value in this place is in evidence of a truth not yet generally
acknowledged by Egyptologists, that _Ap-uat_ (or as written in the
Pyramid Texts, _Up-uat_) is really Osiris. The proofs are numerous and
overwhelming.
I produced evidence of this identity in the P.S.B.A. of June 1, 1886,
from an obelisk of the XIIth dynasty now at Alnwick Castle, and in 1891
Brugsch published in his _Thesaurus_ (p. 1420) a tablet, now in the
Louvre, of the same period as the obelisk, which also treats Ap-uat as
one of the names of Osiris. But the earliest as well as the most
instructive evidence is that of the Pyramid Texts. The later form of it
is thus given on the coffin of _Nes-Shu-Tefnut_ at Vienna (see Bergman,
_Recueil_, VI, p. 165): “Horus openeth for thee thy Two Eyes that thou
mayest see with them in thy name of Ap-uat.”
But the Pyramids of Teta (l. 281) and Pepi (l. 131) say, “Horus openeth
for thee thine Eye that thou mayest see with _it_ in _its_ name
_Ap-uat_.” Each of the Eyes of Osiris is Ap-uat, one of them is the
Southern and the other is the Northern Jackal. These two facing each
other form part of the symbolism explained in Note 2 upon Chapter 125.
The figure of the Jackal is wholly insufficient as an argument that
Ap-uat is identical with Anubis. Much better evidence is found in the
fact that the name of Anubis is sometimes written over the figure.[141]
But the true explanation of this is, what might have seemed incredible
to some of our older scholars, that Anubis is itself only one of the
names of Osiris.
The Pyramids of Pepi I (line 474 and following) and Pepi II (l. 1262 and
following) give imaginary etymologies of certain names of Osiris which
are repeated in the inscriptions of the tomb of Horhotep, published by
M. Maspero (_Miss. Arch._, I, 260). One of these names is ⁂⁂,
which is said to be derived from ⁂, “pass thou over to me.” The next
is ⁂⁂⁂⁂ _Anpu_, which is derived from ⁂⁂! The true
meaning of ⁂⁂⁂ is not _jackal_, but _whelp_; the fierce young
of an animal; not only of jackals or lions but of men, kings or gods,
⁂⁂⁂. Thus Orestes speaks (Eur., _Orest._, 1) of σκύμνον
ἀνοσίου πατρός, and the Chorus of another play talks of the reception of
τὸν Ἀχίλλειον σκύμνον (_Andr._, 1170). And Shakespeare speaks of “the
young whelp of Talbot’s raging brood.”