LEGENDS OF THE GODS
by E. A. Wallis Budge
LEGENDS OF THE GODS
The Egyptian Texts, edited with Translations
by E. A. Wallis Budge
London, 1912
PREFACE
The welcome which has been accorded to the volumes of this Series, and
the fact that some of them have passed into second and third editions,
suggest that these little books have been found useful by beginners in
Egyptology and others. Hitherto the object of them has been to supply
information about the Religion, Magic, Language, and History of the
ancient Egyptians, and to provide editions of the original texts from
which such information was derived. There are, however, many branches
of Egyptology which need treatment in a similar manner in this Series,
and it has been suggested in many quarters that the time has now
arrived when the publication of a series of groups of texts
illustrating Egyptian Literature in general might well be begun.
Seeing that nothing is known about the authors of Egyptian works, not
even their names, it is impossible to write a History of Egyptian
Literature in the ordinary sense of the word. The only thing to be
done is to print the actual works in the best and most complete form
possible, with translations, and then to put them in the hands of the
reader and leave them to his judgment.
With this object in view, it has been decided to publish in the Series
several volumes which shall be devoted to the reproduction in
hieroglyphic type of the best and most typical examples of the various
kinds of Egyptian Literature, with English translations, on a much
larger scale than was possible in my "First Steps in Egyptian" or in my
"Egyptian Reading Book." These volumes are intended to serve a double
purpose, i.e., to supply the beginner in Egyptian with new material and
a series of reading books, and to provide the general reader with
translations of Egyptian works in a handy form.
The Egyptian texts, whether the originals be written in hieroglyphic or
hieratic characters, are here printed in hieroglyphic type, and are
arranged with English translations, page for page. They are printed as
they are written in the original documents, i.e., the words are not
divided. The beginner will find the practice of dividing the words for
himself most useful in acquiring facility of reading and understanding
the language. The translations are as literal as can reasonably be
expected, and, as a whole, I believe that they mean what the original
writers intended to say. In the case of passages where the text is
corrupt, and readings are mixed, or where very rare words occur, or
where words are omitted, the renderings given claim to be nothing more
than suggestions as to their meanings. It must be remembered that the
exact meanings of many Egyptian words have still to be ascertained, and
that the ancient Egyptian scribes were as much puzzled as we are by
some of the texts which they copied, and that owing to carelessness,
ignorance, or weariness, or all three, they made blunders which the
modern student is unable to correct. In the Introduction will be found
brief descriptions of the contents of the Egyptian texts, in which
their general bearing and importance are indicated, and references
given to authoritative editions of texts and translations.
E. A. WALLIS BUDGE.
BRITISH MUSEUM,
November 17,1911.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. THE LEGEND OF THE CREATION
II. THE LEGEND OF THE DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND
III. THE LEGEND OF RA AND THE SNAKE-BITE
IV. THE LEGEND OF HORUS OF EDFU AND THE WINGED DISK
V. THE LEGEND OF THE ORIGIN OF HORUS
VI. A LEGEND OF KHENSU NEFER-HETEP AND THE PRINCESS OF BEKHTEN
VII. THE LEGEND OF KHNEMU AND A SEVEN YEARS' FAMINE
VIII. THE LEGEND OF THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF HORUS
IX. THE LEGEND OF ISIS AND OSIRIS ACCORDING TO CLASSICAL WRITERS
LIST OF PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS ON OR FOLLOWING PAGE:
The History of Creation
I. Horus holding the Hippopotamus-fiend with chain and spear
II. Horus spearing the Hippopotamus-fiend
III. Horus spearing the Hippopotamus-fiend
IV. Horus and Isis capturing the Hippopotamus fiend
V. Horus on the back of the Hippopotamus-fiend
VI. The slaughter of the Hippopotamus-fiend
VII. Horus of Behutet and Ra-Harmakhis in a shrine
VIII. Horus of Behutet and Ra-Harmakhis in a shrine
IX. Ashthertet in her chariot
X. Horus holding captive foes and spearing Typhonic animals
XI. Horus spearing human foes
XII. Horus spearing the crocodile
XIII. Horus in the form of a lion
XIV. The Procreation of Horus, son of Isis.
XV. The Resurrection of Osiris.
XVI. The Bekhten Stele
XVII. The Metternich Stele--Obverse
XVIII. The Metternich Stele--Reverse
INTRODUCTION
I.
THE LEGEND OF THE GOD NEB-ER-TCHER, AND THE HISTORY OF CREATION.
The text of the remarkable Legend of the Creation which forms the first
section of this volume is preserved in a well-written papyrus in the
British Museum, where it bears the number 10,188. This papyrus was
acquired by the late Mr. A. H. Rhind in 1861 or 1862, when he was
excavating some tombs on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes. He did
not himself find it in a tomb, but he received it from the British
Consul at Luxor, Mustafa Agha, during an interchange of gifts when Mr.
Rhind was leaving the country. Mustafa Agha obtained the papyrus from
the famous hiding-place of the Royal Mummies at Der-al-Bahari, with the
situation of which he was well acquainted for many years before it
became known to the Egyptian Service of Antiquities. When Mr. Rhind
came to England, the results of his excavations were examined by Dr.
Birch, who, recognising the great value of the papyrus, arranged to
publish it in a companion volume to Facsimiles of Two Papyri, but the
death of Mr. Rhind in 1865 caused the project to fall through. Mr.
Rhind's collection passed into the hands of Mr. David Bremner, and the
papyrus, together with many other antiquities, was purchased by the
Trustees of the British Museum. In 1880 Dr. Birch suggested the
publication of the papyrus to Dr. Pleyte, the Director of the Egyptian
Museum at Leyden. This savant transcribed and translated some passages
from the Festival Songs of Isis and Nephthys, which is the first text
in it, and these he published in Recueil de Travaux, Paris, tom. iii.,
pp. 57-64. In 1886 by Dr. Birch's kindness I was allowed to work at
the papyrus, and I published transcripts of some important passages and
the account of the Creation in the Proceedings of the Society of
Biblical Archaeology, 1886-7, pp. 11-26. The Legend of the Creation
was considered by Dr. H. Brugsch to be of considerable value for the
study of the Egyptian Religion, and encouraged by him[FN#1] I made a
full transcript of the papyrus, which was published in Archaeologia,
(vol. lii., London, 1891), with transliterations and translations. In
1910 I edited for the Trustees of the British Museum the complete
hieratic text with a revised translation.[FN#2]
[FN#1] Ein in moglichst wortgetreuer Uebersetzung vorglegter Papyrus-
text soll den Schlussstein meines Werkes bilden. Er wird den Beweis
fur die Richtigkeit meiner eigenen Untersuchungen vollenden, indem er
das wichtigste Zeugniss altagyptischen Ursprungs den zahlreichen, von
mir angezogenen Stellen aus den Inschriften hinzufugt. Trotz mancher
Schwierigkeit im Einzelnen ist der Gesammtinhalt des Textes, den zuerst
ein englischer Gelehrter der Wissenschaft zuganglich gemacht hat, such
nicht im geringsten misszuverstehen (Brugsch, Religion, p. 740). He
gives a German translation of the Creation Legend on pp. 740, 741, and
a transliteration on p. 756.
[FN#2] Egyptian Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum, London, 1910,
folio.
The papyrus is about 16 ft. 8 in. in length, and is 9 1/4 in. in width.
It contains 21 columns of hieratic text which are written in short
lines and are poetical in character, and 12 columns or pages of text
written in long lines; the total number of lines is between 930 and
940. The text is written in a small, very black, but neat hand, and
may be assigned to a time between the XXVIth Dynasty and the Ptolemaic
Period. The titles, catch-words, rubrics, names of Apep and his
fiends, and a few other words, are written in red ink. There are two
colophons; in the one we have a date, namely, the "first day of the
fourth month of the twelfth year of Pharaoh Alexander, the son of
Alexander," i.e., B.C. 311, and in the other the name of the priest who
either had the papyrus written, or appropriated it, namely, Nes-Menu,
or Nes-Amsu.
The Legend of the Creation is found in the third work which is given in
the papyrus, and which is called the "Book of overthrowing Apep, the
Enemy of Ra, the Enemy of Un-Nefer" (i.e., Osiris). This work
contained a series of spells which were recited during the performance
of certain prescribed ceremonies, with the object of preventing storms,
and dispersing rain-clouds, and removing any obstacle, animate or
inanimate, which could prevent the rising of the sun in the morning, or
obscure his light during the day. The Leader-in Chief of the hosts of
darkness was a fiend called Apep who appeared in the sky in the form of
a monster serpent, and, marshalling all the fiends of the Tuat,
attempted to keep the Sun-god imprisoned in the kingdom of darkness.
Right in the midst of the spells which were directed against Apep we
find inserted the legend of the Creation, which occurs in no other
known Egyptian document (Col. XXVI., l. 21, to Col. XXVII., l. 6).
Curiously enough a longer version of the legend is given a little
farther on (Col. XXVIII., l. 20, to Col. XXIX., l. 6). Whether the
scribe had two copies to work from, and simply inserted both, or
whether he copied the short version and added to it as he went along,
cannot be said. The legend is entitled: Book of knowing the evolutions
of Ra [and of] overthrowing Apep.
This curious "Book" describes the origin not only of heaven, and earth,
and all therein, but also of God Himself. In it the name of Apep is
not even mentioned, and it is impossible to explain its appearance in
the Apep Ritual unless we assume that the whole "Book" was regarded as
a spell of the most potent character, the mere recital of which was
fraught with deadly effect for Apep and his friends.
The story of the Creation is supposed to be told by the god Neb-er-
tcher. This name means the "Lord to the uttermost limit," and the
character of the god suggests that the word "limit" refers to time and
space, and that he was, in fact, the Everlasting God of the Universe.
This god's name occurs in Coptic texts, and then he appears as one who
possesses all the attributes which are associated by modern nations
with God Almighty. Where and how Neb-er-tcher existed is not said, but
it seems as if he was believed to have been an almighty and invisible
power which filled all space. It seems also that a desire arose in him
to create the world, and in order to do this he took upon himself the
form of the god Khepera, who from first to last was regarded as the
Creator, par excellence, among all the gods known to the Egyptians.
When this transformation of Neb-er-tcher into Khepera took place the
heavens and the earth had not been created, but there seems to have
existed a vast mass of water, or world-ocean, called Nu, and it must
have been in this that the transformation took place. In this
celestial ocean were the germs of all the living things which
afterwards took form in heaven and on earth, but they existed in a
state of inertness and helplessness. Out of this ocean Khepera raised
himself, and so passed from a state of passiveness and inertness into
one of activity. When Khepera raised himself out of the ocean Nu, he
found himself in vast empty space, wherein was nothing on which he
could stand. The second version of the legend says that Khepera gave
being to himself by uttering his own name, and the first version states
that he made use of words in providing himself with a place on which to
stand. In other words, when Khepera was still a portion of the being
of Neb-er-tcher, he spake the word "Khepera," and Khepera came into
being. Similarly, when he needed a place whereon to stand, he uttered
the name of the thing, or place, on which he wanted to stand, and that
thing, or place, came into being. This spell he seems to have
addressed to his heart, or as we should say, will, so that Khepera
willed this standing-place to appear, and it did so forthwith. The
first version only mentions a heart, but the second also speaks of a
heart-soul as assisting Khepera in his first creative acts; and we may
assume that he thought out in his heart what manner of thing be wished
to create, and then by uttering its name caused his thought to take
concrete form. This process of thinking out the existence of things is
expressed in Egyptian by words which mean "laying the foundation in the
