The Book of the DeadBudge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
Religion
The Book of the Dead
Budge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
Book of the dead; Death; Egypt -- Religion; Future life
"Homage to thee, O Ra, at thy beauteous rising. Thou risest, thou
risest; thou shinest, thou shinest at the dawn. Thou art King of
the Gods, and the Maati goddesses embrace thee. The Company of the
Gods praise thee at sunrise and at sunset. Thou sailest over the
heights of heaven and thy heart is glad. Thy Morning Boat meeteth
thy Evening Boat with fair winds. Thy father is the Sky-god and
thy mother is the Sky-goddess, and thou art Horus of the Eastern
and Western skies. ... O thou Only One, O thou Perfect One, O thou
who art eternal, who art never weak, whom no mighty one can abase;
none hath dominion over the things which appertain to thee. Homage to
thee in thy characters of Horus, Tem, and Khepera, thou Great Hawk,
who makest man to rejoice by thy beautiful face. When thou risest men
and women live. Thou renewest thy youth, and dost set thyself in the
place where thou wast yesterday. O Divine Youth, who art self-created,
I cannot comprehend thee. Thou art the lord of heaven and earth,
and didst create beings celestial and beings terrestrial. Thou art
the God One, who camest into being in the beginning of time. Thou
didst create the earth, and man, thou didst make the sky and the
celestial river Hep; thou didst make the waters and didst give life
unto all that therein is. Thou hast knit together the mountains, thou
hast made mankind and the beasts of the field to come into being, and
hast made the heavens and the earth. The fiend Nak is overthrown, his
arms are cut off. O thou Divine Youth, thou heir of everlastingness,
self-begotten and self-born, One, Might, of myriad forms and aspects,
Prince of An (i.e., On), Lord of Eternity, Everlasting Ruler, the
Company of the Gods rejoice in thee. As thou risest thou growest
greater: thy rays are upon all faces. Thou art unknowable, and no
tongue can describe thy similitude; thou existest alone. Millions
of years have passed over the world, I cannot tell the number of
those through which thou hast passed. Thou journeyest through spaces
[requiring] millions of years [to pass over] in one little moment of
time, and then thou settest and dost make an end of the hours."
The subject matter of the above extract is treated at greater length
in Chapter XV, which contains a long Hymn to Ra at his rising, or
Amen-Ra, or Ra united to other solar gods, e.g., Horus and Khepera,
and a short Hymn to Ra at his setting. In the latter the welcome
which Ra receives from the dwellers in Amentt (i.e., the Hidden Place,
like the Greek "Hades") is emphasized thus:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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