The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians eBook

E. A. Wallis Budge
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 349 pages of information about The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians.

The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians eBook

E. A. Wallis Budge
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 349 pages of information about The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians.
Horus, the beautiful one of gold, the boy, the child, lifeless!  He had bedewed the ground with the water of his eye and with the foam of his lips.  His body was motionless, his heart did not beat, and his muscles were relaxed.”  Then Isis sent forth a bitter cry, and lamented loudly her misfortune, for now that Horus was dead she had none to protect her, or to take vengeance on Set.  When the people heard her voice they went out to her, and they bewailed with her the greatness of her affliction.  But though all lamented on her behalf there was none who could bring back Horus to life.  Then a “woman who was well known in her town, a lady who was the mistress of property in her own right,” went out to Isis, and consoled her, and assured her that the child should live through his mother.  And she said, “A scorpion hath stung him, the reptile Aunab hath wounded him.”  Then Isis bent her face over the child to find out if he breathed, and she examined the wound, and found that there was poison in it, and then taking him in her arms, “she leaped about with him like a fish that is put upon hot coals,” uttering loud cries of lamentation.  During this outburst of grief the goddess Nephthys, her sister, arrived, and she too lamented and cried bitterly over her sister’s loss; with her came the Scorpion-goddess Serqet.  Nephthys at once advised Isis to cry out for help to Ra, for, said she, it is wholly impossible for the Boat of Ra to travel across the sky whilst Horus is lying dead.  Then Isis cried out, and made supplication to the Boat of Millions of Years, and the Sun-god stopped the Boat.  Out of it came down Thoth, who was provided with powerful spells, and, going to Isis, he inquired concerning her trouble.  “What is it, what is it, O Isis, thou goddess of spells, whose mouth hath skill to utter them with supreme effect?  Surely no evil thing hath befallen Horus, for the Boat of Ra hath him under its protection.  I have come from the Boat of the Disk to heal Horus.”  Then Thoth told Isis not to fear, but to put away all anxiety from her heart, for he had come to heal her child, and he told her that Horus was fully protected because he was the Dweller in his disk, and the firstborn son of heaven, and the Great Dwarf, and the Mighty Ram, and the Great Hawk, and the Holy Beetle, and the Hidden Body, and the Governor of the Other World, and the Holy Benu Bird, and by the spells of Isis and the names of Osiris and the weeping of his mother and brethren, and by his own name and heart.  Turning towards the child Thoth began to recite his spells and said, “Wake up, Horus!  Thy protection is established.  Make thou happy the heart of thy mother Isis.  The words of Horus bind up hearts and he comforteth him that is in affliction.  Let your hearts rejoice, O ye dwellers in the heavens.  Horus who avenged his father shall make the poison to retreat.  That which is in the mouth of Ra shall circulate, and the tongue of the Great God shall overcome [opposition].  The Boat of Ra standeth still and
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The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.