Not Dying a Second Time (English) in: Near East – Egypt
— 175 —
Chapter for not dying again
O Thoth, what is it that has come about through the Children of Nut? They have made war, they have raised up tumult, they have done wrong, they have created rebellion, they have done slaughter, they have created imprisonment, they have reduced what was great to what is little in all that we have made; show greatness, O Thoth! — so says Atum. You shall not witness wrongdoing, you shall not suffer it! Shorten their years, cut short their months, because they have done hidden damage to all that you have made. I have your palette, O Thoth, I bring your inkpot to you; I am not among those who have done hidden damage, and none will work harm on me.
Thus says Ani: O Atum, how comes it that I travel to a desert which has no water and no air, and which is deep, dark, and unsearchable?
ATUM: Live in it content!
ANI: But there is no love-making there!
ATUM: I have given spirit-being instead of water, air, and love-making, contentment in place of bread and beer — so says Atum. Do not be sorry for yourself, for I will not suffer you to lack.
ANI: But every god has taken his place in the Bark of Millions of Years!
ATUM: Your seat now belongs to your son Horus — so says Atum — and he will dispatch the Elders, he will rule from your seat, he will inherit the throne which is in the Island of Fire.
ANI: Command that I may see his equal, for my face will see the face of the Lord of All. What will be the duration of my life? — so said he.
ATUM: You shall be for millions on millions of years, a lifetime of millions of years. I will dispatch the Elders and destroy all that I have made; the earth shall return to the Primordial Water, to the surging flood, as in its original state. But I will remain with Osiris, I will transform myself into something else, namely a serpent, without men knowing or the gods seeing. How good is what I have done for Osiris, even more than for all the gods! I have given him the desert, and his son Horus is the heir on his throne which is in the Island of Fire; I have made what appertains to his place in the Bark of Millions of Years, and Horus is firm on his throne in order to found his establishments.
ANI: But the soul of Seth will travel further than all the gods.
ATUM: I have caused his soul which is in the bark to be restrained, so that the body of the god may be afraid.
ANI: O my father Osiris, do for me what your father Re did for you, so that I may be long-lived on earth, that my throne may be well founded, that my heir may be in good health, that my tomb may be long-enduring, and that these servants of mine may be on earth; let my enemies be split open, may the Scorpion be on their bones, for I am your son, O my father Re; do this for me for the sake of my life, welfare, and health, for Horus is firmly established on his throne, and let my lifetime come to attain to the blessed state.
(a.i) Egyptian — (a.ii) Faulkner (1994) — (a.iii) Allen (1974) — (a.iv) Budge (1913) — (a.v) Secondary sources
– Faulkner, Raymond, The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day, (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2015), pp. 76-77.
Flood Stories 