The Literature of the Ancient EgyptiansBudge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
History
The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians
Budge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
Egyptian literature -- History and criticism; Egyptian literature -- Translations into English
NEPHTHYS SAITH: "O Beautiful Prince, come to thy house. Let thy heart
rejoice and be glad, for thine enemies have ceased to be. Thy two
Sisters are nigh unto thee; they guard thy bier, they address thee with
words [full of] tears as thou liest prone on thy bier. Look thou at the
young women; speak to us, O our Sovereign Lord. Destroy thou all the
misery that is in our hearts; the chiefs among gods and men look upon
thee. Turn thou towards us thy face, O our Sovereign Lord. At the sight
of thy face life cometh to our faces; turn not thou thy face from us.
The joy of our heart is in the sight of thee. O Beautiful Sovereign, our
hearts would see thee. I am thy sister Nephthys who loveth thee. The
fiend Seba hath fallen, he hath not being. I am with thee, and I act as
the protectress of thy members for ever and ever."
The second work, the "Festival Songs of Isis and Nephthys," was sung
during the great festival of Osiris, which took place in the fourth
month of the Season of Akhet and lasted five days (from the
twenty-second to the twenty-sixth day). It was sung by two virgins who
wore fillets of sheep's wool on their heads, and held tambourines in
their hands; one was called Isis and the other Nephthys. According to
the rubrical directions given in the British Museum papyrus, the
sections were sung by both women together. The following passage will
illustrate the contents of the work:
"Come, come, run to me, O strong heart! Let me see thy divine face, for
I do not see thee, and make thou clear the path that we may see thee as
we see Rā in heaven, when the heavens unite with the earth, and cause
darkness to fall upon the earth each day. My heart burneth as with fire
at thy escape from the Fiend, even as my heart burneth with fire when
thou turnest thy side to me; O that thou wouldst never remove it from
me! O thou who unitest the Two Domains (_i.e._ Egypt, North and South),
and who turnest back those who are on the roads, I seek to see thee
because of my love for thee.... Thou fliest like a living being, O
Everlasting King; thou hast destroyed the fiend Anrekh. Thou art the
King of the South and of the North, and thou goest forth from
Tatchesert. May there never be a moment in thy life when I do not fill
thy heart, O my divine brother, my lord who goest forth from Aqert....
My arms are raised to protect thee, O thou whom I love. I love thee, O
Husband, Brother, lord of love; come thou in peace into thy house....
Thy hair is like turquoise as thou comest forth from the Fields of
Turquoise, thy hair is like unto the finest lapis-lazuli, and thou
thyself art more blue than thy hair. Thy skin and body are like southern
alabaster, and thy bones are of silver. The perfume of thy hair is like
unto new myrrh, and thy skull is of lapis-lazuli."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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