The Coffin Texts of Ancient Egypt - Spell 13

Selected sources: B1P; B2Bo; B3Bo; B4Bo; B4C; B6C; B15C; MC105; S10C; T2C


TO BE RECITED:
SPELLS FOR CAUSING A SPIRIT'S TOMB⁽¹⁾ TO FLOURISH IN THE NECROPOLIS (AND)
A SPELL FOR OPENING THE SEPULCHRE⁽²⁾ FOR THE KA OF THE BLESSED NN⁽³⁾

O NN⁽⁴⁾,
you went forth⁽⁵⁾

from your house,
from your seat,
from every place where you have been,

as Horus went forth⁽⁶⁾ vindicated,

when he⁽⁷⁾ inherited the inheritance⁽⁸⁾ and
when he⁽⁷⁾ acquired power⁽⁸⁾.

Go forth vindicated

from the presence of the Tribunal of the gods of Pe⁽⁹⁾, Dep⁽¹⁰⁾, and Heliopolis⁽¹¹⁾,

like Horus went forth vindicated against Seth⁽¹²⁾

from the presence of the Tribunal of the Lord of Weariness⁽¹³⁾.

Notes

1. The word for tomb used here is jz (Wb 1, 126.18-24).
2. The word HA.t (Wb 3, 12.19-21; FCD 160) is used here.
3. The title of the spell is only preserved in T2C.
4. B1P, B3Bo, B4Bo, B6C, and B15C add the Dem.Pron. sg.m./f (pn/tn) after the name.
5. The coffin MC105 renders this in the 3rd person sg.: "NN went forth".
6. Written only in B6C. All other sources shorten this to "as Horus was vindicated".
7. B4C renders this in the 2nd person sg. in reference to the deceased.
8. The original texts use adnominations here, once with the root jwa - inherit (Wb 1, 50.8-10), and the other with the root xps - to seize something with force (Wb 3, 270.8). The inscription on T2C ends here.
9. Ancient name for one of the two districts of the old royal capital Buto, modern Tell el-Fara'in, located in the Delta. See this website for the archaeological work done there
10. Ancient name for the other district of the old royal capital Buto.
11. The city of the Sun(god), for archaeological work done there, see this website and the post from July 2017 on this blog.
12. The god of the desert, mighty warrior, powerful sorcerer and protector of the sun bark. Also competing with Horus for the throne of Egypt (see spell 7 of the Coffin Texts). For a study of this myth from Egyptian and classical sources, see J. Gwyn Griffiths, The Conflict of Horus and Seth (Liverpool 1960).
13. The Lord of Weariness, probably Osiris.

Bibliography

A. de Buck, The Egyptian Coffin Texts I-VIII, OIP 34, 49, 64, 67, 73, 81, 87, 132 (1935-1961).
L. H. Lesko, Index of Spells on Egyptian Middle Kingdom Coffins and Related Documents (Berkeley 1979).
H. Willems (ed.), The World of the Coffin Texts. Proceedings of the Symposium held on the Occasion of the 100th Birthday of Adriaan de Buck, Leiden december 17–19, 1992, EU 9 (Leiden 1996)
R. van der Molen, A Hieroglyphic Dictionary of Egyptian Coffin Texts, PÄ 15 (Leiden / Boston / Köln 2000).
J. Assmann, Totenliturgien in den Sargtexten des Mittleren Reichs. Altägyptische Totenliturgien 1, Supplemente zu den Schriften der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse 14 (Heidelberg 2002).
L. Gestermann, Die Überlieferung ausgewählter Texte altägyptischer Totenliteratur („Sargtexte“) in spätzeitlichen Grabanlagen, ÄA 68 (Wiesbaden 2005).
R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts. Spells 1-1185 (Oxford 2007).