Chnum, who “created the animals by the breath of his mouth, and breathed forth the flowers of the field. . .” As the Apis Bull he is also “the living breath” of Ptah the Creator; [E. Chassinat, in Receuil de Travaux, 38 (1938), pp. 44f.] he is Horus of Edfu “who puts breath into the nose of the dead”; [W. Wreszinski, in AZ 45: 111, cf. 112, 115-7, 122.] he is Re who announces to them in the Underworld, “I bring light to the darkness. . . who sees me shall breathe, let him breathe who exalts my appearance!” [A. Piankoff, Le Livre de Quererts, Bull. Inst. Francais dArchaeol. Or. (BIFAO), 43 (1945), pp. 10, 19.] To which they reply, “We breathe when we see him, the King N breathes when he sees him. . . we breathe, rejoicing in Sheol (Quererts).” [Ibid., 42 (1944), pp. 33-34.] Because as Osiris he was brought back to life “as he smells the air of Isis,” who as she fans him with her wings says, “I put wind into his nose, [Hopfner, Plutarch über Isis und Osiris, I Teil, pp. 81-85.] he is able to restore others to life: “. . . your throats breathe when you hear the words of Osiris.” [Piankoff, Le Livre de Quererts, pp. 7ff, Tab. i.] For he himself is the great breather: “Osiris breathes, Osiris breathes, in truth Osiris breathes, his members have truly been rejuvenated”; then he “breathes out the air that is in his throat into the noses of men. How divine is that from which mankind live! It is all united in thy nostrils, the tree and its foliage, the rushes. . . the grain, barley, fruit trees, etc. Thou art the father and mother of humanity, who live by thy breath.” [Hopfner, Plutarch über Isis und Osiris, I, 151.] The Book of Breathings is not to be dismissed, as it has been, as a mere talisman against stinking corpses; it is a sermon on breathing in every Egyptian sense of the word. The Berlin Dictionary (usually called simply the W”rter-buch–Wb) IV, 171ff, gives a wealth of meanings for the word snsn, all of which fall under two related categories. First there is the idea of air and breath, No. 2 (in the WB list) being to smell, breathe; (3) to exude an odor; (4) to inhale air or the breath of life; (5) “der Odem,” the breath of life itself; (16) the stench of a corpse. In charge of this department is the god-des Mert, identified with Maat, who enjoys considerable prominence in our Book of Breathings. Supervising the functions of aesophagus and windpipe, she supplies both nourishment and breath of life (one actually eats and breathes her), and in that capacity enjoys a relationship of peculiar intimacy with every individual, even as she hangs on the kingly and priestly breast as a pectoral that both embraces and is embraced by the royal person. [J. Bergman, Ich bin Isis, pp. 186, 190, treats this familiar theme.] In this sense “The son of Atum-Re says, He hath begotten me by his nose: I came forth from his nostrils. Place me upon his breast, that he might embrace me with his sister Maat.” [A. De Buck, The Egyptian Coffin Texts (Univ. of Chicago, 1938), II, 34-35, Spell 80.] Snsn is the air that infuses and pervades: “Thy nostrils inhale (snsn) the air, thy nose breathes (snsn) the north wind, thy throat gulps in air, thou incorporatest life into thy body.” [From the Book of Passing through Eternity, W. Wreszinski, AZ 45: 115.] Isis and Nephthys prevent decay and evil odor by fanning with their wings, but that is also the favorable wind which enables the dead to progress on his journey in the hereafter. [Bergman, lch bin Isis, pp. 198-205.] But breathing is only half the story. It is significant that the clear statement of the purpose of the “Sensen” Papyrus as given in its introductory lines makes no mention whatever of breathing! This bids us consider the broader and more venerable ritual background of the word. The rites set forth in the Shabako document, the earliest coronation drama and perhaps the oldest of all Egyptian ritual texts, culminate when the new king “unites himself with the royal court and mingles (snsn) with the gods of Ta-tenen.” [K. Sethe, Das Denkmal Memphitischer Theologie der Schabakostein des Br. Mus., (Leipzig, 1929), p. 73, line 64.] The expression for “mingle with,” snsn r, Sethe finds also in the Pyramid Texts, and means, according to him, “sich zu jemand gesellen.” He duly notes that “the writing is commonly used in later times for snsn, ‘inhale,’ being mistakenly regarded as a reduplication of sn, ‘to kiss.’ ” Another document going back to the earliest times uses the same word in the same way, telling how “Maat came down from heaven in their times and united herself to those who dwell upon the earth”; (another version): “Maat came down to earth in their time and mingled with (snsn hn’) the gods,” (and another): “Maat came from heaven to earth and mingled (snsn.n.s) with all the gods.” [E. Otto, Das Goldene Zeitalter, in Religions en Egypte, etc. (above, n. 17), p. 103.] The word “mingled” (both as snsn.s and snsn.n.s) Otto renders as “sie verbrüderte sich mit. . . “and indeed in the last sentence the word is written simply with the picture of two men shaking hands
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 13:41:17 +0000
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