Note 2 — Chapter IX · The Islands of the Blest

The Pyramid Texts devoted to the ancient Egyptian King Unis tell that a divine voice cries to the gods Re and Thoth (sun and moon), saying, “Take ye this King Unis with you that he may eat of that which ye eat, and that he may drink of that which ye drink.” The magic well is referred to as “the pool of King Unis”.2 The soul of the Pharaoh also sails with the unwearied stars in the barque of the sun-god, not only by day but by night, and as the Egyptian night sun was green, “the green bed of Horus”, the idea of the floating solar island on the Underworld Nile became fused with that of the island with the Well of Life and the Tree of Life. In the Pyramid Texts the Celestial Otherworld “is”, as Breasted says, “not only the east, but explicitly the east of the sky”.3 Similarly the fabulous continents of the Chinese were situated to the east of the mythical sea.