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The Miraculous Birth

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Colin Campbell

NG AMON-HOTEP

er Egyptian Studies

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in 2017 with funding from
Princeton Theological Seminary Library

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THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH OF
KING AMON-HOTEP III.

AND

OTHER EGYPTIAN STUDIES

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

KING AMON-HOTKP III.

AND

/ \

OTHER EGYPTIAN STUDIES {

CO L I N

C A M FBELL,

M.A., D.D.

MINISTER OF DUNDEE PARISH

AUTHOR OF “TWO TIIKBAN QUEENS," “TWO THEBAN PRINCE* "
“THE SARCOPHAGUS OF PA-BASA,” ETC.

WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR

OLIVER AND BOYD

EDINBURGH: TWEEDDALE COURT
LONDON: 33 PATERNOSTER ROW, E. C.

1912

ILLI

EDWARDO NAVILLI

I LLUSTRISSIMO

AUCTOR

N O T E

A long and intimate acquaintance with the series of
sculptured scenes on the west wall of the Birth- Room in
Luxor Temple, which tell the story of how King Amon-
hotep III. ( circa 1411-1375 b.c., according to Professor
Breasted) came to be the son of the god Amon-Ra by a
mortal mother, Queen Mut-em-ua, the consort of Thothmes
I\ has convinced me that none of the published state-
ments give quite satisfactory accounts of these remarkable
pictures. It would be needless to indicate here the various
points of difference between these accounts and the state-
ment contained in the following pages : they become
apparent in the course of the narrative, which broaches
a new theory as to the motive of the pictures. Only the
interests of truth compelled me to differ from many
eminent authorities who have dealt with the subject ;
and yet I can hardly venture to hope that no errois
have crept into my own work, which has entailed several
years of conscientious study. The damaged condition
of the walls of the Birth- Room and of the Colonnade
Court must always be remembered in estimating the

vii

NOTE

viii

accuracy of any account of its scenes. Hence, I have
endeavoured to let the reader judge for himself, by
supplying what photographs my own kodak could obtain
of most difficult subjects. No professional photographer
seems to have considered it worth while to turn his
camera on these interesting walls.

Besides the scenes which depict the divine birth of the
King, those of his coronation and identification with Osiris
while still alive on earth, and other tableaux which adorn
the same room, are discussed in connection with the birth,
as forming essential elements of the King's personality as
Son of the God. The divinity of the King was a very
ancient conception of the Egyptian people, and was never
abandoned, amid all the vicissitudes of the nation, so long
as the nation endured. To Queen Hatshepsut, or her
father, one hundred years before Amon-hotep III., is
due the credit, or otherwise, of representing in pictorial
form, for the first time, as far as we know, the divine
parentage of the sovereign. I endeavour to show what
her motive as well as Amon-hotep’s was in having them-
selves so represented, in obedience to the priesthood
of Amon in claiming for their god the prerogatives of
the ancient God Ra.

I have not suggested a comparison, as S. Isslieb
( Klio , ix. 383) has done, between the story of the divine
birth of the Egyptian King and the narrative of the
annunciation, birth and divine recognition of Jesus. That
writer believes that “Son of God” is not a Jewish

NOTH

royal title, but one clearly of foreign origin, doubtless
Egyptian.

Another portion of the volume is devoted to the scenes
of the Procession from Karnak to Luxor and back,
depicted in the great Colonnade of the same temple, which
the writer believes was another pictorial representation
of the triumph of Amon in absorbing the attributes
of Ra.

To these studies, which the writer hopes may be of
some service to the Egyptologist as well as to the tourist,
is added an account, with numerous photographs, of the
Tombs of Two Theban Officials, not hitherto described.
These photographs I secured, after considerable difficulty,
with long exposures with an acetylene-gas lamp.

The principal hieroglyphic texts may in most cases
be read from the photographs.

Edixisurc.h,

i i th JSov. 1912.

CONTENTS

The Miraculous Birth of Kino Amon-hoti r III. in Luxor
Temple ........

The Coronation of Amon-hotep III.

The Adoration of Mut

The Osirification of the Kino ....

The New Year Procession in the Great Colon n \ m. >>i
Luxor Temple ......

Two Theban Officials and their Tombs

The Tomb of Sen-nezem .....

The Tomb of Pa-shedu ......

Index ........

t'A'.K

1-49

50-62

63-78

79-95

96-1 28
129- 198
i33-'76
177-19S
199-204

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

i. The Divine Nuptials of Amon-Ra and Queen Mut-em-ua . Frontispiece

3 • J

Amon-Ra, Mut-em-ua, Hathor, Thoth and Thothmes IV.

4. ) The Divine Nuptials, Khnurn and Amon-Ra, The Children
5.I on the Potter’s Wheel of Khnurn .

6. Thoth, Mut-em-ua and Hathor: The Queen conducted to
the Birth Room ......

7 I • •

g j The Divine Birth of Amon-hotep 111.

9. First and Second Presentations of Child to Amon-Ra

10. Nursing of the Child and his Ka ....

11. Third Presentation to Amon-Ra . . . .

12. \ Presentation to Sefekh-abu and Unknown God : The

13. J Children Walking ......

14. Last Scene of the Der el Bahri Birth Series .

15. The Divine Nuptials of Amon-Ra and the Mother of

Rameses II..

16. The Coronation of Amon-hotep 1 1 1. . . . .

17. The King Striding and following the Sledges

18. \
19- i

The King Offering to Amon-Ra and Mut (in Karnak)

20. Beginning of Voyage Up-Stream

page 2 2

3°

49
60
74

101

106

XIV

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

o j I

j- Voyage Up-Stream ......

23. Voyage Up-Stream ......

24. Arrival in Luxor Temple . . . . .

j The King Offering to Sacred Boats in Luxor Temple

27. ) The King Leaves Luxor Temple ....

28. J The King Offering to Sacred Boats in Luxor

~ J' - Voyage Down-Stream ......

3° ’

31. Voyage Down-Stream : Queen Mut-nezemt’s Galley

32. Voyage Down-Stream : The 37-Oared Barge

33. The Great Barge of Amon-Ra with His Sacred Boat

34. Voyage Down-Stream ......

35. Voyage Down-Stream — A Squabble ....

36. Voyage Down-Stream — The King’s Chariots

3 7. End of Voyage Down-Stream — Capering Negroes; A

Squabble .......

38 Arrival at Karnak ......

39. Offerings in Karnak ......

40 Final Offerings in Karnak .....

page

106
108
1 10

I I 2

114

1 16

1 18

120
I 22
122
124
124

126

41. Sen-nezem and his Wife before the Gods of the Duat . ,, 139

42. The Osiris Lying in State .... „ 141

43. Sen-nezem before Osiris ...... 143

44. Sen-nezem Opening the Gates of the Sky . . . „ 146

45. The Boat of Ra ....... 146

46. Sen-nezem and his Wife Adoring the Sun and Seven

Stars . . . . . . . . „ 148

Bread and Water from the Tree . . . . ,,150

47-

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

43. 1
49-

- The Gates of the House of Osiris

■ page

152

50.

The Two Turquoise Sycamores

•

'57

5'-

Sen-nezcm Adoring Two Gods

158

52.

The Egyptian Paradise ....

• >>

160

53-

54*

The Family Parties .....

168

170

55-

Pa-Shedu and His Wife Adoring the Divine Falcon .

'73

56.

Pa-Shedu’s Relatives Adoring the Divine Falcon

•

1S5

57-

Pa-Shedu Under the Palm-Tree

• n

190

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

AMON AS RA THE FATHER

“The divinity that doth hedge a king” was no figure
of speech, but an actual fact, to the ancient Egyptians
from very early times down to the domination of the
last Roman emperor (Decius) who figured as a “good
god,” or “Son of Ra,” on the Temple of Esneh. The
idea that the king is a god was not peculiar to the
Egyptians or the Babylonians, though attempts have
been made to ascribe the origin of the Egyptian
conception to the latter people. The first conqueror
or strong man among primitive nations was generally
if not always deemed superhuman, and received divine
honours both before and after death. He stood high
above ordinary humanity ; he was incarnate god upon
earth. This did not imply, as is sometimes asserted,
the divinity of man in general ; the title and attributes
of “ god ” were reserved for the man who rose to the
supremacy of his fellows, and to him alone was ascribed
the possession of “divine blood.” In this way arose

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

the belief among the early Egyptians that the man
who led them to victory was the incarnation of the
god they worshipped. It was as a “follower of Horus,”
the falcon-god, that their leader or king achieved the
victory, and as a son of Horus the king was ever
afterwards styled. The earliest accounts state that the
ancient dynasties of the gods and demigods came first ;
then the Manes or Heroes ; and lastly the historic kings
who were believed to be the actual bodily offspring,
and therefore the heirs, of their predecessors. Their
kingdom was the “heritage,” or “the portions of Horus
and Set,” Set being probably the lord of a portion of the
country which the Horites found it difficult to conquer ;
every god was thus an ancestor of the king who in
virtue of his divine birth was “established upon the
throne of Horus” as the god’s actual “ son ” and “heir”
(lit. flesh). He was conceived to be invested in his
heritage by will and testament in the same way
as a son succeeded to his father s property, and the
god Thoth, the scribe of the gods, acted as solicitor
or attorney in carrying through the transaction. In
texts inscribed on the Temple of Edfu and elsewhere,
as will be seen below, the king enjoys the “duration
or course of Ra, the sovereignty of Turn, the dominions
of Shu, the throne of Seb, etc.” These and other royal
prerogatives were embraced in the one title or style
of the “great name,” or royal protocol, which finally
included five divisions. Of these the oldest and principal

AMON AS RA THE FATHER

one was the Ilorus or Ra name, Horus being the son
of Ra the Sun, the first king of all, and the ideal son
and heir of his father. “The Horus” or “the
Horus-Ra,” chiefly in obedience to the priests of
Annu (Heliopolis, the Scriptural On), thus became
synonymous with “the king”; and when the title
developed into “ the Horus of Gold ” it probably
indicated the pure, uncorrupted nature of the sovereign
as the bodily son of Ra. To mark this direct descent
from the Father of Horus without any intermediary,
another element consequently appeared in the royal style,
in the phrase “Son of Ra ” — a title which has not yet
been found earlier than the v. Dynasty, in the person ol
which king it is difficult to determine; perhaps the honour
may be assigned to Ra-dad-ka (Assa). It is noteworthv
that it had a purely priestly origin, like “ the Lord’s
anointed ’ among the Jews — a fact which has an
important bearing on the question before us of the divine
descent of Queen Hatshepsut and King Amon-hotep III.
from the god Amon. The phrase “Son of Ra” was
therefore attached, properly, to what was considered the
birth-name of the sovereign ; and, once adopted, it was
never abandoned in the history of the Egyptian kings.
Alexander the Great, a Macedonian, on his recognition as
King of Egypt, also by the priests, added significantly to
his “Son of Ra ” name the phrase “Son of Amon"
within the cartouche, as may be seen at Karnak. But
long before Alexander’s time, Heri-hor, the first priest-

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

king of Egypt, included in his “Son of Ra ” name the
same words, the full title being “ Son of Ra, (and within
the cartouche) Son of Amon Heri-hor,” a plain assertion
of the claims of Amon to the attributes of Ra as begetter
of the king. Another term, in a sense explanatory of
“ Son of Ra,” came into use at an early period, viz., “son
of his body,” which left no doubt as to the fact of the
divine paternity. In the xn. Dynasty we find it, along
with “Son of Ra,” included in the cartouche of Usertesen
III., though in the stele of the same king discovered by
Dr Naville at Der el Bahri it is not so included, though it
occurs elsewhere on the stone. The wife of Amon-em-hat
III., his successor, is similarly called “daughter of his
body,” thus anticipating the divine parentage of Oueen
Hatshepsut by many centuries, and the “divine blood’'
of the former (Ptah-neferu) was as little in question as
that of Queen Hatshepsut. The same phrase also appears
in the title of Prince Ameni, Son of Ra, as well as on
a stele in the British Museum of King Nefer-sekhem-
Khau-Ra and on other monuments of the same period.
The Hyksos kings, though they are called “Son of Ra,”
do not seem to have been styled, in addition, “of his
body.” In the xvm. Dynasty and after, the phrase is
common : Queen Hatshepsut in her epicene capacity calls
herself “son” or “daughter” of Ra, as she pleases.1

With the xvm. Dynasty a remarkable form of royal

1 A fragment of blue-glaze inenat in the author’s possession bears both
genders.

AMON AS RA THE FATHER

family name appeared, which persisted to the end of the
Ramesside period, viz., the addition of “child "(//us1) to
a god’s name, to form the individual appellation of the
king or queen. It properly began with Aah-mes (child
of Aah, the moon god), the birth-name of the first king
ot the win. Dynasty; and in the same interest we find
Thoth-mes (child of Thoth), Ra-meses, Ra-messu (Ra-
begot-him), Amon-mes (child of Anion), etc. But “ Son
of Ra was not dropped; Aah-mes (child of Aah) was
also “Son of Ra, of his body, ” and so with Thoth-mes.
A feeling ot redundancy (.lid not prevent a Ra-meses from
styling himself “Son of Ra, of his body, Ra-begot-him.
The three appellations were meant to assert the same
fact, each succeeding one emphasising the former. It is
important to note that this use of a god’s name in the
formation of the sovereign’s personal name is contempor-
aneous with the growth of the god Anion, who was now
emerging, along with the rise of Thebes, from the com-
parative insignificance of a local god into the supremacy
of all the gods of Egypt. First, Anion absorbed the
principal powers and attributes of Ra, and became
Amon-Ra; then lordship was claimed for him over all
other deities, and he became “Amon-Ra, King of all the
gods, the only One, with no second." 1 lie name of
Aah or 1 eh tit i might be given to royal children, but
Amon as a father like Ra was bound to be claimed for
the royal offspring by his priests, who were becoming
1 “ Mes,” child, is the real meaning of “ Moses,’ the leader of Israel.

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

more powerful every day with the growing wealth and
prominence of the seat of Amon’s worship. Evidence of
that claim is to be seen in the family of the Amon-
hoteps, who have at least equal right with the Thothmes
kings to give their name to the xviii. Dynasty. Amon-
hotep, Amon is pleased or content (or the peace of
Amon), destined to be the family name of at least four
monarchs of the Dynasty, becomes in the person of
Hatshepsut, Amon-Khnoumet (joined to Amon). In the
xviii. Dynasty the priests of Amon claimed for their god
“every attribute of deity with which we are made familiar
by the hymns to Ra ” (Budge, Gods of Egypt, ii. , 5), as
the monuments attest. Like Aaron’s rod, which swallowed
up the rods of the Egyptian magicians, Amon absorbed
all the other gods of the country ; in the words of
Professor Sayce, “we can watch him as he rises slowly
from the position of an obscure provincial deity to that
of the supreme god of all Egypt, and can follow the
causes which brought it about. We can see him uniting
himself with the sun-god, and then absorbing the rest
of the Egyptian gods unto himself.” Hence it came
about that while the Egyptian king was a “ Son of Ra,
of his body,” he was proclaimed by the priests of Amon
to be inferentially a “ Son of Amon ” ; and at last they
had to represent Amon as the actual father of the
monarch. It was the culmination of the assertion that
Amon and Ra were one and the same. It was necessary,
therefore, that Amon should be exhibited as a father-god

AMON AS RA THE FATHER

like Ra, Horus, Turn, and the other ancestor gods of
whom the king was son and heir. Thus when Anton
became “ Ra, King of all the gods,” this ancestry had to
be shown pictorially as it had been traditionally. Hence
the assemblage of the old gods which Anton holds at Der
el Bahri to announce his intention of being the father
of the Sovereign-to-be. There is no question here of
legitimacy.

The steps were gradually taken. A stele of Aahmes I.,
found at Karnak by M. Legrain, gives the name Anton- Ra,
apparently for the first time. That may have been a
tentative effort, for on a later monument, a statue of
Amon-hotep I. in the British Museum, we find simply
“Anton” without “ Ra,” which seems to show that there
was still some hesitation in claiming for Anton all the
attributes of Ra, including that of direct progenitor of
the sovereign. By the time of Thothmes I., or 1 latshepsut,
however, all hesitation has vanished, and Anton is boldly
represented as the veritable father of the Oueen in the
story of her birth as sculptured on the walls of her temple.
Her miraculous birth was the claim of the priests of Anton
for their god's equality with Ra as father visualised for
all men to see. The example was followed by Amon-
hotep III. in his great temple devoted to Anton at Luxor ;
and the title “ Father Anton-Ra,” used at the beginning of
the Dynasty as a reverential appellation, and impressively
employed by Thothmes I., father of Queen Hatshepsut,
at the close of a long triumphal inscription (Tontbos stele)—

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

“ Amon-Ra, King of gods, is my father, the creator of
my beauty ” — becomes in her records almost a hackneyed
phrase. Of course, all this was done by direction of
Anton’s priesthood, to justify that god’s usurpation of the
special function of Ra as the physical father of the
sovereign. We venture, with all deference to Professor
Maspero’s authority, to suggest that this was the inspiring
motive of the representation of Queen Hatshepsut’s divine
origin as the veritable daughter of the god Amon. Professor
Maspero supposes that the object of the priests was to
justify Hatshepsut’s claim to the throne, which was faulty
by reason of her paternal grandmother’s impure “solar
blood.” He says: “All the kings had the blood of Ra
in them, and such of them as could not claim this purity
of blood invented extraordinary genealogies, or better,
married one of the princesses from the royal harems. The
nobility of each member of a Pharaonic house and his
titles to the crown were regulated by the quantity of divine
blood which he could prove, and marriage of brother and
sister was the best marriage, the marriage par excellence .
If, for example, a sovereign had a son born of a slave, or
of a concubine of inferior rank, and had also a daughter
by a full sister of his own, then the throne belonged by
right to the daughter and not to the son. . . . The priests,
therefore, in order to correct the disability of an heir to
the throne, imagined that the god intervened in person as
parent, and they decided that the child, boy or girl, who
was to succeed, should have Ra or Amon, not simply

AMON AS RA THE I ATI I ER

for a remote ancestor but as his or her immediate pro-
genitor and father. Hence Ra or Anton took the form
of the husband, and the issue of such a union between the
god and the mortal mother was of the pure blood royal
of Ra or Anton. The existing monuments aflord three
examples of this divine parentage : first, the series of
sculptures on the Der el Balin’ Temple of Queen
Hatshepsut, in which she is shown to be the issue of a
union between the god Anton and Queen Aahntes ; second,
in Luxor Temple, about a hundred years later, a similar
series representing Amon-hotep III. as a son of the same
god and Mut-em-ua, the consort of Thothmes IV. ; and
third, the divine birth of the boy Ctesarion as the issue
ot Amon-Ra and Queen Cleopatra, represented on the
Temple of Erment.1

It is not proposed to deal with the last-mentioned in-
stance, as it is beyond the bounds of Egyptian history proper.

Regarding the divine birth of Oueen I latshepsut.
Professor Maspero is of opinion that because her father
T hothmes I. was the son of Sen-senb, a woman not of
the royal house, Hatshepsut’s succession to the throne
was rendered doubtful, and she therefore required the
intervention of a miracle, for the first time, be it remem-
bered, in Egyptian history, to free her front her paternal
grandmother's taint of blood. Hence the god Anton

1 Maspero, Comment Alexandre devint dieu cn l.yyptc. The Temple <>f
Erment was destroyed some years ago, and used up in building a French
sugar-factory there. Pierre Loti does not notice this

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

incarnated himself in the person of her earthly father and
imparted to the posterity of the latter a new virtue whereby
the tainted blood was regenerated. Thus did Hatshepsut
become the child of Amon, endowed with the blood of the
“solar line,” and deemed fit to succeed and reipfn. As the
stele of Anna (Ineni) says : “Egypt was made to labour
for her, the excellent seed of the god, which came forth
from him ” (Breasted’s transl.).

Now, it must be pointed out that if Hatshepsut’s
succession to the throne was barred on account of her
grandmother, Sen-senb, much more would her father,
Thothmes I., be excluded, equally with Thothmes III.,
whose mother, like Sen-senb, was also of humble origin.
Yet, so far as known, the right of Thothmes I., being son
of Amondiotep I., to reign was never questioned, and no
divine intervention like the foregoing seemed to be neces-
sary in his case to obviate the taint of impure blood by a
divine reinforcement. On the contrary, in the records of
his reign he uses all the well-known titles of Egyptian
kings which implied their divine origin, and he does not
hesitate to describe himself as the “bodily son of Ra”
(Tombos inscrip.), while being in no way ashamed to
record at the same time that he was “born of the royal
mother [i.e. a king’s mother), Sen-senb.” True, he
married Oueen Aah-mes, his half-sister, of pure “solar
descent ” ; and by some this marriage may be thought to
have legitimised his accession, but the fact remains that
marriage or no marriage he considered himsell a “ Horus,

A MON AS RA THE PATH El-

assuming the Kingdom of Horus . . . the bodily son of
Ra, his beloved : Anion- Ra, King of gods, is my father,
the creator of my beaut)', beloved of the gods of Thebes.”
Here there is an assertion that Arnon as Amon-Ra is his
father, although his mother was a person of no conse-
quence. In other words, the priesthood of Amon did not
yet feel the necessity of representing their god as Ra the
progenitor, in Anion’s absorption of the attributes of all
the Egyptian gods except Osiris.

Yet, on the score of her mother’s pure “solar blood,’
Hatshepsut had claims to the throne superior to those ol
her father. Her mother Aah-mes, if succession through
the mother be accepted as the dominant principle, was
unimpeachable, as her mother in turn was the onl\
altogether legitimate spouse of Amon-hotep 1. Then
why was a miracle necessary in Hatshepsut’s case, and
not in her father’s? The answer may be found in the
fact that hitherto no woman had sat on the throne as a
reigning queen, and it was incumbent that she should be
shown to be the direct offspring of the god Amon as “a
son of Ra, of his body,” and therefore to appear as a man
before the people. This seems to be the chief object of
the sculptures at the Der el Bahri Temple. Whether we
look on Hatshepsut as merely associated with her father
on the throne, or as his successor,1 some wonderful

1 Breasted translates, in the coronation inscription, “She is my successor
upon my throne, she it assuredly is who shall sit upon my wonderful seat . . .
she it is who shall lead you,” etc.

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

pictorial exhibition — as the Egyptian was no philosopher
— whereby Amon was made to favour the transaction was
deemed necessary, and the most suitable method appeared
to the priests to be to make Amon assume the part of her
divine father Ra. A tradition had been current which
ascribed the Ra-descent of the kings from the wife of a
priest of Ra who gave birth at one time to three kings
of the v. Dynasty, of whom the god was the father. This
tale was eventually put into writing, when it is not known :
an incomplete copy of it is given in the Westcar Papyrus,
dating probably from the xvm. Dynasty. Some identities
in language between it and the Der el Bahri and Luxor
stories of the divine birth of the sovereign have been
noted. There is a strong probability that the tale, what-
ever its origin, was employed at this period to support the
claim of Amon to be regarded as the substitute of Ra in
the divine birth of the ruler of Egypt.

With regard to Thothmes III., the son of Thothmes
II.1 (Queen Hatshepsut’s half-brother) and a concubine,
Ast, regarded either as co-regent with Hatshepsut or as
an independent sovereign, we are confronted by the
question, why it was not necessary to represent him also
as the progeny of Amon, since by his mother’s status he
was barred from the throne. Il his marriage with
Hatshepsut’s daughter, Meryt-Hatshepset, was sufficient

1 The niche at Der el Bahri Temple, where Thothmes III. is acting as
an-mutf priest to Thothmes II., shows conclusively that the former is the son
and the latter the father.

A MON AS RA THE FATHER

to overcome the taint of his origin and to enable him to
reign as king — a very simple expedient, and more
credible than having Anion for his father, — we are driven
to the conclusion that some other reason was at work in
Hatshepsut’s case than the removal of the taint of her
paternal grandmother’s birth. If she was, as her father
says in the coronation speech, “the heiress of Horus,
whom I begat, daughter of the white crown, beloved of
Buto,” that was enough, according to Egyptian law, to
give her precedence and to place her on the throne. Yet
the priests of Arnon seized on the unusual circumstance of
a woman becoming the sovereign to utilise the occasion
for the exaltation of their god.

The case of the divine birth of Amon-hotep 111.,
as shown in Luxor Temple, is somewhat different. II is
father, according to the flesh, was Thothmes IV.; his
mother, Queen Mut-em-ua. Thothmes IV.’s father was
Amon-hotep II., son of Thothmes III. by Queen
Hatshepsut’s daughter; his mother was Ta-aa, queen
of Amon-hotep II., as shown by a group in Cairo
Museum, found by M. Legrain at Karnak in 1903.
Queen Ta-aa’s mother is unknown.

The important personage to be considered here is
Mut-em-ua, the mother of Amon-hotep III. Was she
of the “solar blood?” Miss Buttles ( Queens of Egypt)
conjectures that she was her husband’s half-sister, a
daughter therefore of Amon-hotep II. Mut-cm-ua’s son,
according to the same authority, “seems to have

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

possessed rights through his mother, but was probably
dissatisfied with his father’s descent from Aset,
Thothmes III.’s mother.” That is to say, his great-
grandfather’s mother it was that had impaired the “solar
blood,” — which defect he proceeded to rectify by sculptur-
ing the birth scenes in Luxor Temple, whereby Amon-Ra,
and not Thothmes IV., became his father! It may
safely be said that whatever gave rise to these sculptures
it was not uneasiness about his great-great-grandmother’s
“blood.” There is no foundation for the assertion that
“the mother of Amon-hotep III. was of Asiatic origin.1
The model of a sacred boat, of black granite, made
for Queen Mut-em-ua (British Museum) styles her “great
hereditary princess of South and North,” which seems
conclusive as to her rank. Hence we may assume
that the divine parentage claimed by Amon-hotep III.
in his temple reared to Anion in Luxor was invented
for some other reason than that of counteracting the
supposed disabilities of his descent. We know that he
was a devoted Amon worshipper, as attested by nearly
all his records. He was specially distinguished for his
buildings up and down Egypt, even in Nubia, in honour
of the god, as he says himself, “because he loved his
father, Amon, Lord of Thebes, so much more than all
gods” (Temple of Mont, Karnak). He is everywhere

1 Prof. Sayce, Gifford Lectures , p. 45, seems to rely on the Tel-Amarna
Letters, one of which states that a Mitannian princess was sent to
Thothmes IV. in marriage.

AMOX AS RA THE FATHER

“very vigilant for him that begat him, Anion, King of
gods” (Building stele). The temples erected by him
to Anion on both banks of the Nile would be alone
sufficient to attest his devotion to “his father Amon-Ra,
King of the gods”: — “I have done (it) for the one
who begat me, in the uprightness of my heart, according
as he appointed me to be the Sun of the Nine Bows
(Breasted’s transl.). To honour Amon as his father
by building temples and other monuments was a leading
motive of Amon-hotep the Magnificent’s reign ; and
the crowning act of that devotion was to portray the
god, of course at the prompting of the priests, as the
equal of Ra, the original father of the kings. 11 is reign
saw the culmination of the greatness of Amon ; and it
was fitting that in the temple devoted to that god in
Luxor, and probably also in the temple behind the
Colossi on the West Bank — the greatest Amon temples
reared since the days of Hatshepsut, — the god should
be exhibited in his divine capacity as Amon-Ra, the
actual progenitor of him who sat upon the throne
of Horus.

We now glance at the effect of this identification of
Amon with Rain the next reign. Amon-hotep 111. was
succeeded by his son, Amon-hotep IV., son of Queen
Thyi1 (Tiyi), who wras indisputably an Egyptian woman,
“born of parents of low, or, at the best, of middle condi-

1 Prof. Sayce, Gifford Lectures , p. 93, before the discovery of her tomb, states
that Amon-hotep’s queen Thyi was a foreigner.

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

tion ” (Maspero, Tomb of Queen Tiyi, p. xxi.). On the
mother’s side, therefore, Amon-hotep IV. was quite
inadmissible as the successor to the throne. But in spite
of that fact his succession seems never to have been
questioned, and he did not require to resort to his father's
expedient of having Amon for his physical father. In the
earlier part of his brief reign we know that he still leaned
to the worship of Amon, as the tomb of Ra-mes and other
monuments testify ; but soon a change came, whether
fostered by his mother or not, and he renounced his
allegiance to the god of Thebes, abandoned his family
name of Amon-hotep, and became a devotee of the old
god Ra of Heliopolis, in the form of the Aten or Solar
Disc, “which has, by a strange mistake, been confused
with the Syrian Adonis ” (Maspero, Cairo' Museum
Guide). Gallant but unwarrantable attempts have been
made to show that Amon-hotep IV., who after the revolu-
tion against Amon adopted the name of “ Splendour of
the Aten” (Khu-en-Aten), was “a monotheist,” “the
first individual in history,” “ the first prophet in history,”
etc., etc., and his “exalted religion” a really spiritual
worship, etc. But the facts are that he only revived an
ancient cult, that he tolerated the god Turn 1 alongside of
Ra-on-the-horizon, and that the so-called spiritual worship
is simply adoration of the sun’s heat and power as the

1 The figure of Turn — an old Heliopolitan god— is the only god left
untouched by Khu-en-Aten’s destroying hand on the Der el Bahri birth

scenes.

AMOX AS RA THE FATHER 1;

creator and supporter of all life. II is rebellion against
Anion and Anion worship was no doubt mainly directed
against the power of Anion's priesthood, and was therefore
quite as much a political as a religious movement ; but at
the same time we can well believe, just because of his
attachment to the old Heliopolitan cult of Ra, that he
deeply resented Anion’s identification with Ra in any
capacity. Hence his fiat to destroy the name and figure
of Anion as well as the title “ Amon-Ra, King of all the
gods,’’ wherever found on the monuments, lie would not
suffer Anion to be identified with the primeval god Ra ;
and the story of his father’s miraculous birth in Luxor
Temple did not escape, though he still held by his own
I lorus-origin, as his new royal styles testily. The preten-
sions of the priests of Anion in claiming their god as the
father of the king met with his unrelenting opposition.
The new cult of the Sun, as represented by the Aten or
Disc, was in no sense non-Egyptian or Asiatic, as has been
maintained, but rather a return to a more ancient form,
exalted and purified.

THE BIRTH ROOM

The room in the Temple of Luxor devoted to the story
of the Miraculous Birth is situated on the east side
towards the southern end. It is marked R in Baedeker’s
plan, P in Daressy’s, and is best approached by a doorway
in the east wall of the Hypostyle Hall, and then by
passing along the outer wall of the temple southwards
towards the first entrance on the ricrht hand. The

chamber is roofless ; three clustered columns still remain ;
and on the west wall, facing us as we enter by either
of the doors, we have the story of the Birth. On the
south wall is the story of the Coronation ; on the north,
the Adoration of Mut; while on the east wall, above the
entrances, is the Osirification of the King, or the ceremonies
at the Sed Festival representing the identification of the
living king with Osiris. This is appropriately placed
opposite the story of the Birth, as a kind of new life.

The story on the west wall consists of three rows of
pictures. It begins at the bottom right-hand corner
and proceeds leftwards to the end of the wall ; it is
then continued in the middle row immediately above
the last scene— the moulding of the Child and his Ka

THE BIRTH ROOM

by the Potter or Creative god Khnum — and proceeds
to the right ; finally, it is resumed at the left hand of
the topmost row, and ends at the extreme right. This
is the correct order of events, if we believe that the
artist copied the story of Oueen Hatshepsut’s divine
birth as shown in her temple at Der el Bahri, where
there is no possibility of mistaking the order of events,
for they are sculptured in one long row, beginning
at the south end of the colonnade and proceeding with-
out interruption to the finish at the north end. Daressy,
in his Notice of the Temple of Luxor (1893), makes the
story of Amon - hotep’s divine birth begin with the
moulding of the Child and his Ka ; but the original
of the story at Der el Bahri was unknown at that date.
Baedeker (190S), with less excuse, follows Daressy in
his mistake. It is difficult to explain why the artist,
if he followed the Der el Bahri scheme, altered his plan :
however it came about, we must begun at the rigfht-
hand corner if we are to follow the sequence of the
original in Oueen Hatshepsut’s temple. There, “Amon-
Ra, King of the gods,” is seen in council with twelve
deities standing in front of him, while he, their king,
is enthroned; and to them he probably (for the inscrip-
tion is almost entirely destroyed) announces in gracious
terms his sovereign will and pleasure, to become the
father of the future child. The deities who stand before
“Amon-Ra, King of the gods,” do not include Ilorus or
Ra, because Amon, as conceived by his priests, has now

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

absorbed Ra, and is about to usurp the latter’s divine
function of the fatherhood of the sovereign. Osiris, Isis,
Horus-son-of- Isis, Nephthys, Set (not Anubis, as Breasted
states), and Hat-hor occupy the top row ; they are preceded,
in the bottom row, by Month, Lord of Thebes, Turn
(whose figure in red is the only original one), and his cycle
Shu, Tefnut, Seb, and Nut. Thoth is not included.
Amon-Ra’s allocution to the assembled gods contains the
words, “I will join for her the Two Lands in peace. . . .
I will give to her all lands and all countries.” The answer
of the “company ( fiaut ) of the gods” cannot be read.

Scene i.

Hat-hor Greets the Queen-Mother.

In the scene before us there is no council or assemblage
of gods, not even Thoth, as Breasted affirms ( Records , ii. ,
p. 78 note), simply Amon-Ra (restored) standing behind a
goddess (name erased), with horned disc on head, who is
embracing the future mother of the king-to-be. The god’s
speech is lost except the words, “ I give to thee life . . .
within my power.” He is apparently an approving
spectator of the greeting by the unknown goddess,
probably Hat-hor, of the queen-mother Mut-em-ua, to
whom is announced her approaching happiness, as being
highly favoured among women. The nose (and mouth) of
the goddess can still be traced almost touching, in Egyptian

1 1 AT- H OR GREETS THE OUEEN-MOTHER

fashion, the nose of the queen, who is styled “ great royal
wife, Mut-em-ua,1 living like Ra.” Behind the goddess
are scanty remains of her speech, which indicate the nature
of the meeting about to take place between the queen and
her divine lover. In the middle column, below the hole,
the queen’s cartouche occurs. The name of the god,
occurring near the bottom of the third column, as well as
his whole fio-ure throughout the series, was restored after
the death of Khu-en-Aten (Amon-hotep IV.), the son of
the child here promised.

There is absolutely no parallel to this scene in the Der
el Bahri story, thus showing that in certain features the
Luxor artist treated the subject somewhat independently.
He probably did not feel that there was now any need for
asserting, by depicting an assemblage of the gods, the
supremacy of Amon over all the other gods.

Scene 2.

Anion- Ra and Thothmes IV.

This scene also has no parallel in the Der el Bahri
story, where Thothmes I., the real father of Queen
Hatshepsut, does not appear. Daressy mentions the king,
the real father, as being vis-a-vis to Amon-Ra, while
Breasted makes no allusion to his presence at all. The
figure of the god, as elsewhere, has been restored, but
1 The name means “ Mut in her boat.’-'

"> o

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

(here can be little doubt that it was Amon-Ra, and not
Thoth, that was the original, as the lofty plumes of the
former god are shown in the restoration. He holds user
and ankh. The upper part of the king’s figure is lost, but
the royal uraeus-girdle and his legs and feet remain. He
faces the god, whose figure Gayet omits, as does also
Weigall. The order of personages, from right to left, is
as follows: — Amon-Ra, Hathor, Mut-em-ua, making
scene i ; then Amon-Ra and Thothmes IV., making
scene 2. In front of the god the remains of two columns
of hieroglyphics read: “. . . an aged man in . . . within
heaven and the great arit while in front of the kinof are
those of other two columns, “. . . as a young woman
whom thou hast named, lo ! . . .in this land to its
furthest verge, the wife of this king [Thothmes IV.] . . ."
There is little doubt that the speeches must be so
apportioned, as the two pairs of columns face each other
like their speakers. The purport of the scene may be
guessed : Amon-Ra desires to personate the queen’s
husband, to whom he quite openly makes the announce-
ment. It is curious to note that if the king be meant by
“ the aged man,” he died quite early in life as an examina-
tion of his mummy showed, probably before his thirtieth
year ; and that these fragmentary speeches occur in the
Der el Bahri story in the interview between Amon-Ra
and Thoth which the Luxor artist reproduces as the next

scene.

Amon-Ra and Thoth. Thothmes IV. and

[To face page 22.

AMON-RA AND THOTH

Scene 3.

A mou- R a and Thoth.

This is a distinct incident from the last. Thoth, who
now appears for the first time as the messenger and
go-between of gods and men, enters the presence of
Amon-Ra. A comparison has been made by some writers
of Thoth’s function here with that of Mercury in Plautus’s
comedy of Amphitryon, where Mercury personates Sosia,
the slave of Amphitryon. While Amon-Ra undoubtedly
personates Thothmes IV., but with the knowledge of the
latter, Thoth here and throughout maintains his own
personality and personates no one else. Amon-Ra is seen
advancing towards the left, while his face is turned and
his left hand uplifted towards Thoth to the right, as if
giving him some commands. Thoth is ibis-headed as
usual, and carries a palette or papyrus-roll in his right
hand, while his left is held towards Amon-Ra. Unfortu-
nately a huge gap in the wall above Thoth’s head has
removed whatever speech may have been there ; and
above Amon-Ra we have only . . . “eternity, Amon-Ra
(restored) . . . the Two Lands, Lord of the Sky . . .
giving life ... all health within his power.”

This scene seems to combine the two given in the Der
el Bahri story, where Amon-Ra has first an interview with
Thoth, and is then led by the latter, although Amon-Ra
really precedes, towards the chamber of the queen. Gayet

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

adds a translation of the few signs left, which is not

O ’

warranted by his text.

Scene 4.

The Divine ATuptials.

Amon-Ra and the queen are seated closely facing each
other, on what seems to be the sign for the sky. Both
have the lofty plumes of the god, who is holding “life” up
to the nostrils of the queen, who in her turn affectionately
supports the god’s right elbow and touches his left hand.
Both are similarly clad. The queen wears the vulture
head-dress, the symbol of maternity. The sky-sign or
couch on which they repose rests on the heads of two
goddesses, Serqet (left), with the scorpion-sign as a crest, and
Keith (right), with her insignia, here a shield with crossed
arrows, on her head. Both goddesses are seated on a
long couch facing each other, and support the feet of the
god and the queen. Traces of the sun-disc, horned and
winged, may be seen above, overspreading all, as if to
crown the divine nuptials with the sovereign approval
of Ra.

The scene in Der el Bahri differs in some details. The
queen wears no plumes, only the vulture head-dress, and
Amon-Ra besides imparting “life” to her nostrils places
in her left hand the signs of “ life” and “power.” But the
positions of all the actors concerned are the same. The
presence of Serqet and Neith here may be explained by

THE DIVINE NUPTIALS

passages in the Theban recension of the Book of the Dead,
which refer to them as birth goddesses.

The inscriptions accompanying this scene are in a
much better state than those at Der el Bahri, where, in
fact, nothing of the original remains. The speech behind
the god cannot strictly be regarded as his own : —

“ Saith [Amon-Ra, King of gods] Lord of the
Thrones of the Two Lands, Presiding over the Apts
(Karnak): He hath made his forms (appearance) like
the majesty of this husband, King of Upper and of
Lower Egypt, Ra-men-Kheperu (Thothmes IV.),
Giver of Life: [he found]1 her reclining on her
couch in the beauty of her palace ; she waked at the
odour of the god ; she was glad before his majesty ;
he advanced towards her at once, he . . . 1 to her, he
made her see him in his form of god when he came
upon her ; she exulted at beholding his beauty ; his
love went into her members ; the odours of the god
flooded the palace (?) ; all his fragrance was from
Punt.” 2

Behind the queen, above whose head traces of her
cartouche may still be seen, the following speech is put
into her mouth : —

“ Saith [Mut-]em-ua, before the majesty of this
august god Anion, Lord of the Thrones of the Two
Lands, Great Twofold Deity, What is thy will? . . .

1 A hole occurs here.

2 The land of spices and sweet odours.

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

the plans thou hast formed ; pleased art thou with my
majesty (fern.) ; thy dew pervades my every member.
Then . . . did the majesty of this god all his desire
with her.

“ Saith [Anion . . .] before her majesty, Arnon-
hotep Prince of Thebes will be the name of this son
[which is] in thy womb : this is the saying (viz. the
child’s name) that came forth from thy mouth.1 He
shall wield excellent sovereignty in this land to its
furthest verge. My soul is his ; my uash (Breasted
translates “ bounty ”) is his ; my urert (crown) is his ;
he shall rule the Two Lands like Ra for ever.'

Scene 5.

Amon-Ra and Khnum.

After leaving the queen, Amon-Ra summons Khnum
before him, and commands him to form the bodies of the
child and his Ka. The scene is practically the same as
that at Der el Bahri. The inscription relating to Amon-
Ra is somewhat fragmentary at the beginning : —

“. . . all that is in my power, Amon-Ra, presid-
ing over Karnak . . . all that is in my power . . .
son whom I love . . . every day . . . [make] him

1 “The Egyptians, like other ancient peoples, carefully preserved the words
which escaped the mother’s lips at conception or childbirth, and according as
they were of good or bad augury, good or evil fortune was foretold for the
child.” (Maspero, Comment Alexandre devint dieu cn Egypte.)

KHNUM MOULDS THE CHILD

and his royal Ka, from these members that belong
to [me] . . . create him better than all [gods] . . .
the likeness of this son whom I have begotten. I
have given to him all life, power, all health, all
gladness of heart, all offerings, all bread, like Ra for
ever.”

Khnum’s reply is very fragmentary, consisting for the
most part of isolated words : “ King of Upper and of Lower
Egypt, health,” then part of the name Ra-maat-neb (the
king’s Ra-name), followed by the usual formula, “life,
strength, health,” and “ King of Upper and of Lower
Egypt, Ra-maat-neb [and] all his (royal) Kas, giving life,
stability, power, joy of heart, like Ra for evermore.” As
far as they can be compared, the inscriptions here and at
Der el Bahri are dissimilar.

Scene 6.

The Moulding of the Child and his Ka.

Khnum, the tips of whose ram-horns, but not his head,
may be seen, is working at a potter’s wheel on which stand
two children, the king being next to Khnum, with his
finger, childlike, in his mouth, and his Ka behind him.
Khnum’s hands are over their heads fashioning them ;
while the same goddess, seated like Khnum, crowned with
disc and horns, that greeted the queen at the beginning,
now extends “life” to the children. In the corresponding

’8

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

scene at Der el Bahri the goddess who plays this part is
the frog-headed deity Heqet, where she is called “ Lady
of Her-ur,” a city about four miles north of Beni-Hasan,
“where Khnum had a temple with his divine consort the
frog-headed Heqet.1 She was a form of Hat-hor, which
affords indirect evidence that the goddess in these scenes
whose name has been erased was Hat-hor and not Isis.
The frog was from of old taken as a symbol of generation,
birth, fertility, and also of resurrection : as typifying the
last mentioned, a frog presides in one scene at Dendereh
at the resurrection of Osiris, and Lanzone in his Dictionary
of Mythology describes a lamp of early Christian times
whereon is the figure of a frog, with the legend in Greek,
“ I am the resurrection.” The speech of Khnum — there
is no speech allotted to the goddess, who is erroneously
represented by Gayet as modelling the Iva — is much
mutilated : —

“(I have] moulded thee from (with) unique
members. . . . Thou shalt be king with the White
Crown, ruler of all the desert lands, lord upon thy
throne; the Nine Bows shall be trodden under thy
feet, thine shall be the throne of [Horus? and thou
shalt be] a king like Ra-Khepera (the god) . . .
thy members, they shall spread . . . [thou shalt]
verily ascend the throne . . . Heliopolis lord . . .
for evermore.”

The children here are of course males ; in the Der el

1 Newberry in Naville’s Der el Bahri , ii., 14.

H;it-hor.

The Children on the
Potter's Wheel.

Khnum.

[To face page 28.

THOTH AND THE QUEEN

Bahri reliefs they are also of that sex, which, according to
Breasted ( Ancient Records , ii., p. 81 note ) would indicate
that the reliefs were made according to old and traditional
sketches, in which, of course, a female child had no place.
The learned American Egyptologist apparently forgets that
Hatshepsut, throughout the series, is pictured as a man,
whatever the inscriptions may say. Where are the old
and traditional sketches, except in the Papyrus Westcar?

Scene 7 (Middle Row, Left Hand).

Thoth and Queen Mut-em-ua.

The meaning of this interview is not quite evident,
either here or at Der el Bahri. It is the first meeting of
Thoth and the future mother, and is perhaps a kind of
divine annunciation to Mut-em-ua. Thoth, holding a
papyrus-roll in his left hand, stretches his right towards
the queen as if addressing her ; and the queen, crowned
with the vulture head-dress and the double plumes of
Amon-Ra, stands reverently before him and receives his
message. There is no winged-disc of Edfu over the scene,
as Gayet affirms. Certain words of Thoth remain which
seem to show that Amon-Ra has highly favoured Mut-
em-ua among women : “Saith Thoth, Lord of [Hermopolis],
Amon-Ra, Lord of the thrones of the Two Lands . .
make thee princess, great one of the favourites . . . things
. . . Tern, sovereign of all lands. . . .” Professor Naville,

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

in dealing with this scene at Der el Bahri (ii., 15, 16), says :

“ Thoth addresses the queen and declares to her all the

dignities which will be bestowed upon her, all the titles

which will be added to her name, since she is to be the

mother of such an illustrious offspring. This part is

particularly interesting, for here, besides the untouched

figure of Queen Aahmes, we have portions of the original

text. The following is what remains of the words of

Thoth, Lord of Hermopolis : . . in the great dignity

of princess, the great one of the favourites, the great one of

the preferred, the sovereign well-pleasing, the great one of

affection, the great one of love . . . things all done to her.’

Some of these phrases also appear over Queen Mut-em-ua,

as follows : ‘ Princess, great one of the favourites, sovereign

. . . royal mother, Mut-em-ua, the living . . . like Ra for
) >>

ever.

Scene 8.

The Queen conducted by Hat-hor and Khnum to
the Birth Room.

The sole personages here are those just named. In
Der el Bahri, Heqet as before takes the place of Hat-hor,
while Amon-Ra, followed by nine (twelve incorrectly,
Naville) deities, some male, some female, heads the
procession. We do not know who they are. In the
principal group, in both representations, Khnum follows
the queen, whose figure, like that of Queen Aahmes, is

[To Jucc page 30.

The Oueen conducted to thf. Birth-Room.

THE BIRTH

almost perfect, and presents her behind her head with
“ life," holding' her right hand the while : Mut-em-ua, now
without the plumes, follows Hat-hor, and receives “life” at
her nostrils from that goddess, who also holds the queen’s
hand and leads her forward. The figure of the goddess is
somewhat dilapidated, but traces of the disc and horns
head-dress may be seen. The figure of Khnum seems
original, and if so affords another problem to the advocates
of Khu-en-Aten s monotheism. The speech over Mut-
em-ua begins with her titles, some of them already men-
tioned : “ Princess, great one of favourites, sweet one (palm
branch) of love, sovereign mistress of all lands, royal mother,
Mut-em-ua, the living like Ra.” Some words spoken by
Khnum follow, but his name and titles have perished :
“ Saith [ Khnum . . . ] great, I have given to thee all life,
stability, all health that is within me . . . she [goes] as
wife towards the palace ... (a whole column gone) for
evermore {bis)."

Scene 9.

The Birth.

Phis scene, as at Der el Bahri, is divided into three
rows ; the middle part of the top row shows the birth.

1 he queen is seated on a chair placed on a long couch,
facing to the right, while two goddesses kneeling, one
in front, the other behind, hold her outstretched arms.
These goddesses, as well as the others before and behind

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

the queen, may have originally been named, as some
of them are in the Der el Bahri scene. The Ka seems
to have been born first, for he has been passed along
to the second kneeling midwife-goddess on the right,
who nurses him. That it is the Ka is evident from
the name above his head, Ra-maat-neb, in a cartouche,
surmounted by the Ka sign — two forearms uplifted from
the elbow. The infant conventionally sucks his finger.
The infant king has either not yet been born, or was
held by the disfigured midwife-goddess who kneels
immediately in front of the queen. If the boy-king
was there originally, as is likely, it was possibly
destroyed by Khu-en-Aten, who would not have his
father represented as the son of Amon-Ra. Near
the queen’s head are the remains of her cartouche ;
in front of this are the titles “princess, great one of
favourites, sovereign-mistress of South and North." It
is noteworthy that Oueen Mut-em-ua, his grandmother,
like Oueen Aahmes at Der el Bahri, has been spared
mutilation at the hands of Khu-en-Aten.

In the Der el Bahri scene a child has just been born,
which the mother is handing to the kneeling goddess
in front, who, like the three others behind, holds out
her hands to receive the child and his Ka. There are
altogether nine goddesses in each scene, and though
some, Nephthys, Isis, and others, are named at Der
el Bahri, we cannot be sure that the nine here repre-
sented are not meant for the nine nursing Hat-hors

THE BIRTH

who appear later in this story. Their names, if they
were ever there, have disappeared.

Immediately below the queen and resting upon a second
long couch, are two of the well-known figures with the
notched palm-branch of years rising from their heads,
representing long periods of time for the duration of
the child. They kneel facing each other, and raise
their arms like Ka figures towards the sign for life
in the centre, along with which were probably grouped
originally the emblems of stability and power. Behind
these, to the left, are, successively, a man-headed figure,
two figures with crocodile-head, and a ram-headed figure,
all kneeling and presenting the sign of life towards the
birth ; and similarly on the right, a crocodile-headed
figure, two men-figures, and a ram-headed figure. Naville
supposes that these are the genii of the East and the
West. In the middle of the lowest row are two larcje
signs, one of “protection” ( sa 1), the other of “power”
(user) ; to the left of which are three falcon-headed figures
and three jackal-headed ones, all kneeling, with the left
hand on the breast and the right raised up behind.
These are respectively the spirits of the city of Pe (Buto
in the North), Horus, Amset and Hapi, and of the city of
Nekhen (El Kab in the South), Horus, Duamutf, and
Oebhsennuf. Thus, as Naville points out, all the deities
associated with the four cardinal points are present at the

1 Dr Seligmann and Miss Murray have recently identified this sign with
the uterus and its appendages.

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

birth. In addition to their favouring influence the
grotesque-looking god Bes and the hippopotamus goddess
Ta-urt (the Great One), or Api, to the right, lend their
sacred presence and sanction. Both these latter assisted
at the birth of gods and kings, and their images formed
favourite amulets, being held to be useful prophylactics at
childbirth, and, as such, passing into foreign lands.

Between the sa sign and the god Bes, some eight
columns of a text once stood, of which only a few signs
remain. This space is entirely blank at Der el Bahri,
having probably been chiselled out. Naville says that it
“contained a text having symbolical connexion with the
birth : it referred to the lighting of a flame or of a lamp,
by Api. A flame was supposed to be an emblem of life;
therefore, when life began, at the birth, or on anniversaries
like the Sed festival, when the duration of the king’s life
was celebrated, or in the other world when life was
supposed to be restored to the deceased, we find the
ceremony of lighting a lamp. At Luxor, in the scene of
the birth of Amenophis III., there are a few words left
of this text, which must have been very like chap. 137 of
the Book of the Dead. At the time of the xviii. Dynasty
this chapter was written in two different versions. The
vignette which accompanies one of them shows a female
hippopotamus, called “Api, the goddess of protection,”
lighting a lamp with the symbol of fire which she holds
in one of her paws” (Naville, Der el Bahri , ii. , 17).
The inscription here evidently consisted of two parts,

Attendant Goddesses.

Oueen Mut-em-ua.

The Ka of Amon-hotep III
being nursed.

The Divine Birth.

[To fac.

THE CHILD PRESENTED TO AMON

four columns to each, reading from the middle to right
and left. To the left we have, “(i) The princess, great
one of favourites, sweet palm branch beloved, (2)
sovereign mistress [of countries ?] all, royal mother . . .
(3) Mut-em-ua, the living for ever, she has seized upon
the light ( thet-n-s tan) ... (4) birth coming forth . . .
(lame ( teka ).” The four columns to the right show
isolated signs only, such as “come,” “heaven . . . his
beloved . . . all health.” The last phrases in the former
part seem to point to chap. 137 of Papyrus Nebseni,
British Museum ; but Professor Breasted sees no connec-
tion between them.

There is no figure here, as at Der el Bahri, of the
goddess Mes-Khent, who presides at births.

Scene 10.

First Presentation of the Child to Amon-Ra.

The great hole in the wall has spoiled part of this
scene. To the left of the gap the remains of a tail, such
as is usually attached to the figure of a god (or a king),
who evidently faced to the right, can be seen, then to the
right we have part of the face of a goddess with horned
disc on head. She holds an infant towards Amon-Ra,
who lays his hands on the child’s knees, acknowledging
the paternity. Gayet (plate lxx.) fills up the gap with
another goddess holding a child, probably the Ka. In the

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

Der el Bahri scene Amon-Ra comes first; this would
account for the tail appendage seen on the left of the gap
here. Then comes Hat-hor, seated, facing Amon-Ra, and
presenting the child to him. Here Hat-hor says, after
two destroyed columns, “. . . bring him up (nurse), and
love him for (to) . . . .” These words do not seem to
have any counterpart in the Der el Bahri scene. The
figure (restored) of the god is standing, and his names
and titles have been renewed. The rest of the inscription
is original, and says, “ Come, come in peace, son of Ra, of
his (my) loins, Ra-maat-neb, giving life.” Note that the
speech begins, “Words of Amon-Ra, Lord of the thrones
of the two lands.” Here Amon-Ra clearly identifies
himself with Ra as the father of the king in calling' him
“son of his body” — the first indication of the purpose of
the pictures.

Scene ii.

Amon-Ra takes the Child in his Arms.

This scene completes the last ; and we have a new
actor introduced in Mut, the consort of Amon-Ra. Mut
never appears in the Der el Bahri series of pictures. The
Luxor Temple artist, or rather the priests whose influence
was probably greater than in Queen Hatshepsut’s time,
makes Mut, to whom Amon-hotep III. had erected a
temple in Karnak, co-operate with Hat-hor in the trans-
action, thus enhancing the greatness of Anion. Mut

[To face page 3t

First Presentation of Child to Amon-Ra.

AMON-RA EMBRACES THE CHILD

wears her vulture head-dress with wig, and the two crowns
of Egypt, and holds a palm-branch of years in her right,
while her left hand supports the sign for anniversaries
which hangs from the branch. From her left elbow
depends an arrangement of symbols which signify
“millions of anniversaries in life and strength.” The
figure of the goddess is a restoration, but the crowns seem
original. She is styled “ lady of the sky,” and gives the
usual promises of “life,” etc. Near the top of the palm-
branch is the restored Ra-name of Amon-hotep III., with
the words “. . . son, beloved.” Hat-hor stands before
the god with hands uplifted in adoration at beholding him
caressing and kissing the infant king. T he child puts
his left arm round the god’s neck, and Amon-Ra says
again, “[come] in peace, son of my loins, Ra-maat-neb, I
have given to thee to pass (lit. make) millions of years like
Ra.” The whole scene is calculated to emphasise the idea
of Amon in his usurpation of the place of Ra as father of
th e sovereign.

In the Der el Bahri scene the goddess Serqet, who
does not appear here, and who was present in both stories
at the meeting of the god and the queen, now witnesses
the reception of the child ; and Prof. Naville thinks that
she is present now as one of the goddesses who will
superintend the nursing of the child, in which scene,
however, the goddess is not named, though he refers to
the plate which shows the nursing.

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

Scene i i (Top Row, Left-hand Corner).

The Nursing of the Children.

The queen, facing to the right, is seen kneeling on a
long couch, with lions’ heads at either end. Both her
hands, closed, rest upon her breast : she wears the vulture
head-dress, surmounted by what Naville calls a “ rnodius,”
which, he states, “a female figure places on her head.” In
his plate Serqet is not named. Gayet speaks of a woman
behind the queen supporting her and making a magic pass
on her neck, while the vase-shaped ornament on the
woman’s head is said to contain “ le liquide fecondateur,”
or “ the blood of the bull Bitaou-Osiris ! ” The “ woman ”
here is undoubtedly the goddess Serk or Serqet, with a
scorpion, her usual symbol, and not a vase, on her head ;
and she is, as certainly, not making magic passes on the
neck of the queen. She was present at the nuptials, and
now she supports the queen’s right arm.

Both Daressy and Gayet regard this scene as the birth
of the king.

Above the queen are two cartouches ; the nearer one
is her own, with the titles, “ Royal Mother, living like
Ra ” ; and the other, facing the queen, is that of the infant
king, Ra-maat-neb, crowned by the royal falcon, which
denominates him a Horus. In front of the queen and
facing her are two goddesses kneeling, each suckling a
child, the infant king to whom the last and the next

THE NURSING OF THE CHILDREN

cartouches apply. The nurses are Hat-hors, who also
wear the same head-dress as the Ra-name of the king. In
Der el Bahri the two nurses have cows’ heads. Below the
row of amulet buckles ( thet ) which support the couch, we
have two Hat-hor cows, with disc between their horns,
which give milk to the child and his Ka. The children
are seen kneeling' below the cows, which look round
affectionately at them. In the restoration of the scene at
Der el Bahri the children were forgotten. The most
perfect example of Hat-hor as a cow suckling the boy-king
is afforded by the magnificent and unrivalled statue of the
Hat-hor cow, which was discovered by Naville on Feb.
7th, 1906, at Der el Bahri, and now in the Cairo Museum.
The king there represented is Amon-hotep II., son of
Thothmes III. by the daughter of Queen Hatshepsut, and
grandfather of the boy here represented.

Surrounding the cows we have fragmentary inscrip-
tions : “Words said by . . . as King of the South and
of the North, the living, rejoicing thy heart upon the
throne of Horus ; thou wilt guide the living and rule as
lord of the Two Lands, in righteousness, like Ra for ever
and ever.’’ The wrords seem to be uttered by Hat-hor,
who appears to be called “ the President of the chamber
of the fire1 (flame) . . . has given to thee life, all health
that is in her power like Ra (repeated).”

1 The words are Khcnt per neser , followed by dets. of fire and palace.
This seems to be the name of this room as well as of the birth room : they
are probably the same apartment. This agrees with the reference to “ flame ”
at the birth.

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

To the right are seen nine deities, in three rows,
nursing but not suckling the Kas, and kneeling towards
the queen, while their heads are turned to the right. In
the Der el Bahri scene the number is twelve, also in three
rows, and their attitude is the same as here ; but it is
difficult to understand what these deities are. Naville,
speaking of that scene, makes out that these twelve, each
nursing a Ka, along with the two Hat-hors suckling the
child, indicate the number of Kas, fourteen, which a
human being might have. In the Der el Bahri scene the
“ nurses ” have as head-dress the Ka sign alternately with
the shield and crossed-arrow symbol of the goddess Neith.
All the “nurses” with Ka signs have beards. Here the
first, second, fourth, sixth, seventh, and ninth have the
Ka sign, and the remainder have heb, the word for
festival or anniversary. It is right to point out that all
the head-symbols are restorations, and that all or nearly
all the “nurses,” Neith included, are bearded; whereas
in Der el Bahri, only the “nurses” that wear the Ka
symbol have beards, the others wearing the symbol of
Neith are innocent of these appendages.

All the children are represented conventionally sucking
a finger and wearing the curl of childhood.

THIRD PRESENTATION TO AMON

Scene 12.

Third Presentation to Avion- Ra.

The curious posture of the “nurses” suggests the
passing on of the child and his Ka to three gods,
who now appear on the scene and present them once
more to Amon-Ra. These gods are Hapi the Nile,1
next to the nurses ; then Hekau, a blue figure ; and Horus,
with falcon-head. Amon-Ra stands on the right receiving
the two infants from Horus. The Der el Bahri scene
is different. Two male figures present the children
to three seated gods. The names of these five actors
are unknown. Breasted omits to notice this scene, or
the corresponding one at Luxor. Here, Hapi is the
Nile-god, half man, half woman ; his right hand holds
a bundle of ankhs (life), and his presence, therefore,
probably signifies that abundant life and prosperity
will attend the king. The Nile always stands for
plenty and prosperity, which does not exclude “ the
power of growth ” for the child, which Naville here
associates with Hapi. Hekau probably indicates, as
Naville points out, “the magic power of speech,” and
his presence here signifies that in addition to material
prosperity the king will possess the power of divine
creative words. Hekau holds up the child and his Ka,

1 Daressy and others say, “two Nile gods, one blue and the other red,
carry the child and his Ka to purify them.”

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

from whose head the Horus name ascends ; while above
the infant king are two cartouches, the one to right
being the Suten Bat name, the other the Ra-name of
the sovereign, Amon-hotep III. These names read
respectively, “ King of Upper and of Lower Egypt,
Ra-maat-neb,” “ Son of Ra, Amon-hotep, Prince of
Thebes”; while the Horus or Ka name runs, “ Horus-
Ra, Strong Bull, appearing in Truth.” The words
attributed to Hekau are, “ Saith Hekau : I am Hekau,
and have given life to him, all stability and power within
him, all health, all joy and heart within him.” Hapi,
the entire Nile, says, “ I have given to thee all life and
power in my possession.” There was a Hapi of the
South and another of the North, and both may be
admirably and clearly seen on the side of the throne on
which the colossal figure of Rameses II. sits in his
court in this temple. The Hapi of the South, with
his appropriate plant, the papyrus, on his head, stands
(correctly) on the south side of the seat ; while the
Hapi of the North, with his appropriate plant, the lotus,
on his head, occupies the north side. They are tieing
the Two Lands (South and North) together, each using
a cord ending respectively in a papyrus and a lotus
(lower.1 The Horus here shown is the elder Horus,

1 It is well to note this particularly, because much confusion exists on this
subject in books, but not on the monuments, as to the localities represented
by these plants The papyrus stands for the South, the lotus for the North.
When an Egyptian oriented himself he faced the south, whence he believed
the race came ; consequently the North was at his back ; hence a common

[To face page 42.

The Nursing of the Children.

THIRD PRESENTATION TO AMON

the Horus of Edfu, whose winged disc spreads high
and wide above the children. His name has been
completely struck out, probably by Khu-en-Aten, as
that god was not Horus-on-the-horizons, whom he
worshipped ; or the god may have been Menthu, Lord
of Thebes. He promises “all life, stability, power, health,
joy of heart, and all valour that are in his possession.”

Below the children which Hekau carries are words
which seem to read, “Words said: conducting and
bringing Amon-hotep from (?) the Hall of Birth [for] the
purifications of Horus and Set.” A similar form of words
occurs in Der el Bahri, where the children are presented by
the two unknown figures to the three seated o'ods. But
there is no purification scene either there or here.

Amon-Ra receives the child, laying his left hand on
the child’s head. Li is speech of four columns reads:
“Son [probably ‘of my body,’ significantly chipped out,
and never restored], beloved, Ra-maat-neb, made of one
tlesh with [probably ‘ me,’ also chipped out], I have given
thee all life and power, a rising (on the throne) as king of
the South and of the North upon the throne of Horus, and
all joy of heart to thee, together with thy Ka, like Ra.”

sign for “behind” is a lotus plant (//«), and Ha(}o\.\is)-nebu meant “all the
back (North) people,” a designation which comprehended the northern nations,
including Greeks of the islands and other people. Other instances might be
given of the lotus connoting the North ; the people in the Delta were called
the Lotus Folk, Hau, because of the marshes where the lotus flourished. As the
Egyptian believed he came originally from the South, the South is always named
first before the North.

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

In the usual divine promises above the restored figure of
Amon, the name Amon-Ra and the title “king of the
gods ” are also restored. The above-mentioned omissions
strongly corroborate the theory advanced in these pages,
that the main purpose of these sculptures is to represent
Amon as having served himself heir to the functions of
the old god Ra as progenitor of the sovereign. Gayet
has in his plate supplied the blanks, which undoubtedly
exist, and made the above speech run thus, “ Son of Ra
of his body beloved”; which would hardly fit in the
mouth of Amon. Besides, “ Son ” is restored, and the
usual stroke after the word “Son” is original, showing
that “ Ra ” (sun-disc) did not exist at first, so that “Son
of my body ” seems to have been the offensive phrase to
be disposed of. Khu-en-Aten did not believe that Amon
was the father of his sire, though he acknowledged the
fatherhood of Ra.

In the Der el Bahri scene it is Thoth who presents the
Child and his Ka to Amon-Ra, but there is no such speech
from the latter as that which we have just dealt with here.

Scene 13.

A nubis and Khnum, with Goddesses, presenting the
Child to Sefekh-abu.

This is the final scene, and corresponds generally with
that in Der el Bahri. It is imperfect in parts. Anubis

(Top row) Hapi, Hekau, Children, Horus, Children, Amon-Ra.
(Lower rows) The Divine Birth.

Third Presentation to Amon-Ra.

[To face page 44.

PRESENTATION TO SEFEKH-ABU

and Khnum can just be traced ; the tips of the former’s
jackal ears and of the latter’s horns are visible ; the legs of
Khnum can be seen in the white paint. Beyond Khnum
to the right, the scene is divided into two by a horizontal
bar. Two goddesses kneel (to right) in each row, the
upper pair presenting on their arms two children, the lower
pair doing the same by two children who are now walking.
Both sets of children are the young king and his Ka. A
goddess (?) kneeling receives each pair of children. At
Der el Bahri, Anubis and Khnum and the offering- god-
desses are present, but it is a male figure that receives the
children in the upper row ; while below it is a woman who
holds up an inkpot for the goddess Sefekh-abu behind.
She, the goddess of records, is present in both sculptures,
clad in a tight-fitting panther-skin robe down to her ankles,
and extends her right hand to welcome the children, while
she holds the symbol of life in her left. On her head she
probably wore her usual ornament, a seven-rayed star
(flower ?) with inverted horns 1 over it, but it has been
chipped out. She is often called “the great one, lady of
the house of books ” ; and her function here is probably to
record in the divine archives the names and titles of the
boy-king, as at Der el Bahri, where she wears the ornament
named and is writing on a scribe’s palette. Khnum’s
name remains, but his speech is almost entirely destroyed :
he is described as “ Lord of protection, President of the
House of Life,” and seems to give the usual promises to

1 Sefekh-abu, her name, probably means “seven-horns.”

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

the king, who is also named. The figure of Anubis, as
well as his name, has been restored : he also gives the
usual promises “ and a seat upon the throne of
Horus of the living, and gladness of heart along with his
Iva ; his sway will be the circuit of the sun-disc ( aten ) ;
to him shall the lands of the Fehkhu do homage as
decreed by Ra for ever.” In the Der el Bahri scene
Anubis is rolling a globe before him : on this Naville
remarks, “We find the same god with his disc in all
the birth temples except at Luxor, where he is seen
holding a sceptre [ the user commonlyl held by all
gods]. From the text at Dendereh I gather that this disc
is the moon, and that the god is presiding over the renewal
of the moon, which means that he regulates the calendars
of the gods. Among the promises which he makes to the
queen he grants her “all lands, all countries, all inhabitants
of Egypt, all strangers, all future and past generations.”
Here we have seen that Anubis promises that Amon-
hotep’s reign shall be like the circuit of the sun, and that
he shall have dominion over the Fenkhu, a Syrian people,
who also figure in the Book of the Dead (chap, cxxv.), like
the Hamemtu and the Patu (future and past generations)
of the Der el Bahri promises. Above the children in the
upper row, over the Ka, we have “ Lord of the Two
Lands, Ra-maat-neb . . . son of his loins, the good god,
Ra-maat-neb, giving life like Ra.” To the left of this are
three horizontal lines (top one chipped) out of text, which
say, “. . . I am come to be as a protection over . . .

presenting the Children ; to Sefekh-;ibu and unknown God.

the Children walking.

Presentation to Sefekh-abu and unknown God.

PRESENTATION TO SEFEKH-ABU

the son of his loins, Ra-maat-neb ; I have given
him all ages together, I have given him eternity, all
countries, all foreign lands . . . under his feet.” It is
not clear who the speaker is, possibly Khnum. Above
the walking children in the lower row we have, over the
king, “ the good god, Ra-maat-neb, Son of Ra, Amon-
hotep, Ruler of Thebes” (erased), and over the Iva, “the
I Iorus Ka ” — the srckh or standard (false door) rising from
the Ka’s head. Both children are sucking their fingers.
The two kneeling figures receive the two pairs of children,
and behind them is Sefekh-abu. A little to the left of
where her star-like ornament ought to be is her name,
which has not been tampered with : “ Saith Sefekh-abu,
Lady of (two small columns erased), I have given to thee
millions of years, and life, and power.”

Behind Sefekh-abu stands a male, bearded figure, with
bare head ; his name is unknown. He holds a palm-branch
of years, not a plain rod, as at Her el Bahri, w'here the same
figure occurs. Here the figure has been restored, and wears
a short kilt. His speech, as far as it has been left, is the
speech of a deity. “ I have given him all stability and
power in (my) possession, joy of heart, and all health in
(my) possession ...” '[ hen come two short columns,

covered with plaster. At Der el Bahri the restored text
is to the same effect as the foregoing, and ends with,
“ every kind of offering, all zefau (food) that is his posses-
sion, and the passing (lit. doing) of millions of years on
the throne of Horus like Ra.” Whoever this fisjure is> h

O 1

THE MIRACULOUS BIRTH

is certainly not Amon-hotep himself as a full-grown man,
as Daressy, Baedeker, and Weigall affirm, who all agree in
suppressing Sefekh-abu. Daressy takes Hekau for a Nile
god, and Weigall entirely passes over Hapi, Hekau, and
Horus, as well as Anubis and Khnum.

So ends the story of the miraculous birth of Amon-
hotep III., son of Amon-Ra, king of the gods, of his very
body.

The Divine Birth of Rameses II.

Daressy, in clearing out Rameses III.’s temple at
Medinet Habu, came upon one of several blocks of stone
built into the exterior wall of a chamber attached to the
south side of the xvm. Dynasty temple there, which shows
that Rameses II. also claimed to be the offspring of
Amon-Ra (A Totice explicative des mines de Mtdinet
Habon , p. 12). “These chambers, built with stones
taken from the Ramesseum, show in several instances
the cartouches of Rameses II. and his mother Mauti.
On the south wall may be seen a fragment of the list
of the king’s children, and a portion of a picture [turned
upside down], resembling those at Luxor and Deir el Bahari,
in which the mother of the king and Avion are seated
opposite one another in heaven." The stone in question
shows part of the nuptial scene described above (p. 24).
Unfortunately the heads of the god and the queen, as well
as the lower parts of the bodies of Serqet and Neith, are
wanting. The position, postures, etc., of all the actors

Sefekh-ubu Unknown God.

writing.

Last Scene of D£r el Rahri Birth Series.

[To face p't'jc 'IS.

\Tq fact i 1,1,1 49.

Amon-Ra. The Queen.

The Divine Nuptials of Amon-Ra and the Moihei-

THE DIVINE BIRTH OF RAMESES II.

concerned correspond with those at Der el Bahri and
Luxor, and part of a column of inscription behind Amon
reads : "as the incense (?) of Punt. Behold, in establishing
my son as king . . .” which is at least suggestive of a
speech at the nuptials of Amon and Mut-em-ua. Car-
touches of Raineses II.’s mother, Tuy or Muty, are also
found on blocks built upside down in the same wall.

CORONATION OF AMON-HOTEP III.

The ceremonies connected with the coronation occupy
the south wall of the Birth Chamber. Any correspondence
in the scenes here and the order in which they occur, with
those in the coronation of Queen Hatshepsut at Der el
Bahri, must be explained by a reference to some unknown,
fixed ceremonial for such occasions rather than to any
imitation of the latter by the Luxor artist.

There are three rows of pictures, the lowest of which
is terribly destroyed ; the upper two are in better preserva-
tion. All three rows begin on the right hand.

The lowest row consists of two scenes : first, the king
is being conducted to the left by Amon (?), whose face is
turned to the right while he walks towards the left,
presenting “life” to the king’s nostrils. The face of the
king, with the uraeus on the forehead, can be traced, as
well as his legs and feet ; and two deities follow. All
four join hands. Next, towards the left corner, a goddess,
most probably Mut, wearing the two crowns of Egypt,
sits enthroned behind Amon-Ra, with long plumes, holding
the child-king on his knee, and passing his right arm

CORONATION OF AMON-HOTEP III.

behind the boy’s head, whose right hand rests on the
god’s shoulder. Amon-Ra holds the symbols of dominion
and power. The inscriptions have almost entirely dis-
appeared : behind the goddess, in the corner, “ the years
of Turn ” can be read, and a few isolated words such as
“ thy two lands,” “ they see," etc.

Scene 3 (Middle Row).

Thoth before Nine Gods.

The Nine Gods are seated in three rows above the
door at the right, Thoth facing them. His figure is almost
entirely destroyed ; but the beak of his ibis-head can be
seen. Two of the deities, Isis and another (name unknown),
in the lowest row, have shared the same fate. Menthu,
Turn, and Shu occupy the top row ; Tefnut (not Amon,
as Gayet says), Seb, and Nut, the middle ; Osiris, Isis, and
the unknown deity, probably Nephthys, the bottom row.

1'hey are all enthroned, in mummy form, and hold green
or blue users, d um is called “ Lord of the two lands of
On (Heliopolis) ; Osiris, “ Lord of the sky”; the others,
where preserved, have simply their names. Thoth seems
to be addressing “the divine company [pant) of the gods,”
as they are called here : —

“Said by the Lord of Khemennu (Hermopolis)
... a great form . . . made for his beloved son
Ra-maat-neb, giving life, he who appears as King of

CORONATION OF AMON-HOTEP III.

Upper and of Lower Egypt upon the throne of Horus
. . . embrace ye him with your souls, embrace ye him
ye powers of the name of Turn, Lord of the two
lands of On, chief . . . Ra-maat-neb, Chief of living
ones.”

There is little doubt that the gap near the beginning of
this speech was occupied by the name of Amon-Ra, and
that he was credited with the parentage of the king — a
detail obnoxious to Khu-en-Aten. Turn replies ior the
pant of the gods generally.1

“ The first gift of Turn, I have given to him all
life and power within you (all), all health that is within
you, all joy of heart that is within you, like Ra for
evermore.” Then Menthu speaks as the head of his
row : “ Words said : I have given to thee all lands, the
double valour of the two Horus gods . . . the strength
of Tefnut (?).”

Similarly Osiris :

“ Words said : I have given to thee a rising
(appearance) as King of Upper and of Lower Egypt
upon the throne of Horus.”

1 The prominence of Turn here is remarkable as a Heliopolitan god, in spite
of the usurpation by Amon.

CORONATION OF AMON-IIOTEP III.

Scene 4.

T uni receiving the Young King.

This scene seems to correspond with the presentation
of Queen Hatshepsut to Turn at Heliopolis (Naville,
Der el Bahri. iii., 4).

Turn, the old Heliopolitan god, who is always repre-
sented as a man, is enthroned in a shrine, wearing the two
crowns ; his left hand is just above the urteus of the
kneeling king, while his right is under the king’s chin.
The king, wearing the blue crown, is nude except for a
short kilt ; his collar is green and blue. He stretches his
right within the throne seat, while his left hangs reverently
behind him. A lioness-headed goddess, probably Sekhmet,
whose figure is erased, also stands within the shrine : she
lays her right hand on the head of the boy, holding in her
left a palm-branch of years which has the frog and the
ring at bottom, signifying myriads of years. Behind her,
but outside the shrine, was another figure of Thoth, whose
name and figure have disappeared. Turn, who is here
styled “ Lord of the two lands in (sic) On,” gives the king
“ all life, etc., which is in his power,” and above the king
are his cartouches, “ Good god, Ra-maat-neb, Son of Ra
(original), Amon-hotep-prince-of- Thebes (restored), giving
life, etc., like Ra, for evermore.” The first column of
I hoth's speech is entirely gone, and the remainder is but
fragmentary : “ thou establishest his diadems (khan) on his

CORONATION OF AMON-HOTEP III.

head . . . his titles ( nekhb-t ) ... in presence of the
company (of the gods) . . . the form of the son . .
doing what they love ; then they (give) to him all life and
power in their possession, and stability ... in their
possession, and all health in their possession.”

This scene, which no doubt represents a visit, either
real or fancied, to Heliopolis to receive the benediction
of Turn, the old solar god, as the Ra-father of the king,
affords remarkable testimony to the power of the ancient
worship of Turn, in spite of the assumptions of Amon —
a worship which Khu-en-Aten made a gallant effort to
restore.

Scene 5.

The Kino ■ offers JVater to Amon-Ra ( ithyphallic').

The god in his form of Min, with tall plumes and right
hand uplifted, over which the whip is spread, stands on a
pedestal. It is an image of the god, who was also absorbed
by Amon, whether through the influence of Amon-hotep
III.’s queen, whose father was a priest of Min,1 or through
the direct agency of the former’s priests. If the queen in

1 Iouiya, the father of Amon-hotep III.’s queen, was “prophet (priest) of
Min” of Panopolis, as well as “overseer of the cattle of Min,” two titles which,
Prof. Maspero states, appear to be reluctantly alluded to in the Tomb, amongst
the deceased’s other dignities. The mother of the queen was “a chantress of
Amon,” “ lady of Amon’s hareem,” as well as of the “ hareem of Min,” and
“ dresser to the king,” etc.

CORONATION OF AMON-HOTEP III. 55

question was the chief agent in causing prominence to be
given to the god Min in her husband’s reign, she can
scarcely with justice be credited at the same time with
having influenced her son Khu-en-Aten to adopt the Aten
cult. The two things are quite incongruous. However
that may be, we find Min here and everywhere in the
original part of this temple designated Amon-Ra, sometimes
with additions, never by his own name. To him, then, as
Amon-Ra, the king standing, with full wig and urseus,
offers two bowls of water, as the words below his arms
tell : “The offering of cool water, which he makes, he that
gives life.'’ Above the king’s head, for the first time,
floats the guardian vulture of the South, with blue wings
outspread, and holding in her talons the ring-seal of
infinity. In addition to his cartouches the king is styled
“ Lord of the khepesh (sword of victory), who takes
possession of all lands, giving life for evermore.” Behind
the king is his Ka standard, consisting of a pole with
arms, one of which holds up another pole crowned with a
man’s head, and the other an ostrich plume ; while above
these arms is the Ka sign supporting the oblong srekh or
panel on which is inscribed the king’s Ka or Horus name :
“ Horus- Ra, Strong Bull, appearing in truth.” Over the
Horus falcon is the sign (blue) for the sky, with the words,
“ Royal living Ka, Lord ol the Two Lands,” below it.
These three titles — the Suten Bat name, the Son-of-Ra
name, and the Ka name — are titles referred to in the words
of I both above, and were thus given by Turn at Heliopolis,

CORONATION OF AMON-HOTEP III.

along with a coronation (see above, “ thou establishest or
settest his diadems upon his head ”), before the coronation
by Amon-Ra, which is shown in the next few pictures in
the top row.

Scene 6.

Purification of the King by Turn and Menthu.

The beardless king, facing to the right, stands with
arms hanging down between falcon-headed Menthu on
the right and Turn on the left, both of whom pour water
over the king from vases. Turn wears both crowns of
Egypt, as before ; Menthu a horned sun-disc, with uraeus
and plumes. Both gods bring their left hands up to the
junction of the two streams of water just above the boy’s
head. The winged sun-disc of Horus of Edfu spreads
over all, with the words “ Son of Ra (original), whom he
loves, Amon-hotep, giving life.” The speeches of the two
gods are identical : —

“ Purified art thou, purified art thou, with thy Ka
[for] thy great dignity of King of Upper and of
Lower Egypt, the living one ; all joy of heart, etc.,
like Ra for evermore.”

In the Der el Bahri series representing the coronation
the purification by Anion and Horus1 is the first scene,
even before the visit to Turn.

1 Breasted says “ Khonsu” instead of Horus.

CORONATION OF AMON-HOTE1’ III.

Scene 7.

The Bov carried to be Crowned.

The boy-king, attired as before, is seen seated on a
chair, which rests on the sign for festival or anniversary ;
he holds the crook and whip symbolic of rule. I'he whole
rests on two carrying poles, borne in front by two falcon-
headed gods and in rear by two jackal-headed gods. The
former may be two 1 loruses, the latter two Sets. There
is no parallel scene at Der el Bahri.

Above the king is written : —

“The good god, Lord of the Two Lands, Ra-
maat-neb, son of Ra, whom he loves, Amon-hotep-
prince-of-Thebes, dwelling in the great palace, the
llorus chosen for eternity, like Ra, giving life for
evermore.’ Under the seat and the festival sign,
“ All lands, all the Fenkhu countries . . . the upper
Retennu, the lower Retennu, all the Rekhyt, all living
people are for (under) the feet of this good god,
whom all the sjods love.”

The speech of the leading bearers is badly destroyed : —
“Saith the spirits . . . strength, thou shalt be
the image (form) appearing with the crown of the
South and the crown of the North on the throne of
Horus of the living ones, like Ra for evermore.”

CORONATION OF AMON-HOTEP III.

That of the Set gods is better preserved : —

“ Words said : “(We) have given to thee the Two
Lands for a great dwelling ; thou wilt see the Father,
lord of the gods ; he will cause thee to see millions of
festivals upon the throne of Horns of the living ones,
like Ra.”

The usurpation of Arnon is clearly indicated in the
phrase “thou wilt see [at the coronation] the Father, Lord
of the gods.”

Scene 8.

The Coronation by Anion-Ra.

The remainder of the row from this point to the
corner is better treated as one scene. The order is as
follows : — In the corner Amon-Ra is enthroned, and the
young king stands in front, with his back to the god ;
then, to right, are two panels with a goddess standing in
each and facing the king ; next, three rows of kneeling
figures, in the same attitude as the “spirits’’ at the Birth
scene ; and lastly, two more panels with Thoth in the
upper, and Sefekh-abu, both standing, in the lower.

Amon-Ra (restored) is seen enthroned, with his left
arm round the king’s left shoulder, and his right laid on
the kind’s right shoulder. The god’s name has been
restored ; he is called “ Lord of the sky.” The boy-king,
about to receive the White Crown of the South and the Red

CORONATION OF AMON-IIOTEP III.

Crown of the North, stands in front of the god enjoying
the divine approval, as he wears the blue crown with
ura-us and the short tunic with regal tail. Hatshepsut is
similarly attired at l)er el Bahri. He holds a bird by the
wings in his right hand. This bird may be one of the
four to be let loose to the four quarters of the heavens to
announce the coronation, like the four birds let loose in
the procession of Min at the Medinet-Habu temple of
Raineses III., where they are bidden to fly to South,
North, West, and East, and say to the gods of these regions :
“ Horus, the son of Isis, has taken the great double crown,
and the king of the South and of the North has taken the
double crown.’ In harmony with this view seems to be
the speech of the king in front of him, beginning with the
Horus name : —

“ Strong Bull, appearing in truth, in his great
name, say . . . they behold him (then above his
head), King of Upper and of Lower Egypt,
Ra-maat-neb, Son of Ra (original), Amon-hotep-
prince-of-Thebes ’’ (restored). This seems to be the
proclamation of the royal style and title.

From the two female figures to the right he receives
the two crowns. The lower figure represents the South,
the upper the North, each carrying her proper crown.
The long column of text is somewhat difficult to
understand : —

“ Said by his Hekau (his ‘ magic speech ’ that
figures in the Birth scene, top row) before and behind,

CORONATION OF AMON-HOTEP III.

I have caused them to see him, I have given him great
might for quieting the Two Lands 1 . .

The Lady of the South (lower figure) is robed in
green, and holds forward the White Crown in her right
hand, while from her left hang the symbols of life, stability,
and power. Overhead is the blue sky. She says to
the king : —

“ Receive thou the White Crown, thou art rich
[user) with it on thy head, possess (seize) thou all
lands with her White Crown, unite (?) her name . . .

[ Nekhebt], goddess of the South, giving all life,
stability, power.”

The Lady of the North is clad in red (the colour of
the Crown), and carries the Red Crown of the North and
the other symbols, like her sister goddess of the South.
She says : —

“ I give to thee the Red Crown, the one that is
on the head of Ra, possess thou all lands with the
very name of Uazit (goddess of Buto) of the North.'

Behind the goddesses of South and North are the
three rows of the “spirits” attendant. In the middle are
the falcon-headed “spirits of On (Heliopolis),” while above
and below are jackal-headed spirits, the lowest row being
those of the South ; probably the top row represents
the spirits of the North (the name is gone). They all
hail the coronation, and each row “gives all life, etc., that
is within them.”

This phrase occurs in the complete protocol of the King.

| I‘o fare

page 60.

The Coronation of Amon-hotep III.

CORONATION OF AMON-HOTEP III.

In the Der el Bahri scene there are also three rows
of applauding “spirits” or gods. I he top row, with
jackal heads, are called “all the gods of the Temple of
the South ” ; the second row, with falcon heads, are “gods
of the North”; while the lowest row, with men’s heads
and beards, are called “the gods that preside in the
Chapel (a/r) of the North,” meaning Heliopolis, where
Turn, who is always represented as a bearded man, was
the great deity worshipped.

The concluding incident is the recording of the event
of the coronation by Thoth, the scribe of the gods, and
Sefekh-abu, the keeper of the sacred archives. Thoth
occupied the upper panel to the right, but the figure
was probably destroyed; it is now plastered over:
Sefekh-abu remains, showing the star-like ornament
on her head. For these two figures, both no doubt
standing, Gayet, in his plate, substitutes two kneeling
female figures with the insignia of Neith on their
heads, and holding bouquets of flowers ! nor does he
correctly translate the texts he gives. In the Der el
Bahri scene the positions of the two deities are reversed.
The speech of Thoth here is : —

“ Saith the Master of divine words (not
‘prophets,’ Gayet), 1 establish for thee a great
name of Destroyer in strength and in might ; all
countries shall be under thy terror, the circuit of
the sky under the place of thy face, the Nine Bows
. . . under thy sandals.”

CORONATION OF AMON-HOTEP III.

Sefekh-abu, who stands writing, says : “ Sefekh-abu,
lady of writing, presiding over the House of divine books,
I establish . . . thou wilt be gratified (sa/i) with millions
ol festivals.” 1

1 Gayet’s translation is : “ Powerful is the word that comes from Sefekh,
lady of that which is written, directress of the double divine house, making
sure name and memory during multitudes of anniversaries.”

THE ADORATION OF MUT.

North Wall of Birth Room.

It is somewhat difficult to assign the place which the
ceremonies sculptured on this wall should occupy, but
it seems best to describe them before considering the
few but important scenes depicted on the East wall,
as the latter represent the culmination of the whole, in
the Osirification of the King during his lifetime at
the celebration of the Sed Festival.

As on the other walls described above, there are
three rows of pictures here. They all seem to concentrate
on the adoration of Mut, the consort of Anion, and
therefore assist in displaying the supremacy of the
Theban god as Father. The lowest row, as usual,
is first in order of time. The two lower rows are much
damaged.

Towards the right of the bottom row we have the
crowned king, Amon-hotep III. (lower part of body
and legs visible) leading four bull calves to the goddess
Mut, the lower part of whose figure is restored. The
king holds four tethers and an upright wavy rod in his

THE ADORATION OF MUT

left hand, while he stretches with his right a long straight
rod towards the cattle. From similar scenes at Der el
Bahri, and elsewhere in this temple, the colour of the calves
is known, as they are named “decked,” “red,” “white,”
“ black.” The last two names are given here. The four
tethers are tied to the right foreleg. Traces of the
king’s titles are still visible, such as “portion of [Ra],”
“whom he loves,” “great in might,” “ strong in crushing
(a foe).” Mut's name is given at the upper right-hand
corner: “ Mut, lady of the Sky, mistress of the Two
Lands,” and a part of her promise remains, “victory
over all foreign countries.” From the prominence given
to Mut on this wall it might almost be called the Mut
Tableaux.

The same scene occurs twice in the other parts of the
temple built by Amon-hotep — in the Hypostyle Hall, and
in the large Hall immediately to the west of the present
room. It is frequently found in temples: once in Der el
Bahri the word husu for the calves is the same there as
here. In the former the cattle are presented to Amon
with the words, “striking ( het ) the husu," and in the latter
to Amon-Min, with the words, “striking ( hu-u ) the bulls to
Amon-Ra.” These animals are probably an offering to
the deity in question, and for this purpose must be struck
or touched , as here, with a long straight rod or mace. It
should be noted that in no case known to the writer does
the long wavy rod held by the king along with the tethers
end at the top, as is sometimes asserted, in a serpent’s head.

THE ADORATION OF MUT

Of the next scene to the left very little unfortunately
remains, and it is in consequence difficult to understand
it, as it is rather rare. The figure of the king is seen
about the middle of the wall ; he seems to wear a head-
dress of two plumes with horns. An outspread vulture
protects him as he raises his right arm, which holds a
mace, as if to deliver a blow ; the left is obliterated ; in
front, at the bottom, are the figures of three men (restored)
draesfino" towards the kino- the sun-disc in his boat on a
sledge. There may have been two similar sledges above,
with men dragging them, but everything at this spot has
been destroyed ; yet Gayet gives, in his plate, the upper two
complete, and shows within each of the upper two boats the
divine cow couching on a pylon. A goddess, probably Mut
(omitted in Gayet’s plate), whose feet are visible, stands to
the right of the sledge, facing the king ; from the frag-
mentary inscription left, “for thy nose, O good god . . .”
“millions of years,” we may infer that she is presenting
him with “life,” or some such gift. The king’s action is
unfortunately not easy to understand ; the remains of the
text state: “. . . four times for the mertu of those who
tow along,1 giving like Ra for evermore.” The same word
mertu by itself appears at the top of the picture. The
king appears to wear a horned head-dress, and the
words . . father lord, like Ra,” are in front of

him.

1 In the Book of the Dead (chap, cxxix.) occurs the phrase, “Let me tow
along the god Sekeri upon his Sledge.”

THE ADORATION OF MUT

The last scene of this row is the clearest. The king is
cutting the throat of an oryx or antelope, which he holds by
the horns, the animal rearing on its hind legs. He wears
the blue helmet and a short tunic. Fragments of car-
touches and titles, “great,” “his khepesh" (sword or
might), appear above his head ; while his action is
described by the words, “slaying an antelope ( mahez ),”
which Gayet does not give. The same picture is seen in
the Hypostyle Hall of this temple. There the slaughter
is performed before Amon-Min, and the accessories are
more elaborate. Here no god is present. In the former
are seen a large stand with a table of offerings, of
vegetables, joints of meat, birds, unguents, etc., with
wreathed jars of liquor below, all in front of the god ;
while above, in a kind of double pavilion, joints of meat
hang from a joist across the ceiling, and stands of plants
are ranged below. The king wears the double crown and
the royal girdle, and is said, in slaying the antelope, to
“make great his might for (to) Amon.”

As to the meaning of these scenes, of the slaughter of
the antelope and the offering of the four calves, there is
much conjecture. There is hardly a doubt, however, that
they are somehow associated with the Osirian rites repre-
sented on the East wall, to be described later. There the
king becomes Osiris, and now he performs certain rites
consequent on the god’s death with which the king, as
king, is associated. Lefebure, in dealing with the Osirian
myth, says that Set, the fratricidal murderer of Osiris,

THE ADORATION OF MUT

contrived to get the soul of Osiris, which was hidden in
the Eye of Horus, devoured by an animal- — a pig, a
crocodile, a hippo, or some horned animal like a bull or an
antelope ; and it became the duty of Horus, son of Osiris,
to recover and restore the soul by the slaughter of these
animals. The king, like the son of Osiris, performs this
duty daily — or, what is the same thing to an Egyptian, he
is pictured so doing — by capturing with a lasso a bull,1 or
by slaying bulls, antelopes, etc., before a divinity. The
animals are cut up, and the officiating servants bring
forward the choice portions containing the Eye of Horus
(Soul of Osiris), and the king is supposed to say, “ I went
and found the Sacred Eye ; I make account of it to its
master ; I have cut out (from the victim) thine eye ; thy
soul is in it.”

There is also, most probably, some allusion in these
ceremonies to a symbolic victory over the evil, antagonistic
desert as personified by an animal like an antelope, an
inhabitant of the region supposed to be under the dominion
of Set, the Great Adversary.

The first scene on the middle row (to left) is another
example of the king striding, which attitude is discussed
later. Attired in the usual short tunic and wearing the

1 See the picture of the king lassoing the bull of the South at Abydos. One
important point is that this slaughter of the antelope in the Hypostyle Hall is
the only known instance of an animal being slaughtered in presence of a god,
and not upon an altar, a practice which seems to have been unknown to the
Egyptians. The animals are slain elsewhere, and not presented as sacrifices, in
the Jewish sense, but as food-offerings.

THE ADORATION OF MUT

atef (crown), he wields a sceptre or mace in his right hand,
and holds in his left a long ziser and ankh rod. The
goddess Mut, who again appears and stands before him,
wears, as usual, both crowns of Egypt, and extends to
the king a long collar, the beads of which go round her
own neck. From her left hand hang the symbols of
sed-heb (festivals). Behind the king are the mysterious
symbols which usually accompany the striding scene ;
overhead are his titles, with the protecting vulture, who
accords him “all stability, power, life, protection, behind
him like Ra.” The words describing the king’s action
are partly erased : “ taking the amt (crane or heron) to
the Lady of the Sky, he does it, he that gives life like
Ra ” ; and Mut replies, “I have given to thee the glory
of the white crown, and the red crown ; I have given to
thee the ornaments of the Lady of the Two Lands for
thy nose, this good god, as loving his image, lord of . . .”
The name “ Mut ” survives at the top.

At Der el Bahri there is a somewhat similar scene,
in which the goddess Urt-heqau (great one of magic
speech) presents to Hatshepsut’s nose the same collar,
a inenat ; and another scene shows the same queen
performing the same ceremonial stride and offering a bird
and three sceptres to Hat-hor. The interest of the
latter for us is that the inscription appears to be couched
in the same terms as the text here, though we do not
know what the king is offering. In Hatshepsut’s case
(. Der el Bahri , plate xcvii.) it reads, “taking the amt to

THE ADORATION OF MUT

Hat-hor, etc.”- — -so that probably here also the king was
offering a heron to Mut ; why, we do not know. As
Naville points out, a bird and three sceptres being similarly
offered occurs at Dendereh.

Beyond Mut the king again appears, wearing both
crowns, which he has just received from Mut. This scene
affords evidence of the prominent part played by Mut
in Amon-hotep’s life. Was it because his mother was
called after the goddess ? Anyhow, he is here credited
with receiving both crowns of Egypt from her. He now
advances with mace, crook, and ankh, and a long-
ceremonial staff or rod. He seems to follow a boat
(or sledge?), on which a small figure of himself is seated,
facing to the right, and wearing the double crown.
Behind this boat are traces of another. Below the boat
or boats are the outlines of two bearded figures walking
to the right, with arms hanging down. Gayet affirms
that they are the young king and his Ka : this is
doubtful. A great split in the wall interferes with the
king’s cartouches, but below we have the words : “ Appear-
ance (rising) in . . .” which would have told us where
the king is. To the right of the split, above the second
boat, are some words : “ . . . to the boat of Ra.” Gayet
thinks that this second boat is the boat of the king’s
mother, Mut-em-ua ; but the absence of any signs of a
cartouche forbids this interpretation, and the signs left
are undoubtedly r 71a n Ra (“to the boat of Ra,” as given
above). A fairly well preserved text above the first

THE ADORATION OF MUT

boat gives us some clue to the meaning of the
scene : —

“Approaching the land to the temple (divine
dwelling) of Hat-hor, Chieftainess (protectress) of
of Thebes . . . divine adoration of Hap (the Nile)

. . . the good god, Ra-maat-neb . . . giving life, etc.,
like Ra, for evermore.” A column of text behind
the king says : “It is the king, Ra-maat-neb, appear-
ing upon (ascending) the seat of his father, Amon
(restored).. All foreign countries are under thy
sandals, like Ra.”

The kinar in the next scene to the riodit now wears
the atef (crown) adorned with horns, and set on top of
another (?) feather head-dress, with ribbons hanging
behind ; and he presents to Mut with left hand an oblong
object with a notched top, out of which seems to come a
wick or a cord, with a seated ape in front. It is called
sheb or shebt, but its nature is unknown. It seems to
stand on the sign (Jieb) for festival, and frequently occurs.
Another instance will be found in the Chapel of Mut close
by, and others at Karnak, on the Bubastis fragments
and elsewhere. Professor Naville {Festival Hall of
Biibastis , p. 9) says : — “ It is difficult to understand how
this instrument was used. Horapollo says that on their
water-clocks the Egyptians engraved a crouching ape.
It is certain that the shcb was connected with the measure-
ment of time, but we cannot say how this measurement
was made.” If the instrument is the clepsydra, or water-

THE ADORATION OF MUT

7 1

clock, which was used by the Greeks and afterwards by
the Romans to mark the time allotted to the speakers
in the law courts, the time was measured by the water
in the vessel dropping through an orifice in the bottom
in a definite period of time. But it is quite possible that
the Egyptian vessel was a kind of lamp out of which
something like a wick stands, and the time would be
measured by the period taken to consume the quantity
of oil in the vessel. Anyhow, the figure of the ape
shows that it was connected with measurement of some
kind, as Thoth, represented by the ape, was the god
of reckoning and of times and seasons.

The inscription before the king describes his act : —

“Giving of a sheb to the ground (i.e. placing
it on the ground), he does it who gives life for ever."
Above him we have, “ The good god, Lord of the
Two Lands, Ra-maat-neb, Son of Ra, whom he
loves, Amon-hotep-prince-of-Thebes [of Amon ],
the portion for eternity, his twofold might crushes
the chiefs (lit. heads) of the Nine Bows”; and Mut,
“ Lady of the Sky,” who stands with 7iser and ankh,
wearing the double crown, says, “ I have given to
thee the years of eternity, and all foreign lands
under (thy feet) . . . all, I have given all life.”

The last scene of this row is the king before Hat-hor.
It is difficult to understand it. He holds a ball at arm’s
length in his left hand, while with the right he lays the
end of a long straight rod on the ball. Hat-hor, whose

THE ADORATION OF MUT

name has been restored, is in woman-form, wearing disc
and horns and the vulture head-dress. She has an user
in her right hand, and seems to be raising to the king’s
nostrils the symbol of life. His cartouches are above,
as well as the words, “ beloved of Amon (restored), lord
(of the thrones of) the Two Lands.”

There is a somewhat similar scene at Der el Bahri,
in the Hat-hor shrine, entrance hall, east wall. Prof.
Naville styles it “ Thothmes III. playing balls before
Hat-hor,” and says, “Thothmes holds a stick of wavy
form, which from other texts we know to be made of
olive wood, and strikes with it balls the substance of
which we do not know. The ceremony is called, ‘ to
strike the ball to (in honour of) Hat-hor, protectress
of Thebes.’” The words “to strike the ball” are the
same here as at Der el Bahri, where two servants are
also seen holding up a ball apiece to the king. Naville
further says : “It seems from the text which accompanies
the ceremonies at Dendereh that the throwing of balls
was a kind of emblem of victory, ‘ the enemies are struck
before the king.’ ”

The uppermost row consists of twTo scenes : —

(1) The king, left corner, following two sledges,
dragged by three men each :

(2) The king seated before a table of offerings, in front
of which, as a kind of second act, the king, now kneeling,
presents two bowls to the goddess Mut, who is enthroned
at the end of the wall.

THE ADORATION OF MUT

(i) The first scene is much damaged. The complete
figure of the king, with red crown, faces to the right, and
holds with both hands a long straight rod horizontally, as
if “touching” some object in front. The protecting
vulture, whose name is erased, “gives life”; the king’s
titles are nearly all uninjured : —

“ The good god, lord of the Two Lands, Lord
who performs things (rites), King of Upper and of
Lower Egypt, Ra-maat-neb, the Son of Ra, Amon-
hotep-prince-of-Thebes 1 (original), Lord of diadems,
giving life for ever.”

Before the king are two sledges, each dragged by three
men, who walk to the right. The inscription above is
totally destroyed, so that in the absence of clear outlines
of part of the objects resting on the stands of the sledges
we are left to conjecture. Gayet says that the stand is an
altar on which rests an ox that has been sacrificed, with its
feet tied together, as the Osiris Bitaou, dead, on his way
to the mysterious region where the libation ( khemp ) to
revive the dead Osiris (the king) is made. On this we
remark, the object on the upper stand is almost completely
covered with plaster, but enough remains to identify it
with the object lying on the lower stand, which is certainly
not an ox, and there is no trace of tied feet or leg's any-
where. I believe the object is the crouching figure wrapt
in a skin which we see lying on a stand or bier in the

1 I his is a rare instance of the name Amon-hotep having escaped mutilation
by Khu-en-Aten.

THE ADORATION OF MUT

tombs of Pa-heri and Renni at El Kab, of Rekh-mara,
Menna, and Sen-nofer, and others at Thebes, all of the
same period as the sculptures here discussed. In the
tomb of Pa-heri three men drag the sledge, as here ; and
the figure of the man in the skin crouches in exactly the
same way as here ; while in the tomb of Renni two men
drag the sledge and the figure squats. All these scenes
refer to the ceremonies required to be performed to ensure
the new birth which is celebrated on the East wall. The
figure of the king, or a Sem (priest) personating him, is
wrapped up in the skin of a slaughtered bull, called mesekt
or mesket, and every deceased person must “pass through
the place of the skin ” before entering on the new life ; so
that “ to pass through the animal’s skin ” was the means of
having the deceased’s soul restored to him. In this way
Osiris had passed by death from the mortal to the
immortal life, and the king, even in life, being made like
unto Osiris, also passes through the skin. The whole
circumstances forbid us from considering this as an
instance of human sacrifice.

The last scene is the banquet before Mut, which takes
place in the “ Hall of Eating.” This scene is probably
similar to that described by Prof. Naville in the P estival
Hall of Bubastis, which he illustrates by a more complete
scene from the Temple of Soleb, built by this same King
Amon-hotep. Shortly, it “is the apotheosis of himself,
the king, the putting himself among the gods, whoever is
the sod jn whose honour he celebrates the festival.”

The King following the Sledges (p. 73).
The King striding (p. 68).

[ To face page 74.

THE ADORATION OF MUT 75

Here it is the goddess Mut that is honoured, to whom
Amon-hotep III. was specially devoted, as well as to her
consort Amon ; at Soleb it is Khnum with whom he
associates himself. “ It was the moment above all others
in which he was most exalted, when, holding the emblems
of Osiris, and in the attitude of the king of the lower
world, he was taken to the Hall, and made his solemn
appearance there and rose [Kim) like the god himself.’’
At Soleb these words are used : “ the bringing (lit. the
dragging) of Khnum into the Hall of Eating.” Here the
king and his Ka, wrapped in the skin, are dragged in on
sledges, and in the Hall of Eating he makes his appear-
ance in a twofold capacity, as king and as priest, as the
equal of the goddess, sitting opposite to her on a throne
similar to hers, both of which rest on Maat. The king
thus “appearing” in the Hall of Eating in a twofold
capacity, has emerged from the skin on the sledges almost
if not quite nude, like Oueen Ty-ti ( Tzuo Theban Queens ,
p. 100) and Prince Kha-em-uast ( T 'wo Theban Princes ,
pp. 56, 57), in full possession of his soul — a perfect god
resting (existing) upon Maat equally with the goddess
wrho is enthroned opposite to him in divine dignity. His
sole clothing consists of a loin-cloth or royal apron, and
his head-dress is the simple urteus wig, or the same with
the bandeau or fillet surrounding it called seshed , which
is associated with the Sed Festival. As the divine
sovereign enthroned on Maat, he wears the latter ; as
the priest-king or a divine son making the required

THE ADORATION OF MUT

filial offerings, he wears the former. Above him as the
god-king, the Horus of Edfu — the name remains — spreads
his protecting wings and holds in his talons the symbols
of power for endless time, giving the king “ life, stability,
etc., like Ra.” The king’s titulary above is, “the good
god, Lord of the Two Lands, Lord Performer of things
(rites), King of Upper and of Lower Egypt, Ra-maat-neb,
Son of Ra, Amon-hotep-prince-of-Thebes : Ra makes great
his strength and gives life like Ra.” The king cere-
monially “touches” the table of offerings, consisting of
vegetables, birds, cakes, etc., in front of him with his left
hand,1 so as to make them real, and holds in his right
something like the folded cloth or napkin which is
frequently seen in the hands of kings and nobles on the
monuments. The god-king’s action is described as “ bring-
ing together (uniting) the thing for bearing the offering
(thing)” — sma khet er fat khet. This bearing or con-
veying of the offerings is now to be performed by the
king in his priestly capacity, which he does on bended
knees as he presents two bowls or vases. At Abydos,
Sety I., acting as Sein (priest), is seen “consolidating (lit.
making to grow) the divine table-offerings to his father
xAmon-Ra.” Gayet says, without evidence, that these
bowls or vases here offered contain “grains ” or “ essences ” ;
but they are rather typical of the great table of offerings
which stands between the goddess, for her repast, and the
priest- king, and which are catalogued in the menu above
1 At Abydos, Sety I. is said “to lay (lit. give) his hands upon the table.”

THE ADORATION OF MUT

the table. Over the kneeling priest-king is Nekhebt, the
vulture of the South, with her protecting wings, giving him
“all life, health, etc., in her possession.” The king’s
titles are of course much the same as before, except that
here he is called “ the Son of Ra, of his body, whom he
loves ” — left untouched by Khu-en-Aten — as if to emphasise
the fact that the king as priest is performing the filial
duty of making offerings to his father Ra, but no descrip-
tion of his action is here given, although Gayet affords
a translation of a text which does not exist.

The menu or list of offerings (which, be it remembered,
was supposed to be made daily) is divided into thirty-one
compartments for the names of the various articles offered.
It is a smaller bill of fare than two others on the East
and West inner walls of the room, which now contains
the Sanctuary built in the time of Alexander the Great ;
they have each forty divisions, and afford a much more
varied choice. All of them are of the usual type, and
may be seen on the earliest as well as the latest monu-
ments. The sumptuous bill of fare includes all the
best kinds of food and drink which Egypt could provide,
together with unguents, eye-paints, etc., of which the
ancient Egyptians were fond, especially at the royal
table. The numbers, quantities, portions, etc., of the
various items are given at the bottom of each division
where the “dish” is named; in the top row we find
“rib-cuts, i; left foreleg (a choice ‘cut’), i; wine of
the North, bowls io; water in red bowls, io; water in

THE ADORATION OF MUT

ment bowls, 24 : in the second row, mennu (unknown) ;
beer, 2 jars ; benben (delicacies ?), 1 vase ; ashert (some-
thing broiled?), 3 ; mesdemt (eye-paint), 2 vases, etc., etc.”

Mut, “lady of the sky, who gives all life, all health,
all joy of heart,” wears both crowns of Egypt, and holds
an user in right and ankh in left. She sits enthroned
on “Truth,” like the king, who has now become her equal.

THE OS I RIF I CATION OF THE KING.

The East wall of the Birth Chamber, or rather the portion
of it not taken up by the entrance doors, is devoted to
the illustration of certain of the ceremonies connected
with the Osirification of the King, when he was supposed
to be re-born and become one with Osiris. These
ceremonies are connected in some obscure way with
what is called the Sed Festival, as to the nature of
which diverse opinions are held. The main facts which
seem to emerge from the speculations regarding it are
that it in some way marked a renewal of the life, if not
the powers of the king, and that this renewal took place
at uncertain periods. Sometimes the king had more
than one Sed festival, but here again the period is
uncertain. To judge from the promises made by the
gods to the kings, the granting of numerous Sed festivals
was a thing highly prized ; in fact it seems to have been
the divinest gift of the gods.

Professor Naville, in the Festival Hall in Bubastis,
discusses the Sed Festival. He says : “ The SATfestival
is very old ; it is on record as early as the time of King
Pepi, of the sixth dynasty, and at that remote epoch we

THE OSIRIFICATION OF THE KING

already see the king represented with the flail and the
crook, like Osorkon, when he is carried on his litter ; also
Pepi wears alternately the northern and the southern
head-dress, as it is at Bubastis. It is hardly to be
supposed, however, that the ritual employed in the
‘numerous ceremonies connected with the festival is as
old’ as the festival itself. The ritual ?rew bv degrees, as
time went on, and probably never was so complicated as
under the Ptolemies ; nevertheless, some of the principal
features of the Sed go back to the eighteenth dynasty, and
are found at Soleb [built by Amon-hotep III]. . . . The
acts which the ritual describes seem to indicate that the
king took possession anew of the whole land, and conse-
crated anew to Amon whatever belonged to the god’s
worship, especially the women of the city, who, according
to an old tradition, were bound to act as priestesses or
slaves to the god. This work of theirs was reckoned to
them as a yearly tribute.” Elsewhere,1 Professor Naville
describes the Sed period as “ being fiscal in its nature, and
its inaugural festival as an indiction date — that is, the
date on which the taxes and dues leviable on the inhabi-
tants of the country were imposed for a stated number
of years ; and since the foundation of every impost was
the tenth or tithe — that is, the amount paid for worship
and everything connected with it — there is nothing
surprising in the fact that the Festival of the Indiction
had a specially religious character. As such we already
1 The Old Egyptian Faith (pp. 279-281).

THE OS I RI FI CATION OF THE KING

find it represented on the monuments of the Thinite
epoch ; and it continued to be so down to the Roman
period. At this festival the king comes out of an apart-
ment called the sanctuary, then he ascends into a pavilion
open at the four sides, with four staircases leading up to
it. Carrying the emblems of Osiris, he takes his seat on
a throne, and turns to the four cardinal points in
succession. . . . It is a kind of second enthronement. . . .
Thoth and Safekhaboui draw up in writing the record of
the festival. The king passes into the banqueting room,
in whose pavilions are statues of a god receiving offerings,
and among the statues that of the king frequently stands,
and sometimes the king acts as a priest, making offerings
to himself. This last act may be regarded as the climax
of the deification of the king.” We shall see several of
these features reproduced in the scene before us. Dr
Naville also notes that “ the Sed Festival celebrated by
Amon-hotep III. must have been one of the most important
events of his reign. He alludes to it several times ; for
instance at Luxor, where the king is seen sitting on the
throne of the Festival Hall, exactly like Pepi in the
sculpture of Hamamat.” It is this scene here described
which I have ventured to call the Osirification of the
King at the celebration of the Sed Festival.

The identification of the living king with Osiris is, if
we may use the term, the spiritual counterpart of the
miraculous physical birth of the king. In the latter he
comes into life as the offspring of the god Amon ; in the

THE OSIRI FI CATION OF THE KING

former he becomes an Osiris — identical with Osiris — by a
second birth through death while he is still a living- beinor
on earth. Others, all men, might become Osiris at death,
if they succeeded in passing the ordeal of his judgment ;
for the king alone, as a divinity from his birth, was reserved
the privilege of becoming Osiris, and of having the “ magic
voice or speech ” ( maakherou ) during his earthly life, and
is invested with new spiritual powers. In token of this the
god Hekau, as we have seen, accompanied the infant king
in his last presentation to his divine father Amon-Ra, on
the West wall.

It is unfortunate that the pictures here are much
damaged, for they are not less interesting than those of
the Miraculous Birth, which ushered him as a god into the
world of men. Here he enters on another and more
intimate divine life, and becomes in this festival an Osiris
upon earth by a kind of no less miraculous second birth.
It is not by accident, therefore, but of set purpose that this
second birth should be represented on the East wall of this
chamber, for it was in the East that the sun-god was
re-born every day. The Coronation, which bestowed on
the divine being, the king, the two crowns of Egypt
advanced him a step further than birth in the divine scale
of life — which ceremonial is seen on the South wall, the
direction whence came traditionally the political power of
Egypt. And now, after being shown to be on equal terms
with Mut on the North wall, he arrives on the East wall at
full equality and even identity with the great god Osiris in

THE OSIRIFICATION OF THE KING

this festival. Some other ceremonies subsequent to the
Coronation are not represented here as they are at Der el
Bahri, and later at Soleb (by Amon-hotep III.), Gourneh,
and Abydos. They may be conveniently grouped round
the term Sed-Heb Festival, or the Festivals of Seshecl
(or Shed), which were at one time supposed (on the
evidence of the Rosetta Stone) to be celebrated at
invariable intervals of thirty years. Professor Naville
has thrown much light on this obscure subject by the
discovery and explanation of the sculptures at Bubastis,
found by him, and published in his volume, I he
Festival Hall of Osorkon II. in the Great Temple of
Bubastis. The anniversary of the Coronation seems
to have been held as a Seel Festival, when the king was
regarded as Osiris on earth. Here, in the only row of
sculptures which are visible, we have such a representation
of the king as Osiris, seated back to back, in two
pavilions, the one figure wearing the crown of the South
and facing the South, the other with the crown of the
North, facing the North. In the Festival Hall at
Bubastis there are four pavilions, one for each cardinal
point ; here there are only two, corresponding to the two
crowns of Egypt. At Der el Bahri the father of Queen
Hatshepsut says, in his address to the princes and nobles
of the land, after his daughter has been crowned :
“henceforth she will be sitting on the staircase ( khend ).”
Here there is an actual representation of Amon-hotep
III. seated on “the stair,” facing in two of the required

THE OSIRIFICATION OF THE KING

directions ; and to each Osiris-figure of the king thus
seated the king himself is seen approaching with cere-
monial stride from right and left, wearing the respective
crowns. At the extreme right and left he is walking, or
perhaps standing ; but here he is seen in the act of
making a long stride, which has been, I believe mistakenly,
described as dancing. These representations of the king
as Osiris in a pavilion go back to the earliest times. On
the Hieraconpolis mace, the king, Narmer, wearing the
crown of the North, sits in a pavilion approached by
steps ; above him is the protecting vulture, and by the
side of the throne are the royal fan-bearers. Similar
representations on tablets of the First Dynasts were
found by Professor Petrie, and numerous sculptures and
statues of all periods have been discovered draped in
white like Osiris. One of the finest of these statues is
that of the Osiris Mentuhotep II., found by Mr Howard
Carter at Thebes in 1901 : it is now in Cairo Museum.
“The statue is a portrait of the king, but attired as the
dead Osiris of Lower Egypt, and, because of this, the
flesh is painted black, the dress white, and the crown
red. The short garment which confines the chest and
arms is that which Pharaohs wore at the festival of
Foundation (Habi-Sadu or Sed-hebs), in the course of
which they were identified with Osiris and deified ”
(Maspero, Cairo Museum Guide).

Let us now examine the row of pictures. Beginning
on the extreme right (of the top row) — as the South has

THE OS I RI FI CAT ION OF THE KING

the pas — the king, attired in short kilt, wearing the white
crown of the South and holding in his right hand some-
thing like a papyrus roll — which Gayet believes is the knot
sign, signifying “to rise” — and in his left a whip hanging
over his shoulder, seems to walk or stand in a pavilion or
palace, bordered with the khaker frieze or ornament. This
is the “sanctuary” in the Temple, alluded to above. His
cartouches and titles end with the words “ portion of Ra,”
and behind him are the signs of “all protection, life,
stability, and power, behind him ; he is at the head (the
first) of all living Kas like Ra.” This phrase, “the head
or first of all living Kas,” is a title given in the tombs and
elsewhere to kincrs that have become dead and are alive

again. In front of the king are the words, “Appearance
( Kha , rising, like the sun) in the palace (Great Hall) as the
unique one.” A parallel scene may be found in the
Festival Hall, already quoted, where Osorkon II. is
said to “appear (rise) out of the Great Hall, and depart in
order to rest in the pavilion of the Sed festival ” ; and
Naville adds, “the carrying of a sacred emblem out of its
shrine in a festival, or the solemn apparition of a king in a
religious ceremony, is compared to the rising of a sun or of
a star, and is expressed by the same word Kha." The
remarkable phrase, “the unique or only one,” here applied
to the king may find some explanation in regarding him as
the Sun for the time being. Oueen Hatshepsut in a scene
at Der el Bahri is similarly styled.

At the other end of the wall an exact duplicate of this

THE OSIRI FI CATION OF THE KING

scene occurs, the only difference being that at the North
end the king is attired as sovereign of the North, or Lower
Egypt, with the red crown : the same cartouches, the same
titles, the same protecting signs, the same symbols in the
hands, and the same inscription in front. As at the other
end, he departs from the Great Hall or Palace (Sanctuary)
to rest in the South Pavilion of the Sed Festival as “the
only one,” so here he does the same for the North Sed
Pavilion, also as “the only one.”

The next incident on both sides is the striding approach
of the king towards the Pavilion, where he will rest in
state as Osiris, who was dead and is alive again. He has
now come forth from the khaker ornamented Hall into the
open air; the protecting birds of the South and the North
respectively hover with outspread wings over him ; he
wears the white crown or the red, according as he goes to
the South or to the North Pavilion ; and he holds in his
hands the same royal symbols as before. In such scenes
the king does not offer masons’ squares, paddles, etc. ; but
bears the insignia of his royal office. Note that, as we
have said, he makes his advance with a wide, ceremonious
stride. This attitude is commonly called “the dancing of
the king before the god.” An exactly similar scene occurs
at Der el Bahri, where the queen is seen striding towards
Amon, with a flail or whip in her right hand and an object,
which is partly destroyed, in her left, but which is un-
doubtedly the same object as is here shown — something
like a papyrus roll, as above indicated. In front of the

THE OSIRIFICATIQN OF THE KING

queen is an inscription — exactly the same as occurs here —
which Prof. Naville translates “the gift of a field four
times.” This formula is exactly the same on the oldest
monument of the kind known, viz., the scene sculptured on
the rocks in the Wady Maghara, where King Pepy Meryra
is seen striding as here, and holding the same objects in
his hands. In addition, the inscription mentions “ the first
sed-hcb festival,” which is also alluded to here, as we shall
see later. In all other scenes of the same kind, where the
kina' is seen striding, he holds in his hands a mason’s
square (?) and an oar— “ both implements have the same
name in Egyptian, hep or kept ” — or a libation vase in each
hand, or a live bird in one hand and three sceptres in the
other. Now, in every one of these cases, wherever the
inscription has been preserved, the phrase used in describ-
ing the king's action is either “taking, bringing ( thet-t ),”
or “offering ( khenp )” the squares, oars, vases, or birds as
the case may be, to the particular deity in question, imply-
ing, therefore, presentation by the hands. Here, however,
the case seems to be quite different : a field is undoubtedly
mentioned in the inscription, and there is no presentation
of the flail or the papyrus roll ; no inscription to that effect
has yet been found associated with this striding movement
of the king. As, then, the phrase used here relates to a
field, it seems to refer, not to “ bringing ” or “ offering ”
anything, but to the action of the king in striding, and, it
may be asked therefore, does the translation “ the gift or
the giving of a field ” really represent the meaning of the

THE OSIRIFICATION OF THE KING

scene? And why “four times”? What is the meaning
of “ giving a field four times ” ? Will not the difficulty be
removed if we suppose that the “ hand ” sign which
precedes the “field” of the inscription in question
is not the verb “ to give,” but the archaic form of the
word da — followed by the determinative of walking — a
word which, according to Brugsch (Diet., 1606), means
“auspannen, ausstrecken, extend, stretch, etendre, deployer
allonger ” ? He refers to Book of the Dead, chap, xlv., 2,
which says, “they [the limbs] stretch not, they do not
move ” ; and connects the word with two terms, which,
according to the det. used, mean either “ to stop,” or
“what is stretched out,” i.e. the sky. Applied to our
present text, where a field is concerned, the rendering
would be “stretching or laying out, or even pacing,
a field four times,” which would suit the case exactly.
In this way Prof. Naville’s explanation of “four times,”
which seems inappropriate with the sense of “ giving
a field,” becomes perfectly applicable, “ the fixing of
the four sides of the land on which the building is to
be erected, the king measuring the land in long strides
such as we see him making here.” It is interesting to note
that the same “open-hand” (without det.) sign occurs
in the inscription of the scene described on pp. 69, 70, and
is there translated “ Approaching the land,” etc. Archaic
forms of words were in their place on ancient rock inscrip-
tions of the early dynasties, and as is well known, were
much affected by the artists responsible for the inscriptions

THE O S I R I F I C AT I ON OF THE KING

at Der el Bahri and the xvm. Dynasty work of this temple.
But in later times when a field is actually presented by
the hand, we have an example at the Kom Ombo Temple,
where the king, wearing the red crown and the short
tunic, offers with both hands the hieroglyph for a field or
a portion of ground, and the inscription reads, “ presenta-
tion of a field to his father,” and there is no “striding”
action shown, nor consequently are “four times”
mentioned. The same thing is seen in two instances
in the Khonsu Temple at Karnak, where Heri-hor stands
offering two vases of water to Amon-Min, with the
inscription, “ Offering of cool water,” while the magical
signs seen on these occasions are behind him ; and,
again, where Ptolemy IV., standing, presents a square
and an oar to Khonsu, and the inscription has “ bringing
oar and square ” (both are figured). Ptolemy IX. at
Phike, also offers a field with both hands, and the
inscription plainly says so : there is no striding. The
inference from all these examples is clear : the inscriptions
which mention a field refer to the stretching or stepping
it out, or its delimitation, not to its presentation unless
when a word expressly implying presentation is used.
All this, however, throws no light on the question why
a field or a portion of ground is referred to at all, at the
celebration of the Sed Festival, or the Osirification of the
king. That remains a mystery.

Behind the king are two large magic fans, beneath
which are symbols still unexplained, as well as the three

THE OS I RI FI CATION OF THE KING

half-ellipses between the back of the king and these
symbols. Griffith cites the case of Khnum-hotep (Beni
Hasan Tombs), who was the “ Erpa (prince) of the
ceremonials, indicated by the half-ellipses, in the Court-
yard.” Hall (note in J. J. Tylor’s Temple of Amen- hot ep
///.) suggests that the half-ellipse signs are to be read ab,
the det. for “dancing” ; but his references to the plates in
Lepsius’ Denkmdler do not bear out his suggestion, which
is without foundation. There is absolutely nothing to
connect these mysterious half-ellipses with the notion of
dancing: their very position, behind and not in front of
the king, forbids our taking them as descriptive of his
action. Why the “striding” of the king should also be
represented when he is presenting squares and oars, vases,
etc., to a god is puzzling; but it does not explain it to call
his movement “ dancing before the god.” In no other
circumstances, except of the kinds noted above, is the king
represented as executing the particular movement in
question. It is totally unlike the unquestionable postures
of dancing men and women which we see on the monuments,
where the motion is almost invariably described as ab or
khcb, det. of a dancer with one foot in the air, and “crack-
ing his fingers.” Professionals and ordinary people are
often represented dancing, unmistakably, but never in this
posture of the king. Indeed, it was probably considered
improper for the king to indulge in such a practice. To
assume “ religious dancing ” in ancient Egypt is begging
the question : no text can be pointed to as affording con-

THE OSIRIFICATION OF THE KING

elusive proof that the king danced. Dr Budge ( History of
Egypt , i. , p. 196) quotes a solitary passage from the
Pyramid Text of Pepy I., where it is said (in his transla-
tion) : “He who (i.e. Pepy) is between the thighs of Nut
is the pygmy who danceth for the god and who maketh
glad the heart before the great throne,” thus questionably
identifying the pygmy with the king. The passage is
given by Prof. Maspero ( Rec . de Travaux, vii., 162), and is
translated thus : “ il a atteint ce qui entre les deux cuisses
de Nouit ; il presente les divertissements du dieu, les
plaisirs du dieu par devant sa grande place,” 1 an interpreta-
tion of the passage which, to say the least, is considerably
at variance with Dr Budge’s. Further, the solitary
example in the Hebrew Scriptures of royal dancing by
David before the Ark is triumphantly cited in favour of
similar performances by Egyptian kings ; but it is forgotten
how thoroughly he was despised for it by his wife, in her
scornful words : “ How glorious was the king of Israel to-
day, who uncovered himself to-day in the eyes of the
handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows
shamelessly uncovereth himself!” David’s reply was not
satisfactory. Neither the indiscretion of an Israelite king
nor the so-called religious dance ( khag , properly “ to hold
festival”) of the children of Israel can hardly be held as
establishing a practice of “ dancing before the god ” on the
part of the kings of Egypt.

1 The text may be transliterated : sepr-n-f ar-f n-th-a amut ment (det. of legs).
Nut da-n-g pu abu ( dels . of pillar ?) neter sekh-em-kh ab embah au ast-f urt.

THE OSIRIFICATION OF THE KING

Over the king are the words : —

“Good god, Lord of the Two Lands, Lord
Performer of things (rites), chief in . . . King of
the South and of the North, Ra-maat-neb, Son of
Ra, Amon-hotep-prince-of-Thebes, who makes-great
his power where he wills to be king, Lord . .

The vulture over him is called “ Lady of the Sky,”
and “gives all health, life, stability, power in her pos-
session.” The inscriptions are the same on both
sides.

A small, beardless, human figure, with both arms on
breast, and striding like the king, goes in front of him, on
the North side; and a similar figure, of which traces
remain, is on the South side. In fact the two sides,
inscriptions included, are quite symmetrical.

Farther in front of the king are the jackal-standards
of South and North respectively. Each is called “Opener
of the w^ays,” which is also an early title of the goddess
Neith, a female counterpart of Anubis. It is, however,
more likely that the latter is referred to here, for on the
South side the words, “ Opener of the w^ays of the South,
Master of the Two Lands, giver of life, stability,” are
quite legible. On the North side, only the beginning of
the title can be read. It would probably be “ Opener of
the ways of the North, Master of the Sky”; the rest on
the North side is better preserved: “the beginning of
(or first) sed-heb festivals : he has made great z ... on
the throne of Horns, like Ra for evermore.” To right

THE OS I R I FI CAT ION OF THE KING

and left, in front of the jackal-standard, the falcon or
Horus-standard on a pole is borne before the king, which
promises “all life, stability, etc.”; while at the bottom on
either side, below the sign for the sky, is a female figure
with hands up facing the king. She on the right (South)
is called “ Beloved (Mert) of the South,” and says* “ Come
and bring, come and bring,” like the goddess on plate
clvii., Dcr el Bahri scene, “laying out a field four times.”
The corresponding figure on the North would be the other
Mert goddess. The two were forms of Isis and Nephthys,
and probably stood here on the sign for gold, as in the
above plate. A similar scene is given in vol. ii. , The
xi. Dynasty Temple at Der el Bahri (pi. vi.), where the
words “Come and bring, come and bring,” appear as the
speech of a similar goddess.

On both sides of the centre piece (the two pavilions)
two male figures facing each other may be traced on the
upper register, while below them, also on either side, is an
An-mutf priest, facing the king, and holding his right
hand up, while the left, as usual, would grasp the claw
of the skin usually worn by the an-mutf. The An-mutf
priest indicates some sort of filial service of the dead.
The figure next the striding king has both hands pressed
to his breast, while the other has one arm raised in
air. No inscription remains to tell us who they are.
Only a part of the inscription belonging to the an-mutf
on the North side is legible : “ A royal offering grants
Horus, of clothing, incense, merket (oil) : he gives all life,

THE OSIRIFICATION OF THE KING

etc.” The Horus-standard on the pole offers the same
promises, with “all joy of heart to him and to his Ka,
like Ra for evermore.”

And now we reach the culminating scene. After the
king approaches from the South or the North he takes
his seat on the throne of the sacred pavilion, wearing
the costume of Osiris, and reigning like him with the
divine symbols in his hand. We must not imagine that
this scene is synchronous with the last, as is often implied
in describing similar scenes. The king is not “ dancing ”
or striding in presence of his Osiris-self, as if worshipping
him, enthroned in the pavilion : no, the striding is a
movement in the ceremony, preparatory to his taking
possession of the throne, which marks his complete
Osirification — the last act of the Seel Festival. Over the
sacred place, the great pavilion, spreads the winged disc
of Horus of Edfu ; before the entrance on either side is
a stately palm-branch of years, beneath the curve of
which is the Ka or Horus figure of the king on a pole,
furnished with two arms, from which hang the symbols
of sed-heb festivals, probably four, one for each cardinal
point. One arm the Ka figure passes through the front
of the pavilion to place in the hands of the king another
palm-branch of years. The king himself, now a glorified
Osiris, in his white Osiris Robe, holds at the same time
the whip of dominion. That it is the king and not
Osiris there can be no doubt, as both his cartouches are
ranged above his head, and he is “ King of Upper and

THE OS I R1 IT CAT ION OF THE KING

of Lower Egypt,” “Son of Ra ” and “giver of life.” It
is to be specially noted that for the South Pavilion is
reserved the full Horus or Ka name ; and that in both
pavilions, while the Ra name is original the family name
containing the word “Amon” has been restored.

Thus is the king after his coronation, at the first
sed-hcb festival, made like unto Osiris the god. He has
become Osiris on earth. The scene is essentially the
same as on the plaque of King Den, and on other ancient
remains. It is not Osiris the god who sits enthroned
in the pavilion before whom the king “dances”: it is the
king himself. Osiris is no doubt named in later religious
texts “the god on the steps,” but, as has been seen, from
the instances of Oueen Hatshepsut and Amon-hotep III.,
they, in becoming like Osiris, were said “to come on the
staircase.”

THE GREAT COLONNADE OF
LUXOR TEMPLE.

The Great Colonnade, consisting of a double row of
fourteen columns, nearly 52 feet in height, with open
lotus capitals, and supporting an architrave of single
blocks of stone of over 20 tons each, is one of the most
imposing sights in Egypt. They are the first columns
of the kind in the history of the world’s architecture,
and are only exceeded in size by the columns of the
central colonnade in Sety I.’s immense hall at Karnak,
which was built about one hundred years later, probably
in imitation of the hall which Amon-hotep III. intended
to erect here. For there is no doubt that this magnificent

colonnade is his work : his cartouches and other sculptures,
in fine low relief, are to be found at the top of most of the
columns, and, after his death, at varying periods, were
carved, lower down, the cartouches of Kings Tut-ankh-
Amon (his son’s son-in-law), Horemheb — who trans-
formed here and elsewhere that king’s name into his own ; —
Sety I., who could and did easily alter Amon-hotep’s name,
Ra-maat-neb, into Ra-maat-men ; — Rameses II., that
ubiquitous scribbler, who hewed his names deep wherever

THE NEW YEAR PROCESSION

he did not build, so that it could hardly be erased ; — and
Sety II., who renewed parts of the work, placing his
cartouche before Horemheb’s.

There is no evidence that Amon-hotep III. built either
the side walls or the gateway at the northern end, which
now enclose the colonnade. Daressy has pointed out that
the court, erroneously styled Horemheb’s by some recent
writers, is not perfectly rectangular — the east enclosing
wall being almost a metre shorter than the west one ; and
he argues that the reason of this was to allow the king to
deflect the axis of the court to the east, in order to make it
coincide with the axis of the avenue of sphinxes which led
from the Temple of Luxor to buildings at Karnak. The
more probable supposition is that Amon-hotep lived to
build the colonnade only, having intended to construct a
great hypostyle hall similar to that which was afterwards
erected by Sety I. at Karnak. To have built side walls so
close as the present walls to such a lofty central colonnade
would have been a feeble performance for such a masterly
architect as the king had in Amon-hotep, son of Hapi.
Besides the deflection in question rather begins at the
centre of the gateway which leads into the court con-
structed by Rameses II.; so that whoever built the side
walls and the gateway is responsible for the deflection
which that monarch effectively carried out.1 The axis of

1 The long avenue of 122 sphinxes which extends southwards from the
Temple of Khonsu, and which were all made by Amon-hotep III., was probably
removed from its true line of continuation, near the Temple of Mut, towards his
buildings at Karnak, by Rameses III. when he built the Khonsu Temple.

THE GREAT COLONNADE

the colonnade coincides with the axis of the original temple.
Everything, especially the style of the art, points to the
likelihood of Tut-ankh-Amon having been the builder and
decorator of the side walls and the gateway ; while the
subject chosen for the decoration — the glorification of
Amon — may be taken as a proof of the sincerity of his
reconversion to the worship of Amon, when he changed
his name from Tut-ankh-Aten (living image of the Aten)
to Tut-ankh-Amon (living image of Amon). The great,
indeed the only, subject of the decoration of these walls,
which in their original state may have been as high as the
colonnade itself, is the celebration of a progress of the god
Amon from his home-seat in Karnak to his abode in
Luxor, Luxor Temple, which was called “the House of
Amon in the Apts of the South ” — his original seat at
Karnak being styled simply “ the Apts,” or “the thrones
of the Two Lands.” It was necessary, therefore, that, on
the reconquest and recovery of the country for the worship
of Amon-Ra-king-of-the-gods, the god should be exhibited
making a triumphal progress to his most splendid habita-
tion which lay in the neighbourhood of his original home.
Tut-ankh-Amon, then, devoted these walls in the “ Apts of
the South” to this sacred purpose, of justifying himself as
well as of honouring the god ; and Horemheb, the master-
ful Napoleon of ancient Egypt, soon after appropriated the
whole in proof too of his championship of Amon-Ra, by
altering his short-lived predecessor’s Son-of-Ra name into
his own, as will frequently be seen later. And all this in

THE NEW YEAR PROCESSION

spite of his having held high office under both Khu-en-
Aten and Tut-ankh-Amon, as we learn from a discovery
made by M. Legrain at Karnak in 1899.

It cannot be said with certainty that the triumphal
progress here portrayed of the god Amon-Ra with the
other members of the Theban Triad, Mut and Khonsu,
in addition to the king-, had been an annual celebration.
There are only two examples of it known, here and in the
Khonsu Temple at Karnak. The drift of the inscriptions
here seem to point rather to this being the first festival of
the kind ; in fact, the theme of the priest’s hymn (see
below) in welcoming Amon-Ra to Luxor celebrates the
triumph of the god throughout the zvho/e land of Egypt ,
tog-ether with the calorification of the king who has brought
it to pass. The reference to “this beautiful feast in
Luxor ” contained in the biography of Horemheb on the
stele in the Temple of Ptah at Karnak does not justify
us in concluding that it was an annual event ; and in the
case of the Khonsu Temple at Karnak, we must remember
that it was the Priest-King Heri-hor (r. 1090 b.c., i.e.
260 years after Tut-ankh-Amon) that had a similar
progress of the god represented, when the power and place
of Amon-Ra became again in the king’s person the pre-
dominant and all-prevailing fact in Egyptian history.
Consequently the priest-king, the supreme head of the
military and priestly powers, as he never fails to tell us in
the Temple, is even more conspicuous in his pictures there
than even the great Amon-Ra himself. Once indeed, “ the

IOO

THE GREAT COLONNADE

voyage of his (the king’s) father Amon to his rest in the
Apts of the South ” is mentioned in the surviving inscrip-
tions in the Temple of Khonsu, but it is only incidentally :
the figure and the names of the king as “ Son of Amon,”
his power and glory, etc., are the principal features of the
display.

These circumstances seem, on the whole, to justify the
assumption that the voyage of Amon-Ra to Luxor and
back was not an annual festival, but one held to emphasise
the importance of the god or his protagonist, at a particular
crisis in the history of the country.

The celebration consisted in transporting the image of
the god Amon-Ra in his shrine within his sacred boat,
along with the boats of Mut, Khonsu, and the king, by
water on barges to Luxor Temple, where they were
solemnly installed in their several sanctuaries ; and after
many offerings were made and high festival held, the
sacred boats with their images were transported down-
stream back to Karnak, and deposited in their sanctuaries
there, with similar offerings, feastings, and rejoicings.

The story of the progress up-river begins on the North
wall, west portion, proceeds along the West inner wall, and
ends on the west part of the South wall. Reversely, the
return journey begins on the South wall, east portion,
continues down-stream on the East inner wall, and ends at
Karnak Temple, on the east portion of the North wall.

Amon-Ra.

The King.

Mut.

Amon-Ra.

The King.

Amon-Ra.

The Kins

The King offering to Amon-Ra and Mut (in Kaknak).

[To face page 101.

THE KING AND AMON-RA

IOI

Scene i.

The King before Avion- Ra.

The king appears, first, offering incense to the god ;
and afterwards, before the god and Mut. This scene is
laid in Karnak Temple. The king is undoubtedly Tut-
ankh-Amon, whose cartouches have been usurped here
and throughout by Horemheb. The portrait, as indeed
the whole work on these walls, shows the influences
of the revolution in art effected by Khu-en-Aten, his father-
in-law. In the transformed cartouches Ra and Arnon
are the only original words left. The king wears the
blue crown, and the vulture of the South hovers over
his head as he burns incense and offers water above a
large table of offerings to the god, whose lofty plumes
reach to the top of the broken wall. The upper part
of the god’s speech is gone: “[I have given] thy
monument (i.e. the walls here decorated) to be firm for
eternity . . . the circuit of the Aten (sun-disc) to be
under thy sandals . . . millions of years like Ra . . .
[Amon-Ra-king-of-the-gods] all . . . superior of the great
company of the gods, lord of the sky,” and he gives
besides, “life, stability, etc., all joy of heart and valour.”

Tut-ankh-Amon now enters a shrine, indicated by
the khaker ornament behind him, where Amon-Ra and
Mut receive him arrayed as priest and king, with the
atef (hornecl-crown), and the royal whip over his left

102

THE GREAT COLONNADE

shoulder. His Ka standards, held by small ank/is, precede
him. The god has user and ankh as usual, while Mut,
face destroyed, places her left hand on the god’s shoulder,
who promises the king “valour and all strength, all
health, joy of heart,” besides giving him “ festivals
numerous and great like Ra.” Mut’s words are “. . . joy
of heart, thou guidest all lands . . . thou wilt make sed-
heb festivals like Ra for ever unto eternity.”

Scene 2 (West Wall, N.W. Angle).

The Sacred Boats in Karnak Temple.

Here the sacred boats are resting on their stands in
Karnak. Somewhat to the left, near the top of the wall,
the remains of the king’s figure, holding out an incense-
burner and a libation vase toward a large table of offerings
may be seen, while a fragment of the great boat of Amon
is visible to the right, resting on a stand on which four
figures of the king holding up the sky are sculptured by
way of ornament. Eight standards of the gods are
behind ; to the right, with the following heads, jackal,
ram, three falcons, a shield, user, and the king. Each
standard gives the usual wearisome promises, and such
blessings as “the duration (course) of Ra,” “the years
of Turn,” “years of eternity upon the throne of Horus, in
joy of heart,” “valour, victory over all lands,” “the
strength of thy father Amon like Ra every day,”

THE SACRED BOATS

103

“sovereignty over the Two Lands . . . renewed youth
to thy members ; firm be thy monuments,” “ thy monu-
ments will abide like the sky, to eternity,” “the circuit
of the sun-disc,” etc.

Below the great boat of Amon-Ra are the smaller
boats of the king (figureheads bearded), of Mut (female
figureheads), and of Khonsu, with falcon’s head at stem
and stern. To left of these are offerings, and between
the last two boats are seen ribs, legs, and heads, of meat,
birds, etc., all crowned with flowers. The king above
is supposed to be presenting all these offerings, not as
sacrifices in the Jewish sense, but as food, to the gods
in their boats in their sanctuaries, before they leave the
temple on their voyage up-stream.

Scene 3.

The Sacred Boats leave the Temple.

This scene gives us a picture of the great pylon at
Karnak through which they pass. On each side of
the crate are four great masts with flags fluttering ; while
the walls of the pylon and the sides show its sculptures —
the king worshipping Amon-Ra, Amon-Min, and Mut,
and at the bottom two sphinxes, meant for the king,
facing each other and holding a jar in their hands. To
the left of the pylon the king walks behind the boat of
Amon, which has just passed out ; bearers carry the

104

THE GREAT COLONNADE

stands on their shoulders ; one party is just passing
through the gate ; two priests in panther skins walk
by the side of each boat, and behind is a fan-bearer with
protecting fan ; and further behind are servants following
with small tables for offerings. At the very rear the
Kher-heb (a sort of master of ceremonies), holding a
papyrus-roll of office in his left hand, directs the
ceremonies. In front of the king are the cartouches
of Tut-ankh-Amon usurped by Horemheb, and the
inscription says he “ is making (doing) the Voyage to
the Apts of the South. . . .” Along the broken top of
the wall may be seen the feet of the bearers of Amon-
Ra’s boat, which the king follows, on its way with the
other boats to be placed in the barges in the river at the
Karnak quay. A few yards to the left, close to where
the water is shown in wavy lines, we can see a servant,
with shaven head, offering incense and bowing towards
the right, while a fan-bearer is saluting the approaching
boats with his fan, the boat of Khonsu being first, and
the boats of Mut and the king following. Incense and
fans are offered to these also. In front of the bowing
servant is : —

“ Said by Khonsu in Thebes : My (his) son whom
I love, Lord of the Two Lands, Ra-zezer-kheperu-
sotep-en-Ra (Horemheb’s Ra-name), this beautiful
monument which thou hast made! I have given
eternity to thee as King of the Two Lands for
ever, upon the throne of Horus, and all foreign

VOYAGE UP-STREAM

105

lands under thy sandals like thy (his) father Ra,
every day.”

T'he incense burning before the boat of Mut is called
“ the making1 of incense to the goddess Mut, mistress of
the Two Lands”; and for the royal boat, “the making
of incense to the Uatchet (uraeus) of this good god
( i.e . the king) ” ; while just before the bow of the boat,
Horemheb (usurped cartouche as usual) is styled “the
good god, Son of Amon, who grants him to be king
on his throne, King of Upper and of Lower Egypt, Lord
of the Two Lands, and beloved of Amon above every
king.” These speeches are peculiarly appropriate : first,
to Tut-ankh-Amon on his reconversion to the cult of
Amon ; and second, to Horemheb on his consolidation
of the same. “ Son of Amon ” seems to be as popular
a title as “ Son of Ra.”

In front of the procession are a trumpeter and a
negro with a native drum slung over his shoulder.

Scene 4.

V oyage Up - St re a m.

The sacred boats are now placed in the barges, which
are hauled up the river by gangs of men on the bank.

The tow-ropes stretching down from the destroyed portion
ot the wall can be distinctly seen. An inscription on the
upper part of the wall reads: “Amon thy august father

io6

THE GREAT COLONNADE

hath ordained for thee valour and victory over every land.”
On the river bank along with the towers we see, from right
to left, four men clapping hands and keeping time to the
music ; then the trumpeter, four others beating time, four
clashing crooked bronze bars together ; next, a number of
bearers of standards from which streamers are flying. A
large rowing boat is helping to tow the barge ; at the bow
we read : “ It is when the king riseth like the sun that men
and women sing praises.” On board the barge the master
and another man are busy ; in front of the men pulling the
rope is an overseer with a stick enforcing his orders, and
another with a long club apparently chastises a negro.
A long inscription, very imperfectly preserved, immediately
in front of the standard-bearers gives : —

“ The guilds (companies) of the crews of the
boat (?) of [Mut] the mistress of the Two Lands . . .
she says, they raise their praises to the sky ... at
the festival of the Two Lands, uttering cries of joy
and exultation as they behold her who is the head of
the gods ; she scattereth light over the land with her
beauty that is of the gods ; she causeth all the people
( rekhyt ) to sing praises in the morning ... as she
follows the form of the gods (i.e. the king) to the Apt.”
At the end of this inscription six columns present only
fragmentary words, “. . . in the up-stream passage
of the boats . . . the great god Hapi (Nile) . . .
Horemheb (usurped), beloved of Amon, praised of
the Horuses.”

Barge on river. Drummer.

[To face page 106.

Beginning of Voyage Up-stream.

Large Boat towing a Barge.

Men hauling a Barge.

Men hauling the Barges.

Drummer.

Voyage Up-stream.

[To face page 100.

TIIE KING’S CHARIOTS

107

Three or four men, to left, are clapping hands, while
eight women (heads gone) are playing sistrums to help
the music ; and above their heads something is said,
probably in praise of Anion, “. . . the Apts, as thou
appearest (risest) within the pavilion of thy boats
in . . . ; ” and another fragment further left speaks of
“transporting to the North the boat and the statue of
Horemheb (usurped), the favoured of Horus.”

Next, to left, are five men, probably negroes, with
feathers in their hair ; two overseers with sticks uplifted ;
a negro drummer beating a tom-tom with his hands ; three
men, overseers, with large clubs ; and one giving orders to
the workers and the crews hauling the ropes. The long
inscription beginning above the negroes with the feathers
reads : “ The guilds of the crew of the chief of the marsh-
trackers (?) . . . the boat, sing praises ; they say: appears
his boat of Ra, that is within heaven and earth to its
furthest.” Then follow praises of Horemheb, likening him
to Ra in the madet (boat), etc.

To the left of the last towers two men are quarrelling ;
a man holding his hand up as if signalling ; another is
kissing the ground, and another is bending low, both in
adoration of the coming boats ; and lastly, there is the
overseer with his stick. Two chariot teams, with their
grooms, await the landing of the king ; both teams are
called “the great span of his majesty,” and a bodyguard
of soldiers march in front. A long hymn, eighteen

ioS

THE GREAT COLONNADE

columns, of welcome, in praise of Anton is spoken by
a priest : —

“ Beautiful is thy rising, Amon-Ra ; thou art in
the User-hal (boat’s name) ; the people raise praises
to thee ; the land to its furthest is in festival ; thy
son thy heir [sms) opens . . . thou sailest up to the
Apt ; thou givest to him eternity in the sovereignty
of the Two Lands, for ever, in years . . . him as lord
. . . myriads of festivals, thy son thy loved one . . .
he multiplies for thee the . . . thou givest to him
strength (valour or victory) over the South . . . and
over the North ; thou hast made wide (enlarged) the
land (of Egypt) on all its roads ; thou hast given (?)
his course like the course of Ra of the sky ; his rising
(appearance) is like Aten (the sun-disc). There come
to thee the rebels bearing on their backs their tributes
. . . their choice things . . . horses, ibexes . . .
birds, | there are] not limits to their offerings. Thy
son makes splendours in thy festival of Apt in making
your (plural) heart merry : the land (of Egypt) exults
at Anion resting in his Apt . . . the good ruler for
making our repose. Mut [has created?] thy beauty
... in the protection of thy members ; Khonsu in
Thebes, Lord of joy . . . grants (?) to thee festivals
. . . established is thy name as king ; ilourish the
Horus engendering births ! ”

This last phrase, addressed to the king, proves that
Tut-ankh-Amon was the king originally addressed in these

[To face page 10S.

Voyage Up-stream.

WOMEN ACROBATS

109

decorations, for his Horus name is “ Horus, strong bull,
engendering births,” while that of Horemheb is “Horus,
strong bull, equipped with plans.”

Scene 5.

The Offerings in L uxor Temple.

From this point to the angle of the wall we have, first,
the bearers carrying the sacred boats on their stands into
Luxor Temple ; the merriment of the players, drummers,
and female acrobats ; the preparation of all the offerings
in various rooms of the temple — such as the slaughtering
of cattle, not for sacrifice but for offerings of food, pouring
wine into vessels, the piling up of birds, fruit, loaves, and
all manner of vegetables and llowers on the tables ; and
finally the sacred boats at rest on their stands in the
temple. The boat of Amon was above these last, but
it is gone as well as the king’s. The whole animated
scene is described in the words of the inscription : —

“The making to see {i.e. the setting forth) every-
thing good and pure, in oxen, calves, incense, wine,
fruits, antelopes . . . ibexes, every good plant of the
Divine Land (Punt) . . . for Amon-Ra, Lord of
the Thrones of the Two Lands, dwelling in the
Apts at thy beautiful festival of the Apt.”

Probably the most curious scene is that of the three

I IO

THE GREAT COLONNADE

rows of twelve women acrobats, who, to the music
of a group of other women playing sistrums and shaking
menats , bend their bodies back till they touch the ground
with their hands, and perhaps walk in that position.
Their wigs also fall down behind them. Altogether, with
the butchers at their work and hurrying along with the
choice legs and portions cut off, the scene is of the liveliest.

To the left are the beautifully carved tables heaped
with various offerings, in which work, as in the human
figures, may be seen manifest traces of the beautiful
Khu-en-Aten art. The sacred boats of Mut and Khonsu
rest on their stands, and beside the boats are lists of the
offerings made for the plentiful banquets of the gods.
Above the boat of Mut are the words : —

“ Said by Mut, Lady of Asheru (at the temple of
Mut, Ivarnak) : Son of my body, beloved, Lord of the
Two Lands, Ra-maat-men (Sety I., who probably
restored this part), l am [glad] at thy love (?) ... to
see thy beauty ; I have given to thee eternity as king
of the Two Lands, a rising verily upon the throne
of Turn ; thy name shall be stable as the sky, thy
course like the Aten in the sky.” And Khonsu also
speaks : — “ Said by Khonsu-in-Thebes-beautiful-rest-
in-the-Apts : Son of my body, beloved, Lord of
glory, Mer-n-ptah Sety (the Son-of-Ra name of
Sety I.), I have given to thee the South, likewise the
North, for quieting all lands among them.” The rest
is illegible.

Drummer. Bearers of Sacred Boats.

-J

b/)

Arrival in Luxor Temple. [Z'o face pay no.

OFFERINGS IN LUXOR TEMPLE

1 1 1

Near the corner are great standards, with protecting
fans, held up by small ankhs at the bottom of the pole ;
jars crowned with lotus flowers, etc. All this splendid
array is supposed to form part of the offering which the
king will now make to Amon and Mut in this temple.

Scene 6 (South Wall, West Portion).

The Offering in Luxor Temple.

A gigantic figure of the king, assisted by four servants
of the temple, now makes the presentation of four stands
of offerings, which he “ touches ” with a long kherp (baton),
while the four servants pour wine out of as many jars into
large cups. Amon Ra is enthroned, and remains of Mut,
also enthroned behind him, may be seen. The offering
is said to be “for Amon, dwelling in his Apt.” This
is the final act of the visit to the temple on arrival.

The Return to Karnak.

The scenes on the corresponding south, east, and
north walls are the counterparts, with some additions and
varying details, of those just described. Some parts are
in better preservation, and a few new elements are added,
such as the barge of Horemheb’s queen, Mut-nezemt,
which seems to raise the question whether that portion
of the wall was his work.

OFFERINGS TO THE SACRED BOATS

1 1 3

of Amon-Ra, with ram’s head and huge collar at stem
and stern, occupies the upper part of the wall and rests
on its stand. Above was probably the king’s boat, but
it is lost. (The Oueen Mut-nezemt’s galley, which after-
wards appears, was not a sacred boat and could not
appear here.) To right and left of the stand are small
tables, etc., of offerings, some of which are crowned with
an object like a T-square. Below the god’s boat are the
sacred boats of Mut and Khonsu (to right), also on
their stands and surrounded by similar tables of offerings,
but without the T-square.

The king is seen pouring three libations of water,
and offers incense to all the boats, as is indicated by the
inscription. A great table of offerings is beneath. Notice
a large upright post which stands between the king and
the boats : it is the front of the sanctuary in which the
boats repose. Below the king’s feet is a great collec-
tion of offerings of various kinds, among which may be
observed six models of obelisks. The mutilated inscrip-
tions applying to the boats of Mut and Khonsu again
show the names of Sety I., as on the opposite side.
Mut says : “ I am thy mother, who created thy beauty,
and gave thee birth, to make thee a prince. I have
given thee . . . the years of Turn.”

Behind (to left) of the king is the Temple gate, with
its sculptures, through which he passes after making
the above offerings. Below is a smaller gate, upon which
a Coptic cross has been cut. A headless figure of the

THE GREAT COLONNADE

1 14

king, who has now emerged from the temple, walks to
the left, doubtless behind the boat of Amon. In front
were servants ; below are the bearers with the boat of
Mut ; and at the bottom are butchers slaughtering oxen,
as on the other side, for the farewell offerings that have
just been made. These preparations are continued on
the lower register on the other side of the broken door-
way. To the left of the last butchers an overseer is
remonstrating with them.

Above this scene is the boat of Khonsu being carried
along. He calls the king “his beloved son, Lord of the
Two Lands, Horemheb (usurped).” A fan-bearer holds
a fan above the head of Khonsu, and to the left of the
fan-bearer is a priest offering incense to the boat. His
head is turned towards it, but he walks to the left. Above
these are two other figures probably offering incense or
fans to the boat above (destroyed).

Scene 3.

The Return Voyage.

The sacred boats are now placed, with their stands, on
the barges in the river, and the procession on land again
begins. On the upper register is the great barge of Mut,
on which, amidships, stands the shrine containing the
sacred boat with the image of the goddess within. A
double frieze of cobra-heads surmounts both boat and

The King leaves Luxor Temple. The King offering to Sacred Boats in Luxor.

THE RETURN VOYAGE

1 1 5

shrine, while over all the vulture of the South spreads her
protecting wings. She is named Nekhebt, and the Horus
of Edfu is also named. Immediately to the right of the
shrine is a mutilated image of a king, who is called “the
good god, Ra-maat-neb (?),” probably Amon-hotep III.
Three fan-bearers or servants follow. Two large steering-
oars are near the poop, on which is a beautifully carved
female head representing Mut with horns and disc.

In front of the shrine, abaft the figurehead on the
prow (destroyed), is a sphinx-figure, a standard represent-
ing the king, behind which is the king- using a steering-oar.
Close to the shrine is another figure or image of the king,
making offerings to the shrine. On the bow of the barge
is a sacred eye. Above the shrine of Mut she is called
“ Lady of Asheru, Lady of the Sky, Mistress of the
gods ” ; and to left and right of the shrine are columns of
inscription, mutilated in parts, to the following effect : —

[“ Said by Mut, Lady of Ashe]ru : My son, of my
body, beloved, Lord of the Two Lands, Ra, . . . thy
mother created thy beauty, I have nourished thee,
thou ... I have set thy fear on the Nine Bows, and
thy terror on the Anu Setit.1 My mace is over their
heads, strikes terror into . . . their bodies (?)...
like the only one among the favoured. Beautiful is
this building which thou hast made.”

1 The Nine Bows, an old term for the aborigines of the South (Sudan), and
the Anu Setit, a similar name fcr the Anu of Nubia. The name Anu was a
generic name for the peoples of Egypt proper. There were other Anu as well.
(Naville.)

THE GREAT COLONNADE

1 16

The figures of the king using the oar and offering to
the shrine, in the forepart of the barge, are meant for
Horemheb, as the usurped cartouches show. He is said
“to be making the journey by water to his father
. . . and Mut, lady of the sky, at their chief festival
. . . following the lord of the gods in his festival
of . .

Above the vulture with outspread wings, at the top of
the wall, are the remains of a towing-boat.

Below the boat of Mut we have the rear of the river-
bank procession going down-stream. Consequently there
are now no towers hauling ropes ; all the barges containing
the sacred boats are towed by rowing boats ; the first
towing-ropes are seen to the left, above the bow of Mut's
boat. The procession on land is as varied and lively as
that on the opposite side. Immediately below, where
the water begins, to the right, we have a shaven-headed
scribe looking back to see that everything has been put
on board, and holding up in his right hand the threatening
whip of the taskmaster, while in his left he has his scribe's
palette and ink-pot. Above him is an inscription which
refers to the priest who is offering incense, “purifying the
way before the front of the god, twice pure.” To the
scribe’s left is a drummer bearing his drum slung from his
shoulder. In front five men with shaven heads are
singing and beating time with their hands ; then four
others, with feathers in their hair, are jangling crooked
bronzes together ; all these follow three men, with full

The King.

Procession on land. Drummer, Scribe.

Great Barge with Sacred Boat of Mut. Fan-bearers and Bearers of Boats.

Procession on land. Drummer, Scribe, Taskmaster, Servants in Temple.

Voyage Down-stream. [To face page no.

QUEEN MUT-NEZEMT’S GALLEY

n 7

wigs, playing stringed lutes, who are called “ praisers
of the valour (?) . . while the others are styled
“Chanters before the front of this august god Amon,
Lord of the thrones of the Two Lands.” A company
of seven men carrying standards on poles over their
shoulders precede the last ; then three with large clubs,
and four soldiers heavily armed with spear, axe, and
shield. The captain of the guard at their head looks
back at his men, with baton over his shoulder ; then
more standard-bearers and soldiers, all in rapid motion
forward, to the left, down-stream. Two towing-ropes
come down from the left to the barge of Mut from two
rowing-boats, one in each of the upper registers.

A long inscription immediately below the water at
this point, beginning near the queen’s boat with an
allusion to the “ Companies of the travellers,” records their
acclamations of the king, who, they say, is “conducting
the god Amon in his voyage to his seats in the Apts in
his festival at the beginning of the year." The last
expression seems to indicate that the festival was held
at the Egyptian New Year, probably at the first of the
inundation.

Scene 4. -

Qneen Mut-nezemt' s Galley.

Immediately ahead of the barge of Mut is the great
galley of Queen Mut - nezemt, Consort of Horemheb.

1 18

THE GREAT COLONNADE

It is propelled by eighteen rowers a side, with a master
amidships. A splendid pavilion with a double frieze of
cobra-heads occupies nearly the whole length of the boat ;
and at bow and stern is a small shrine or canopy with
a cobra frieze, on the sides of which pictures of the king
smiting an enemy are displayed. The great steering-
oars come between the poop and the queen’s pavilion.
She is nowhere visible. On either side of the pavilion
several columns of hieroglyphics, some in a very bad
condition, tell us that here we have

“ the hereditary Erpat (princess), great lady, sweet
palm-branch, beloved of South and North, pure
. . . possessing the sistrum of the god in . . . love
. . . rising of Horus [here five small columns are
illegible]. . . . Mut-nezemt ... on the journey to
[Mut] lady of the sky, in her beautiful festival of the

Apt.”

This is interesting, as it is one of the few places where this
queen’s name is mentioned. It occurs also on the group
in Turin Museum representing Horemheb and his consort,
where, on the side of her throne she is shown as a sphinx
— a rare instance of a woman being so represented. It
would appear from the biographical inscription on that
statue that Nezemt, who is believed to have been the
sister of Khu-en-Aten’s queen and a princess in her own
rio-ht, was not married to Horemheb until his accession.
She must have been over fifty years of age, and as old as
Horemheb at the time of the marriage, which was probably

( > lice n M ut-Nczeml's C > ;i I ley.

I *i mumer

QUEEN MUT-NEZEMT’S GALLEY

1 19

contracted in order to legalise his position, as he had no
claim to the throne by birth. The marriage is described
briefly in the Turin inscription as taking place at Anion’s
“beautiful feast in the Apt of the South (Luxor).
Anion saw the majesty of this god, Horus, lord
of Hat-suten, his son being with him as king, in
the royal entry, to give to him his office and his
throne. Then, behold, Amon-Ra met him in rejoicing.
In the day of giving his satisfaction (offering) he
conveyed himself to his chief heir and prince1 heredit-
ary of both lands, Horemheb : he went to the palace,
going before him to the palace of his august eldest
daughter . . . [she made] obeisance, she embraced
his beauty, she placed herself before him, and the
company of all the gods of the Chamber of Fire2
rejoiced over his appearing (viz.), Nekhebt, Uatchet,
Neith, Isis, Nephthys, Horus, Set, the company of
gods that preside over the great throne rejoiced, etc.

. . . After the feast in Luxor was finished, Anion,
king of the gods, returned in peace to Thebes, and his
Majesty sailed [to Karnak] as the image of Horus-on-
the-horizons.”

Here we have the very scene displayed ; the marriage,
the addition of the royal bride’s galley to the flotilla sailing

1 Horemheb was “a descendant of an old nomarchical house at Alabastron-
polis,” became a favourite of both Khu-en-Aten and Tut-ankh-Amon, and
finally, by passionately embracing the Amon Cult, succeeded in seizing the

throne.

2 The Nuptial or Birth Room, see above.

120

THE GREAT COLONNADE

down-stream ; and Horemheb (originally Tut-ankh-Amon)
figuring as Horus-on-the-horizons. The queen’s galley is
preceded by a smaller one, filled with bouquets of flowers.
We can well believe that these boats were added afterwards
by Horemheb. Near the bow is a canopy with a sphinx
figure of the king ; and behind is a man bearing, with
some difficulty, a large built-up bouquet on his shoulder.
The flower-boat is propelled by rowers, and the procession
on the bank holds high revelry.

Below the bow of the queen’s galley is a long inscription,
similar to one on the opposite side, describing the land
party, but of course making no allusion to men hauling
ropes.

Scene 5.

The Great Barge of A man.

It now appears on the left. Of course it is really the
head of the procession, and is preceded by large rowing-
boats towing it. The king’s and Khonsu’s hoats were no
doubt on the upper part of the wall. Amidships on the
barg-e rests the stand with the sacred boat of Arnon ; and
along the sides of the barge are sculptured representations
of the king offering to Anion and Amon-Min. Unfortun-
ately the ram’s heads at bow and stern are lost, but there
can be no doubt that it is Anion’s barge, for the ram’s head
is visible 011 the sacred boat which it contains. Under the
bearing poles of the sacred boat, on the right, are the

The 37-oared Barge.

[To face page 120.

Voyage Down-stream.

AMON’S GREAT BARGE

I 2 I

various standards already mentioned, while to the left are
stands of offerings. Towards the bow, on the left, is a
small shrine with an incense-burning censer. But the
remarkable feature of the picture is a statue of Amen-hotep
III. standing behind the shrine which contains the sacred
boat ; he wears the blue crown, and holds the heq or crook
of kingship in his right hand across his breast, while the
left hand holds an ankh. This is the deified founder of
the temple, the child whose father was Amon-Ra, the
triumphant vindicator of the Theban god’s hegemony,
whom Tut-ankh-Amon (or Horemheb), another champion
of Amon’s supremacy, places in the sacred boat of the
god as his beloved son. Behind Amon-hotep III.’s statue
are two magical protecting fans, and a train of nobles and
priests in attendance on the image of the deified king.
Then, at the poop of the barge, we have two steersmen
managing the steering-oars. The inscription in front of
the god-king- is : —

o o

“ Following the god in the festival of the Apt . . .
Ra-maat-neb, giving life.” The cartouche is quite
clearly original ; so also is the inscription above :
“. . . [Amon] King of the gods, Lord of the sky,
(his) beloved, Ra-maat-neb . . . Amon-hotep-prince-
of-Thebes, giving life like Ra for evermore . . .
protection, health, etc., behind him.”

The small shrine near the bow of the barge, and
outside of the great shrine, in which stood the sacred boat,
no doubt contained an image of Amon to which the

I 22

THE GREAT COLONNADE

king is burning incense, for above the shrine are the
remains of the titles of Amon-Ra and his promises to
the king of “joy of heart, etc.” Just in front of the bow
of the great towing-boat, with its thirty-seven oars, is a
fragment of inscription, which tells of “ the rejoicers on
land at the festival in Thebes of the pucit (company) of
the gods of Thebes . . . Hor-em-heb (usurped : the car-
touche is preceded by three feathers) ... as he journeys
to his father Anion to the sky (restored) in the Apt.”1

Below is a succession of men, in twos, clapping hands
and singing ; the scanty remains of a group of women in
front making merry with sistrums as they all march along
the bank, acclaiming Amon-Ra at his “beautiful festival
in the Apt.” And so the exulting procession goes on ; we
see heads of standard-bearers, legs of soldiers, and the
two chariots of the king waiting his landing near Karnak
with the same inscription as before above them : “ the
span of his majesty ” ; then fan-bearers in front, more
standard-bearers, legs and feet of men eagerly running
forward, then spearmen, and a sharp altercation between
a soldier and his leader. To left of these a group of
negroes facing the boats are capering and dancing ; each
has a curious tail, ending in a sort of tuft, hanging behind
from his waist.

The bodyguard and the standard-bearers of the king
now hurry forward to the front, and another squabble

1 The third court at Karnak Temple, in which the statue of the god reposed,
was called “ Heaven ” or “ the Sky.”

Sacred Boat. Statue of Amon-hotep III. The Flower Boat.

Sistrum Players. Men singing and clapping hands. Standard-bearers.

The Great B arge of Amon-Ra with his Sacred Boat. l To face page i

[ To face page 122.

Voyage Down-stream.

RETURN TO KARNAK TEMPLE

takes place : these and the other disputants had probably
some wine at the festival in Luxor.

The landing of the sacred boats is now effected : the
king’s boat has just stopped ; the poling-man at the bow
looks back to the look-out man in the little cabin near him ;
and the bearers are seen with the shrines on their shoulders.
Above, the butchering of cattle has already begun for the
offerings and feasting in Karnak. Above the last boat, to
the left, is a carcase of an ox, and, to right, are the feet of
the priest or fan-bearer, who looks towards the approaching
boats. At the bow of the last boat, behind the man poling,
is a small cobra-frieze shrine, with a figure of the king and
a kneeling captive before him, sculptured on it ; while
behind is the protecting fan, below a parallelogram on
which a cross has been traced in later days. The boat
behind has also a man sounding with his pole at the bow,
and behind is a shrine with a double frieze, on the side ot
which is a figure of the king, with the usual fan at his
back. There are at least four rowing-boats, if not five,
including the one with thirty-seven rowers.

Scene 6.

The Sacred Boats taken into Karnak.

The upper part of the wall, now totally gone, probably
showed the boat of Anion— the feet of its bearers, moving
to the left towards the temple pylon, can still be seen.

124

THE GREAT COLONNADE

Directly in front of these is a drummer, behind whom an
nab (purifying) priest, facing the approaching boat but
moving towards the pylon, pours a libation of water, hold-
ing at the same time his scribe’s ink-pot. Under the row
of feet are the three boats of Khonsu, Mut, and the king-
being carried in the procession by numerous bearers. Two
priests, one with a censer, walk backwards before the first
boat, and immediately below is a large figure of a priest
holding up a huge fan over the figurehead of Khonsu
(falcon) at the bow. The god in the boat makes the usual
promises: “eternity as king, joy of heart, victory, etc.”
Behind the shrine in the boat there is another protecting
fan ; and, as usual, at the side of the shrine walk two
attendant priests in their official skins. The boat of Mut
comes next, with the usual paraphernalia of incense-
burning, fans, feathers, bearers, and priests. She is called,
as before, “great lady of Asheru, mistress of all the gods,”
and grants to Horemheb (usurped) “ millions of sed-keb
festivals.” The king’s sacred boat comes last. His
cartouches (usurped) are in front of the shrine ; and a
small fan is behind it, with the signs of magical protection.
All below the king’s boat is destroyed.

The great pylon of the temple — the pylon built by
Amon-hotep III.1 at Karnak— -is now visible on the left,
the counterpart of the scene on the opposite wall, with
its four tall masts on either wing, fixed in their places

1 On the North wing of this Pylon an enormous Sacred Boat of Amon is
sculptured, with Amon-hotep 111. steering it.

[To face page 124.

Voyage Down-stream.

[To face page 124.

The King’s Chariots.

OFFERINGS IN ICARNAK

125

near the top by bronze clamps ; and on either side is an
obelisk. The gateway is shown sculptured with figures
of the king before Arnon and Amon-Min, and to
counteract this a Christian cross was traced in early
times just above where the procession of musicians is
about to enter. At the end of the procession and just
in front of the boats are two men carrying huge bouquets
of flowers ; and beneath, several fat, splay-footed oxen
gaily bedecked with flowers are being led to the slaughter,
for the feast.

Inside the temple the sacred boats on their stands
are deposited in their sanctuaries, in the same order in
which they were carried in, the great boat of Amon-Ra,
however, being taken in first. It occupies the extreme
left position, the ram’s head of Amon on the bow being
very close to the corner of the wall. The mutilated figure
of the king, now within the sanctuary, pouring a double
stream of water over the boat of Amon, may still be seen
a few feet to the left of the pylon. The water falls down
near the angle of the wall. Over his head hovers his
protecting vulture-goddess. Just below his feet, which
really means in Egyptian perspective, that he is standing
on the far side, is the king’s sacred boat resting on its
stand ; and to right and left of it are the paraphernalia
of offerings, etc., there being no fewer than ten stands
in two rows.

The shrine of the boat of Amon is decorated on the
outside with figures of the goddess Maat (Truth) with

126

THE GREAT COLONNADE

outstretched wings, like those which the O.T. calls “the
wings of the cherubims ” that covered the Ark of the
Israelites. On the right of the shrine is a small fio-ure
of the king acting the. part of fan-bearer to the god;
while behind, at the poop, he holds the rope-ends of
the steering-oar. Round the top of Amon's boat is the
god’s speech (mutilated) to the king for all his exertions.
He addresses Horemheb (usurped) : —

“ Thou hast caused me to receive all thy offerings
. . . thy name shall abide like the sky, thy duration
(course) like the Aten (sun-disc) ... I have given
thee all lands under thy sandals . . . the duration
of Ra and the years of Turn, the double-strength of
Horus in thy two arms, the might of Menthu, and
vigour in thy members for ever (twice repeated).”

The same eight sacred standards already seen are
placed on the left side of the boat-stand, each with the
same wearisome promises to the king for all his pious
acts.

Beneath are the boats of Khonsu, Mut, and the king,
and beside them are the lists of the offerings made to
each. Mut specially says that for

“ the beautiful monument which Horemheb (usurped
cartouche) has made she gives him life, stability,
etc., as a reward ( asu ) for it.”

[To Jacc page 120.

End of Voyage Down-stream.

The Pylon of the Tempi

[To face page 120.

Oxen to be slaughtered for the Feast.

The King.

Offerings in Karnak.

[To face page 126.

The King offering incense and water to Amon-

Final Offerings in Karnak.

OFFERINGS IN KARNAK

1 27

Scene 7 (North Wall, East Portion).

This is the final scene, the king making offerings to
Amon-Ra and Mut, the counterpart of the scene on the
other portion of the North wall. It consists, like it, of two
parts, (1) the king adoring Amon-Ra and Mut, and (2) the
king offering incense and water from a triple vase to
Amon-Ra. The king in both instances is most probably
Tut-ankh- Amon ; the figure to the left is a pleasing
instance of the Khu-en-Aten art.

The inner part of this double scene is really the sequel
of the outer, which we shall take first, as the exact parallel
of the one across the doorway. The fine figure of the
king is shown offering incense and a triple libation of water
to Amon-Ra, whose face is chipped. The cartouches of
the king are Tut-ankh- Amon’s changed, where change
was necessary, into Horemheb’s. Above him is the
Nekhebt vulture of the South, giving him “protection,
life, etc., like Ra.” The action of the king is described in
front of him, “ the offering of incense and water to Amon-
Ra, done by the giver of life.” The god, behind whose
plumes are the words

“ Prince of Thebes in his august Apt, Lord of the
sky,” says : “ I have given to thee the duration of Ra
and his years as Prince (heq) of the Two Lands . . .
the twofold strength of the Horus-gods in thy deeds ;
all countries to be under thy feet.”

128

THE GREAT COLONNADE

The culminating scene lies to the right. The king
now stands within the shrine of Amon-Ra and Mut,
offering nothing, but beholding the faces of the gods,
with the emblem of sovereignty in his left and in his
riorht hand the “life” which like Amon-Ra himself he can

bestow as “the giver of life, like Ra.” On his head he
wears the supreme atef crown with ram’s horns ; before
him are three standards, the jackal, the Khonsu figure
with rounded back, and the falcon with an atef crown.
They are all supported by two ankhs and an user at the
bottom, by hands that may be divine. The first is the
“ Opener of the Ways of the South, the Power of the Two
Lands,” the same that we have seen at the Osirification
of Amon-hotep III.; and he gives “all life, stability,
power ” to the king, and bids him “ come in peace.” Amon-
Ra says, as oft before, “ I have given to thee the
sovereignty of the Two Lands, the years of Horus, joy
of heart, to my son, beloved, Lord of the Two Lands . . .
all countries under thy feet for evermore." The god
styles himself “ King of the gods, dwelling in the seats
of his august Apt, great god, Lord of the sky.” Mut,
Lady of Asheru, who stands behind him, wearing the
two crowns of Egypt, says, “ I am thy mother, who
created thy beauty.”

An inscription between the king and the standards
reads : “ Renewing his monuments of his father, the King
of Upper and of Lower Egypt, Ra-maat-neb.” It is
probably the work of Tut-ankh-Amon.

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

AND

THEIR TOMBS

129

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS.

The tombs described in the following pages belonged
to two officials, Sen - nezem and Pa - shedu, who prob-
ably flourished in the xix. or xx. Dynasty. They held
the office of “ sedem-ash in the True Place.” Professor
Sir Gaston Maspero has devoted a long investigation in
the Rcceueii de Travaux (1880, ii., 159 sqq.) to the
subject of the office, from which it appears that sedem-
ash means “attendant” (lit. one who hears the call), and
that the locality “ True Place ” is a term indicating “ the
mortuary quarter,” which is to-day known as Gourneh
and Drah abu’l Neggah, but excluding Der el Bahri and
other parts of the Theban necropolis. He believes
further that the appellation “Place of Truth” or “True
Place” was unknown before the expulsion of the Hyksos
kings; and that from Amon-hotep I. to Amon-hotep II.
(about 100 years) the monarchs who remained faithful
to the traditions of the Theban dynasties constructed
their tombs in the same valley, but that with the burial
of Amon-hotep III. in the Valley of the Kings’ Tombs,
the district surrounding the tomb of Amon-hotep I. and
the quarter known as “The True Place” were abandoned

132

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

for the region round about Medinet Habu. The term
“The True Place” disappears after the reign of
Raineses IV.

The instances given by the learned professor were
drawn from the Turin Museum and other collections,
on which he furnished a long report to M. Jules Ferry,
then Minister of Public Instruction in France.

His conclusions as to the functions of these “attendants
in the True Place” are substantially those of Lieblein
and Lepsius : they belonged, not to a judicial body,
but to a confraternity devoted to the cult of the dead ;
or perhaps to a body like those who, later in Graeco-
Egyptian times, contracted with families for making
offerings or prayers annually on certain days, to their dead,
as priests in our own time agree to say masses for the
repose of departed souls.

There are many monuments of these officials in the
British Museum, dating from the xvm. Dynasty onwards.
In the Guide to the Sculptures they are almost invariably,
but, according to Maspero, erroneously called “judges,”
probably from the fact that “ the True Place ” is there
commonly misinterpreted the “ Seat of Law,” as if it
were a tribunal.

THE TOMB OF SEN-NEZEM.

This tomb, known officially as No. i, is one of the Der
el Medineh group, and is situated on the hill a little to
the south of the Ptolemaic temple. It was discovered
in February 1886 (see Cairo Museum Guide ), and “had
never been robbed. It contained a most complete and
interesting set of funerary articles, from the tools of an
architect to the tale of romance which represented the
library of the deceased.” The whole collection lies in
Cairo Museum, dispersed in various rooms and cases ;
and comprises a coffin belonging to a lady, Isis (Ast),
wooden vases painted so as to represent alabaster, painted
pottery vases, wooden boxes, masons’ and painters’ plumb
lines, squares and levels, a cubit measure, seats and
three-legged stools, two mummy masks ; a leaf of the
wooden door of the inner chamber, with a portion of the
lock still attached ; and, last but not least, two magnificent
funeral biers or sledges, one for Sen-nezem (which probably
means “sweet brother”), and the other for his son
Khonsu, “both of which are painted, decorated, and
varnished in a high style of art.” The tale of romance
mentioned above is written on a piece of limestone broken

133

134

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

in two, the entire length of which is i metre and the
width in the middle 20 centimetres, the whole being
covered with somewhat coarse hieratic characters punctu-
ated with red ink. “The fracture is not a recent one:
the limestone had been purposely broken at the time
when it was deposited in the tomb, as was also the case
with many of the toilet and household objects which were
laid along with the mummy. The Egyptians expected to
enjoy in the next world the same amusements as in this
one. Accordingly in the case of Sen-nezem, a story or
tale had been bestowed upon the defunct, and by breaking
the stone upon which it was written the story had been
killed, and so sent to the other world where the Ka of the
dead man could peruse it when in a reading mood. It
is the beginning of the Adventures of Sinuhit,1 of which
the middle and the end have long been known, contained
as they are in a papyrus in Berlin which is partly
destroyed.”

From the amount of furniture and other objects found
in the tomb it might be supposed that it is of large
dimensions. This is not so. A few steps lead down to
an open space hollowed out of the soft shaly mountain,
and on the right side of this outer room a descent of
three or four more steps conducts one into a small
vaulted chamber, in the shape of a sarcophagus with

1 Professor Maspero has published a fine edition, with exhaustive gram-
matical notes and vocabulary, of the Adventures, Lcs Mcmoires de Sinouhit
(1908), of which Mr A. H. Gardiner has made a searching criticism in the
Recueil de Travaux.

TOMB OF SEN-NEZEM

1 35

rounded top. It measures about 16 feet long by 8 feet
wide, and nearly the same height from the floor to the
centre of the vault. The walls, ceiling, and ends are
plastered over, and on this coating the various scenes,
chiefly illustrations of chapters from the Book of the Dead ,
are painted in a bold style, the colours being remarkably
fresh and vivid. The work is practically undamaged.
A light that does not smoke is the best for seeing the
chamber.

Of the personages named in the tomb there are, besides
his wife, Ai-nefer or Ai-neferta, a son, Bu-nekhtu, who
acts as an-mutf priest to his father ; Khonsu, a son,
who performs the ceremony of “opening the mouth” of
the deceased ; and another son, Ra-hotep. A boy and a
girl beside the chairs of the couple are not described as
son and daughter, yet probably they are so. The other
persons named in the tomb are not described as relations.
The name of a daughter of the wife is given on the
wooden door-leaf in Cairo Museum as Aru-nefer, where
also the sedem-ash Kha-benkhet, his brother Pa-kha-ru,
Ra-hotep, Khonsu, Ra-mes, An-hotep, and Ra-ne-khu
are named in the order here given, but none of them
is described as a son. But on Sen-nezem’s funeral sledge
(No. 1259, Cairo Museum, upstairs) the following are
given as sons, Kha-benkhet, Bu-nekhtef, Ra-hotep,
Khons, Ra-mes, An-hotep, and Ra-nekhtu ; and two
daughters of Ai-nefert are also mentioned, Ar-nefer and
one whose name is lost.

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

The first scene calling for attention is the embalmment
of the deceased by Anubis, painted on the wall opposite
the entrance, left-hand corner. Sen-nezem, like the
dead Osiris, is lying on a bier, and over him Anubis,
the great embalmer — he who is in Ut,- — bends at his
work of mummification, which is frequently the vignette
attached to chapter i. b of the Book of the Dead. The
hieroglyphic text relating to the scene begins with the
three short columns on the left-hand end - wall, and
proceeds along under the bier to the right for twenty-six
columns more : the bulk of it is taken from chapter i.,
Book of the Dead , but the heading is partly from
chapter cxxiv., “Chapter of coming to the Sovereign
Chiefs1 of Orisis on the day of the burial.” The ordinary
title of chapter i. is, “The beginning of the chapters of
coming forth from Day, of the words which bring about
resurrection and glory, and of coming forth from and of
Groins' into the tdorious Neterkhert in the beautiful
Amentet. To be said on the day of the burial of [the
deceased] triumphant, who goeth in after coming forth.”
The difference in the titles may refer to the picture on the
left-hand end-wall, where Sen-nezem and his wife appear
before two rows of gods who are not separately named.
The pictures usually attached to chapter cxxiv. show the
deceased appearing before the four children of Horus ; in
the Papyrus of Nu three only are given, probably for want
of room. Here, however, two rows, one headed by Horus-
1 Renouf translates, “the Divine Circle of Osiris.”

TOMB OF SEN-NEZEM

137

Ra, followed by six gods, and the other headed by Osiris
and followed by five gods, are given. This scene will be
referred to later. The text of the embalming scene
reads : —

“Chapter of coming to the Sovereign chiefs of
Osiris on the day of the burial of the Osiris, the
Attendant in the True Place, Sen-nezem : O Bull [the
god Osiris], Lord of Amentet, lo ! Thoth, king of
Eternity, is here! I am the great god at the side of
the divine bark, who fought for thee ; I am one of
those gods, the sovereign chiefs, who make the Osiris
(the deceased) maakheru (triumphant) over his
enemies on the day of the Weighing of Words (the
Judgment). I am thy nndut ,’ Osiris. I am one of those
gods, the progeny of Nut, for the slaughter of the foes
of Osiris and fettering the Sebau enemies for him. I
am thy undut, Horus, I have fought for thee and passed
by (?) them for thy name. 1 am Thoth who makes
the Osiris triumphant over his enemies on that day of
the Weighing of Words in the house of the great
Prince that is in Annu (Heliopolis). I am Dadit, son
of Dadit, who was conceived in Dadit, and born in
Dadit. I am with the mourners for Osiris in the Two
Lands of the Rekhti who make the Osiris victorious
over his enemies. Ra gave command to Thoth to
make Osiris triumphant over his enemies ; the
command was performed by Thoth. I am with

1 Renouf renders by “kinsman,” Budge by “mediator (?) ”

133

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

Horus on the day of the clothing of Teshtesh (an
Osiris name), and of opening the caverns of purifica-
tion for Still Heart (a name for Osiris) and the
entrance of the hidden thing's of Ro-setau. I am with
Horus the restorer of that left [lit. east] arm of Osiris
that is in Sekhem (Letopolis). I come forth irom and
I enter the fire (“place of sunset or sunrise,” Renouf)
on the day of the destruction of the Sebau fiends in
Sekhem. I am with Horus on the day of making the
festivals of Osiris, and making the offerings of the
denat 1 festival in Annu. I am the nab2 (purifying
priest) in Dadu that poureth (?) out sacred oil in
Abdu (Abydos) on the day of the staircase ( khend ).
I am the Neter Hem (divine servant) in Abdu on the
day of turning up the earth. I am he that seeth the
hidden things of Ro-setau. I am he that reciteth the
festival of the Ram (soul) divine in Dadu. I am the
Setein priest in his office ; 1 am the great master-
craftsman on the day of ploughing-the-earth festival in
Suten-henen (Heracleopolis). O those who cause
souls made perfect to enter into the House of Osiris,
cause ye my soul to enter together with you into the
House ; may he (I) see as ye see ; may he (I) hear as
ye hear ; may he stand as ye stand ; may he sit as ye
sit. O those who give bread, cakes, and beer to souls

1 On the 6th clay of the month.

2 “The speaker now assumes the persons of various priests in succession.” —
Renouf.

z 13
rt 3
Xi c
£ <
0) JD

[To face page 130.

Sen-nezem and his Wife before the Gods of the Duat.

TOMB OF SEN-NEZEM

139

made perfect in the House of Osiris, give ye bread,
cakes, and beer to the Osiris Attendant in the True
Place, on the West (the Amentet) of Thebes, the
mountain of Maat, Sen-nezem : my soul be with you.
O ye who open the way, O ye who unclose . . . the
roads. . . .” Here the text ends abruptly.

Scene 2 (Left End-wall).

Sen-nezem before the Gods.

Sen-nezem and his wife Ai-nafert appear here adoring
two rows of gods, who are seated within a pavilion or
shrine with a cobra-frieze ; above are the jackal guardians
of the tomb, with a small lotus-crowned jar between ; while
over all is the ring of infinity, the sign for water (mu), and
a red vase with a sacred eye on either side.

The deities, who are all seated on Maat (Truth), are
not named individually : Horus or Ra, the head of the
lower or principal row, is followed by three pairs of male
and lemale deities alternately ; Osiris leads the upper row,
and behind him are three red-faced o^ocls with two °'reen-
laced godesses between.

The words above Sen-nezem’s head are : —

“Giving of adoration to all the gods of the Duat
(underworld) by the Osiris Attendant in the True
Place, Sen-nezem, triumphant ; and his sister (wife),

140

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

whom he loves, mistress of the house, Ai-nefert,
triumphant.”

The three horizontal lines of inscription between the
rows of the deities say : —

“The book of making perfect the khu (spirit)
that dwelleth within Ra, of causing him to have the
mastery before Turn, to make him great before Osiris,
and of causing him to be strong before the chief of
Amentet, of giving him might before the company of
the gods, of embalming the heart of the khu, of making
wide his steps. It will cause him to walk about, [to
cure ?J his deafness, to come face-to-face (?) with the
god.”

Dr Budge gives a version of the above as the title of
chapter cxc., because it is found by itself in the Papyrus
of Nu. Professor Naville, however, points out that it is
really not a chapter but part of a hymn to the Setting Sun
included in chapter xv., b. 3, and forms the title of chapter
cxlviii. in the Turin Papyrus.

Scene 3.

The Osiris Lying in State.

As a companion picture to the embalmment by Anubis
is the scene opposite, where the Osiris (deceased) is lying
on his bier watched over by Isis, at the foot, and Nephthys

[To face page 141,

The Osiris Lying in State.

THE OSIRIS LYING IN STATE 141

at the head, as divine falcons, waiting for the coming to
life of the god-man. Isis occupies the post of honour,
whence she can best watch the face of her lord. An old
religious text says : “ Even as Osiris lives, he (the
deceased) shall live also ; even as Osiris is not dead, he
also will not die ; even as Osiris is not destroyed, he also
will not be destroyed.” Like another Osiris, Sen-nezem
will awake to a new and joyous life. This picture is
usually given along with chapter xvii., Book of the Dead.
Isis is here called “great Divine Mother, Lady of the sky,
Mistress of all the gods” ; and Nephthys, the other sister,
“Vigorous of words, Lady of the sky, Mistress of the Two
Lands, I have come to be a protection for the Osiris
Attendant, etc., Sen-nezem.” Nephthys, like Isis, thus
seems to have been gifted with “magic words of power,”
and so she is sometimes called “ Great one of words.”

Scene 4 (opposite Entrance).

Sen-nezem before Osiris.

To the right of the embalmment is the appearance of
Sen-nezem before Osiris. The Weighing of the Heart,
or the Judgment, before Osiris, is supposed to have taken
place, and now Sen-nezem is being conducted by Anubis
into the august presence of the great god, the Sovereign
of the Amentet. The result of the judgment was to

142

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

pronounce Sen-nezem maakheru , possessed of the power
of the magic voice whose word would be all-powerful in
compelling obstructive demons, and generally, in giving
effect to his will. He is therefore “triumphant” or
“victorious,” able to call things into reality by the very
tone of his voice. Osiris stands on Maat in his shrine,
swathed as a mummy in a white robe of linen, and holding
the emblems of his sovereignty, crook and whip, with the
atef crown on his head, and the two all-seeing eyes above.
In this scene the god is usually represented enthroned.
Before and behind him, hanging from a pole, is the
dripping skin of a slain bull that was slaughtered to
yield up the soul of Osiris at his reconstruction, with the
vase underneath to catch the blood. An immense collec-
tion of offerings of all kinds, legs and ribs of meat, a
goose, cakes, baskets of fruit, flowers, jars of liquor, etc.,
all for the god’s sustenance, stands in front of the shrine,
and also, apparently above the head, but really on the far
side, of the kneeling Sen-nezem, who is “ touching ” the
object on the table which lies nearest to him by way
of consecrating (?) it. Between the wreathed jars are
probably the spathes of the inflorescence of the palm-
tree, which is the usual accompaniment of the statues of
Min, the god of fertility. The kneeling Sen-nezem repre-
sents the second act of the story ; the first is shown to
the ricfht, where Anubis conducts the now maakheru
Sen-nezem by the hand after the Judgment, which is not
represented here. Notice that Sen-nezem as he is being

[To face page 143.

Sen-nezem before Osiris.

SEN-NEZEM BEFORE OSIRIS

143

led in by Anubis at the extreme right end of the wall,
wears a black wig, whereas when he kneels before Osiris,
immediately after , his wig is whitened. This is not an
accidental change, nor has he become an old man in the
brief interval between the first act and the second.
Precisely the same change is shown as occurring in the
wigs of Ani (see Papyrus of Ani). At the Judgment Ani
awaits the result wearing a black wig ; immediately after ,
Horus conducts him into the presence of Osiris with the
same head-dress ; but when, as the completion of the
last movement, Ani kneels before Osiris and offers his
gifts, his wig is white , with an unguent cone on top. And
in the Papyrus of Iouiya, also, that personage is represented
wearing a white wig in adoring Osiris (plate i.) and at the
Elysian fields (plate xviii.), whereas in the other scenes
Iouiya is shown with a black wig. Unfortunately the
papyrus does not contain a picture of the Judgment scene.
Professor Naville thinks that in the case of Iouiya the
white-wig scenes were so painted to show clearly that
“he was a very old man when he died,’’ thereby implying
that a considerable interval had elapsed between the
painting of the black-wig scenes and the former. However
that may be, the reason given for the change will not
at all fit the cases of Ani and Sen-nezem, for in the
very same scene, in its two immediately consecutive acts,
the same figure wears different coloured wigs. In either
of these cases there is no hint or suspicion that the
painting was done at different times. Hence we may

144

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

conclude that the change from black to white corresponds
to some change necessitated by the deceased’s appearing
before Osiris, either a moral change or a ceremonial one,
but not a difference of a^e.

A long text of thirty-eight columns attached to this
scene begins at the right-hand top corner of the shrine and
goes on to the end of the wall. It reads : —

“ Words said by the Osiris, the Attendant, etc.,
Sen-nezem, triumphant ; saith he : ‘ Hail to thee,
Osiris, Chief of the Amentet, Un-nefer, Lord of the
Sacred Land, Lord of the atef crown, he that is
equipped with two horns, the youth that is Chief
of Amentet, I have come verily to thee, Lord of
Life, Health, Strength ; I am strong upon earth, I
have done right (things), nor have I been driven
back from the cakes (?) that are in the temples, I
have not been repelled (?) by the Company (fiuat)
of the Gods, I have entered at the gates of the Duat ;
I am not found to have been evil at the Weighing
of Thoth the embalmer, as one of those gods who
follow Horus. I am the servant (priest) of the Book
of the Coming forth. O Osiris, grant thou to me
breezes,’ [said] by the Osiris, the Attendant, etc.
On the west of Thebes, the domain (mountain) of
Maat, Sen-nezem, triumphant, lord of devotion (the
feal), happy in peace.”

The address of Sen-nezem as he kneels before the
offerings is : —

SEN-NEZEM BEFORE OSIRIS

1 45

“I sit near to thee, O Un-nefer; I give to thee
cakes, beer, in the presence of Osiris Khenti [by]
the Osiris, the Attendant, etc., Sen-nezem, etc., lord
of devotion (the feal).”

Over Anubis as he brings in Sen-nezem we
have : —

“Said by Anpu : Lo ! there cometh to thee the
Osiris, the Attendant, etc., Sen-nezem, triumphant
before Osiris. The amds of the Duat receive thee !
Mayst thou be given a seat in the Neter-khert (under-
world), mayst thou be purified with incense, may
thy members be joined even as ... of those that
are at the front (?) of the gods ; may he (S.) be one
of those gods that are in the Duat ; mayst thou
follow Sekri to Ro-setau ; mayst thou exalt (praise)
Ra when he rises, mayst thou please ( se-hotep ) him
in his setting ( hotep ) in life ; [said] by the Osiris,
the Attendant, etc., S.

H ere there occurs a speech of Maat the goddess, who
is not represented : —

“ Said by Maat, the daughter of Ra : the Attendant,
etc. : S. strong art thou (?) in entering, strong in
going forth ; may he (S.) be led along to the presence
of Osiris, may he sit near Un-nefer like one of those
gods that follow Horus ; let him not be turned back
at the gates of the Duat, the Osiris, the Attendant,
etc., S.” In front of Anubis: “Saith Anpu, the
Chief of the Divine Dwelling (the Tomb), the great

146

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

god, Lord of the sky : Lo ! I come ; may the gods
of the Duat receive the Osiris, the Attendant,
etc., S.”

Scene 5.

The Opening of the Two Gates of the Sky.

This scene, which is without text, immediately above
the embalmment, seems to illustrate two chapters, lxvii.
and lxviii., of the Book of the Dead. The former is
entitled, “ Chapter of opening a place ( hat ) ” ; and the
latter, “Chapter of coming forth from Day,” where we
have the opening sentence, “ Let the two doors of the sky
be opened to me, let the two doors of earth be opened to
me, etc. ... let the Ro-hent (a region between earth and
sky) be opened to me.” Here, we have the two gates
resting in sockets on the earth, with the upper ends of the
posts revolving in similar sockets in the sky, like the two
doors of a chamber in a temple. The sky spreads over
all. Sen-nezem is seen using both hands to open the half-
door next to him. Each leaf has thirteen bars : only the
name and function of S. are given.

The object of opening these gates is to gain admission
to the boat of Ra in the sky, as chapter lxvii. shows : “ let
me advance to my seat which is in the Boat of Ra.” Also,
in chapter xlii., which contains the identification of the
several parts of the body, each with a particular deity, the

[ To face page 14t>.

Sen-nezem Opening the Gates of the Sky.

[To face page 14<>

The Boat of

OPENING THE GATES OF THE SKY

147

deceased, after “telling all his” members,1 proceeds to
“ identify himself with the divinity whose manifestation is
the Sun ; he is not the Sun of this or that moment, but of
Yesterday, To-day, and of all eternity, the One proceeding
from the One” (Renouf) ; and he says, in this interest, “ I
open the gates of the Sky,” like the Sun, who opens the
gates of day and begins a new existence. Accordingly,
to the right of this picture we have

Scene 6.

The Boat of Ra.

He, falcon-headed, stands in the middle, with five gods
behind him — “the followers of Horus,” — while the blue
Bennu-bird, with an atef crown, standing in the bow of the
boat, may represent the risen Sen-nezem. In the Turin
Papyrus the vignettes to chapters c. and ci. show the boat
of Ra, with a man poling at the bow and the bennu- bird,
probably the deceased, standing behind Ra, the sun-god.
The title of chapter c. runs thus : “ The book of making
perfect the Khu, of causing him to go forth into the boat
of Ra along with those who are in his following.” The
inscription here over the bird reads : “This is the Bennu
of Ra.” Over the god: “ Ra Hor-akhte (Horus of the

1 St Paul (1 Cor. vi. 15) boldly calls the “members of the body” and the
body itself the “ members of Christ,” a metaphor which seems to indicate an
Egyptian origin.

148

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

two horizons) Turn, Lord of the two lands of Annu (Helio-
polis) ” ; and above the gods in Ra’s train: “The great
company of the gods that are in the boat of Ra.”

Scene 7.

Sen-nezem Worshipping the Sun and Seven Stars.

Sen-nezem and his wife stand, with hands reverently
raised in adoration of the sun-disc (red) and seven yellow
stars, set in a deep blue sky ; beneath the sun and stars
is a group of gods, five in number (perhaps seven were
intended, to correspond with the number of the stars), who
are seated on blue Maat. The gods are red- or green-
faced. The inscription says : “ Giving adoration to all
the gods of the sky by the Ka (first mention) of the
Attendant, etc., S., and his sister (wife), mistress of the
house, Ai-nefert, triumphant.”

It is difficult to refer this scene to any one chapter in
the Book of the Dead. The rubric of chapter cxxxiii.
(Papyrus of Nu) ordains that, among other things, “a sky
with its stars shall be made (painted), and this thou shalt
have made ceremoniously pure by natron and incense.”
If seven, instead of five, gods be taken to represent the
seven stars, we may refer them to the seven spirits1 of

1 Cf. Revelation i. 4 (the seven spirits which are before his throne) ; iii. 1
(seven spirits of God and the seven stars) ; iv. 5 ; v. 6.

Sen-nezem and his Wife adoring the Sun
and Seven Stars.

[To face page 14S.

BREAD AND WATER FROM THE TREE

149

chapter xvii., Mestha, Hapi, Duamutef, and Oebhsennuf
with three others, who were appointed protectors of the
body of Osiris.

Scene 8.

Bread and Water f rom the Tree.

To the right we see Sen-nezem and his wife kneeling
on the top of their own tomb, and receiving with their
hands water from the goddess Nut, who grows out of the
trunk of a tree, and holds a table of cakes and a jar of
water from which two or three streams descend to S. and
his wife, who catch it with their hands. This scene usually
illustrates chapter lix. , Book of the Dead , whose title is,
“The Chapter of snuffing the air and of having command
of water in the Neter-khert.” It begins : “ Hail, thou
sycamore of the goddess Nut, grant me of the water and
the air (wind) which dwell in thee.” The tree is also laden
with red fruit. There are many allusions in the Book of the
Dead to the meat and drink provided by the tree of Nut
for the departed. It grew at Heliopolis. Dr Budge
thinks that “ it may well have served as the archetype of
the sycamore tree under which the Virgin Mary sat and
rested during her flight into Egypt, and there seems to be
little doubt that many of the details about her wanderings
in the Delta which are recorded in the apocryphal gospels
and in writings of a similar class are borrowed from the old
mythology of Egypt.” It should, however, be added that

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

150

Hat-hor and Isis are also represented in tombs and else-
where as tree-goddesses furnishing food and drink to the
hungry and thirsty souls of the departed ; and the tree is
frequently a date-palm laden with fruit, as we shall see later,
in the tomb of Pa-shedu, and not always a sycamore, even
in the case of Nut. In Sen-nofer’s tomb at Sheikh abd el
Gourneh the tree-goddess is Isis (see the Gardener s Tomb
at Thebes , p. 29), and the goddess Hat-hor ministers in the
same way to Queen Ty-ti in her tomb ( Two Theban
Queens , 104, 105). Moreover, in chap, clxxxix., Book of
the Dead (Papyrus of Nu), the deceased is asked concerning
the kind of food he would like, and he replies, “ Let me
eat my food beneath the sycamore tree of the goddess
Hat-hor”; and further on we are told that the “beautiful
sycamore ” grows out of the Pool of Ageb (flowing stream).
Above the triple stream of water which descends to the
kneeling pair we read, on the right, “ Nut, great goddess ” ;
and, appropriately, to the left, the water is “ for the Ka of
the Osiris, the Attendant, etc., S. [and] his sister (wife),
mistress of the house, Ai-nefer, triumphant.” Both wear
cones above their black wigs, and reverently catch the
water in their hands.

Scene 9.

The Gates of the House of Osiris.

This is on the opposite wall. Beside the entrance,
Sen-nezem, above, and Ai-nefert, below, confront two

Anubis.

Sen-nezem.

Bread and Water from the Tree.

[To Jace page 160.

GATES OF THE HOUSE OF OSIRIS 15 i

rows of demons facing the right, who severally sit under
the cobra-frieze top of a gate, armed with terrible knives.
These secret pylons ( sebkhe /), here only ten in number,
are entrances to the House of Osiris, which, like “ many
mansions,” are supposed to form an element in the
happiness of the future life of the deceased, who is
supposed to pass through, or occupy, the whole twenty-
one. Each gate is guarded by a monster armed with
a terrible blade, and before Sen-nezem and his wife
can pass within, they must know and be able to utter
with the “proper voice” the several names of these dread
warders. It was to qualify them in this respect that
they passed the Weighing or Judgment, and appeared
before Osiris on the opposite wall. A knowledge of the
“name” is essential here, as well as in some more exalted
faiths, to ensure the benefits of “salvation” here and
hereafter. Chap, cxlvi. of the Book of the Dead deals
with the whole matter, where, in complete versions, twenty-
one pylons must be faced by the aspirant, who approaches
each usually with the words, “ I have made a way [i.e.
arrived), I know thee (addressed to the pylon), and I
know thy name, and I know the name of the god that
guardeth thee.” Then follow the “names” of the pylon,
and of the guardian, properly pronounced with “power
and authority,” as in the New Testament in exorcising
demons. To know the “ name,” and to utter it properly,
gives the mastery over the “spirit” or obstacle to be
overcome. To know and to trust in the “name” is to

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

152

transcend all evil limitations. In this tomb the names
only of the pylons are given.

Sen-nezem and his wife stand, with uplifted hands,
before the pylons and their guardians of the House of
Osiris in the Fields. Sen-nezem says : —

“ Saith the Osiris, the Attendant, etc., S. ; saith
he : I am come before thee, O Osiris, Chief of
Amentet, Un-nefer, Lord of Dadu, I am feal to
thee, I have loved the place of truth, I have loved
(said twice) truth, I have not done evil, I know the
ways of Amentet ... in the heart of the Osiris,
Sen-nezem, triumphant.” His wife speaks thus :
“ Saith the Osiris, the mistress of the house, Ai-
neferta, triumphant ; saith she : I am come before
thee to behold thy beauty, great one of twofold
might, chief of the sovereign princes ; grant thou the
paths of the gods to their seat, guide the khus to
their seat, to behold (?) their caverns (?) with breath
(or air), by the mistress of the house, Ai-neferta,
triumphant.”

The first Sebkhet (pylon) before Sen-nezem is guarded
by a vulture-headed creature with a large knife, seated
beneath his gateway. Behind the monster are the
words (beginning with the farther column) : “ Sebkhet One,
Lady of trembling (?), of the high walls, sovereign lady
of destruction, who sets in order the words ” — here the
dread name of this “lady” (the pylon) abruptly breaks
off for want of space. The writing of even a part of this

t To face, page 152

GATES OF THE HOUSE OF OSIRIS

153

“great and terrible name” is sufficient magically for
Sen-nezem’s purpose, and he is allowed to pass through
without further question.

Sebkhet Two is below — the odd numbers are above,
the even numbers below — guarded by a lioness-headed
monster, similarly equipped. I he sebkhet is named, “ Lady
of the sky, mistress of the two lands, devourer, lady of
mankind, who discerneth all men” (or, “is great beyond
every one,” ten-nu r bit neb).

Sebkhet Three has a crocodile-headed keeper. The
name is, “ Lady of altars, great one of offerings . . . every
god ; that sails down to Abydos : the name of the door-
keeper is ” — not given for want of room.

Sebkhet Four has a bull- or cow-headed guardian, with
horns. The name is, “ She that is mighty with (of) knives,
mistress of the two lands, destroyer of the enemies of
Motionless-Heart (a name of Osiris), maker of” — ends
abruptly.

Sebkhet Five is guarded by a boy-looking monster,
with misshapen head, armed with two knives — the only
one with two. The name is, “ Blazing fire, lady of increase
(‘ breezes,’ Turin Papyrus), she who inhales supplications
[ made] to her, none who is on earth comes near her.
Name of guardian is ” — name arain wanting.

o 00

Sebkhet Six is guarded by a snake-headed figure, with
long knife. Pylon’s name is, “ Lady of light, great one of
roarings, not known is her length . . . from the first (?),
not found is her like.”

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TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

Sebkhet Seven has a green-faced and bearded man for
a guardian, with two blue feathers stuck in his hair. In
the Papyrus of Nu the head is a ram’s. The Pylon’s name
is, “ Shroud that enwraps the feeble one {i.e. the dead),
mourners for her love.”

Sebkhet Eight has for guardian a creature with a
bird’s head and long straight bill. The name of the
sebkhet is, “ Flaming fire {dkht instead of rkht ), darting
dame, [not] quenched ; she that is furnished with tongues
of fire, that shoots forth her hand, that slaughters.”

Sebkhet Nine. The guardian has a jackal’s head. The
name is, “ She who is at the front {i.e. the foremost),
lady of strength, the pleased of heart (joyous), who gives
birth to her lord, whose girth is 350 measures.”

Sebkhet Ten has a white-headed jackal or dog for
guardian. The sebkhet' s name is, “ The loud of voice, she
that raiseth up those who cry (?) and make supplications,
the dread one of terrors (?).”

The “ knowledge ” requisite for passing through these
pylons or gates was gained by the deceased having been
declared maakheru before Osiris. This “ knowledge,”
especially of the names of demons and things, was
necessary, if Sen-nezem were to realise the happy life
hereafter. The value attached to the “ name ” and “the
knowledge of the name ” is conspicuous throughout the
Old Testament ; and eventually, in partial union with
Hellenistic theology, became systematised in Gnosticism,
which, though expelled from the Church as a heresy,

CHRISTIAN GNOSTICISM

155

had left its marks in the Christian Scriptures. The soul
in its effort to mount towards its true home had to
encounter Seven Spheres, whose barriers had gates each
guarded by the master-demon of the sphere. I hese
lords of the gates were probably St Paul’s “ world-
powers,” “the angels and principalities and powers,”
“ the world-rulers of this darkness,” “ the prince of the
power of the air,” etc. In the Christian Gnostic system
of magical lore, “by learning the names of the demonic
creatures who would oppose the soul on its upward way,
and by uttering the passwords which were appropriate
to each gate, the soul could have power over all its adver-
saries.” This is simply the old Egyptian way. And
against all the “knowledge” of the Gnostics was set the
“name” of Jesus, to whom was given “the name which is
above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and
things of the world below ; and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord ' to the glory of God the
Father” (Phil. ii. 9-1 1). The triumph of Jesus over
the demons is signalised by Himself in these words :
“ I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven.” “ The
prince of the power of the air” is overcome by Him who
knew his “name” and cast him out with a “word.”
Therefore, to “know the name” and “to trust in it,”
was to enable the soul to transcend all evil limitations
and gain everlasting bliss.

156

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

Scene io (above last).

The Two Sycamores of Turquoise.

The scene on the roof above the two rows of pylons is
an illustration of chapter cix., Book of the Dead, already
alluded to. The falcon-headed sun-god Ra-Horus-on-the-
horizons, with urteus-encircled sun-disc on his head, is
seated on a blue maat ; and behind him is a white bull-calf,
with black spots, on whose back a green-faced god, with
blue wig, rides. The calf seems to come from behind two
tall trees, with blue foliage, between the tops of which the
sun is ascending. The calf is probably the new-born
sun-god. The inscription gives only, “ Ra-Horus-on-the-
two-horizons, Tumu, Lord of the Two Lands of Annu.”
This scene is unique.

The chapter in question is entitled, “Chapter whereby
one knoweth the Souls (powers) of the East,” which were,
as we learn from the end of the chapter (Papyrus of Nu,
British Museum), “ Horus-on-the-two-horizons, and the
calf of the goddess Khera (?) [Khera, goddess, pu), and the
morning star.” In the picture before us the deceased does
not figure, but in the chapter he is represented as on his
way to the Garden of Peace, which is shown on the end-
wall here. He says: “A divine domain (rural) hath been
made for me, I know it, and I know its name — Garden of
Aarru is the name thereof.” The two trees are mentioned :
“ I know the two sycamore trees of turquoise ( mafket )

( To face page 157.

I'he Two Turquoise Sycamores.

THE TWO TURQUOISE SYCAMORES

157

among- which Ra cometh forth when he goes forward over
what Shu has lifted up ( i.e . the sky) towards the gate of
the Lord of the East.”

The picture in the Papyrus of Nebseni shows the
deceased worshipping behind the calf, which is walking
towards Ra-Horakhte seated, and is named “of the god
Khurerti.” At the top corner are the words, “Adoration
of Ra every day.”1 In the Turin Papyrus the vignette is
quite different. The god PI. is seated in a boat ; above
his sun-disc is a sail, the symbol for air or breath ; before
him is the calf, with a star above his back, and behind him
a man, probably the deceased, near the steering-oar ; and
the boat appears to be moving towards the two trees, as if
at sunrise. To the right is the deceased worshipping, with
both hands raised in adoration.

In the Literary of Funerary Offerings (Budge, pp. 60,
61) an interesting reference is made to the calf. The
fifth ceremony continues the process of assimilating the
deceased with the gods, by purification with natron, and
during it the officiating priest says, “Thy mouth is the
mouth of the sucking-calf on the day of his birth,” from
which “ it seems clear that the deceased is identified with
the star which was born in the sky at sunrise.”

1 It is, of course, possible to translate the signs neter dua Ra ra neb by
“ Morning star of Ra, every day,” but the translation given above seems to be
the appropriate one as referring to the action of the deceased. Neter dua is
constantly seen on temple walls and tombs as “ divine adoration.”

I58

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

Scene ii.

Sen-nezem Adoring Three Gods.

To the right of the last scene S. stands adoring three
gods seated on maat as usual ; the first is falcon-headed,
the next man-headed with red face ; and the last is also
man-headed, but with a blue-green face. All three wear
blue wigs. The inscription (faulty) begins, “ Giving of
adoration to all the gods of Maat ; . . . uttering praises
with thy mouth . . .” and ends with “ the Ka of the
Attendant, etc., on the West of Thebes: S. triumphant,
lord of fealty, in peace.”

Scene 12.

Sen-nezem Adoring 7'zuo Gods.

Further on to the right S. again appears standing,
adoring two seated deities — the first a white, jackal-headed
god, and, behind him, a man-headed god. Behind these
again is a representation of the horizon (or mountain),
above which on a white ground is a serpent, and a green-
faced god seated. All are resting on maat (dark blue).
The description reads, “ giving of adoration to all the
gods of the Duat by the Osiris, the Attendant, etc., S.
triumphant.” The scene is probably an illustration of
chap, cviii. , Book of the Dead, entitled, “ Chapter whereby

[To face page 15S.

Sen-nezem adoring Two Gods.

SEN-NEZEM ADORING GODS

159

the souls (powers) of the West are known.” It begins : “I11
respect of the Mountain of Bachau (Hill of Sunrise) upon
which the sky resteth ” (then follow its dimensions), and
proceeds, “ there is a serpent on the brow of that mountain,
his measure is 500 cubits in length, etc., and his name is
‘ Dweller in his own fire.’ ”

Scene 13.

Sen-nezem Adoring Thoth and Others.

Beyond the last scene S. is again engaged adoring
deities, this time the ibis-headed Thoth and two human-
headed beardless deities, the one red and the other green-
faced. The latter wears the two crowns of Egypt. The
two are probably goddesses. The inscription says, “ The
adoration of Thoth, Lord of Khemennu, the true scribe of
the company of the gods, by the Ka of the Osiris, the
Attendant, etc., S. triumphant.”

The chapter of the Book of the Dead illustrated may
be chap, xcv., entitled “Chapter of being ni^h unto
Thoth,” or chap, xc., “ Chapter of driving evil recollections
from the mouth.”

Scene 14.

The Fields of Peace or Rest.

The Fields of Rest or Peace, the Elysian Fields, as
they are sometimes called, are depicted on the end-wall.

i6o

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

They represent the great region of the future blessedness
of the departed, according to the Egyptian imagination.
A glance at the picture here, as well as at the numerous
representations given in the various versions of the Book of
the Dead and on the monuments, shows us that the ideal
future state was a glorified agricultural and hunting life,
such as might be seen anywhere in the Delta at the height
of Eg yptian civilisation. From the earliest times the
Egyptian conceptions of future happiness centred round
a garden or fields — a Paradise in fact — with the cultivation
of which man combined the gratification of all his earthly
joy and pleasures. Ploughing, sowing, reaping, sailing
in boats on the canals, the pursuit of birds, the spearing
of fish, and many other similar sports, with the company
of his wife and children, constituted for all alike, for the
Pharaoh as well as for the peasant, the ideal life of the
future. Hence we are not surprised to see depicted on
the walls of Medinet Habu Temple, Rameses III.
ploughing, sowing, reaping, etc., and paddling about,
like the humblest of his subjects ; or to find a chantress
of Amon like Anhai, or the wife of Sen-nezem, driving
her cattle or gleaning ears of corn like an ordinary
peasant woman.

This Region of Blessedness, Hotepet, included another,
called the Garden of Aarru or Aanru, the meaning of
which, according to Renouf, can be traced to some creep-
ing plant, probably the vine. Islands or portions of land
separated by canals play a part in the scenery of the

The Egyptian Paradise. ir0 face page wo.

THE EGYPTIAN PARADISE

1 6 1

region, which seems to point to a northern locality, whether
in the Delta or beyond it — an indication supported by some
of the prayers contained in the chapter for “ the sweet
breath of the North Wind.” The whole district is
invariably represented as surrounded and intersected by
canals or rivers of water, thus showing several islands ;
and an xvm. Dynasty stele informs us that the deceased
“ guides his boat of Kher-neter (the underworld) to the
Islands of the Garden of Aarru.” The Garden of Eden
is also described as having “a river that went out of
it to water the garden ; and from thence it was parted
and became four heads” (Genesis ii. io). In Homer,
Elysium is a beautiful meadow at the western extremity
of the earth, on the banks of the Oceanus, where the
favoured of Zeus, without tasting of death, live a life
of perfect happiness ; while Hesiod speaks of the Islands
of the Blest by the Ocean, where men live without pain.
In later times Elysium with its bliss was localised in
the world below, and regarded as the abode of those
whom the judges of the dead had pronounced worthy
of it. It is not too much to say that the Egyptian
conception is the parent of all the Paradises man has
imagined. A fair idea of that conception may be
obtained from the title of chapter cx., which relates to
these Happy Fields : “ The beginning of the chapters of
the Garden of Hotepet, and of the chapters of coming
forth from Day ; of going into and of coming out from the
Neterkhert (underworld), and of arriving at the Garden

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

162

of Aarru, of being (Renouf, at the Rise) in the Field
of Hotepet, the great Domain, the Mistress (possessed) of
breezes ; of having power there, and be a khu (in glory)
there ; of ploughing there ; of reaping there ; of eating
there ; of drinking there ; of enjoying the pleasures of
love there ; and of doing everything that is done upon
earth ” — a very comprehensive earthly paradise.

Up to the present, the most complete copy of chapter
cx. of the Book of the Dead is contained in the Papyrus
of Nebseni in the British Museum, which Dr Budge
has given in his edition of the Book. Here nothing of
the text of the chapter itself is given ; only short descrip-
tive phrases with names, etc., occur in the various
divisions. The picture here is a very complete and
pleasing one. The whole region is surrounded by water,
with two principal streams dividing it ; in some pictures
there are three dividing rivers. Above is a picture of Ra,
the sun-god, in his morning (growing strong ) boat, adored
by apes. This picture does not really belong to the
representation of the Fields of Peace. The god, falcon-
headed, is crowned with the sun-disc, round which a
snake is coiled: he holds an ankh before him. In front
is the hieroglyph for “ follower,” which may stand here
for the deceased, as in some vignettes to chapter ci. he
is seen poling at the bow of the boat. On the top of the
bow, from which hangs a kind of fringed drapery similar
to the draperies shown on the sacred bark of Idorus-on-
the-horizons at Abydos (Temple of Sety I.), is perched

THE EGYPTIAN PARADISE

163

a bird, which may here be taken for the “ look-out,” the
Eye of Horus. In front of the right-hand ape we read,
“thou adorest Ra when he rises.” The inscription
relating to the god begins above the bird, “ Words said :
Ra, Heru-on-the-horizon, Tumu, Lord of the two lands
of Annu (Heliopolis), Khepera-that-is-in-his-boat.” The
ape on the left says : “Thou puttest him to rest in peace,
in life.” Ra is here identified with Turn of Heliopolis.

The long- island at the bottom is covered with flowering
plants and shrubs of various kinds — a detail which is
absent in the other pictures known to the writer, — so also
is the next division of the broader island or tract of land
where Sen-nezem and his wife plough, sow, and reap
like ordinary peasants. It is covered from end to end
with fruit trees, among which date- and doom-palms are
conspicuous. To the right of the first is a smaller one
of peculiar shape, on the waters of which floats a boat,
with oars at bow and stern, and a sort of staircase
amidships. The name of this boat in the Papyrus of
Nebseni is Zedeteft. Beyond the boats are two pools
of water.

Above (i.e. beyond) the fruit trees we have Sen-nezem
ploughing with two cows, one black, the other white, while
his wife sows behind him ; further to the left, the pair is
busy pulling up flax or durra by the roots ; to the extreme
right is a large plot of ground with four pools of blue
water ; at the end of the field is a large tree. This district
and the one above it are called in chapter cx. “The

164

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

Wheat and Barley Nome.” Sen-nezem, whose name and
office are written above the plough, drives his yoke with a
double whip ; he seems suitably dressed for his work, but
his wife, whose name is again given as Ai-nefer-ta, wears
a huge black wig which seems more appropriate for a
banquet. She holds the basket containing the seed
daintily in her left hand, while with the right she drops the
seed into the furrow behind her lord’s feet. The soil is black,
as befits Egypt, the “ Black Land.” The flax or durra
crop is a great field of dark green stalks, as tall as the wife.

Still further beyond the last scene is a large field of
yellow grain, which Sen-nezem is reaping with a flint-hook
with serrated teeth ; he takes the ears only. His wife,
again arrayed en grande tenue, is gleaning behind him, and
puts the ears into a basket. The names of the pair are
between them. In most of the pictures of these Fields of
Peace the wheat or barley is shown as tall as, or even
taller than, the reaper ; and though this division of the
Garden is named, as we have seen, in the text of chapter
cx., it is in chapter cix. we find special reference made
to the size of the crops : “ the height of the wheat is seven
cubits, of the ears two cubits, and the stalks four cubits :
the barley is seven cubits, the ears three cubits, and the
stalks four cubits.” If the average length of a cubit be
fifteen inches only, we have an ideal crop, one which must
surely have satisfied the most extravagant desires of the
Egyptian peasant in his wildest dreams of other- world
bliss. At the right end of the field of standing grain

THE EGYPTIAN PARADISE

165

Sen-nezem, whose name and office are written in front of
him, is seated before a table of food and drink, which he
has thoroughly earned and now enjoys at the close of his
labours, and he also inhales the fragrance of a lotus as the
crown of his repast.

Above the river or canal of blue water of the Wheat
and Barley Nome, we have another division of the Garden,
where, to the left, Sen-nezem and his wife, kneeling on a
heap of yellow grain which they are supposed to have
gathered from their fields, are adoring a group of five gods,
all seated on blue maat. They are not named here, but in
some papyri they are called “the great company of the
crods.” The action of Sen-nezem and his wife are thus
described: “the adoration of Ra-Horus-on-the-horizon,
and prostration (lit. smelling the ground) to Osiris, chief of
Amentet. He (S.) gives praise to Ptah, Lord of Truth,
(by) the Ka of the Attendant, etc., S. triumphant : his
sister (wife), mistress of the house, Ai-nefer-ta, triumphant.”
Sometimes the adoration is thus expressed, “ Hail to you,
O ye lord of food, I have come in peace to your Garden
(Field) to receive celestial food.” The first god is Ra, the
next Osiris, and the next Ptah ; the remaining two are
quite uncertain.

To the right, in another part of the district, is Sen-
nezem’s son, Ra-hotep, paddling in a papyrus boat, and
looking towards the gods whom his parents are adoring,
while his boat seems to be moving in the opposite direc-
tion. Why Ra-hotep is here it is difficult to say, as it is

1 66 TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

usually the deceased himself that paddles on the stream —
Rameses III. paddles his own canoe at Medinet Habu, —
unless it be to show the family nature of the future life in
the Happy Gardens. Ra-hotep is styled “his son, whom
he loves, Ra-hotep, triumphant,” from which we may infer
that Ra-hotep was dead when the tomb was made. Still
to the right another son, “ Khonsu (whom he loves) trium-
phant,” is performing the filial duty known as the ceremony
of “opening the mouth” of the mummy, whereby the
father’s Ka might be enabled to eat and drink. Two
instruments used in this operation are in Khonsu’s hands.
Between the son and the mummy of his father are the
words : “ Open is thy mouth, O Osiris Sen-nezem,

triumphant.” Khonsu, here named, was also dead, or
conceived to be so, at the time the tomb was made ; to
him belongs the splendid funeral bier or sledge mentioned
above, which was found in the tomb along with his
father’s. To the right of the mummy are three large
pools of blue water in a division of ochre-coloured land ;
their names are not given here, nor those of the three
“ towns” or “ places ” generally shown above the voyager
in the papyrus boat, indicated as the other-world cities
visited by the deceased at his pleasure, as in the phrase
from the chapter cited : “so that I may go forth to the
cities thereof, and may sail about among its lakes, and
may walk about in the Field of Peace.” The “ cities ” are
marked in the scene of the Fields shown in Medinet Habu
Temple, and Rameses III. is seen visiting them in his boat.

THE EGYPTIAN PARADISE

167

Though Sen-nezem is not shown here, he was meant to
be shown, because his name and office are given in two
lines below the pools, with the epithet “ triumphant.”

Above ( i.e . beyond) these two last scenes, at the right-
hand corner, are five broad bands or tracks spanning the
river or water that surrounds the Field or Garden : three
are black and two are white. In no other representation
of the Fields of Peace known to the writer do these bands
or tracks appear ; the water is unbroken all round the
Fields. They are probably bridges or “the ways” by
which the Fields of Peace are reached from the earth.
We can hardly suppose that they represent the ladder
(maget) spoken of in the Pyramid Texts by which King
Pepy climbed to the sky, or the Gap in the Mountains
on the western bank of the Nile through which the
deceased made his way to glory. They seem to be
simply “joinings” or “paths” uniting earth to the
Gardens. The following passage from Renouf’s notes
on this chapter ( Book of the Dead, , p. 197) may throw
some light on the subject: “The Pyramid Texts furnish
some interesting information not contained in the Book
of the Dead. We are told that the approach to the
Garden is over the Lake of Putrata ; that there is a great
lake in the middle of the Garden of Hotepet, upon which
the great gods alight ; and that the starry deities (the
circumpolar stars that never set) there feed the departed
from the wood of life (lignum vita;), upon which they
themselves live, in order that he too may live.”

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

1 68

The Family Parties.

The chief interest lies in the row of personages
figured along the bottom of the wall directly under the
bier of the deceased, where Isis and Nephthys keep
watch. Sen-nezem and his wife are there seated, in the
right-hand corner, at the funeral feast, while all the
relations on both sides of the entrance approach them,
or face them. He holds an official baton ( kherp ) in his
right hand, and something like a folded cloth, usually
held by officials and kings, in the left. His wife, seated
beside him, embraces him affectionately : both have
unguent cones on their heads. To them the eldest son,
as An-mutf priest clad in panther-skin, is ministering,
by pouring a libation of water on a flower-bedecked
table before his father. Beside the chairs of the
couple are two children — a boy named Ra-nekhu, and a
girl, Hotepu, holding a pigeon and smelling a lotus. The
boy only is maakheru (triumphant), and presumably dead.
The parents are simply named “The Osiris, the Attend-
ant, etc., S. triumphant ; his sister (wife), mistress of the
house, Ai-nefer-ta, triumphant.” The action of the son
is described: “offering of everything good and pure to
thy Ka, in bread, cakes, beer, oxen, geese, water, upon
the table of flowers by the hand of thy son, Bu-nekht-f,
triumphant.” In front of the parents, which may mean
to their right hand, according to Egyptian ideas, another

[ I’o Jace page 10S.

The Family Parties.

THE FAMILY PARTIES

169

couple is seated side by side, clad like S. and his wife.
The man’s face is destroyed — he may not have been
a favourite. To them a son holds up a mimic sail, the
symbol of imparting air or breath, and pours water on
the father’s left hand holding a lotus flower which he is
evidently smelling. Beside the woman’s chair a girl, with
a cone on her head, kneels smelling a lotus. Her name
is “ Ta-am(?)-sen, triumphant.” We are not told how
this couple is related to Sen-nezem : the man is an
official like S., and is called “ The Osiris, Attendant,
etc., Tcha-ro (He of the Mouth?), triumphant”; and
the woman “his sister (wife), mistress of the house,
Ta-aa, triumphant.” The bearer of the sail is said to
be “ bringing air and water to thee, O Osiris Tcha-ro,
triumphant, by the hand of thy son Ro-ma, triumphant,
possessor of worth.” As many as four chapters (1 i v. -
lvii. inch) of the Book of the Dead deal with “giving
air to the deceased ” after death ; this scene and inscrip-
tion may be referred, probably, to chapter lvii., “The
chapter of snuffing air, and of having the mastery (taking
possession) of water in the Underworld.”

Still another group sits further to the left, a man
holding baton and cloth like the others, with two women
sitting beside him, on whose head a man is placing the
unguent-cone which the women already wear. By the
chair of the second woman, whose face is destroyed, a
girl (name not given) kneels smelling a lotus. The man
is a functionary called an “ Ash (attendant ?) of Amon

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

170

in the Town of the South (Luxor? or Domain of the
God), Kha-benkhet, triumphant ” ; and the first woman
behind him is “ His sister, mistress of the house, Ta-hen-ta
(taui?), triumphant”; while the second woman’s relation-
ship to the man is not disclosed, she is simply “ mistress
of the house, Ru-su, triumphant.” Was she an “unofficial
wife ” ? The man who adjusts the cone is “ Thy son, whom
thou lovest, Ro-ma, triumphant.”

Across the entrance, on the lower part of the wall,
the scene is continued in a row of eleven men and women
(two pairs seated), with a girl and two children. They
are all assisting at the scenes on the other side. The
first couple is seated, smelling the lotus and holding the
folded cloth ; the woman’s face is partially gone ; both
wear cones. She is less amply clad than all the other
women : her name is, “His sister, whom he loves, Mesu,
triumphant.” The man is “Osiris, Tu-tu-aa, triumphant,
possessor of worth, beautiful in rest.” A girl carrying
bouquets, who stands beside the woman’s chair, is “Ta-aa,
triumphant.” The man behind, whose face is destroyed,
is “the Osiris, the Attendant, etc., on the West of
Thebes, Kha-benkhet, triumphant”; and his wife behind
him is “ His sister, whom he loves, mistress of the house,
Sah, triumphant.” She seems to have been called after
Orion. Beside her chair is a girl carrying a tall
bouquet and sistrum : she is “ Henut-urt (great mistress),
triumphant.” The man standing with a garland and a
palm-leaf (?) is called “ Bu-nekht-f, triumphant ” ; the man

[To face page 170.

The Family Parties.

A SARCOPHAGUS-SHAPED TOMB

i/i

carrying a bird and a garland is “ Ra-hotep, triumphant ” ;
the tall woman with a flask in her left hand is Arut-nefer,
triumphant ” ; the two men standing side by side, one
with a bird, the other with a palm leaf, are Ivhonsu and
Ra-mes, both “triumphant,” the latter also “possessor
of worth ” ; and the two men bringing up the rear are
An-hotep and Ra-nekhu ; lastly, a tallish girl, standing
at the very back with garlands and flowers, is Sen-nu (?).

The relationship of all these persons to Sen-nezem
is unknown, except perhaps Ivhonsu and Ra-hotep.

The Tomb Sarcophagus-shaped.

It has been said above that the tomb-chamber is in
the shape of a sarcophagus, with a rounded top. In
keeping with this form, bands of inscriptions corresponding
to those found on coffins run longitudinally and trans-
versely on the walls and ceiling. The frieze above the
entrance reads : “ A royal offering may Hat-hor, the

President of the Mountain (Western Cemetery) grant,
and the gods and goddesses that are in the Under-
world, may they grant a going into and a coming out
of the Underworld, and no repulsion at the gates of the
Duat, for the Iva of the Osiris, the Attendant, etc., that is
on the West of Thebes, S. triumphant.” A similar prayer
is on the opposite side : “ A royal offering may Ra-Horus-
on-the-horizons, Turn, lord of the Two Lands of Annu,

172

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

grant — may (he) give to thee the glories of the sky and
might on (em) earth, and to be maakheru (triumphant) in
the Underworld, to journey in front of the gods; mayst
thou lay hold on the bows of the Sekhet boat (sun’s
evening boat) and the stern of the Madet (morning) boat,
for the Ka of the Assistant, etc., S. triumphant.”

Down the centre of the ceiling another similar invoca-
tion runs: “A royal offering may Osiris, Un-nefer, President
of the West, First-born son of the Gods, Father of all the
gods to eternity, Lord of Auker (a name for the Under-
world), King of Upper and of Lower Egypt, Prince of
everlastingness, Ptah-Sekeri, Lord of the Hidden Place,
grant thou to me air and water, (to) the Osiris Attendant,
etc., S. triumphant.”

On many coffins, at the shoulders and the side-ends,
figures of Thoth supporting the sky or opening the doors
of the four winds, to give air to the deceased, with a text
from chapter clxi. of the Book of the Dead ' are represented.
Here, similarly, at top and bottom, on both sides of the
vaulted roof, are the names (and one figure) of Thoth,
such as “ Thoth, Lord of the Divine words (hieroglyphic
writing),” “ Lord of Khemennu,” or simply “ Thoth,” with
the name of Sen-nezem associated with them.

Also, as on many coffins, there are three cross-bands on
either side of the ceiling, the middle one being reserved for
Anubis, and reading, “ The worthy before (feal to) Anpu,
the Osiris S. triumphant.” The other two, on the side
opposite the entrance, are for Hapi and Oebhsennuf ; and

THE DOORWAY

173

the corresponding two, on the side above the doorway, are
for Mestha (Amset) and Duamutf. These are the four
children of Horus, to whom were committed the keeping,
in the so-called Canopic jars, of the various internal organs
(embalmed) of the body.

Ti-ie Doorway.

The small doorway is worthy of attention. On the
ceiling is painted the red disc of the sun being raised up,
at sunrise, from the eastern horizon, by the arms of the
goddess Nut. The inscription in front of Sen-nezem
reads : “ The adoration of Ra, when he rises in the horizon
of the Eastern mountain of the sky, by the Osiris, the
Attendant, etc., S. triumphant : saith he, Hail to thee, as
thou risest from Nu, enlightening the Two Lands. After
he (thou) has come forth the entire company of the gods
sing praises ” — ends abruptly.

On the left thickness of the entrance the two Lions of
Yesterday and To-morrow sit back to back, with the sun
on the horizon between them. In chapter xvii., Book of
the Dead , the deceased says, “ I am Yesterday, and I know
the Morrow ” ; and he probably means that being now an
Osiris and therefore divine, all time is known and open
before him. The text here given is a part of that chapter,
and begins with the column to the right : —

“Who, then, is this? It is Ra in the beginning

174

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

Ra it was who rose (appeared) as king ... as king of
Suten-henen (Heracleopolis Magna), in . . . (when)
had not come into being the pillars of Shu (supporting
the sky), "hen he was upon the ... of Khemennu.
Behold he hath destroyed the children of the sovereign
princes upon the . . . land of Khemennu. I am
the great god that created himself, even Nu, the
waters of the sky ; he is the father of all the gods.
Otherwise said : It is Ra who created his name [to be]
the company of the gods. What, then, is this? It is
Ra who hath created the name of his limbs who
became these gods that are in the following of Ra. I
am he who is not driven back among the gods. What,
then, is that? It is Turn” — ends here.

Opposite, on the right, is the scene of the cat slaying
the serpent Apep, at the persea tree, also taken from
the same chapter. It is really the continuation of the
last part. The inscription begins with the outside
column : —

“ Otherwise said : At his rising of the horizon of
sky. I know the Morrow. What, then, is that?
That which belongs to Yesterday is Osiris, that
which belongs to the Morrow is Ra, on the day
of the slaughter of the enemies of Neb-er-tcher
(Lord of Completeness, the Inviolable One, a name
of Osiris), and when he made his son Horus a
Ruler. Otherwise said : On the day of holding the
festival (?) of the meeting of the dead body (i.e. at

THE DOORWAY

the burial) of Osiris, and of his father Ra ; and
he did battle with the gods, and Osiris commanded
all the people (combatants). What, then, is this?
It is Amentet, that hath made the souls of the gods
when Osiris commanded as lord of the Mountain
of Amentet. Otherwise said: It is Amentet” —
ends here.

It will be noticed that this text has no connection with
the picture of the cat slaying the serpent : that occurs
further on in the chapter, when the deceased says, “ I
am the Cat which fought (?) hard by the persea tree
in Heliopolis, on that night of battle when the foes of
Neb-er-tcher (Osiris) were exterminated.”

List of Persons Named.

I. On Wooden Door of Tomb ( Cairo Museuin).

5-
6.

10.

2. Sen-nezem and his wife Ai-nefer-ta or Ai-nefer.
Her daughter Aru-nefer.

The /Attendant in the True Place, Kha-benkhet.
His (S.’s) brother Pa-kha-ru.

Ra-hotep (no relationship indicated).

Khonsu do.

Ra-mes do.

An-hotep do.

Ra-nekhu do.

176

TWO THEBAN OFFICIALS

1 1. On the Funeral Sledge.

1. 2. Sen-nezem and his wife Ai-nefer-ta.

3. His son Kha-benkhet.

4. Her daughter Ar-nefer.

5. His son Bu-nekht.

6. Her daughter A-ash-sen.

7. His son Ra-hotep.

8. . . . daughter (name lost).

9. His son Khonsu.

10. His son Ra-messu.
r 1. His son An-hotep.

12. His son Ra-nekhtu.

TOMB OF PA-SHEDU.

This tomb, known as No. 2, at Der el Medineh, lies
higher up the hill, towards the North, very near the
present guardians’ shelter. It consists of three rock-
cut chambers in a line, the entrance to which is by
a mud-brick flight of steps. The first two chambers
have been devastated ; the innermost chamber, decorated
on entrance, sides, and vaulted roof, is a smaller room
than Sen-nezem’s, and not quite so well executed or
preserved. From an account published in the Proceedings
of the Society of Biblical Archceology (vol. xxiii., 360, 361)
it appears that it was known to the natives many years
ago, and had been plundered prior to its being opened by
Mr Howard Carter in 1900. An illustration from the
tomb, there given, shows the owner, Pa-shedu, also an
“Attendant in the True Place on the West of Thebes,”
bowing down to the ground, under a date-palm tree with
fruit, on a canal bank. His attitude is there compared
with that of a Mohammedan at prayer ; and in Baedeker
he is described as “lying on the ground below a palm
tree and praying.” This is a mistake, as will be seen
later. There are no scenes of feasting depicted on the

177 M

i;3

TOMB OF PA-SIIEDU

wall, as has been asserted in the article alluded to above :
the representations are entirely religious in character.
The fragments of inscribed stones lying at the back of
the chamber are portions of the stele — not of the
sarcophagus — which covered the lower part of the end-
wall. A limestone table for offerings, the only object
found in the tomb when re-opened, is inscribed with the
name of Men-na, a son of Pa-shedu, who was also an
Attendent in the necropolis, like his father, and who is
mentioned in the tomb, which is certainly not of so late
a date as the xxvi. Dynasty.

In the doorway, with an cut-arch roof, on either side,
are painted two jackals, seated on the tomb and facing
outwards, as guardians. On the left side the inscription
Mves : —

“Words said by Anpu, who is in Ut (place of
embalmment), great god that is in Neterkhert : I
bring before thee the Attendant, etc., Pa-shedu.
May the gods of the Duat receive thee ; may they
say, Come in peace ... of the Duat. Hail to thee,
Ra, when he rises ; thou givest him worship in his
setting in life, the Attendant, etc., P. triumphant : the
son Menna, born of the mistress of the house Huy,
triumphant.”

On the risfht side somewhat similar words occur : —

“ Words said : Anpu, Chief of the divine house
(the tomb) [I ?] have given power (?) to his two hands
to be near the qerert (a division of the Underworld)

Pa-shedu and his Wife adoring the Divine Falcon.

[To face junje ITS.

ADORING THE DIVINE EALCON

i/9

. . . the enemies of Osiris, the Attendant, etc., P.
I have given to thee thy abode in the secret way of
the . . . mayst thou come forth and enter with Ra,
and stretch thy limbs on the path to eternity, the
Osiris, P. triumphant.”

Down to the middle of the ceiling of the entrance,
beginning at the outer edge, is the following : —

“The Attendant in the True Place, the Servant
of the Storehouse of Amon in the City of the South
(Luxor ?), Pa-shedu ” — rest broken.

From this we learn that in addition to being an official
in the Western Necropolis, Pa-shedu held an honourable
post in the service of Amon in Thebes.

Left Wall (South).

Almost the whole of the wall on the left hand is
occupied by the deceased and his wife adoring the
Divine Falcon or Hawk, with a long text from chap.
Ixxviii., Book of the Dead, , w'hich is entitled, “ Chapter of
making' the transformation into a divine falcon.” Behind
the couple, on the end-wall next the entrance, are three
row's of relatives, who assist at the scene. When a person
recited this chapter, or what to the pious Egyptian was the
same thing, if he could point to it written on the wall
before him, it became “a word of power,” he could assume
the form of the sacred bird, viz., Ra himself, and could fly

i8o

TOMB OF PA-SHEDU

whithersoever he pleased, or, as it is given in the opening
words of the chapter, “could make the round of all his
dwelling-places” in the sanctuaries of Osiris and Ra.
Hence the deceased is not only identified with Osiris but
also with Ra, the summit of divine being and excellence.
In the Papyrus of Ani (British Museum) the falcon is
shown, as here, holding a large flagellum or whip in token
of sovereignty. Pa-shedu and his sister-wife hold up their
hands in adoration, the usual attitude of prayer and adora-
tion— not bending to the ground like the figure under the
palm tree, — and their invocation of fifty columns of varying
length begins at the further end of the wall. Behind the
couple, on the entrance wall, are three rows of relatives,
all joining in the adoration of the Divine Falcon. The
invocation is broken in parts, and the signs are not always
clear, but it may be given thus : —

“ Chapter of making the transformations (forms) of
the sacred falcon. Words said by the Osiris, the
Attendant, etc., P. triumphant : Hail, great God,
Come now to Dadu ! Make thou plain to me the
ways ; let me go the round of my seats. Behold thou
me, exalt me, O grant me terror,1 and create thou fear
of me in the gods of the Duat that they fight for me
and their halls (battlements, Renouf) be on my side.
Let [not] approach . . . me in the house of Darkness,
he that takes possession of the Feeble One (the dead) —
hidden is his name — doing even as they (?) O gods,
1 I.e. the faculty of inspiring terror.

ADORING THE DIVINE FALCON

1S1

ye that hear the voice, ye chiefs that are in Nehu in
the following of Osiris : keep ye silence, then, gods,
when the gods speak with a god who is hearing
Truth. What I have said to him say thou, Osiris.
Grant thou [to me] that I may go the round and
come forth according to thy mouth (word) concerning
me, and see thy very forms of thyself and the disposi-
tions of thy souls (powers). Grant thou that I may
come forth and have the power of my two feet, (viz.) of
the Runners, upon my pedestal, like the lord of life ;
may I be united unto Isis, the divine lady; may they
preserve (?) me — (hole here) — . . . injure me; may
no one come that he may see me feeble (dead). May
I travel on and come ... of the sky. I exchange
words with Seb ; I make prayers for food to Neb-er-
tcher (Osiris), that the gods of the Duat may fear me
and their halls fight for me when they see thy festival
provision (of fish and fowl) for me. One ( I am] of
these khus (glorified spirits) that are in shining light.
I have made [my] transformations (forms) like his,
when he cometh to Dadu. I am sahu (endowed or
invested) with the soul of him who has told thee my
affairs.

0 may he grant me terror, and create fear of me
in the gods of the Duat, and their halls be on my
side !

1 am he that dwelleth with the Shining One,
created and come into being from the gods. I am

I 82

TOMB OF PA-SHEDU

One of those glorified Ones who dwell with the
Shining Ones, whom Turn has himself created, who
have come into being from the flower (apple) of his
eye : he hath made to exist, and hath made glorious,
he hath made great the face ( i.e . he has honoured)
of those who are to be with him. Behold, he is the
Only One in Nu (waters of the sky), and they do
him homage as he cometh forth from the horizon,
and they impart the dread of him to the gods and
the Shining Ones who are (come into being) with
him. I am one of the worms which the Eye, Lady
unique, hath created. Behold . . . Isis came into
being, who bore Horus : I grew old, and became
great (honoured) beyond those who were among
the Shining Ones, who came into being with him.
Then I arose (appeared) as the Divine Falcon,
and Horus made sahu of me with his soul, in
order to take possession of his goods of Osiris
at the Duat. And the twin lion-god spake to
me — he who is the chief of the keepers of the temple of
the 7 lemnies crown (wig head-dress) which is in its cave
— get thee back to the furthest bounds of the sky :
inasmuch as thou art sahu in thy forms of Horus,
the nevimes crown is not for thee. Lo ! the words
that are thine [go] to the furthest bounds of the sky.
I the keeper took possession of the things of Horus
belonging to Osiris at the Duat. And Horus
repeated to me what his father Osiris had said to

ADORING THE DIVINE FALCON

183

him in the years of the days (probably an expression
for long past time) of the burial (of Osiris). To
me the nemmes crown [is given] by the twin lion-god,
even to me ; pass thou on, and go thou upon the
paths of the sky, and those that dwell at the furthest
bounds of the horizon [will] see thee, and the gods
of the Duat have dread of thee, and their halls fight —
(hole here) -prostrate at the words of all the gods . . .
funeral chest . . . the nemmes crown . . . the twin
lion-god to me, and A-hecl to me — to the furthest
bounds, keeper of the shrine of the Lord of Oneness
. . . I conciliate the god, the fair god, Lord of the two
uraei ... I have made a way, I am exalted — (hole) — •
not repulsed am I by the bull that rages, I pass
onwards ; he hath established my heart through his
back (twice ?) and through strength — (hole) — . . .
darkness and suffering ones of Amentet. O Osiris,
I have followed. ... I, even I, know the paths of
Nu — (hole)— great god. I am a sahn by Horus
with his soul, to wherever there is a dead body over-
thrown (a wreck) before the Field of Eternity — (hole)
— [the things] Horus of Osiris at the Duat. I [am]
daily in the house of Turn, the Lion-god — (hole) —
in the house of Isis, the divine one, to behold glorious
secret things. I have seen that which is in it —
. . . — near the great ones of Shu, they answer in a
moment. I take possession of the things [of Horus] :
I, even I am Horus, who is in the Shining One :

184

TOMB OF PA-SHEDU

I have command over his sesked crown, I have
command over his brightness, and I go forward
to the uttermost paths of the sea. Horus is upon
his seat, Horus is upon his throne. My face is
as [that of] the divine falcon, my back (strength)
is as that of the divine falcon, I am equipped [as]
his lord. I come forth to Dadu that I may see
Osiris, I bow myself on his two hands (perhaps, to
his right and left), not [probably a blunder] do I
bow myself to Nut : they see me, the gods see me
[and] Horus, the Eye of himself . . . Khenti-n-maati
(a title of Horus, said of him when his eyes cannot
be seen) . . . they stretch out their two arms to
me, and I stand up a master, who repel the faces
of the strong assailants, and lead along the stars
which rest (set) and make the paths holy (plain) of
the Hemati for the Lord (lit. lady) of the soul Great
of Terrors. Horus has ordered that ye lift up your
faces and behold me. Thou (I) hast risen like a
divine falcon, and Horus hath made me sahu with
his soul, to take possession of his things of Osiris at
the Duat. I have bound up the gods (?) with long
tresses, I have passed on to the guardians of their
den ” — ends abruptly.

Pa-shedu and his wife are accompanied by two children,
a boy and a girl, who are also adoring the divine falcon.
The name of the head of the family is behind his wig, “ the
Osiris, Pa-shedu, triumphant”; his wife’s name is in the

Pa-shedu’s Relatives adoring the Divine Falcon.

[To Jacc page 1S5.

THE RELATIONS

185

column between the pair, “His sister1 (wife), whom he
loves, mistress of the house, Nezemt-behudet, triumphant.”
The son, a stripling, is nude, and stands beside his father,
wearing the lock of youth: “his son, Aapeht-na, trium-
phant” ; the girl, down in the corner, is a grand-daughter,
showing three curious tufts of hair on her head very
similar to what one sees among the fellahin children
to-day, holds up her left hand and carries a bouquet in her
right: “daughter of his daughter (not ‘son’2) Ur-
nu-ro (?).”

Behind this group, on the end-wall, are three rows of
relatives, in the train of Pa-shedu, all adoring the divine
falcon. The leader of the top row is an aged man
wearing a white wig. It is Pa-shedu’s father, not himself
“now grey-headed”: the inscription says, “His father
Bak-en-Amon-Menna," triumphant.” Next comes a
woman with long black wig : “His wife, mistress of
the house, Huy.” It is not said that she was Pa-shedu’s
mother. Then a man with shaven head, and naked almost
to the waist, “ keeper or overseer in the storehouse of
Amon, Nefer-sekheru ” (good at plans) : followed by “ his
son Pa-her-t, triumphant,” and by the last in the row, face
broken, “his son Pen-Amon.”

The leader of the second row is also grey-headed. He
is the wife’s father, “her father, head of the Usekht boat of

1 P .S.B.A., xxiii., p. 360 : “there is no mention of a wife.” The wife was
called a “sister.”

2 Article quoted above.

3 “ Menna, the falcon of Amon.

TOMB OF PA-SHEDU

1 86

Amon, Tchai, triumphant” — his name means “ the man”
par excellence; then come “his sister (wife), mistress of
the house, Set-tha, triumphant ” ; “ her daughter, mistress
of the house, Uaa (the Boat)”; another woman, “her
daughter Urnu-ro, triumphant” — the same name as the
girl beside Pa-shedu’s wife ; and the last person, a woman,
in this row is also “her daughter Any, triumphant.”

In the bottom row we have Pa-shedu’s grown-up sons
and daughters : first, “ His son, whom he loves, Pen-duau
(He that gives praises), triumphant”; behind him are
three women and a man, the woman first, “ His daughter,
Huy, triumphant”; next, “His son, whom he loves,
Amon-em-ant, triumphant”; “his daughter, Nub-nefert
(Good Gold) ; and last, “ mistress of the house, Thent-
nub . . . triumphant.”

A row of deities, facing outwards, whom Pa-shedu is
also adoring, is shown above the long invocation to the
sacred falcon. The first is “Osiris, chief of Amentet, Un-
nefer, Lord of the Sacred Land, King to Eternity and
evermore [in] Neterkhert : with his hand he makes the
Khertu glorious (?) in the Duat, Lord of Ro-setau.” Next
comes “ Isis, great divine Mother, Lady of the Sky,
Mistress of all the gods ” ; behind her, “ Nut, great mother-
that-bore the gods, the Eye of Ra ; there is not her equal,
fair of face, mistress of all the gods”; next, the god Nu,
with red face, and name on head — three water-pots over
the sign for sky, meaning “ the waters of the sky ” — “ Nu,
great god, lord of the Sky, ruler of all the gods, he who

THE LITANY OF THE SUN

187

created himself”; further on is Nephthys, “ Nebt-het,
Mistress (protectress) of all lands, Eye of Ra, President of
Aukert (a name for the Underworld)”; then Seb, with a
speckled goose ( seb ) on his head, “Seb, father of the gods,
first creator of all the gods, great god”; behind him is
Anubis, “ Anpu, that is in Ut, great god that is in
Neterkhert ” ; and last, another jackal - headed god,
“ Uapuat of the South, Power of the Two Lands, Great
God that is among the company ( puat ) of the gods.”

Immediately above the last-named god begins a long
inscription on the ceiling ; it forms part of chapter clxxx.1
of the Book of the Dead , and begins : —

“ Chapter of coming forth from Day, of adoring
Ra in Amentat ; of giving praises to those that are
in the Duat, of opening a way to the perfect Soul
(mighty Khu) in the Underworld, of granting him
to walk, of entering in to the Underworld, and of
making the transformations into (taking the form
of) a living soul, by the Osiris, Attendant, etc., P.
triumphant. Ra it is that setteth as Osiris with
all the splendours (risings, diadems) of the Shining
Ones and of the gods of the Amentet. They give
praises to him the divine image, the One, the hidden
(things) of the Duat, the sacred soul that dwells in
Amentet, he that exists for ever eternally.

1 “This chapter does not properly belong to the Book of the Dead. It is
part of a book engraved at the entrance of nearly all the tombs of the kings,
the so-called Litany of the Sun.” — Naville, Book of the Dead, p. 367.

iSS

TOMB OF PA-SHEDU

“ Offerings of praise before (to) thee that art in
the Duat ! Thy son Horus, he rests in thee; thou
hast spoken to him the decree of words ; grant thou
that he may rise (be glorious) upon the dwellers in
the Duat [as] a great star (god), bringing the things
that are his to the Duat, travelling within it, a son
of Ra that proceedeth from Tumu.

“Offerings of praise to thee that art in the Duat !
Throne 1 that is in the upper sky, of his sceptre, King
of the Duat, King of Aukert, great prince of the
Urert crown (double crown), great god who hides
his abode, Lord (lit. lady) of weighing words, overlord
of his sovereign chiefs.

“ Offerings of praise to thee that art in the Duat !
Tables of offerings to thee ! lo ! offerings of praise
to thee that art in the Duat ! They (probably the
Divine Mourners, Isis and Nephthys) wail for thee;
with their hands they make supplication (?) to thee ;
they cry aloud to thee ; they weep [before] thee.
Thy soul rejoices ; thou glorifiest (?) thy dead body ;
exalted is the soul of Ra in Amentet ; [they] shout
for thee2 ... in the qart (division) of the soul of Ra
that is in the Duat. [Thy] body and soul are at rest
in Duat ; the soul of Denden 3 is at rest in Duat ; his

1 The text seems to be imperfect here.

- The text seems to be imperfect here.

3 Den-den, “ the mighty or valorous one” ; the name of the guardian demon
of Pylon 9, Tomb of Kha-em-uast ( Two Theban Princes , p. 42).

TIIE PALM TREE SCENE

189

souls1 . . . Hail! Ra, I am the servant of thy temple
— brave ( sekhem ) of heart— in thy divine dwelling ; thou
hast uttered thy commands ; grant thou that I may
shine among those that are in the Duat, [like] a great
star, bringing what belongs to him to the Duat and
journeying in it, a son of Ra proceeding from Turn.

“ I rest in the Duat ; I am master of the darkness,
I enter into it, and I come forth from it. The arms of
Ta-tunen receive me, and ye who are at rest (the
blessed) raise me up ; give ye your hands to me ; I
know ” — ends here abruptly.

The Palm Tree Scene.

This scene, showing Pa-shedu bending low on a
canal bank, with his face to the ground under a date-
palm, has been erroneously described as Pa-shedu praying.
The scene is rather an illustration of chapters lvii. to
lxiii. a of the Book of the Dead , which refer to drinking-
water in the Underworld. The vignettes which usually
accompany these chapters represent the deceased either
taking up water with his hands from a canal or stream
into his mouth, or kneeling by the side of a canal and
receiving water from the goddess of the sycamore, as
we have seen in Sen-nezem’s Tomb. The scene before
us begins on the right side (top) of the arched entrance
(looking outwards), where Pa-shedu, kneeling, is receiving

1 The text seems to be imperfect here.

190

TOMB OF PA-SHEDU

water in his hands from a goddess in a fruit-laden tree
(she is growing out of it), which rises from a canal bank,
the end of which is directly behind the back of Pen-Amon,
the last figure in the top row of relatives. On the canal
bank a minute figure of a woman in a white robe is also
kneeling, receiving fruit from the tree. She is Pa-shedu’s
wife, as the words below the canal show, “ Mistress of
the house, Nezem-behud.” The scene extends to the
left wall across the entrance : the canal is really the same
on both sides. Unfortunately the beginning of the text
of the chapter is destroyed, but from another tomb in
the vicinity, recently discovered, which the author was
permitted to see, where a similar scene is depicted, the
chapter here given seems to be chapter lxiii. a, entitled,
“Chapter of drinking water in the Underworld, and of
not being burned by fire,” with variations, combined with
chapter lxii. In the Tomb alluded to there are two
texts, one beginning, “Chapter of drinking water by the
side of a palm-tree ( mama ),” and another, “Chapter of
drinking water by the side of a bena (? date-palm) tree.”
Here the first signs legible are “water,” and the inscrip-
tion goes on : —

“ In the Underworld and not being burned by fire,
[by] the Osiris, Attendant, etc., P. triumphant : May
the great (one) of heart (perhaps a source of water)
be open ; and unlocked be the cooling streams of
Hapi, Lord of the Horizon, in his name of coverer
(pens) of thy (sic) land ; may I be master of the

Pa-shedu under the Palm-tree.

[To face page 190.

THE PALM TREE SCENE

191

water of Setekh (the god). I sail the sky, I am
the Double Lion-God, I am Ra, I am the young
Bull ; it is I who eat the flesh of the heir (au 11 ua) ;
I divide (?) the haunch, I go round the pools of the
Garden of Aaru ; there has been given to me eternity —
it has no bounds. Lo ! I am the heir of eternity;
[it] has been given to the heir of eternity.”
Some passages from chap. liv. now come in. “I
watch over (?) that great thing1 [which] Seb hath
severed from the earth. I live, it lives ; I grow
old, it lives ; I snuff the breezes, I am joined to
Abat (?)... I go round (behind) to protect his
eo-o-s. I have shone at the moment of Horus and

o o

the night of Set. Hail ! ye that are pleasant to
the two lands with celestial food, who are in the
lapis lazuli (the blue of the sky), keep guard over
him who is in his nest, the old man 2 ( nekhekh ) who
cometh forth ”• — ends abruptly.

Right Wall (North).

Near the corner, next the entrance, Pa-shedu stands,
wearing a black wig and holding both hands up in adora-
tion of four gods enthroned. Above is the text: “The
Osiris, the Attendant, etc., on the West of Thebes, P.
triumphant.” Beside him is his young daughter, called

1 “The egg that springs from the back of Seb.” — Renouf.

2 Det , an old man leaning on his staff.

192

TOMB OF PA-SHEDU

Nub-nefert : she is nude, holding both hands up like her
father ; long curls hang down her back. The gods are
(1) “ Ra-Horus, living, of the two horizons, great god, who
rests in Aukert.” He wears a cobra-encircled sun-disc,
and holds ankh and user. (2) “Turn (Tmu, red, man’s
face, with blue beard), lord of the two lands of Annu, god
unique, resting upon Maat , in his name of Prince of Annu,
Lord of the Red Crown, Prince of the Urert Crown, Chief
of the Sacred Land.” (3) “ Khepera (with a beetle-head),
Master of his bark, Weigher of words that become gods,
Lord of manifold births and forms, He that gives birth to
his own body, great god.” And (4) “ Ptah, Lord of Truth,
King of the Two Lands, Fair of countenance, upon his
great throne, august god, beloved, exalted, creator of ever-
lastingness, creator of Mankind, giving birth to the gods,
Master of the Craftsmen of every work of Man, He who
makes the Two Lands live.” Here there is a laro-e Dad

with horns and feathers, eyes, arms, and whips.

Immediately above the row of gods just described there
is another, similar to that on the South wall, which is
worshipped on bended knee by Pa-shedu’s son, Menna, who
kneels at the corner of the wall near the stern of the boat
of Ra which is over the door. He, the son, is simply
“ His son, Menna, triumphant.” The gods are : (1) “Osiris,
Chief of Amentet, Un-nefer, King of the Living, Lord of
Eternity, Maker of Everlastingness, Neterkhert (the
Underworld) is in his hand”; (2) “ Thoth (Tehuti), Lord
of Khemennu (Hermopolis), great god, He that is Lord of

ADORING FOUR GREAT GODS

193

Hesert (a district of Upper Egypt), Lord of Eternity,
Maker of Everlastingness, [his] duration (course) is within
the Duat, Master of his sceptre (? wood-palette), the
circuit ( shenen ) is in his hand (control ?) ” ; (3) Hat-hor,
holding a sistrum, is simply “ Het-heru (House of Horus),
Protectress of Thebes, Lady of the sky, Mistress of the
Two Lands”; (4) “ Ra-Hor-Khuti (on the two horizons),
great god”; (5) the goddess Neith, with a dark blue
shuttle on her head, “ Neith, great divine Mother, Lady of
the sky, Mistress of the gods” ; (6) the goddess Serqet, with
the basket ornament, instead of a scorpion, on her head,
“Lady of the sky, Mistress of the Two Lands”; (7)
“ Anubis (Anpu), president of the Divine dwelling (the
tomb), great god”; and “ Uap-uat of the South, Power of
the Two Lands, great god, Lord of the sky.”

As on the other side above the gods, there is here also
a long text from the Book of the Dead, , part of chapter
clxxxi. It begins at the entrance end : —

“ Chapter of entering in before the sovereign chiefs
of Osiris and the gods who are the guides of the
Duat, the guardians of their halls, ye (sic) the heralds
of their arits, the doorkeepers of the pylons [of
Amentet], and of making the transformation (taking
the form) of a living soul, and of praising Osiris, and
becoming (as) a Prince of the sovereign chiefs : said
by the Osiris, Attendant, etc., P. ; Hail to thee, who
art the Chief of Amentet, Un-nefer, Lord of the
Sacred Land, thou shinest (risest) like Ra ; verily he

192

TOMB OF PA-SHEDU

Nub-nefert : she is nude, holding both hands up like her
father ; long curls hang down her back. The gods are
(i) “ Ra-Horus, living, of the two horizons, great god, who
rests in Aukert.” He wears a cobra-encircled sun-disc,
and holds ankh and user. (2) “Turn (Tmu, red, man’s
face, with blue beard), lord of the two lands of Annu, god
unique, resting upon Jlfaat, in his name of Prince of Annu,
Lord of the Red Crown, Prince of the Urert Crown, Chief
of the Sacred Land.’’ (3) “ Khepera (with a beetle-head),
Master of his bark, Weigher of words that become gods,
Lord of manifold births and forms, He that gives birth to
his own body, great god.” And (4) “ Ptah, Lord of Truth,
King of the Two Lands, Fair of countenance, upon his
great throne, august god, beloved, exalted, creator of ever-
lastingness, creator of Mankind, giving birth to the gods,
Master of the Craftsmen of every work of Man, He who
makes the Two Lands live.” Here there is a largfe Dad
with horns and feathers, eyes, arms, and whips.

Immediately above the row of gods just described there
is another, similar to that on the South wall, which is
worshipped on bended knee by Pa-shedu’s son, Menna, who
kneels at the corner of the wall near the stern of the boat
of Ra which is over the door. He, the son, is simply
“ His son, Menna, triumphant.” The gods are : (1) “ Osiris,
Chief of Amentet, Un-nefer, King of the Living, Lord of
Eternity, Maker of Everlastingness, Neterkhert (the
Underworld) is in his hand”; (2) “ Thoth (Tehuti), Lord
of Khemennu ( Hermopolis), great god, He that is Lord of

ADORING FOUR GREAT GODS

193

Hesert (a district of Upper Egypt), Lord of Eternity,
Maker of Everlastingness, [his] duration (course) is within
the Duat, Master of his sceptre (? wood-palette), the
circuit ( shenen ) is in his hand (control ?) ” ; (3) Hat-hor,
holding a sistrum, is simply “ Het-heru (House of Horus),
Protectress of Thebes, Lady of the sky, Mistress of the
Two Lands” ; (4) “ Ra-Hor-Ivhuti (on the two horizons),
great god”; (5) the goddess Neith, with a dark blue
shuttle on her head, “ Neith, great divine Mother, Lady of
the sky, Mistress of the gods ” ; (6) the goddess Serqet, with
the basket ornament, instead of a scorpion, on her head,
“Lady of the sky, Mistress of the Two Lands”; (7)
“ Anubis (Anpu), president of the Divine dwelling (the
tomb), great god ” ; and “ Uap-uat of the South, Power of
the Two Lands, great god, Lord of the sky.”

As on the other side above the gods, there is here also
a long text from the Book of the Dead , part of chapter
clxxxi. It begins at the entrance end : —

“ Chapter of entering in before the sovereign chiefs
of Osiris and the gods who are the guides of the
Duat, the guardians of their halls, ye (sic) the heralds
of their arits , the doorkeepers of the pylons [of
Amentet], and of making the transformation (taking
the form) of a living soul, and of praising Osiris, and
becoming (as) a Prince of the sovereign chiefs : said
by the Osiris, Attendant, etc., P. : Hail to thee, who
art the Chief of Amentet, Un-nefer, Lord of the
Sacred Land, thou shinest (risest) like Ra ; verily he

194

TOMB OF PA-SHEDU

comes to see thee, and rejoices at beholding thy
beauties ; his aten (disc) is thy aten ; his rays are thy
rays ; his tirert (the two crowns of Egypt) is thy
urert ; his greatness (height) is thy greatness; his
shining thy shining ; his beauties are thy beauties ;
[his terrible power] is thy terrible power ; his odour is
thy odour ; his breadth is thy breadth ; thy seat is his
seat ; his throne is thy throne ; his kinsfolk (heir) is
thy kinsfolk ; his ornaments [are thy] ornaments ; [thy
judgement is his [judgment ; his] Ament is thy
[Ament] ; thy goods . . . his knowledge (?) is thy
knowledge ; his creations (so Naville) are thy crea-
tions ; as he is, so art thou ; as thou art, so is he ; he
dies not, thou 1 chest not ; he dies not ; [if] he
triumphs not over his enemies, thou dost not — [if] no
evil things happen to thee (him), neither will they
happen to thee for evermore and for ever.”

“ Hail to thee, Osiris, Son of Nut, Lord of the
Two Horns, exalted is his atef crown ; given to him
is the urert crown, and the heq , in the presence of the
Company of the Gods. Temu (the god) has created
his terrible power in the hearts of men and gods, and
the glorified of the dead ; given to him is the heq in
Annu ; he is great of forms in Dadu, the lord of dread
in the two Aats, great in might in Ro-setau, his
memory is fair in the Great House, [his] brightness
(risings)” — ends abruptly.

1 “he1’ in original, as in Papyrus of Qenna, which this text resembles.

ADORATION OF PTAH-SEKER IN HIS BOAT 195

Adoration of Ptah-Seker in his Boat.

This scene occupies the space above the entrance.
To the right, “ Ka-ha triumphant, his son, an Attendant
in the True Place on the West of Thebes,” kneels adoring ;
the corresponding figure is, as we have seen, another son,
Menna. They are not elsewhere named in the tomb.
Menna’s office is not mentioned, neither is that of the
other two sons, in the bottom row of relatives. The
falcon-god, above whose head is a large right-eye, is
described as “ Ptah-Sekeri, Lord of Truth of the Aat,
great god, Lord of Ro-setau, Chief of the Sacred Land.”
Above and behind the god is Ka-ha’s speech : —

“ I am come into thy presence, Lord of Truth ;
[thy] good name is established in the earth (the Two
Lands), [thou] traversest the sky, and enlightenest
the two lands ; maker of the qerti (caverns) of the
Shining Ones in the Duat ; Giver of Rest to
the gods.”

Union with Osiris.

The rear wall is the climax of the whole, where
supreme homage is paid to, and identification of Pa-shedu
made with, Osiris, the great god of the Underworld. On
either side of the central scene we have pictures of Pa-
shedu and his wife in boats. On the left side, the pair
appear as two mummy figures, probably the Ka statues

ig6

TOMB OF PA-SHEDU

on their way to the burial-place of Osiris at Abydos to
acquire sanctity by being placed in or near the tomb of
the god for a time, before being deposited in this tomb.
They sit in a pavilion without a canopy : he is red ail
over ; she is white from the neck. The names only are
given. On the right side, they sit in a pavilion in a
boat, probably on their voyage back from Abydos, both
clad in white, with the child Urnur beside them. A short
inscription near the bow of the boat says : —

“ Chapter of sailing to the house of Hat-hor (The
Necropolis)”; while above P., his office and name
are recorded ; and behind his wife we have, “ his
sister (wife), whom he loves, Mistress of the house,
Nezem-behudet, triumphant, and her son Menna,
triumphant.”

On the left of the Osiris scene is the “ Mountain of
the West,” the domain of Hat-hor — the region of the
departed ; to the right, Osiris, the Chief of Amentet
(Hidden Land), sits enthroned. Within the Mountain
of the West the departed Pa-shedu kneels, adoring the
great god, Osiris. Note that Pa-shedu is now with Osiris,
and faces the same way as the god : he is in the “ follow-
ing” of the god. Above is a falcon, probably the trans-
formed Pa-shedu, with white body, and green wings with
black bars. A large right-eye, furnished with arms and
hands, holds out over Pa - shedu kneeling behind Osiris
a bowl of incense with two flames ; this right-eye is
probably the Eye of Horus which he presented to his

UNION WITH OSIRIS

197

father Osiris, thereby providing the latter with a Soul
or Ba as an element in the reconstruction of the dead
god. Pa-shedu is here supposed to receive his Soul
likewise. In front of Osiris, a kneeling god, facing both
Osiris and Pa-shedu, also burns incense from a similar
bowl. This god has a green face, red body, and blue
wig. Osiris, with green face and body, wrapped in fine
white linen as usual, holds his customary heq (crook) and
whip ( nekkekh ).

The scene is partly described above, right half,
“ Chapter of kindling a fiame,” the title of chap, cxxxvii. a
or cxxxvii. b, Papyrus of Neb-seni, where the vignette shows
the hippo goddess Api, “lady of protection,” setting fire to
a bowl of incense. In the Turin Papyrus the deceased sits
between two burning bowls on either side of him, which
may account for the double fiame in both cases here. In
the Papyrus of Nu and in the Gardener’s (Sen-nofer’s)
Tomb at Thebes, four men, each holding a flame, offer
them to the deceased, who has been united to Osiris. And
it will be remembered that in the story of the divine birth
of Amon-hotep III. a reference occurs to the “kindling
of a flame,” which is associated with physical birth : here
there may be a similar reference to the new birth in the
Underworld before Osiris. Chap, cxxxvii. is entitled,
“Chapter of the Four Flames of the Shining Ones made
for a person ” : here we have the words,

“ Chapter of kindling a flame for the Iva of Osiris,
Chief of Amentet : Opened for thee (Pa-shedu) is the

TOMB OF PA-SHEDU

198

way in the darkness of night, in the abode that is in
eternity ; strong is thy heart for the breadth (?) of the
land ; Osiris is the Prince ( heq ) of the Company of the
gods, he is established before thee for ever.”

Over Osiris are his names and titles, thus : “ Osiris,
Chief of Amentet, Un-nefer, King of Living Ones, Lord of
Eternity, Prince of Everlastingness ; protection, life,
stability, power, all health and joy of heart.”

In the chapters cited above there are numerous refer-
ences to the “ Eye of Horus” here depicted. It was the
symbol of all good and perfect gifts, as being the most
precious thing Horus had to offer to his dead father
Osiris: "The eye of Horus is protecting thee”; "the
Eye of Horus sendeth forth rays like Ra ” ; " the Eye of
Horus is sound and well ” ; the “ Shining Eye of Horus ” ;
"the brilliant Eye of Horus comes”; "the Eye of Horus
liveth within the Great Hall”; etc. The "flower (our
‘apple’) of the eye” as a creative agent is mentioned
above.

This completes the apotheosis of Pa-shedu.

INDEX

Aah-mes, 5 ; queen, 9, 10, 1 1, 30, 32
Aaron’s Rod, 6
Abydos, temple, 67 n., 76
Alexander the Great, 3, 9 n., 26 ?i. ;

sanctuary at Luxor, 77
Altar, 67 n.

Amarna Leiters, 14
Ameni, Prince, 4

Amon, Amon-Ra, 1, 3 ; absorbs all
other gods but Osiris, 5, 6, 21 ;
equality with Ra, 7 ; as Father, 1,
5. 6, 7, 9. 1 5, 17, 36, 48, 5°, 5L 54,
55 ; council of gods at Der el Bahri,
19 ; and Thothmes IV., 21, 22 ; and
Thoth, 23 ; and Khnum, 26 ;
receives the child, 35, 36, 52 ;
Father, Lord of the gods, 58 ; cul-
mina'ion of his power, 15 ; glorifica-
tion of, 99

Amon, son of, 3, 4, 6 ; august god, 25,
48, 100, 105
Amon-em-hat III., 4
Amon-hotep, architect, 97
Amon-hotep I., 10, 11, 131
Amon-hotep II., 13, 39, 131
Amon-hotep III, 3, 7, 13, 42, 43,
48 ; miraculous birth of, 1-17 ; his
mother an Egyptian, 14 ; devotee
of Amon, 14 ; reasons for his divine
birth, 14, 15 ; Prince of Thebes, 26,
34, 53, 57, 59, 7b 73 i mother-
in-law, 54 n. ; and Mut, 69 ; name
unmutilated, 73 n. ; built Soleb, 74,
199

75,77; on “staircase,” 83, 115, 131 ;
presented to Amon-Ra, 35, 36, 63,

'3i

Amon-hotep IV. (Khu-en-aten), son of
A. III., by an Egyptian mother. 15 ;
not debarred from throne by his
mother’s birth, 16 ; devotee of
Amon at first, r6 : revived old
Heliopolitan sun-worship, 16; toler-
ated Turn, 16 ; motive for revolt
against Amon, 17 ; resents Amon’s
identification with Ra, 17 ; crusade
against Amon-cult, 17 ; believed in
his own Ra-origin, 17; Aten-cult
not Asiatic but Egyptian, 17, 21;
his so-called monotheism, 31, 52, 54
Amon-hotep Family, 6
Amphitryon (Plautus), 23
Ani, Papyrus of, 143, 180
An-mutf, priest, 93
Anna (Ineni), 10
Annu (Heliopolis), 3
‘Anointed, the Lord’s,” 3
Antelope (oryx), slaying the, 66
Anu, the, 1 15
Anubis, 46, 48
Api (goddess), 34

Apts, the, Karnak, 97 ; of the South,
Luxor, 97, 100
Art, Khu-en-aten, 110
Aset Ast (Isis), concubine, mother of
Thothmes III., 14
Aslieru, Mut, Lady of, 115

200

INDEX

Assa (Ra-dad-ka), 3
Aten, sun-disc, not to be confounded
with Syrian cult of Adonis, 16 ;
symbol of sun’s heat and power, 17

Baedeker , “Egypt,” 1 8, 19, 48, 177
Bahri, Der el, 4, 7, 9, 24, 25, 26, 29,
30, 3 b 32, 34, 36, 37, 46, 47, 48, 49,
56, 61, 68

Balls, playing (?), 71, 72
Barges, sacred, 100, 104, 120
Beni Hasan, tombs, 90
Bennu (bird), 147
Bes (god), 34
Birds, at Coronation, 59
Birth, Divine, motive for represent-
ing, 8 ; Prof. Maspero’s theory, 8 ;
necessity for showing Queen
Hatrhepsut to be of, 11, 12, 13;
and Amon-hotep III., 13-17 ; of
Child and Ka, 31-35, 46
Birth, Hall of, 43

Birth Room, Luxor Temple, 18-49
Boa s, the Sacred, 102, 103, 123
Book of the Dead) 25, 34, 35, 46, 65 n.,
88, 136, 140, 141, 146, 148, 149, 1 5 1,
156, 158, 159, 160, 162, 167, 179,
187, 189, 197

Bows, the Nine, 15, 61, 71, 115
Breasted, Prof., 10, 11 «., 15, 20, 21,
26, 29, 35, 41, 56 n.

Bubastis, Festival Hall of \ 70, 74, 79,
83 sq.

Budge, Dr, 6, 91, 149, 157

Buto (goddess), 13

Buttles, Miss, Queetis of Egypt, 13

C/esarion, 9

Cairo Museum, 84, 133, 175, 176
Calves, the four, 63 ; their colours, 64
Carter, Mr Howard, 84, 177
Chariots, the King’s, 107, 122

Cherubims, the Jewish, 126
Child, with finger in mouth, 27, 32
Cleopatra VI., 9

Colonnade, the great, of Luxor Temple,
96-128 ; columns built by Amon-
hotep III., 97

Colossi, the Two, of Amon-hotep III.,
15

Coptic Cross, 1 15, 125
Coronation of Amon-hotep III., 18,
50-62

Crowns of South and North, at
Coronation, 59, 60

“ Dancing,” the King, 87, 90, 91, 94, 95
Daressy, M., 18, 19, 21, 38, 41, 48, 97
David, King, 91
Decius, Roman Emperor, 1
Den, King, 95

Dendereh, temple, 46, 69, 72
Divine Birth, see Birth
Divine Books, House of, 62
Divine Words (hieroglyphics), 61
Divinity of Egyptian Kings, 1, 9
Dynasty V., 12 ; XI., Temple, Der el
Bahri, 93 ; xviii., 12, 34, 48

Eating, Hall of, 74, 75

Edfu, Temple, 2 ; winged disc of, 29

Egyptian Faith , the Old , 80 n.

Elysian Fields, 143, 159-167
Erment, Temple, 9
Esneh, Temple, 1

“ Eye of Horus,” 67 ; its power and
significance, 196, 197, 198
“ Eye of Ra,” 186
Exorcism, Christian, 151, 152, 155

Family Parties, in Sen-nezem’s
Tomb, 168-171

Fans, Magic or Protecting, 89, 104, etc.
Fare, Bill of, 77

INDEX

201

“ Father, Lord of the gods,” 58
Fenkhu, people, 46, 57
Festival, at Luxor, 109, no; 1 1 1 ; at
Karnak, 123
“ Field, gift of a,” 87 sy.

Fields of Peace (Rest), see Elys:an
Fields

“ Fire, Chamber of” (Birth-room), 39,

”9

Flower-boat, a, 120
Frog, symbol of fertility, abundance,
etc., 28 ; of resurrection in Christian
times, 28

Garden of Aarru, see Elysian Fields
Garden of Eden, 1 6 x
Gates, of House of Osiris, 1 50-1 54 ; of
the Sky, 146, 147

Gayet, M., 22, 23, 28, 29, 35, 38, 61,
62 65, 66, 69, 73, 76, 77, 85

Genii, present at Birth, 33
Gnosticism, Christian, 154, 155
Griffith, Mr F. LI., 90

Hamemtu, the, 46
Ha-nebu, the, 43 n.

Hapi (Nile), 41, 48, 70
Hat-hor (goddess), present at Der el
Bahri Council, 20 ; greets Mut-em-
uaas future mother, 20 ; at moulding
of child and his Ka, 27, 28, 30,
36 ; Hat-hor Cow, 39 ; Protectress
of Thebes, 70, 71, 72, 1 12
Hat-shepset (Meryt), daughter of
Queen Hatshepsut and wife of
Thothmes III., 12, 13, 39
Hatshepsut, Queen, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 36,
85 ; Heiress of Horus, 13 ; her divine
birth, 19, 21, 29, 53, 59, 68
“ Heaven,” in Karnak Temple, 122 n.
Hekau (Magic Speech), 41, 42, 48, 59,
82

Heqet, 28

Heliopolis, 28, 53, 54, 61
Heri-hor, priest-king, 3, 4, 99
Hermopolis, 29, 30
Herur, city of Khnum, 28
Hieraconpolis, mace, 84
Horapollo, 70

Horemheb, 96, 97 ; a “ Napoleon,” 98,
101, 104

Horus, Edfu, 43, 56, 77 ; follower of,
2 ; Four children of, 33 ; presents
child to Amon-Ra, 41 ; King, 2 ;
throne of, 2, 7, 52 ; not present at
Der el Bahri Council, 19, 48, 56, 57
Horus-Name, 3, 38, 47, 55
Horus-on-the-horizons (Harmachis),
43

Horus-son-of- Isis, present at Der el
Bahri Council, 20
House of Osiris, 150-154
Hyksos, the, 4
Hymn to Amon-Fa, 108

Iouiya, Amon-hotep 1 1 Ids father-in-
law, 54 n. ; papyrus of, 143
Isis, present at Der el Bahri Council,
20, 32, 5L 93, fi2

Joy of the Processionists, 106, 108,
1 22

Ka, Amon-hotep 1 1 Ids, 19, 27, 32, 39,
56, 94

Kab, El, 74

Karnak, 7, 13 ; the Apts, 25 ; Temple
of Mut at, 36 ; Great Hall at,

96, 99

Kas, fourteen, 40 ; living, 85
Kha-em-uast, Prince, 75
Khemennu (Hermopolis), 81
Khepesh , 55, 66

Khnum, Potter, Creative God, moulds

202

INDEX

child and Ka, 19, 26, 27, 29 ;
conducts queen to birth-room, 30,
31, 47, 48 ; at Soleb, 75
Khonsu. 56 n. ; temple of, 89, 99
Khonsu, Son of Sen-nezem, 133
Khu-en-aten, see Amon-hotep IV.

Lanzone, Diet, of Myth., 28
Lassoing a bull, the King, 67 ?i.
Lefebure, M., 66
Legrain, M., 7, 13, 99
Lepsius, 132
Lieblein, M., 132
Lotus, plant and flower, 42
Luxor, “ beautiful feast in,” 99 ; temple,
7, 9, 13, 14, 19, 34, 48, 64

Maakheru, 82
Maat, 75, 125, 144, 145
Maspero, Sir G., 8, 16, 26, 84, 91, 131
Mauti (Muty, Tuy), Mother of
Rameses II., 48, 49
Medineh, Der el, 133
Medinet-Habu, 48, 59
Metiat, 68

Menna, son of Pa-shedu, 178
Menna, Tomb of, 74
Menthu (Mont), 14; present at Der
el Bahri Council, 20, 43, 51, 52, 56,
1 12

Menthu-hotep II., as Osiris, 84
Mercury, 23
Mesekt ( mesket ), 74
Mes-Khent (goddess), 35
Min (Amon-Ra ithyphallic), 54, 59, 66,
142

Miraculous Birth, the, 1-49
Modius , 38

Moses, true meaning, 5 ?i.

Museum, British, 132
Mut, 18 ; adoration of, 63-78 ; consort
of Amon-Ra, 36 ; not present in

Der el Bahri story, 36, 49, 50, 63,
64, 68, 69, 72, 74 ; equality of
King with, 78

Mut-em-ua, queen, 9 ; not a foreigner,
13, 14, 20, 22, 25, 29, 30, 31, 32,
35, 69

Mut-nezemt, Horemheb’s queen, in ;
her galley, 1 13, 1 1 7 ; marriage, 119

Narmer, King, 84
Naville, Dr Edouard, 4, 28 29, 30,

33, 34, 37, 38, 40, 46, 69, 70, 72,
74, 79

Nebseni, Papyrus of, 35
Negro drummers, 107 ; negroes with
tails (?), 122

Neith (goddess), 24, 40, 48, 61
Nekhebt, 60, 77
Nekhen (city), 33

Nephthys, present at Der el Bahri
Council, 20, 32, 5 1
Newberry, Prof., 28 n.

Nile, 41
Nine Gods, 51

North, goddess of, 59, 60; spirits of,
60

Nuptials, divine, of Amon-Ra and
Queen Mut-em-ua, 24-26, 49
Nursing, Hat-hors, 32, 38
Nut (goddess), present at Der el
Bahri Council, 20, 51

Offerings, food, not sacrifices, 103 ;

in Luxor, 109, ill ; in Karnak, 127
Officials, Two Theban, 131-end
On (city), 3, 51, 52 ; spirits of, 60
“Opener of the Ways,” 92, 128
Orientation, Egyptian, 42, 43 n.

Oryx, see Antelope

Osirification of Amon-hotep III., 18,
79-95 ! a new birth, 18, 63, 66, 79
Osiris, not absorbed by Ainon, 1 1, 18 ;

INDEX

203

present at Der el Bahri Council, 20,
51, 52, 66, 73, 74, 75 ; living King
identified with Osiris, 81 sq.
Osorkon, King, 80

Pa-heri, tomb of, 74
Panopolis (city), 54 n.

Papyrus, plant, 42

Paradise, Egyptian, see Elysian
Fields

Pa-shedu, 131 ; not praying, 177 ; his
offices, 179; transformation into
divine falcon, 179-184 ; his relatives,
184-186; Litany of the Sun, 187-
189 ; under a date-palm, 189-191 ;
adoring gods, 192-194 ; Ptah-Seker
in his boat, 195 ; Union with Osiris,
195-end
Patu, 46
Pe (city), 33
Pepi, King, 79

Persons named in tomb of Sen-nezem,
135 ; on door and sledge, 175, 176
Philae, 89

Presentation of child to Amon-Ra, 41
Priesthood of Amon, ir, 12, 17, 36
Princes , Two Theban , 75
Procession, New Year, 97-128 ;

probably not annual, 100
Ptah, temple, at Karnak, 99
Ptah-Seker, 195
Ptolemy IV., 89 ; IX., 89
Punt, odours of, 25, 49 ; land of, 109
Purification of Amon-hotep III., 56
Pyramid text, Pepi I., 91

Queens , Two Theban , 75

Ra, blood of, 8, 12 ; boat of, 69, 146,
147 ; daughter of, 4 ; son of, 1, 3,
4 ; of his body, 6, 53, 56, 73, 77, 95
Ra-Khapera, 28

Ra-maat-men, 96

Ra-maat-neb, 27, 32, 36, 37, 38, 43,

46, 47, 5L 52, 53, 57, 59, 7°, 71, 73,
76, 128

Ra-meses, Ra-messu, 5
Rameses II., 42, 48, 49, 96, 97
Rameses III., 48, 59; ploughing,
etc., 160
Ramesseum, 48
Rekh-ma-ra, tomb of, 74
Rekhyt (people), 57
Renni, tomb of, 74
Retennu (Syrian People), 57

Sacrifices, Jewish, unknown to
Egyptians, 67 n.

St Paul, 155

Sayce, Rev. Prof., 6, 14 z?., 15 n.

Seb (Geb, Keb), 2 ; present at Der el
Bahri Council, 20, 51
Sebek (god), 1 12

Sed, festival, 18, 34, 63, 68, 75, 79;
an indiction date, 80 sq., 84, 86, 89.
92, 94, 95, 124
Sedem-ash , 131

Sefekh-abu, 47, 48, 58, 61, 62, 81
Sekeri, 65

Sekhmet (goddess), 53
Sem (priest), 74, 76
Sen-nezem, 131 ; tomb found, 133 ;
funeral sledge, 135 ; embalming of,
136, 138; before gods, 139, 140;
the Osiris lying in state, 140, 141 ;
before Osiris, 141-145 ; a white wig,
143, 144; worships Sun and Seven
Stars, 148 ; gets bread and water
from Tree, 149; adoring gods, 158,
159; ploughing, sowing, etc., 163;
gigantic crops, 164 ; approaches to
the Garden, 167 ; tomb like a
sarcophagus, 17 1 ; cat slaying
Apep, 174

INDEX

204

Sen-nofer, tomb of, 74
Sen-senb, mother of Thothmes I., 9, 10
Serqet (Serq), 24, 37, 38, 48
Seshed , bandeau, 75
Set (god), 2 ; present at Der el Bahri
Council, 20, 43, 57, 58, 66, 67
Sety I., 76, 96
Sety II., 97
Sheb ( shebt ), 70, 71

Shu (god), 2 ; present at Der el Bahri
Council, 20, 51
Sinuhit , Adventures of \ 134
“ Solar Blood,” Hatshepsut’s claim to,
11, 13

Soleb, temple of, 74, 75, 80, 83
Sosia, 23

South, goddess of, 59, 60 ; spirits of,
60

Sphinxes, avenue, 97
“ Staircase, the,” 83, 95
Sun-boat, 65 ; supremacy of Amon,
1 2 1

Suten-bat name, 42, 55
Sycamores, the Turquoise, 156, 157

Ta-AA, queen of Amon-hotep II.,
mother of Thothmes IV., 13
Ta-nent (goddess), 112
Ta-urt (hippo-goddess), 34
Tefnut, present at Der el Bahri
Council, 20, 52

Thoth (Tehuti), not present at Der el
Bahri Council, 20, 22 ; and Amon-
Ra, 23 ; and Mut-em-ua, 29, 30, 51,
53, 5s, 61
Thothmes, 5

Thothmes I., 7, 9, 10, 21, 83
Thothmes II., queen Hatshepsut’s
half-brother, 12

Thothmes III., an-mutf priest to his
father, Thothmes II., 12 ; nephew
of Queen Hatshepsut, 12, 13, 14,
39, 72

Thothmes IV., 9, 13, 14 ; and Amon-
Ra, 21 ; object of their interview,
22 ; not an old man, 22, 23, 25
Thyi (Tiyi) queen, an Egyptian, 15
Tombos stele, 7, 10
Towing, the sun-boat, 65 ; the sacred
barges, 105-108
“True-Place,” the, 131
Turn (god), 7 ; (original figure) present
at Der el Bahri Council, 20, 29, 51,
52 ; receives the young King, 53,
61 ; effort to restore worship of, 54,
55, 56, 61

Tut - ankh - Amon, 96; his name
J changed, 98, 99, 10 1 ; his Horus-
name, 109, 128

Tvlor, Mr j. T., Temple of Amon-hotep
III. (El Kab), 90

' Uazit (Uatchet), 60, 105
Unknown god at end of Birth Story,
47

Urt-heqau (goddess), 68
j Usertesen III., 4

Voyage, up-stream, 105-110; down-
stream, 111-126

Weigall, Mr A. E. P., 22, 48
Westcar Papyrus legend, 12 ; the
story used by the priests of Amon,
12, 29

Year, Beginning of, 117

PRINTED BY OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGH.

DATE DUE

GAYLORD #3523PI Printed in USA

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