Egyptian Literature/The Book of the Dead/Of Bringing Charms to Osiris

3097620Egyptian LiteratureThe Book of the Dead: Of Bringing Charms to Osiris1901

THE CHAPTER OF BRINGING CHARMS TO OSIRIS

[From the Papyrus of Ani (British Museum No. 10,470, sheet 15).]

The chapter of bringing charms unto Osiris Ani [in the underworld]. He saith:

“I am Tem-Khepera, who brought himself into being upon the thigh of his divine mother. Those who are in Nu (i.e., the sky) are made wolves, and those who are among the sovereign princes are become hyenas. Behold, I gather together the charm [from every place where] it is, and from every man with whom it is, swifter than greyhounds and quicker than light. Hail, thou who towest along the Mākhent boat of Rā, the stays of thy sails and of thy rudder are taut in the wind as thou sailest up the Pool of Fire in the underworld. Behold, thou gatherest together the charm from every place where it is, and from every man with whom it is, swifter than greyhounds and quicker than light, [the charm] which created the forms of being from the . . . mother, and which either createth the gods or maketh them silent, and which giveth the heat of fire unto the gods. Behold, the charm is given unto me, from wherever it is [and from him with whom it is], swifter than greyhounds and quicker than light,” or (as others say) “quicker than a shadow.”