Egyptian Literature/The Book of the Dead/Soul and Body

Layout 2

SOUL AND BODY

[From the Papyrus of Ani (British Museum No. 10,470, sheet 17).]

The Chapter of causing the soul to be united to its body in the underworld. The Osiris Ani, triumphant, saith:

“Hail, thou god Anniu (i.e., Bringer)! Hail, thou god Pehrer (i.e., Runner), who dwellest in thy hall! [Hail,] great God! Grant thou that my soul may come unto me from wheresoever it may be. If [it] would tarry, then let my soul be brought unto me from wheresoever it may be, for thou shalt find the Eye of Horus standing by thee like unto those beings who are like unto Osiris, and who never lie down in death. Let not the Osiris Ani, triumphant, lie down in death among those who lie down in Annu, the land wherein souls are joined unto their bodies even in thousands. Let me have possession of my ba (soul), and of my khu, and let me triumph therewith in every place wheresoever it may be. [Observe these things which [I] speak, for it hath staves with it];^[1] observe then, O ye divine guardians of heaven, my soul [wheresoever it may be].^[2] If it would tarry, do thou make my soul to look upon my body,^[3] for thou shalt find the Eye of Horus standing by thee like those [beings who are like unto Osiris].

“Hail, ye gods, who tow along the boat of the lord of millions of years, who bring [it] above the underworld and who make it to travel over Nut, who make souls to enter into [their] spiritual bodies, whose hands are filled with your ropes and who clutch your weapons tight, destroy ye the Enemy; thus shall the boat of the sun be glad and the great God shall set out on his journey in peace. And behold, grant ye that the soul of Osiris Ani, triumphant, may come forth before the gods and that it may be triumphant along with you in the eastern part of the sky to follow unto the place where it was yesterday; [and that it may have] peace, peace in Amentet. May it look upon its material body, may it rest upon its spiritual body; and may its body neither perish nor suffer corruption forever.”

[these] words are to be said over a soul of gold inlaid with precious stones and placed on the breast of osiris.

1. Added from the Papyrus of Nebseni.
2. Added from the Papyrus of Nebseni.
3. The Papyrus of Nebseni has, “make thou me to see my soul and my shade.”