[Illustration: Horus at the Look-out of the Ship.]
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The later recensions add an interpolation (not without very different
readings) to the effect that the Sun made his first appearance when Shu
raised the Sky from the height of Chemennu, where he destroyed the
‘Children of Failure’ ⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂.
The raising of the Sky by Shu is very frequently represented in
pictures. Seb (the Earth) and Nut (the Sky) have been sleeping in each
other’s arms during the night; Shu (Daylight at sunrise) parts them, and
the sky is seen to be raised high above the earth.
⁂⁂⁂, Shu, who is of course the son of Râ, is in consequence of
this act called ⁂⁂ _Ȧn-ḥeru_, ‘The Lifter up of the Heaven.’
_Chemennu_ is the geographical name of the town called by the Greeks
Hermopolis. The mystical Chemennu, however, is alone referred to in this
place. The word itself means Eight, and Lepsius sees here a reference to
eight elementary deities. (We must remember that the passage itself is
an interpolation, of which there is no trace in the older texts.)
The ‘children of _Failure_’ (⁂⁂⁂⁂, ⁂⁂⁂ _deficere_,
_dissolvi_, _deliquium_[28]) are the elements of darkness which melt
away and vanish at the appearance of Day. This mythological expression
here found in an interpolated passage is met later on in a genuine
portion of the older text.