I wish that the doorkeepers of the gates of the Tuat (Other World) may not repulse my soul, and that it may come forth at the call of him that shall lay offerings in my tomb, that it may have bread in abundance and ale in full measure, and that it may drink of the water from the source of the river.  I would go in and come out like the Spirits who do what the gods wish, that my name may be held in good repute by the people who shall come in after years, and that they may praise me at the two seasons (morning and evening) when they praise the god of my city.

[Footnote 1:  The temples of Karnak and Luxor.]

[Footnote 2:  The teben = 90.959 grammes.]

                   THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THAIEMHETEP,
                        THE DAUGHTER OF HERANKH

This remarkable inscription is found on a stele which is preserved in the British Museum (No. 1027), and which was made in the ninth year of King Ptolemy Philopator Philadelphus (71 B.C.).  The text opens with a prayer to all the great gods of Memphis for funerary offerings, and after a brief address to her husband’s colleagues, Thaiemhetep describes in detail the principal incidents of her life, and gives the dates of her birth, death, &c., which are rarely found on the funerary stelae of the older period.  Thaiemhetep was an important member of the semi-royal, great high-priestly family of Memphis, and her funerary inscription throws much light on the theology of the Ptolemaic Period.

[Illustration:  The Autobiography of Thaiemhetep, the daughter of Herankh.]

1.  SUTEN-TA-HETEP,[1] may Seker-Osiris, at the head of the House of the KA of Seker, the great god in Raqet; and Hap-Asar (Serapis), at the head of Amentet, the king of the gods, King of Eternity and Governor of everlastingness; and Isis, the great Lady, the mother of the god, the eye of Ra, the Lady of heaven, the mistress of all the gods; and Nephthys, the divine sister of Horus, the 2. avenger of his father, the great god in Raqetit; and Anubis, who is on his hill, the dweller in the chamber of embalmment, at the head of the divine hall; and all the gods and goddesses who dwell in the mountain of Amentet the beautiful of Hetkaptah (Memphis), give the offerings that come forth at the word, beer, and bread, and oxen, and geese, and incense, and unguents, and suits of apparel, and good things of all kinds upon their altars, to the KA of 3. the Osiris, the great princess, the one who is adorned, the woman who is in the highest favour, the possessor of pleasantness, beautiful of body, sweet of love in the mouth of every man, who is greatly praised by her kinsfolk, the youthful one, excellent of disposition, always ready to speak her words of sweetness, whose counsel is excellent, Thaiemhetep, whose word (or voice) is truth, the beloved daughter of the royal kinsman, the priest of Ptah, libationer of the gods of 4.  White Wall (Memphis), priest of Menu (or Amsu), the Lord of Senut (Panopolis), and of Khnemu, the Lord of Smen-Heru (Ptolemais), priest of Horus, the Lord of Sekhem (Letopolis), chief of the mysteries in Aat-Beqt, chief of the mysteries in Sekhem, and in It, and in Kha-Hap; the daughter of the beautiful sistrum bearer of Ptah, the great one of his South Wall, the Lord of Ankh-taui, Herankh, 5. she saith: