Part 5 (1/2)

In the interior of the pyramid of Mer-en-Ra (or Mirinri Ist,) 3200 B.C., was inscribed on the walls: ”And they installing this _Mihtimsaouf Mirini_ upon their thrones at the head of the divine Nine, mistress of Ra, it who has its dwelling fixed, because they cause that _Mihtimsaouf Mirini_ may be as _Ra, in its name of the Scarabaeus_, and thou hast entered as to thyself as Ra,” etc.[72]

”Salutation to thee Tumu,[73] salutation to thee, Scarabaeus-G.o.d, who art thyself; thou who liftest up, in that holding thy name of lifter up ('from the earth,' 'the stairway,' or 'stairs,') and who art (Khopiru) in this, holding the name of the Scarabaeus-G.o.d (Khopiru)!

Salutation to thee Eye of Horus, whom it has furnished with its two creating hands (Tumu,)” etc.[74]

Chapter XVII., line 75, of the Book of the Dead, reads: ”O Khepra in its boat! the society of the G.o.ds is its body, in other words, it is Eternity.”

Chapter XXIV., lines 1, 2, say: ”I am Khepra who gives to itself a form on high, from the thigh of its mother, making a wolf-dog, for those who are in the celestial abyss, and the phnix, for those who are among the divine chiefs.” That is, as Harmakhis.

Chapter XV., lines 3, 4, read: ”Salutation to thee, Harmakhis-Khepra who to itself gives a form to itself! Splendid is thy rising in the horizon, illuminating the double earth with thy rays.” The same chapter, line 47, reads: ”Khepra, father of the G.o.ds! He (the defunct) has never any more injury to fear, thanks to that deliverance.”

Chapter Cx.x.xIV., line 2, says: ”Homage to Khepra in its boat who every day overthrows Apap.” Comp., chapter Cx.x.x., line 21, XLI., line 2.

Apap was the evil serpent, the executioner of the G.o.ds, that is, the princ.i.p.al evil one; and Khepra, the scarabaeus deity, overthrows the princ.i.p.al evil one, every day, according to this text.

”The Osiris * * * (name of the defunct was inserted in this blank,) is considered as a lord of eternity, he is considered as Khepra, he is lord of the diadem, he is in the eye of the sun,” etc., says chapter XLII., lines 12, 13 _et seq._

And in chapter XVII., which is one of the oldest chapters of the _Per-em-hru_, lines 76, 77, 78, is; ”O Khepra in thy boat! (i.e., as Harmakhis) the body of the G.o.ds is even thy body, or so to say, it is Eternity. Save Osiris * * * from those watching judges (i.e., Isis and Nephthys,) to whom the master of spells has entrusted, at his pleasure, the watching of his enemies--whom the executioner will strike--and from whose observation none escape. Let me not fall under their sword; let me not go into their place of torture; let me not remain supplicating in their abodes; let me not come into their place for execution; let me not sit down in their boilers; let me not do those things which are done by those whom the G.o.ds detest,” etc.

Further according to the Book of the Dead, the soul of the dead man, says: ”I fly among those of the divine essence, I become in it, Khepra ... I am that, which is in the bosom of the G.o.ds.” (Chapter Lx.x.xIII., lines 1, 2.)

Another text reads: ”O it who establishes the mysteries which are in me, produce the transformations as Khepra, going out of the condition of the disk so as to give light (or, to enlighten.)” Chapter LXIV., line 16. (Comp. also chapter XCIII.)

Another text says: ”I give vigor to the murdering sword which is in the hand of Khepra against the rebels.” (Chapter XCV., line 3.)

Khepra is also called, Tum-Khepra. (Chapter CXLI., line 6.)

Reaching the eternal abode, the soul, says: ”I am intact, intact as my father Osiris-Khepra, of whom the image is, the man whose body is not decomposed.” (Chapter CLIV., lines 1, 2.)

On articles of furniture, on toys, on the coffins of mummies, on papyri and linen and other monuments, the scarabaeus appears and sets off in a strong light, the Egyptian belief in the resurrection and re-birth of the pious dead. The very idea of the transformation is shown, by the hieroglyph of the scarab for the word _Kheper_, i.e., _to be_, to _become_, to _raise up_. One of the most urgent prayers to be found in many places, in the Book of the Dead as made by the deceased, is, that he may go out of the under-world to the higher regions of light, and have power to ”go forth as a living soul, to take all the forms which may please him.” Chabas says as to this: ”We know that such was the princ.i.p.al beat.i.tude of the elect in the Egyptian heaven; it allowed the faculty of transformation into all the universe under the form wished for.” The G.o.d Khepra with folding wings symbolized these metamorphoses.

It figures continually in the sepulchral paintings on the walls of the hypogea of Thebes, and it announces the second birth of the soul to the future eternal life. Some figures have the scarab over the head, sometimes in place of the head. In the Great Temple at Edfu a scarab has been found portrayed with two heads, one of a ram, the symbol of Amen, or Ammon; the hidden or mysterious highest deity of the priesthood especially of Thebes; the other of a hawk, the symbol of Horus, holding in its claws a symbol of the universe.[75] It may symbolize by this form, the rising sun and the coming of the Spring sun of the vernal equinox in the zodiacal sign of the ram, but more likely has a much deeper religious meaning.[76] Represented with the head and legs of a man the scarab was an emblem of Ptah.

FOOTNOTES:

[63] Unless it be the XIIth. Myer.

[64] _La Galerie de l'egypte Ancienne_, etc., by Aug. Ed.

Mariette-Bey. Paris, 1878, pp. 46, 47.

[65] _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient_, by G. Maspero.

Paris, 1886, p. 68 _et seq._

[66] Brugsch-Bey in, Egypt Under the Pharaohs. London, 1891, pp. 25, 26. As to the knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians; Comp. Egyptian Science from the Monuments and Ancient Books, treated as a general introduction to the History of Science, by N.E. Johnson, B.A., etc.

London, (1891?) Ten Years Digging in Egypt, 1881-1891, by W.M.

Flinders Petrie, etc. London, 1892, pub. by The Religious Tract Society.

[67] Comp. _La Morale egyptienne_, etc., by E. Amelineau. Paris, 1892.

Introd. pp. Lx.x.xII. _et seq._, XX. _et seq. Ritual Funeraire de Pamonth_, by M. Eugene Revillout. Paris, 1889.

[68] _Le Papyrus de Neb-Qed (exemplaire hieroglyphique du Livre des Morts,) reproduit_, etc., _par_ Theodule Deveria _avec la traduction du texte par_ Paul Pierret _conservateur-adjoint du Musee egyptien du Louvre_. Paris, 1872, pl. III., col. 13, 14, p. 3.