be made triumphant over his adversaries, even as thou makest Osiris
triumphant over his adversaries before the Great Circle of gods in
Restau on the Night when Anubis lieth(10.) with his hands upon the
objects behind Osiris, when Osiris is made to triumph over his
adversaries.
The Great Circle of gods in Restau is of Osiris, Horus, and Isis. The
heart of Horus rejoiceth, the heart of Osiris is glad and the two
Parts[33] of Heaven are satisfied when Thoth effecteth the triumph of
_N_ before these ten Great Circles about Rā and about Osiris and the
Circles of gods attached to every god and every goddess before the
Inviolate god. All his adversaries are destroyed and all that was wrong
in him is also destroyed.
_Let the person say this chapter, he will be purified and come forth by
day, after his death, and take all forms for the satisfaction of his
will, and if this chapter be recited over him, he will be prosperous
upon earth, he will come forth safe from every fire, and no evil thing
will approach him: with undeviating regularity for times infinite._(11.)
NOTES.
The eighteenth chapter is one of those found in the earliest copies of
the Book of the Dead, on the wooden coffins of the ‘Old’ and ‘Middle’
Empires; the most complete ancient copy being on the coffin of Queen
Mentuhotep of the eleventh dynasty.
It consists of a Litany addressed to Thoth, who is invoked for securing
the triumph of the departed against his adversaries in presence of the
gods of certain localities. Each petition has reference to some
mythological event, and is supplemented by the enumeration of the gods
constituting the divine company presiding at the locality named, and
sometimes by a short comment on the myth referred to.
The order of petitions is somewhat different in the later recensions,
and the text has suffered other alterations.
Copies of this chapter are extremely numerous, particularly in the later
periods.
The chapter really begins with the petitions to Thoth. The preceding
portion is, as far as I know, found only in the Papyrus of Ani. But as
the vignette which belongs to this portion has a place in the great
Leyden Papyrus of Kenna, the text cannot have been confined to a single
manuscript. It is particularly valuable as illustrative of the ritual
use of portions of the Book of the Dead.