Legends of the Gods: The Egyptian Texts, edited with TranslationsBudge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
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Legends of the Gods: The Egyptian Texts, edited with Translations
Budge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
Egyptian literature -- Translations into English; Mythology, Egyptian
The Chapter of the divine (or, mighty) god, who created himself, who
made the heavens and the earth, and the breath of life, and fire, and
the gods, and men, and beasts, and cattle, and reptiles, and the fowl
of the air, and the fish, who is the king of men and gods, [who
existeth] in one Form, [to whom] periods of one hundred and twenty
years axe as single years, whose names by reason of their multitude are
unknowable, for [even] the gods know them not. Behold, the goddess
Isis lived in the form, of a woman, who had the knowledge of words [of
power]. Her heart turned away in disgust from the millions of men, and
she chose for herself the millions of the gods, but esteemed more
highly the millions of the spirits. Was it not possible to become even
as was Ra in heaven and upon earth, and to make [herself] mistress of
the earth, and a [mighty] goddess--thus she meditated in her heart--by
the knowledge of the Name of the holy god? Behold, Ra entered [heaven]
each day at the head of his mariners, establishing himself upon the
double throne of the two horizons. Now the divine one had become old,
he dribbled at the mouth, and he let his emissions go forth from him
upon the earth, and his spittle fell upon the ground. This Isis
kneaded in her hand,[FN#66] with [some] dust, and she fashioned it in
the form of a sacred serpent, and made it to have the form of a dart,
so that none might be able to escape alive from it, and she left it
lying upon the road whereon the great god travelled, according to his
desire, about the two lands. Then the holy god rose up in the
tabernacle of the gods in the great double house (life, strength,
health!) among those who were in his train, and [as] he journeyed on
his way according to his daily wont, the holy serpent shot its fang
into him, and the living fire was departing from the god's own body,
and the reptile destroyed the dweller among the cedars. And the mighty
god opened his mouth, and the cry of His Majesty (life, strength,
health!) reached unto the heavens, and the company of the gods said,
"What is it?" and his gods said, "What is the matter?" And the god
found [no words] wherewith to answer concerning himself. His jaws
shook, his lips trembled, and the poison took possession of all his
flesh just as Hapi (i.e., the Nile) taketh possession of the land
through which he floweth. Then the great god made firm his heart
(i.e., took courage) and he cried out to those who were in his
following:--"Come ye unto me, O ye who have come into being from my
members,[FN#67] ye gods who have proceeded from me, for I would make
you to know what hath happened. I have been smitten by some deadly
thing, of which my heart hath no knowledge, and which I have neither
seen with my eyes nor made with my hand; and I have no knowledge at all
who hath done this to me. I have never before felt any pain like unto
it, and no pain can be worse than this [is]. I am a Prince, the son of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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