meals [are brought unto thee] by the spirits who are in thy following, and water is sprinkled ... on each side of the souls of the dead in this land.  Every plan for thee which hath been decreed by the commands of R[=a] from the beginning hath been perfected.  Now therefore, O son of Nut, thou art crowned as Neb-er-tcher is crowned at his rising.  Thou livest, thou art stablished, thou renewest thy youth, and thou art true and perfect; thy father R[=a] maketh strong thy members, and the company of the gods make acclamations unto thee.  The goddess Isis is with thee and she never leaveth thee; [thou art] not overthrown by thine enemies.  The lords of all lands praise thy beauties, even as they praise R[=a] when he riseth at the beginning of each day.  Thou risest up like an exalted being upon thy standard, thy beauties lift up the face [of man] and make long [his] stride.  The sovereignty of thy father Seb hath, been given unto thee, and the goddess Nut, thy mother, who gave birth to the gods, brought thee forth as the firstborn, of five gods, and created thy beauties and fashioned thy members.  Thou art established as king, the white crown is upon thy head, and thou hast grasped in thy hands the crook and whip; whilst thou wert in the womb, and hadst not as yet come forth therefrom upon the earth, thou wert crowned lord of the two lands, and the ‘Atef’ crown of R[=a] was upon thy brow.  The gods come unto thee bowing low to the ground, and they hold thee in fear; they retreat and depart when, they see thee with the terror of R[=a], and the victory of thy Majesty is in their hearts.  Life is with thee, and offerings of meat and drink follow thee, and that which is thy due is offered up before thy face.”

In one paragraph of another somewhat similar hymn [Footnote:  See Chapters of Coming Forth by Day, p. 342.] other aspects of Osiris are described, and after the words “Homage to thee, O Governor of those who are in Amentet,” he is called the being who “giveth birth unto men and women a second time,” [Footnote:  The words are mes tememu em nem.] i.e., “who maketh mortals to be born again.”  As the whole paragraph refers to Osiris “renewing himself,” and to his making himself “young like unto R[=a] each and every day,” there can be no doubt that the resurrection of the dead, that is to say, their birth into a new life, is what the writer means by the second birth of men and women.  From this passage also we may see that Osiris has become the equal of R[=a], and that he has passed from being the god of the dead to being the god of the living.  Moreover, at the time when the above extracts were copied Osiris was not only assumed to have occupied the position which R[=a] formerly held, but his son Horus, who was begotten after his death, was, by virtue of his victory over Set, admitted to be the heir and successor of Osiris.  And he not only succeeded to the “rank and dignity” of his father Osiris, but in his aspect of “avenger of his