Egyptian-Hebrew stream·Egyptian Book of the Dead·Plate XXXVII.
Plate XXXVII — Closing prayers
The last plate of the papyrus. Closing prayers and acclamations; the deceased's final declaration of his standing before Osiris and his entry into the eternal life ankh djet.
Source context
- Theme
- final plate of the Egyptian Book of the Dead — culminating vignette of the post-mortem journey
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Tibetan Buddhist traditionThe Bardo Thodol likewise closes its sequential guidance of the deceased with culminating imagery of liberation or rebirth, presenting a structural parallel to the terminal plate of the Egyptian funerary sequence.
- Orphic gold tabletsOrphic tablet inscriptions addressed to the soul at the final threshold of the underworld show cross-tradition congruence with the closing scenes of the Egyptian post-mortem navigation.
Plate XXXVII.
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Vignette: A shrine wherein stands Sekeri-Ausar neb setait neter aa neb Neter-xert Seker-Osiris, lord of the hidden place, the great god, the lord of the underworld.
He wears the white crown with feathers, and holds in his hands the sceptre, flail, and crook.
The goddess Hathor, in the form of a hippopotamus, wearing upon her head a disk and horns; in her right hand she holds an unidentified object, and in her
[1. The text of all this passage is corrupt, and the version here given is little more than a suggestion.
2The version of the CLXXXVth Chapter given by Naville (*Todtenbuch*, Bd. I., Bl. 211) reads:--
* anet'-hra-k neter pen seps aa menx ser er neheh, xenti auset-f em sektet aa xaau em atetet tata nef hennu em pet em ta seqai pat rexi aa sefsefet-f em abu en reth xu mu ertat baiu-f Tettet sefsefet-f em Suten-henen ertai axemu-f em Annu aa xeperu-f em abti i-nek ab-a xer maa hati-a an ker ta-k un-a emma anxiu xet-a xent-a am sesiu-k. * Homage to thee god this sacred great, beneficent, prince of eternity, dweller in his seat in the *Sektet* boat great, diademed in the *atet* boat, are given to him praises in heaven and in earth, exalted by the ancients and by mankind, the greatness of his might is in the hearts of men, shining spirits, and the dead, placing his souls in Tattu, his might in Suten-henen, and placing the visible emblems of himself in Annu, and the might of his forms in the place of purification. I have come to thee, my heart is right, my breast is without deceit, grant thou that I may be among the living, that I may sail down and that I may sail up among thy followers.] {p. 369} left the emblem of life. Before her are tables of meat and drink offerings and flowers. Behind the hippopotamus, the divine cow, Meh-urit, symbolizing the same goddess, looks out from the funeral mountain, wearing the *menat* on her neck. At the foot of the mountain is the tomb; and in the foreground grows a group of flowering plants. ** Text:** [CHAPTER CLXXXVI.] Hathor, lady of Amentet, dweller in the land of Urt, lady of Ta-sert, the Eye of Ra, the dweller in his brow, the beautiful Face in the Boat of Millions of Years.[1]. . . . . . . . [1. The few remaining words are corrupt.]