Chapter CV
P. Le Page (Peter Le Page) Renouf translation
Chapter whereby one propitiateth(1) the Ka.
Hail to thee, my Ka, my coeval.(2)
May I come to thee and be glorified and made manifest and ensouled, let me have strength and soundness.
Let me bring to thee grains of incense wherewith I may purify myself and may also purify thine own overflow.
The wrong assertions that I have uttered, and the wrong resistance which I have offered: let them not be imputed to me.
For I am the green gem, fresh at the throat of Rā, given by those who are at the Horizon: their freshness is my freshness [said twice], the freshness of my Ka is like theirs, and the dainties of my Ka are like theirs.
Thou who liftest the hand at the Balance, and raisest Law to the nose of Rā in this day [of my Ka]: do not thou put my head away from me. For I am the Eye which seeth and the Ear which heareth; and am I not the Bull of the sacrificial herd, are not the mortuary gifts(3) upon me and the supernal powers [otherwise said: the powers above Nut].
Grant that I may pass by thee, and may purify myself and cause the triumph of Osiris over his adversaries.(4)
Notes.
See in Denkm., III, pl. 34, b, the picture of Thothmes III being greeted by his ka. Rameses II and other kings are often represented in the act of supplicating their own ka.
The pictures in the temple of Luxor (Denkm., III, 74 and 75) are well known which represent the birth of Amenophis III. The 176infant prince in each of these pictures is accompanied by his ka, his exact image. The ka is nursed and suckled by the same goddesses.
But perhaps the best commentary on our text is to be found in the picture recently published by the French Mission Archéologique (Temple de Luxor, fig. 203), in which both the royal infant and his ka are being fashioned by the hand of Chnum, upon his potter’s wheel.
The reading which is sometimes found in late texts is faulty and leads to an erroneous interpretation. is a mistake either for or for , the phonetic of .
In such passages of the Pyramid texts as (Unas 36) is a demonstrative not a negative particle, “Here is the mortuary meal presented for thee, and here are the two Eyes, the White and the Black, of Horus.”
