A Hymn to Amen-Ra

§ I. Bull, dwelling in On, President of all the gods,

Beautiful god, Meriti (he who is loved),

Giving all life of warmth

To all beautiful cattle.

§ II. Hail to thee, Amen-Ra, Lord of the Throne of the Two Lands!

First One in the Apts (i.e., Karnak),

Bull of his mother, first one of his pasture,

Extended of stride, first one of the Land of the South,

Lord of the Matchaiu (Nubians), Governor of Punt,

Prince of Heaven, Eldest one of Earth,

Lord of things which are, stablisher of creation, stablisher of all creation.

§ III. ONE, through his unrivalled powers among the gods, Chief of all the gods,

Lord of Truth, Father of the gods,

Maker of men, creator of beasts,

Lord of the things that are, creator of the plant of life (wheat),

Maker of green plants, making to live the cattle.

§ IV. POWER, produced by Ptah,

Beautiful Boy of love,

The gods ascribe praises to him,

Maker of things below and of things above, illumining Egypt,

Sailing over the heavens in peace.

King of the South and North RA

Whose word is true, Chief of the Two Lands (Egypt),

[paragraph continues] Great of power, Lord of awe,

Chief, making the earth like his form,

Dispenser of destinies (or plans) more than any god.

§ IX. Casting down his enemy into the flame,

His eye overthroweth the Sebau fiends.

It maketh her spear stab Nun (the abyss of heaven),

It maketh the serpent fiend Nak vomit what he hath swallowed.

§ X. Hail to thee, Ra, Lord of Truth!

Hidden one in his shrine, Lord of the gods,

Khepera in his boat.

He sent out the Word, the gods came into being,

Temu, maker of men,

Making different their characters and forms, making their life,

Distinguishing by their skins one from the other.

§ XI. He hearkeneth to the groan of the afflicted,

Being gracious to him that crieth to him,

Delivering the timid man from the bully.

Judging between the oppressor and the helpless one.

§ XV. Image ONE, maker of everything that is,

ONE ALONE, maker of things that are.

[paragraph continues] Men proceed from his eyes,

The gods come into being by his utterance;

Maker of green herbs, Vivifier of the cattle,

The staff of life of the Henmemet beings,

Making the fish to live in the river,

And the geese in the sky,

Giving air to the creature in the egg,

Making to live feathered fowl,

Making khennur birds to live,

And creeping things and insects likewise,

Providing food for the mice in their holes,

And making the birds to live on every branch.

§ XIX. Chief of the Great Nine Gods,

ONE ALONE, without a second

Footnotes

16:1 See Daressy, Une Nouvelle Forme d'Amon in Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Egypte, tome IX, p. 64 ff.

16:2 Quintus Curtius, lib. IV, §7. See also Naville, Le Dieu de l'Oasis de Jupiter-Amon in Comptes Rendus de l'Académie, 1906, p. 25.

20:1 Preserved in Berlin; see Winckler, Die Thontafeln von Tell-el-Amarna, No. 24, p. 51.

21:1 Bork, Die Mitanni Sprache, Berlin, 1909.

22:1 See Erman, Die Märchen des Papyrus Westcar, Berlin, 1890.

22:2 See Naville's edition of the texts, Vol. II, pl. 46-55.

24:1 Neb-maat-Ra is the prenomen of Amenhetep III

24:2 Denkmäler, III, 85.

26:1 No. 475, Bay 9. Old No. 826. See A Guide to the Egyptian Galleries, p. 134.

32:1 The true reading may be hememit and so be connected with the word to "roar"--Khnem Amen of the roarings. Amenhetep IV dedicated a scarab to a god of roarings (British Museum, No. 51084).

35:1 A hieroglyphic transcript of the hieratic text will be found in Moret, Le Rituel du Culte Divin Journalier en Égypte, Paris, 1902, p. 69.

42:1 For transcripts of the hieratic texts, translations, etc., see, Gardiner in Aegyptische Zeitschrift, Bd. 42 (1905), p. 12 ff.

42:2 A complete transcript of the hieratic text into hieroglyphs, with a French translation, has been published by Grébaut, Hymne à Ammon-Ra, Paris, 1875.