Another Chapter whereby the Mouth of a person is given to him in the Netherworld.
I shine forth out of the Egg which is in the unseen world.(1)
Let there be given my mouth that I may speak with it in presence
of the great god, Lord of the Tuat. Let not my hand be repulsed
by the Divine Circle of the great god.
I am Osiris, the Lord of Restau, the same who is at the head of
the Staircase.(2)
I am come to do the will of my heart, out of the Tank of
Flame, which I extinguish when I come forth.(3)
Notes.
This is one of the chapters of which the text certainly belongs
to the earliest epoch. It is one of those copied by Wilkinson from
the coffin(2)(2) of Queen Mentuhotep. In the Papyrus of Ani it is
followed by chapter 21 as its conclusion, and both chapters are
appended to chapter 1, before the rubric belonging to that chapter.
1.
The Egg in the unseen world is the globe of the Sun while
yet below the horizon. It is only through a mistranslation of
chapter 54, 2 that the Indian notion of a ‘Mundane Egg’ has
been ascribed to the Egyptians.
The 17th chapter addresses “Rā in thine Egg, who risest up
in thine orb, and shinest from thine Horizon.”
622.
See the picture of Osiris at the head of the Staircase, which
is here given (see Plate XI) from the alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I
in the Soane Museum. Similar pictures are given on other
sarcophagi. The gods on the stairs are called ,
‘the Divine Circle about Osiris.’
The ‘Staircase of the great god’ at Abydos, is
frequently mentioned on the funeral stelae.
3.
The Tank of Flame. See chapter 1, note 15. The red
glow of the Sky disappears after the Sun has risen, he is therefore
said to “extinguish the Flame” after he has come forth. The same
notion is expressed in the myth according to which Horus strikes
off the head of his mother.
