Chapter LIV
P. Le Page (Peter Le Page) Renouf translation
Chapter whereby air is given in the Netherworld.
I am the god in Lion-form(1), the Egg in the Great Cackler, and I watch over that great Egg which Seb hath parted from the earth(2); my Life is the Life thereof, and the same is true of my advance in life and of my breathing of the air.
I am the god who keepeth opposition in equipoise(3) as his Egg circleth round. For me dawneth(4) the moment of the most mighty one, Sut.
O ye gods who are pleasant through the alternate successions of the Earth, who preside over sustenance and who live in the Blue(5), do ye keep watch over him who abideth in his Nest; the Infant god who cometh forth towards you.
Notes.
The text here followed is that of Pa which is much preferable to that of Ani. There is a far older text, that of Horhotep, line 344 and sqq., but it is too inaccurate to serve as the basis of a translation. It is however very valuable for other purposes.
Ancients and modern differ greatly, as is well known, from each other as to the impressions derived from colour. It seems strange to read in the tale of the Destruction of Mankind that the ‘hair of Râ was of real chesbet,’ that is ‘dark blue.’ But we have an exact parallel to this in Greek. Κύανος is lapis lazuli in Theophrastus, who even mentions the artificial lapis made in Egypt. But in the Homeric poems the hair of Hector (Il., 22, 401), and the hair and beard of Odysseus (Od., 16, 176), as well as the eyebrows of Zeus (Il.,1, 528; 17, 209) are described as κυάνεαι.