1. The title here translated is that usual in all the papyri
representing the third period of the text. It occurs however in the
papyrus _Ag_ of Huneferu, who lived in the days of Seti I, at the
beginning of the XIXth dynasty. It is also found in the papyrus of Ani.
The most common title of Chapter I in the older manuscripts is
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂, “Chapter of coming to the
divine Powers attached to Osiris.” These divine Powers are Amsta, Hapi,
Tuamautef and Qebehsenuf, the children of Horus, who stand upon the
lotus which springs from the water beneath the throne of Osiris, in
pictures of the Psychostasia. Chapter 124 bears the same title in the
older manuscripts, which sometimes begin with it.
2. ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂. These are two very difficult words,
and very different meanings have been assigned to them. But when the
entire evidence is examined the result is plain enough. Each of the
words has for determinative the sign, ⁂, expressive of some kind of
utterance. It is a λόγος of some kind has for its first letter the
causative ⁂. The question therefore is, what are the meanings of the
simpler forms ⁂⁂, _tes_, and ⁂⁂⁂, _ḫu_?
The most common, indeed the only true, meaning of ⁂⁂ is
‘rising,’ and even ‘raising.’ This is too well-known to require proof.
⁂⁂ is ‘causing to rise.’ The Pyramid text of Teta says (l. 270),
“Horus hath given his children that they may raise thee up
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.” In the same religious text, l. 248,
⁂⁂ is the _rising from the funereal couch_ after the ⁂⁂,
the recitations made over the dead.
The ‘raising up’ or ‘resurrection’ here spoken of is said not only of
the soul but of the body of the deceased person. The papyrus of Nebseni
has preserved two chapters, to which M. Naville has assigned the numbers
177 and 178.
177. ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
_Chapter of raising up the Chu, and giving life to the Soul in the
Netherworld._
178.
⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
_Chapter of raising up the body, of giving it eyes and the possession of
ears, and establishing the head, made firm on its props._
⁂, _ḫat_, is not simply the body; it is the _dead body_, that which
has _fallen_, like the Latin _cadaver_, the Greek πτῶμα, the Hebrew
מַפֶלֶח. (See _Transactions Soc. Bib. Arch._, Vol. VIII, p. 221, note 2.)
The true meaning of ⁂⁂⁂ _ḫu_ is not ‘luminous’ but
‘clear, distinct, glittering, ‘_coruscans_,’ and hence ‘bright,
splendid, illustrious, glorious,’ and the like. Like the Greek
λαμπρός, the Latin _clarus_, the Hebrew עהל, or the French
_éclat_, it is applied to sound as well as to light. It is said of
Thoth (in the wretched orthography[5] of a tablet of the XIXth
dynasty) ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂ “he glorified
them with the clear utterances of his mouth.” ⁂⁂⁂
corresponds to the Greek λαμπροφωνία. As a verb ⁂⁂ is
_clareo_, and is ⁂⁂⁂ _clarifico_, _glorifico_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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