*tiusr;2?\i'K?h p dttLSC. OD' X -Ms ^8*-, -‘lt.-M*’ (4»n'JUV-jt V; •i ..•.' f t ; l>:: vcl mnrLU*. : • •* v • I> . . 4 * I fV-. ^ ^:-V- <<-•1 i : .T7^ Q 4 r ? # 3 ^ 05S ft W - t t f *iv -uv- w -me Ancient Egyptian Science A Source Book by Marshall Clagett Volume One Knowledge and Order Tome Two INTRODUCTION-DOCUMENT II.l Document H.1: Introduction The Pyramid Texts The earliest collection of religious documents in ancient Egypt is the so-called Pyramid Texts, found principally in the royal tombs at the end of the fifth dynasty and throughout the whole of the sixth dynasty.1 These texts are written on the walls of the chambers of the pyramid of King Wenis in the fifth dynasty and those of the pyramids of Kings Teti, Pepi I, Merenre, and Pepi II in the sixth. In addition they are found in the pyramids of a number of queens of the late Old Kingdom and particularly in that of Queen Nit, the wife of Pepi II. We find them as well in the tombs of some nobles of the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom, and the Late Period, even as late as the thirtieth dynasty. In noting their long use, I speak of essentially unaltered texts and not of the funerary spells that developed out of the Pyramid Texts, those which we designate as Coffin Texts from the Middle Kingdom (see Doc. II.2 below) and those known as the Book of the Dead which originated primarily in the New Kingdom but also appeared in many later, altered versions (see Doc. II.3). The texts consist of collections of individual statements or spells which are ordinarily called Utterances because they are introduced by the expression "Words to be Spoken". In all, the utterances number over 750, though the largest number in any 407 - - ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SCIENCE INTRODUCTION-DOCUMENT II.l single pyramid is about 712 in the tomb of Pepi II. utterances, though aimed at preserving the celestial They have no overall coherence and no single, future of the king, throw considerable light on the all-embracing title. They reflect spells used in burial earliest expressed views of the creation of the cosmos and offering rituals, and their oral character is and the nature of the gods and spirits that inhabit the everywhere evident. Traces of the ritual procedures of Beyond. The identification of the king with the creator purification, offering food and clothing, censing, and is particularly instructive in those utterances that anointing the king’s body as well as royal and divine describe the king as created in the Abyss before statues, can be found in the utterances. anything else (see particularly Sects. 1040, 1463, 1466). The purpose of the Pyramid Texts was to ensure Among the things said to be not yet created are earth, the resurrection of the king, his ascension to the sky as sky, people, death, punishment, anger, turmoil, and in a divine star and as a companion of the sun-god in the fact everything else that was later created. The role of latter’s bark, and his enjoyment of the life of celestial magic in the king’s ascension and power in the heavens regions with abundant provisions, regions where the is mentioned (Sects. 1318, 1324). king would mingle with and enjoy the company of the I stated earlier in my treatment of cosmogony gods. The utterances also reflect the relatively recent that Heliopolitan doctrines predominated in the earliest doctrine of Osiris’s resurrection and his role as king of documents but that there were also intermingled with the Netherworld (though this is not at all stressed as it these doctrines ideas that probably arose elsewhere than was to be later). Heliopolis. I have mentioned in the notes the cases We also find in these utterances allusions to the where Hermopolitan doctrines peek through the Horus- and Osiris-myths, as I have mentioned above in Heliopolitan utterances of the Pyramid Texts. This is Chapter Two. The dead king had already begun to be evident, for example, in Sects. 265-66 and 446. The identified with Osiris, the live king with Horus as mention of the king as the Great Word in Sect. 1100 Osiris’s son. But despite these harbingers of an Osirian need not be a reference to the Memphite idea of the future for the deceased, the overwhelming emphasis of creative word (which, as we have said, no doubt these utterances is on the celestial ascension of the developed later than the Pyramid Texts'), since there is king, an ascension that will result in his complete evidence for a limited doctrine of this kind of creation acceptance as a powerful god. in the Heliopolitan system with its acceptance of Sia In selecting the extracts given here, I have and Hu as creative conception and pronouncement. limited myself largely to those utterances that bear on The reader will notice that I have included a the cosmogonic and cosmological ideas discussed in number of extracts that describe in a vague way the Chapter Two. The most important thing to notice in topography of the sky, including such places as the this respect is that the king was identified with the Field of Rushes, the Field of Offerings, the Field of creator god (sometimes as Re and sometimes as Atum) Turquoise, the Mound of Horus, the Mound of Seth, the and his continuing governance of the world. Thus the Jackal-Lake, the Lake of the Dat or Duat (usually 408 - - 409 - - ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SCIENCE INTRODUCTION-DOCUMENT II.l translated Netherworld, as it later became, though at improvement in the translation by R. 0. Faulkner, The this time Dat had both celestial and subterrestrial Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts: Translated into components), the Winding Waterway, the Causeway of English (Oxford, 1969), with a Supplement of Happiness, and so on. Later documents were to fill out Hieroglyphic Texts (Oxford, 1969). Consult also A. the details of life in these places in the Beyond, but Piankoff, The Pyramid of Unas (Princeton, 1968). For occasionally we note some down-to-earth narrative recent investigations and discoveries, see J. Leclant, detail that removes us from the mysterious or at least "Recherches recentes sur les Textes des Pyramides et unknown references to ritual. Such is the case when les pyramides a textes de Saqqarah," Academie Royale King Pepi (Sects. 915-18) declares that he will be passed de Belgiques: Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres et des from mound to mound until he reaches the "tall Sciences Morales et Politiques, 5e serie, Tome LXXI sycamore tree in the east of the sky on which the gods (1985, 10-11), pp. 292-305. sit", a naturalistic touch that pictures the gods as birds perching in a tree. The same kind of homely detail is The English Translation evident when the gates of heaven are described as being of iron (Sect. 907), if indeed that is the correct I have found the German translation by Sethe translation since, apparently, only meteoritic iron was and the English translation by Faulkner the most useful likely to have been known this early, and certainly not of the various renderings of the Pyramid Texts. I have enough of that to conceive of great gates being made not, however, followed either of them slavishly. I have from it. tended to use the titles of the utterances (or their parts) which Faulkner added to his translation, but Texts and Studies of the Pyramid Texts occasionally have added my own where I wanted to emphasize the part of the utterance which I have The fundamental text is still that of K. Sethe, Die translated. I have not adopted the first-person forms altagyptischen Pyramiden texte, 4 vols. (Leipzig, for the utterances, which Faulkner has almost 1908-22). To these we must add his posthumously everywhere employed. But instead I have kept to the published (jbersetzung und Kommentar zu den third-person forms which include the king’s name. I do altagyptischen Pyramiden t ex ten, 6 vols. (Hamburg, this to maintain the historical sense of the documents, 1962), which is the most useful single work of which disappears when the utterances are converted to translation and commentary that we possess, despite the model, first-person statements. Hence the reader will be fact that much has been added both in terms of new able to tell from my translation whether the utterance textual material by G. Jequier, Le monument funeraire appeared in the earliest corpus, that of Wenis, or de Pepi II (Cairo, 1936- ) and La pyramide d'Oudjebten; whether it was first used by one of the later kings of Les pyramides des reines Neit et Apouit; La pyramide the sixth dynasty. I have also abandoned Faulkner’s d ’Aba (Cairo, 1928-35) and some significant translation of Dat as Netherworld since, as I explained 410 411 - - - - ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SCIENCE DOCUMENT II.l earlier, the Dat in the Old Kingdom (written as it was with a star enclosed by a circle) included both celestial and subterrestrial regions. Document II.1 I have included Sethe’s section numbers within slant lines embedded in my text. The Spell or Utterance Numbers are distinct from the section numbers and are The Pyramid Texts centered in my translation. Utterance 245 Note to the Introduction of The king ascends to the sky Document II.1 /250/ This Wenis has come to you, 0 Nut.1 This Wenis has come to you, 0 Nut. He has committed his father to 1. For an informative but brief summary of the the earth.2 He has left Horus behind him. His two wings Pyramid Texts, see H. Kees, "Toten-Literatur. 20. have grown as those of a falcon, his two feathers (i.e. Pyramidentexte," Handbuch der Orientalistik, Abt. 1, plumes) are those of a sacred falcon.3 His soul CbO has Vol. 1, Part 2 (Leiden, 1970), pp. 52-60. See also the brought him. His magic (hkfw) has equipped him. clear account of certain aspects of the Pyramid Texts The sky-goddess speaks given by J. Vandier, La religion egyptienne (Paris, /251/ Open up your place in the sky among the stars of 1949), passim, but particularly pp. 74-82. The the heaven, for you are the Lone Star4.... specialized studies mentioned at the end of this introduction will give the reader more detailed Utterance 248 information. The king becomes a star /262/ Wenis is a great one; Wenis has come forth from the thighs of the Ennead .... /263/ a star brilliant and far-traveling, who brings distant products to Re daily .... Utterance 249 The king at the nose of Re /265/ ....Wenis has gone to the Island of Fire.3 Wenis sets Maat (miCt) (the right or order of the cosmos) in the place of Isfet (isft) (the wrong or disorder of chaos) .... /266/ Wenis appears as Nefertem, as the lotus at the nose of Re; he will come forth from the horizon every day, and the gods will be cleansed (or purified) 412 413 - - - - ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SCIENCE DOCUMENT III by seeing him. your shadow. /447/ You have your offering-bread, Atum and Ruti, who yourselves created your own Utterance 262 bodies. 0 Shu and Tefenet, who made the gods, who The king prays to the gods for recognition fashioned the gods, who established the gods: /448/ tell /330/ .... Be not unaware of Wenis, 0 Har-Sopd. If you your father11 that Wenis has given your offering-loaves know him, he shall know you.6 .... to you... Iso that] you will not prevent Wenis from crossing to him at the horizon. /449/ For Wenis knows Utterance 263 him and knows his name: 'Eternity’ is his name, The The king ferries across the sky to Re Eternal One, Lord of the Years’ is his name. The Armed /337/ The reed-boats7 of the sky are launched for Re Fighter Horus, who is over the gods of the Sky,12 is he that he may cross on them to the horizon, ... for who vivifies Re every day .... Harakhti that he may cross on them to Re, ... for Wenis that he may cross on them to the horizon, to Re .... Utterance 306 /340/ .... The Fields of Rushes are filled [with water], An ascension text and Wenis ferries across on the Winding Waterway. .... /480/ It is Geb who speaks about it: The mounds of /341/ This Wenis is ferried over to the eastern side of my mound (i.e. realm) are the Mounds of Horus and the the horizon. This Wenis is ferried over to the eastern Mounds of Seth,12 and the Fields of Rushes worship side of the sky. His sister is the star Sothis,8 his child is you in your name of Dwlw as Sopd who dwells under the dawn. his £s^-trees....’ Utterances 273-74 Utterance 325 The king hunts and eats all of the gods A lustration text .... /397/ The king is the Bull of the sky, who conquers /525/ The doors of the sky tare opened!. The doors of (?) at will, who lives on the being of every god, who the watery firmament are thrown open for Horus of the eats their entrails, even of those who come with their Gods, on the first day. He comes forth into the Field of bodies full of magic from the Island of Fire .... Rushes. He bathes in the Field of Rushes. /526~29/ [So is the case successively with Harakhti, Horus of the Utterance 301 East, Horus of Sezmet, and King Tetil14 .... An address to the primeval gods /446/ You have your offering-bread, 0 Niu (Nun) and Utterance 407 Nenet (Naunet), you two embracers (?)9 of the gods, The king takes his place in the Beyond who embrace the gods in your shadow. You have /710/ Teti purifies himself. He assumes for himself his offering-bread, 0 Amun and Amenet (Amaunet),10 you pure throne in the sky. Teti will endure and the good two embracers (?) of the gods, who embrace the gods in throne of Teti will endure. Teti will assume his pure -414- -415- ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SCIENCE DOCUMENT II.l seat which is at the bow of the Bark of Re. /711/ The /906/ This Pepi is pure. This Pepi takes his oar in godly sailors who row Re will row Teti; it is the godly hand. He occupies his seat, this Pepi sits in the bow of sailors who convey Re round about the horizon who the ship of the Two Enneads. Pepi rows Re to the will convey Teti round about the horizon .... west.... /907/ The doors of Bl~k^ which is in the Some adrdesses to Nut firmament, are opened to this Pepi, the doors of iron Utterance 427 which are in the starry sky are thrown open for this /111/ 0 Nut, spread yourself over your son Osiris Pepi Pepi, and he goes through them.... /909/ ...I am a star that you may conceal him from Seth; protect him, 0 Cnhhj companion of a star Cnhh). This Pepi becomes a Nut .... star. Utterance 428 /778/ 0 Nut, fall over your son Osiris Pepi; protect Utterance 470 him, 0 Great Protectress, this great one who is among A collection of spells your children. /914/ '0 Bull of Offerings, bend down your horn and let Utterance 429 this Pepi pass,’ so says Pepi. 'Where are you going?’ /779/ Thus says Geb: '0 Nut, you have become This Pepi is going to the sky, for all life and dominion, spiritually mighty. Power (shm) was in you [when you /915/ that he may see his father, that he may see Re.’ were! in the womb of your mother Tefenet at the time To the High Mounds lor! to the Mounds of Seth?’ /916/ you were not yet born, that you might protect Pepi The High Mounds will pass him on to the Mounds of with life and power, for he has not died.’ Seth, to that tall sycamore tree in the east of the sky Utterance 432 on which the gods sit’.... /918/ This Pepi has bathed in /782/ 0 Great One (i.e. Nut), who came into being in the Field of Rushes, this Pepi is clothed in the Field of the sky,... the entire land is yours; you have taken it, Khoprer, and Pepi finds Re there.... for you have enclosed the earth and all things within your arms. You have set this Pepi as an Imperishable Utterance 472 Star who is in you (i.e. the sky). A ferryman text Utterance 434 /924/ The sky quivers, the earth quakes before this /784/ Be far from the earth, for to you belongs (?) the Pepi, for this Pepi is a magician Chk}wX Pepi possesses head of your father Shu.... /785/ You have taken to magic. /925/ This Pepi has come that he may glorify yourself every god who possesses his bark, that you Orion and set Osiris at the head, and that he may set may install (?) them in the starry sky, lest they depart the gods upon their thrones. 0 M}~hKf Bull of the gods, from you as stars.... bring this (i.e. the ferry) to this Pepi and set him on that [yonder! side. Utterance 469 The king joins the solar bark 416 417 - - - - DOCUMENT 11.1 ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SCIENCE Utterance 504 Utterance 473 The kings clear way to the sky The king crosses the Celestial River .... /1086/ .... He (i.e. the king) takes for himself his ... /934/ This Pepi comes forth on this eastern side of throne which is in the Field of Rushes /1087/ and he the sky where the gods were born, and this Pepi was descends to the southern region of the Field of born as Horus, as Him of that horizon; /935/ this Pepi Offerings. is acclaimed just (i.e. vindicated) and this Pepi’s ka is acclaimed just. So, acclaim Pepi and this Pepi’s ka, for Utterance 506 Sothis (Sirius) is the sister of Pepi, and the Morning The parts of the king are various entities Star is Pepi’s child.15 /936/ This Pepi will come with .... /1100/ The lips of Pepi are the Two Enneads? Pepi is you and wander with you in the Field of Rushes? he the Great Word....1^ will serve as herdsman with you in the Field of Turquoise .... Utterance 510 A miscellany of spells Utterance 477 .... /1143/.... Pepi takes possession of the sky, its pillars, Osiris and the king s services to him its stars. /1144/ The gods come to him bowing; the .... /964/ ....This Pepi has come to you, 0 Osiris. This spirits follow (i.e. serve) Pepi because of his power (b’iX. Pepi will wipe your face, he will clothe you with the They have broken their staffs and smashed their clothing of a god.15 He will do the purification weapons /1145/ because Pepi is a great one and the son ceremony for you at Djedit. /965/ It is Sothis (Sirius) of a great one, whom Nut bore .... /1146/ Pepi is the your beloved daughter who prepares the yearly effluent fluid; he has come forth from the creating of sustenance for you in this her name of 'Year (RnptX... the waters; he is a snake of many coils. This Pepi is the scribe of the god’s book, who says what will be and Utterance 486 what will not be created.... Address to the primitive waters /1039/ Hail to you, you waters which Shu has brought, Utterance 511 which the two sources lifted up, the waters in which The king goes to the sky Geb bathed his limbs. Hearts were pervaded with fear, .... /1156/ .... he (the king) will hold up the sky with life hearts were pervaded with terror /1040/ when this Pepi and support the earth with joy; his right hand will was born in the Abyss before the sky came into being, support the sky with a w^staff, and his left will before the earth came into being, before any established support the earth with joy .... thing came into being, before tumult came into being, before that fear which arose on account of the Eye of Utterance 512 Horus came into being .... Speeches by the dead king's son 419 418 - - - - ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SCIENCE DOCUMENT II.l .... /1164/ Oho, raise yourself, Pepi, receive these four his hand that he might ejaculate thereby, and so were pleasant nmst-\avs, wash yourself in the Jackal-Lake, be born the twins Shu and Tefenet.... cleansed in the Lake of the Dat, be purified on top of your lotus-flower in the Field of Rushes. /1165/ Cross Utterance 537 the sky, make your abode in the Field of Offerings A resurrection text among the gods who have gone to their kas. Sit upon /1298/ 0 Pepi, stand up and sit upon the throne of your throne of iron, /1166/ receive your mace and Osiris! Your whole flesh is that of Atum .... /1299/ scepter, that you may lead those in the Abyss (nw), ....Stand up. You shall not perish, you shall not be that you may give commands to the gods, and establish destroyed, /1300/ but live, 0 Pepi! Your mother Nut a spirit in his spirit-state. /1167/ Run your course, row grasps hold of you that she may embrace you, and Geb your waterway like Re over the banks of the sky. 0 takes your hand .... /1301/ May you go out as Horus of Pepi, raise yourself up and go into your spirit-state. the Netherworld who is at the head of the Imperishable Stars, may you live as the living scarabaeus-beetle, as Utterance 518 long-lasting as the cW-pillar, for ever and ever. A ferryman text /1193/ 0 7w, ferryman of the Field of Offerings, bring Utterance 539 this Iferryl to this Pepi, for Pepi is the one who goes, An ascension text Pepi is the one who goes.... /1196/ This Pepi has /1303/ The head of this Pepi is a vulture. He will descended with the Two Enneads in the cool waters. ascend and rise up to the sky. The sides of the head of Pepi is the potter (or in other texts, the plumbline18) of this Pepi are the starry sky of the god. He will ascend the Two Enneads by means of which the Field of and rise up to the sky .... /1304/ .... The face of this Offerings was founded .... /1198/ .... The causeway north Pepi is Wepwawet .... /1305/ The eyes of this Pepi are of the Field of Offerings is called the Causeway of the Great One at the head of the Souls of On....The nose Happiness. /1199/ Stand up, Osiris. Commend this Pepi to of this Pepi is Thoth....Iand so on through the body the supervisors of the Causeway of Happiness north of down to the toes, with each part related to a divinity the Field of Offerings just as you commended Horus to and with the constant repetition of the ascension of Isis on that day you made her pregnant. /1200/ Let Pepi! .... /1316/ Pepi is the companion of a god, the son Pepi eat of the fields and drink of the pools within the of a god; .... /1318/ Pepi was born for Re; he will ascend Field of Offerings. and rise up to the sky. The magic belonging to him is that which is in the belly of Pepi .... /1324/ It is not Utterance 527 Pepi who says this to you, you gods. It is Magic who The Creation of Shu and Tefenet says this to you, you gods.... /1248/ Atum is he who came into being [alone], who masturbated in On (i.e. Heliopolis). He took his penis in 420 421 - - - -