the Book of the Dead ( PDF )

Plates VII.-X.
the words of the god Tmu come to pass. "I am the god Tmu in [my] rising;[2] I am the only One. I came
into existence in Nu. (6) I am Ra who rose in the beginning. [He hath ruled that which he made.][3]"
(7) Who then is this? It is Ra who rose for the first time in the city of (8) Suten-henen[4] [crowned][5] as
a king in [his] rising.[6] The pillars of Shu[7] were not as yet created, when he was upon the (9) high
place of him who is in Khemennu.[8]
"I am the great god who gave birth to himself, even Nu, (10) [who] created his name Paut Neteru[9] as
god."
Who then (11) is this? It is Ra, the creator of the name[s] of his limbs, which came into being (12) in the
form of the gods in the train of Ra.
"I am he who is not driven back among the gods."
[1. For accounts of the way in which draughts were played by the Egyptians, see Birch, in Revue Archéologique, 1864, p.
56 ff.; Birch, in Aeg. Zeitschrift, 1866, p. 97; Birch, in Trans. Boy. Son Literature, New Series, vol. ix., p. 256; and
Falkner, Oriental Games, London, 1892. The draught-board of the ancient Egyptians is often a rectangular wooden box,
the top divided into squares, containing a drawer in which the men are kept (British Museum, No. 21,576). Draught-boards
were also made of blue glazed faïence, and bone or ivory (British Museum, No. 21,577). The draughtsmen n are of wood,
bone, ivory, glazed faïence, or stone, and have at times the heads of lions 1) (British Museum, Nos. 13,417, 21,580,
21,581); jackals (British Museum, Nos. 604b, 24,660-66); and of the god Bes (British Museum, Nos. 6413c, 24,667-75).
No. 6414a is inscribed with the prenomen of Necho II.
2, I.e., the Sun-god when he sets and rises.
3. Supplied from the Papyrus of Nebseni. See British Museum papyrus No. 9900; Naville, Todtenbuch, Bd. II., Pl. xxxi.
4 See supra, p. 273, note 3.
5. Adding ### or ### from the variant readings given by Naville.
6. Some papyri read Unnu; on this town, see Brugsch, Dict. Géog., p. 146.
7. Shu was the son of Ra and Hathor and the twin-brother of Tefnut. He typified the sunlight, and separated the earth from
the sky, which he established and supported. For a drawing of Shu and his four supports, see Lanzone, Dizionario, tav.
385.
8. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog., p. 749.
9. I.e., " substance of the gods."]
{p. 282}
(13) Who then is this? It is Tmu in his disk, or (as others say), It is Ra in (14) his rising in the eastern
horizon of heaven.
"I am Yesterday; I know (15) Tomorrow."
Who then is this? Yesterday is Osiris, and (16) Tomorrow is Ra, on the day when he shall destroy the
(17) enemies of Neb-er-tcher, and when he shall stablish as prince and ruler (18) his son Horus, or (as
others say), on the day when we commemorate the festival (19) of the meeting of the dead Osiris with his
father Ra, and when the battle of the (20) gods was fought in which Osiris, lord of Amentet, was the
leader.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/ebod/ebod18.htm (6 of 14) [8/10/2001 11:27:39 AM]