two eyes of
Horus hath been presented unto thee with the two vases of Thoth, and
they purify thee so that there may not exist in thee the power of
destruction that belongeth unto thee. Thou art pure. Thou art pure. Pure
is the _seman_ incense that openeth thy mouth. Taste the taste thereof
in the divine dwelling. _Seman_ incense is the emission of Horus; it
stablisheth the heart of Horus-Set, it purifieth the gods who are in the
following of Horus. Thou art censed with natron. Thou art established
among the gods thy brethren. Thy mouth is like that of a sucking calf on
the day of its birth. Thou art censed. Thou art censed. Thou art pure.
Thou art pure. Thou art established among thy brethren the gods. Thy
head is censed. Thy mouth is censed. Thy bones are purified. [Decay]
that is inherent in thee shall not touch thee. I have given thee the Eye
of Horus,[5] and thy face is filled therewith. Thou art shrouded in
incense (say twice)."[6]

[Footnote 1: A form of the Sun-god.]

[Footnote 2: Originally a benevolent god: later the great god of evil.]

[Footnote 3: The scribe of the gods, lord of wisdom: see pp. 1,2.]

[Footnote 4: The Earth-god.]

[Footnote 5: Horus gave his eye to Osiris, and thereby restored life to
him.]

[Footnote 6: Repetitions are omitted.]

The next ceremony, the ninth, represented the re-birth of the king, who
was personified by a priest. The priest, wrapped in the skin of a bull,
lay on a small bed and feigned death. When the chief priest had said, "O
my father," four times, the priest representing the king came forth from
the bull's skin, and sat up; this act symbolized the resurrection of the
king in the form of a spirit-body (_sahu_). The chief priest then
asserted that the king was alive, and that he should never be removed,
and that he was similar in every way to Horus. The priest personifying
the king then put on a special garment, and taking a staff or sceptre in
his hand, said, "I love my father and his transformation. I have made my
father, I have made a statue of him, a large statue. Horus loveth those
who love him." He then pressed the lips of the statue, and said, "I have
come to embrace thee. I am thy son. I am Horus. I have pressed for thee
thy mouth.... I am thy beloved son." The words then said by the chief
priest, "I have delivered this mine eye from his mouth, I have cut off
his leg," mean that the king was delivered from the jaws of death, and
that a grievous wound had been inflicted on the god of death, _i.e._
Set.

Whilst these ceremonies were being performed the animals brought to be
sacrificed were slain. Chief of these were two bulls, gazelle, geese,
&c., and their slaughter typified the conquest and death of the enemies
of the dead king. The heart and a fore-leg of each bull were presented
to the statue of the king, and the priest said: "Hail, Osiris! I have
come to embrace thee. I am Horus. I have pressed for thee thy mouth. I
am thy beloved Son. I have opened thy mouth. Thy mouth hath been made
firm. I have made thy mouth and thy teeth to be in their proper places.
Hail, Osiris![1] I have opened thy mouth with the Eye of Horus." Then
taking two instruments made of metal the priest went through the motion
of cutting open the mouth and eyes of the statue, and said: "I have
opened thy mouth. I have opened thy two eyes. I have opened thy mouth
with the instrument of Anpu.[2] I have opened thy mouth with the Meskha
instrument wherewith the mouth of the gods was opened. Horus openeth the
mouth and eyes of the Osiris. Horus openeth the mouth of the Osiris even
as he opened the mouth of his father. As he opened the mouth of the god
Osiris so shall he open the mouth of my father with the iron that cometh
forth from Set, with the Meskha instrument of iron wherewith he opened
the mouth of the gods shall the mouth of the Osiris be opened. And the
Osiris shall walk and shall talk, and his body shall be with the Great
Company of the Gods who dwell in the Great House of the Aged One (_i.e._
the Sun-god) who dwelleth in Anu.[3] And he shall take possession of the
Urrt Crown therein before Horus, the Lord of mankind. Hail, Osiris!
Horus hath opened thy mouth and thine eyes with the instruments Sebur
and An, wherewith the mouths of the gods of the South were opened....
All the gods bring words of power. They recite them for thee. They make
thee to live by them. Thou becomest the possessor of twofold strength.
Thou makest the passes that give thee the fluid of life, and their life
fluid is about thee. Thou art protected, and thou shalt not die. Thou
shalt change thy form [at pleasure] among the Doubles[4] of the gods.
Thou shalt rise up as a king of the South. Thou shalt rise up as a king
of the North. Thou art endowed with strength like all the gods and their
Doubles. Shu[5] hath equipped thee. He hath exalted thee to the height
of heaven. He hath made thee to be a wonder. He hath endowed thee with
strength."

[Footnote 1: It was assumed that the king after death became a being
with the nature of Osiris, and he was therefore addressed as "Osiris."]

[Footnote 2: Or Anubis, a very ancient god who presided over embalming;
he appears in the form of a man with the head of a dog or jackal.]

[Footnote 3: The On of the Bible, the Heliopolis of the Greeks. This
city lay a few miles to the east of the modern city of Cairo.]

[Footnote 4: Every living thing possessed a KA or "double," which was
the vital power of the heart and could live after the death of the
body.]

[Footnote 5: The Air-god, the son of Keb and Nut.]

The ceremonies that followed concerned the dressing of the statue of the
king and his food. Various kinds of bandlets and a collar were
presented, and the gift of each endowed the king in the Other World with
special qualities. The words recited by the priest as he offered these
and other gifts were highly symbolic, and were believed to possess great
power, for they brought the Double of the king back to this earth to
live in the statue, and each time they were repeated they renewed the
life of the king in the Other World.


II. The _Liturgy of Funerary Offerings_ was another all-important work.
The oldest form of it, which is found in the Pyramid Texts, proves that
even under the earliest dynasties the belief in the efficacy of
sacrifices and offerings was an essential of the Egyptian religion. The
opening ceremonies had for their object the purification of the deceased
by means of sprinkling with water in which salt, natron, and other
cleansing substances had been dissolved, and burning of incense. Then
followed the presentation of about one hundred and fifty offerings of
food of all kinds, fruit, flowers, vegetables, various kinds of wine,
seven kinds of precious ointments, wearing apparel of the kind suitable
for a king, &c. As each object was presented to the spirit of the king,
which was present in his statue in the Tuat Chamber of the tomb, the
priest recited a form of words, which had the effect of transmuting the
substance of the object into something which, when used or absorbed by
the king's spirit, renewed the king's life and maintained his existence
in the Other World. Every object was called the "Eye of Horus," in
allusion to its life-giving qualities. The following extracts illustrate
the Liturgy of Funerary Offerings:

32. This libation is for thee, Osiris, this libation is for thee,
Unas.[1] (_Here offer cold water of the North._) It cometh forth before
thy son, cometh forth before Horus. I have come, I have brought unto
thee the Eye of Horus, that thy heart may be refreshed thereby. I have
brought it and have set it under thy sandals, and I present unto thee
that which flowed forth from thee. There shall be no stoppage to thy
heart whilst it is with thee, and the offerings that appear at the
command[2] shall appear at thy word of command. (_Recite four times._)

[Footnote 1: The king who is identified with Osiris.]

[Footnote 2: The deceased who possessed the words of power uttered in
the tomb the names of the offerings he required, and the offerings
appeared forthwith.]

37. Thou hast taken possession of the two Eyes of Horus, the White and
the Black, and when they are in thy face they illumine it. (_Here offer
two jugs of wine, one white, one black._)

38. Day hath made an offering unto thee in the sky. The South and the
North have given offerings unto thee. Night hath made an offering unto
thee. The South and the North have made an offering unto thee. An
offering is brought unto thee, look upon it; an offering, hear it. There
is an offering before thee, there is an offering behind thee, there is
an offering with thee. (_Here offer a cake for the journey._)

41. Osiris Unas, the white teeth of Horus are presented unto thee so
that they may fill thy mouth. (_Here offer five bunches of onions._)

47. O Ra, the worship that is paid to thee, the worship of every kind,
shall be paid [also] to Unas. Everything that is offered to thy body
shall be offered to the Double of Unas also, and everything that is
offered to his body shall be thine. (_Here offer the table of holy
offerings._)

61. O ye oils, ye oils, which are on the forehead of Horus, set ye
yourselves on the forehead of Unas, and make him to smell sweet through
you. (_Here offer oil of cedar of the finest quality._)

62. Make ye him to be a spirit-soul (_khu_) through possession of you,
and grant ye him to have the mastery over his body, let his eyes be
opened, and let all the spirit-souls see him, and let them hear his
name. Behold, Osiris Unas, the Eye of Horus hath been brought unto thee,
for it hath been seized for thee that it may be before thee. (_Here
offer the finest Thehenu oil._)


III. As specimens of the hymns in the Pyramid Texts may be quoted the
following: the first is a hymn to Nut, the Sky-goddess, and the second
is a hymn to Ra, the Sun-god.

[O] Nut, thou hast extended thyself over thy son the Osiris Pepi,
Thou hast snatched him out of the hand of Set; join him to thyself, Nut.
Thou comest, snatch thy son; behold, thou comest, form this great
one [like] unto thyself.
[O] Nut, cast thyself upon thy son the Osiris Pepi.
[O] Nut, cast thyself upon thy son the Osiris Pepi.
Form thou him, O Great Fashioner; this great one is among thy children.
Form thou him, O Great Fashioner; this great one is among thy children.
Keb [was to] Nut. Thou didst become a spirit.
Thou wast a mighty goddess in the womb of thy mother Tefnut
when thou wast not born.
Form thou Pepi with life and well-being; he shall not die.
Strong was thy heart,
Thou didst leap in the womb of thy mother in thy name of "Nut."
[O] perfect daughter, mighty one in thy mother, who art crowned
like a king of the North,
Make this Pepi a spirit-soul in thee, let him not die.
[O] Great Lady, who didst come into being in the sky, who art mighty.
Who dost make happy, and dost fill every place (or being), with thy
beauty,
The whole earth is under thee, thou hast taken possession of it.
Thou hast encompassed the earth, everything is in thy two hands,
Grant thou that this Pepi may be in thee like an imperishable star.
Thou hast associated with Keb in thy name of "Pet" (_i.e._ Sky).
Thou hast united the earth in every place.
[O] mistress over the earth, thou art above thy father Shu, thou hast
the mastery over him.
He hath loved thee so much that he setteth himself under thee in
everything.
Thou hast taken possession of every god for thyself with his boat (?).
Thou hast made them shine like lamps,
Assuredly they shall not cease from thee like the stars.
Let not this Pepi depart from thee in thy name of "Hert" (ll. 61-64).


The Hymn to the Sun-god is as follows:

Hail to thee, Tem! Hail to thee, Kheprer, who created himself.
Thou art the High, in this thy name of "Height."
Thou camest into being in this thy name of "Kheprer."
Hail to thee, Eye of Horus,[1] which he furnisheth with his hands
completely.
He permitteth not thee to be obedient to those of the West;
He permitteth not thee to be obedient to those of the East;
He permitteth not thee to be obedient to those of the South;
He permitteth not thee to be obedient to those of the North;
He permitteth not thee to be obedient to those who are in the earth;
[For] thou art obedient to Horus.
He it is who hath furnished thee, he it is who hath builded thee,
he it is who hath made thee to be dwelt in.
Thou doest for him whatsoever he saith unto thee, in every place
whither he goeth.
Thou liftest up to him the water-fowl that are in thee.
Thou liftest up to him the water-fowl that are about to be in thee.
Thou liftest up to him every tree that is in thee.
Thou liftest up to him every tree that is about to be in thee.
Thou liftest up to him the cakes and ale that are in thee.
Thou liftest up to him the cakes and ale that are about to be in thee.
Thou liftest up to him the gifts that are in thee.
Thou liftest up to him the gifts that are about to be in thee.
Thou liftest up to him everything that is in thee.
Thou liftest up to him everything that is about to be in thee.
Thou takest them to him in every place wherein it pleaseth him to be.
The doors upon thee stand fast [shut] like the god Anmutef,[2]
They open not to those who are in the West;
They open not to those who are in the East;
They open not to those who are in the North;
They open not to those who are in the South;
They open not to those who are in the middle of the earth;
But they open to Horus.

He it was who made them, he it was who made them stand [firm], he it was
who delivered them from every evil attack which the god Set made upon
them. He it was who made thee to be a settled country in this thy name
of "Kerkut." He it was who passed bowing after thee in thy name of
"Nut." He it was who delivered thee from every evil attack which Set
made upon thee (Pepi II, ll. 767-774.)

[Footnote 1: Here a name of Egypt.]

[Footnote 2: The god who was "the pillar of his mother."]


IV. The following passages describe the power of the king in heaven, and
his felicity there:

"The sky hath withdrawn the life of the star Septet (Sothis, the
Dog-star); behold Unas a living being, the son of Septet. The Eighteen
Gods have purified him in Meskha (the Great Bear), [he is] an
imperishable star. The house of Unas perisheth not in the sky, the
throne of Unas perisheth not on the earth. Men make supplication
[there], the gods fly [thither]. Septet hath made Unas fly to heaven to
be with his brethren the gods. Nut,[1] the Great Lady, hath unfolded her
arms to Unas. She hath made them into two divine souls at the head of
the Souls of Anu, under the head of Ra. She made them two weeping women
when thou wast on thy bier (?). The throne of Unas is by thee, Ra, he
yieldeth it not up to anyone else. Unas cometh forth into heaven by
thee, Ra. The face of Unas is like the [faces of the] Hawks. The wings
of Unas are like [those of] geese. The nails of Unas are like the claws
of the god Tuf. There is no [evil] word concerning Unas on earth among
men. There is no hostile speech about him with the gods. Unas hath
destroyed his word, he hath ascended to heaven. Upuatu hath made Unas
fly up to heaven among his brethren the gods. Unas hath drawn together
his arms like the Smen goose, he striketh his wings like a falcon,
flying, flying. O men, Unas flieth up into heaven.

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