Pyramid texts on line (Unas: cannibal god)

The Pyramid Texts of UNAS

Cartouche of King Unas ("wnis").
(ca. 2378 - 2348 BCE)

The Royal Ritual of
Rebirth & Illumination

the regeneration of the divine king and
the transformation of his Ba into an Akh

by Wim van den Dungen

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

"O You, the great god, whose name is unknown."

King Unas (Utt.254 - West Wall of Antechamber)

01 From Predynastic graves & mounds to royal tombs.
02 The rise of henotheism.
03 The ritual complex of King Unas.
04 The interpretation of the Pyramid Texts.
05 An integration of perpectives.
06 The role of Osiris in the Unas text.
07 Greek versus Egyptian Initiation

The Complete Textl Central Plan of the Hieroglyphs l Commentary l Bibliography

by Wim van den Dungen
Antwerp, 2006 - 2009.

Burial-Chamber l Passage-way l Antechamber l Corridor l Serdab

HIEROGLYPHS

Burial-chamber or Sarcophagusroom (I, II, III, IV, V) l Passage-way (VI)
Antechamber (VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII) l Northern Corridor (XIII) l Serdab (XIV)

Remark :

The use of capitals in words as "Absolute", "God" or "Divine", points to a rational context (i.e. how these appear in a theology conducted in the rational mode of thought). Hence, when these words are used in the context of Ancient Egyptian ante-rational thought (which, as a cultural form, was mythical, pre-rational & proto-rational), this restriction is lifted. Hence, words such as "god", "the god", "gods", "goddesses", "pantheon" or "divine" are not capitalized.

1. From Predynastic graves & mounds to royal tombs.

► Predynastic burials

In Egyptian funerary rituals, the tomb was a dark, underground structure, dug out in desert sand or rock and completed with offerings accompanying the dead. In the Predynastic millennium (ca. 4000 - 3000 BCE)  preceding the Pharaonic Period (ca. 3000 - 30 BCE), the tombs were simple holes in the ground, with wooden walls and mats. Little is known of what was on top of them, and so scholars hesitate to categorize these constructions as funerary architecture. On the outside, a mound of sand or gravel or perhaps a simple wooden construction may have served as a marker. Most Predynastic corpses were completely dried out because of the desert sand. Was this a prefiguration of the Pharaonic practice of removing bodily fluids with natron (during mummification) ?

From Naqada II onwards, highly differentiated burials are found in cemeteries in Upper Egypt (cf. Gerzean, ca. 3600 - 3300 BCE). These élite burials contained large quantities of grave goods, with exotic materials such as gold and lapis lazuli. These burials point to an increasing hierarchical society and the wish of the deceased to keep their status in the afterlife, of prime important in the funerary theology under the Pharaohs. In short, the royals had access to the sky of Re, whereas commoners were spirits unable to leave the kingdom of Osiris.

Naqada III tomb - Minsjat Abu Omar - Eastern Delta - ca. 3300 BCE.

First seen in Amratian culture (Naqada I, 4000 - 3600 BCE), there was, during the second phase of the Gerzean culture, a distinct acceleration of the funerary trend, whereby a few individuals were buried in larger, elaborate tombs, containing richer and more abundant offerings (cf. the Painted Tomb at Naqada). These Gerzean cemeteries develop a wide range of grave types, ranging from small oval or round pits, poorly provided, to burials in pottery vessels and rectangular pits subdivided in partitions (to put the funerary offerings). There were coffins of wood or airdried pottery, and indications of the wrapping of the body in strips of (expensive) linen (cf. the Double Tomb at Adaïma near Hierakonpolis). Various burial-sites appear, and also the richer tombs of the chieftains, the predecessors of the "Followers of Horus", the first divine kings.

"In the Neolithic period the dead were desposited in oval graves in foetal position, with the head at the south. In Lower Egypt the deceased was placed on his right side, his face turned towards the east, while in Upper Egypt, as all along the upper Nile, the dead person was placed on his left side, looking west. Often the body was wrapped in a cloth or an animal skin, the head resting on a cushion." - Lamy, 1981, p.27.

On the treshold of the First Dynasty (ca. 3000 - 2900 BCE), the graves of the rulers and the élite consisted of neat mudbrick boxes, sunk in the desert and divided, like a house or an imitation palace, into several rooms. The tombs of the first kings followed this pattern, but with increased complexity. Situated far out in the desert near the cliffs at Abydos, they were marked by a pair of large stelæ and covered by a mound. These mounds of sand and gravel can be traced back to the modest pit graves. The pyramid form is deemed an elaboration of this architecture, itself rooted in the myth of the primordial hill emerging out of the eternal "zep tepi", the Golden Age. This "risen land" ("ta-tenen") was the "first land" to come into being (in phenomenal time - cf. Nun).

► the advent of dual kingship & sacred language

At Naqada, Abydos and Hierakonpolis, the end of the Naqada II phase brings separate political centres to the fore. At the end of Naqada III, we witness a new style of "royal" burial. Also at this time, the first hieroglyphs appear.

Predynastic names of kings - Names not to same scale - Wilkinson (1999), p.53.

From the very early start, Egyptian kingship expressed a unique feature : realizing the harmony or equilibrium of opposites by using sacred language & its ritual. The dual nature of the monarchy was all-comprehensive and reflected in the regalia, in the royal titulary, in the royal rituals and festivals, building-projects, etc. Frankfort (1948) called the presence of the divine king and his institution of "transcendent significance".

Divine kingship or theocratic statemanship was a unique phenomenon in the region, if not in the world. Contemporary civilizations were often fragmented and political unity was difficult, short-lived or foreign to them. By absence of natural buffers, centuries of political centralization, stability, sacrality, administration & economy were unknown to them.

The Eastern & Western Deserts of Egypt surrounded the narrow strip of green land bordering the Nile. It was not an easy to attack Egypt from the South or the North. Its culture flourished on the surplus economy of the yearly inundation. Without a "good Nile", Egypt perished. Add to this the power of the divine, sacred kingship of the Great Word (cf. power & magic of words), creating the world (cf. Memphis theology), and Egyptian divine kingship is unique in Antiquity. Its direct influence on Greek philosophy and monotheism are unmistaken.

The first outstanding feature of the Egyptian solution was to institutionalize the king's dual nature : he was the Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, as well as human and divine. At first, in the Early Dynastic or Archaic Period (ca. 3000 - 2670 BCE), when the "Followers of Horus" ruled, the Falcon-principle inherent in Horus (the sky-god) was deemed to incarnate in each king. Later, in the Old Kingdom (ca. 2670 - 2205 BCE), the divine king or "nesut" was deemed the son of Re, i.e. the sole divine being abiding on Earth (the Akhu or deities remained in the sky and only sent their Kas -doubles- and Bas -souls-, not their spirit).

This crucial witnessing quality of the "great house" ("pr-Aa", much later Hellenized as "Pharaoh"), associated with the images of (a) the watchful, surging Falcon and (b) the mighty and fertile Bull (cf. the Predynastic consort of the great goddess), help to explain the importance of the institution of divine kingship in Egyptian culture, as well as the longevity and endurance of the Pharaonic canon. In the actual transmission of the standards of the Ancient Egyptian mindset, hieroglyphs played a crucial role.

Kingship implied the end of the fragmentation of Prehistory, terminating the "chaos" to which no return was possible. Thanks to the second crucial feature, the advent of sacred language(cf. magic and the power of the word), the new political ideology could be "eternalized" for millennia : the divine king, overseeing the "Two Lands" as its sole Lord, speaks Maat, thus keeping Upper & Lower Egypt together & united by way of this Great Word. Incarnating the Great Word (cf. Memphis theology), the royal ritual balances the scales of Maat, allowing for communication between the divine and the mundane, maintaining creation and causing a "good Nile" (not too much and not too little flooding).

"Indeed, the lips of King Merenre are as the Two Enneads.
This King Merenre is the Great Speech."

The Egyptian symmetry or play of equilibria, verbal, visual and written, utilizes the duality of opposites as part of a careful strategy to master the whole. The power of pairing lies in the combination demarcating and underlining a greater unity. Opposites are not contradictions, but complementarities. A kind of "organic" patchwork-thinking of great delicacy emerges.

Thanks to the presence of the divine king, the eternal cycle of the natural order ("neheh") initiated by Atum in the First Time, is transcended by a witnessing consciousness characterized by :

• the overseeing capacities of the son of Re, keeping dynamical divisions united ;

• the wholesome, fertilizing power of the regenerated Osiris who is king of the Duat and

• the strong, creative output as Horus on Earth, engaging others in community-building activities and securing one's return to the stellar light-fields of father Re. These works made the natural order and its dynamical equilibria endure for "millions of years".

► the royal tombs

With the arrival of the institution of kingship & sacred language, the royal ritual and its funerary cult came into existence.

The kings of the First Dynasty were buried at Abydos (the cult place of Osiris), an indication of the Upper Egyptian origin of the Egyptian state (cf. the "Followers of Horus" first uniting Upper Egypt before settling in Memphis). The institution of kingship was already strong & powerful. The central element of the later Osiris myth, the pairing of Horus and Seth, is attested from the middle of this First Dynasty (cf. the two ivory djed-pillars found in the First Dynasty tomb at Helwan). Osiris, not attested by name until the Unas texts, is very likely "Khentiamentiu", or "the Foremost of the Westerners", the god of Abydos, most likely of Predynastic origin.

Palace façade style mud-brick tomb - Queen Neithhotep - First Dynasty - ca. 3000 BCE.
The burial-chambers were incorparated at ground level.

The superstructures of the first royal tombs at Abydos were simple mounds of sand held in place by a mudbrick revetment. Scholars conjecture the burial mound recalls the primeval mound which emerged from the waters at the time of creation. The mound is Solar, and refers to the first ray of Re shining on the first day after the waters receded. In the tombs of kings Den and Adjib (First Dynasty, ca. 3000 - 2800 BCE), the entrance stairway approaches the burial-chamber from the East and the rising Sun. The symbolism speaks for itself. Like the rising Sun, the king rose to the sky.

In the tomb of King Qaa, who closes this dynasty, a change to a northerly orientation is effectuated (and maintained thereafter). The entrance corridor is a large ramp pointing northwards toward the circumpolar stars ("ixmw-sk" or "the ones that know not destruction"). Funerary ideology became stellar. The pyramids reflect a stellar ideology made possible by the local horizon delimiting the cycle of the Sun. They are made to assist the divine king on his celestial voyage to the stars. This is effectuated in two stages : Osirian regeneration, Solar ascension and luminous existence in heaven.

In these theological considerations, the change from mastaba to step pyramid, from primordial mound (of the Sun) to celestial ladder (to the stars), reflects the increased importance of the celestial, stellar terminus of the divine king. The influence of Re rose and a pre-rational and Heliopolitan henotheism saw the light. The royals were divine beings, and so bound to the sky, whereas commoners hid beneath the Earth, in the dark kingdom of Osiris. This Lunar fertility god would eventually represent the "regenerative" part of the royal ritual, but his kingdom had to be escaped. It represented an "order" created by Re but outside his reach (cf. Heavenly Cow), making humans & deities alike fear Osiris and make sure his judgement was favourable.

In this pre-rational henotheism, Re and his divine son rule the pantheon & creation. By the end of the Vth Dynasty (ca. 2487 - 2348 BCE), Osiris became "second best" in royal theology, creating the unsettling tension between the "Duat", the Netherworld,  and "pet", the sky, left unresolved in the texts. Horizontal (fertility - rebirth) & vertical (illumination - transformation) layers are not integrated in the text (yet), but in the architecture. This movement away from the strong architectonic message of gigantic hieroglyphic monuments for all to see, to the use of written hieroglyphs to make the magic work in splendid secure tombs, is another evidence of the growing importance of the magical power of hieroglyphs, lasting for ever.

"The sun's apparent path across the sky throughout the year follows a 12°-wide arc from east to west, known as the Winding Canal. The region of the sky to its south was known as the Marsh of Reeds and that to its north the Marsh of Rest or Marsh of Offerings. These names reflect the Egyptian's experience of their own country, where the marshes of the Delta gradually gave way to the Mediterranean Sea. Features within both regions were sees as islands, some inhabited by the 'Imperishable Stars', in the north, and the 'Unwearying Stars' in the south, and others known as the Mounds of Horus, Seth and Osiris." - Allen, 2005, p.9.

In some mysterious way, Osiris' Southern "Field of Reeds" and Re's Northern "Field of Offering" or "Field of Peace" were adjacent salvic conditions with conflicting ontological features. They reflect the dual spiritual economy at hand, and represent the Solar (dry) and Lunar (wet) "mechanics" of the high magic of rebirth (as the Lunar Osiris) and enlightenment (as the Solar Re). Very likely, divine kingship (as Re) assimilated the Lunar power of the Predynastic "great goddess", represented by Osiris, the "fertile bull" slain & risen. The earliest hieroglyphs evidence these two theologies, and their distribution in the tomb points to a sequence involving Lunar purification (rebirth) and Solar illumination (transformation).

Although the tombs left by the kings of the Early Dynastic Period are monumental in size, they do not approach the scale suddenly reached in the IIIth Dynasty (ca. 2670 - 2600 BCE), in particular under King Netjerikhet or "Djoser" (ca. 2654 - 2635 BCE) and his grand architect Imhotep.

Pyramid of Djoser and part of its surrounding enclosure wall.

"The Step Pyramid of Djoser heralded the classic pyramid age, the 4th to 6th dynasties, also known as the Old Kingdom. During these centuries the Egyptians built pyramids for their god-kings in a 72-km (45-mile) span of desert, between Abu Roash, northwest of Giza, to Meidum in the south, near the entrance of the Fayum. Excluding the pyramids of Djedefre at Abu Roash and Sneferu at Meidum as outliers, the 21 major Old Kingdom pyramids stand like sentinels in a 20-km (12-mile) stretch west of the capital the 'White Walls', later known as Memphis, clustering at Giza, Zawiyet el-Aryan, Abusir, Saqqara and Dahshur." - Lehner, 2001, pp.14-15.

The Step Pyramid represents a significant leap in architectural size and sophistication. A limestone wall, 10.5 m high and 1.644 m long, contained an area of 15 ha (then the size of a large town). This is the barrier between the outer world and the domain of the divine king. The complex, with functional and dummy buildings, large terraces, façades, columns, stairways, platforms, shrines and life-seized statues, reflected the dual nature of the afterlife : the half-submerging dummy buildings "must have signified the chthonic, underworld aspect of existence after death" (Lehner, 2001, p. 84), while the Step Pyramid itself, rising in six steps to a height of ca. 60 m, reflects the route of celestial (stellar) ascension/descension taken by the Solar King after he was mummified and entombed. Even after death, the king was still "at work" in his tomb, which acted as a stairway to and fro the sky. This depicted the fundamental duality of the afterlife : on the one hand, the Lunar underworld ("Dwt", "Duat") and, on the other hand, the Solar sky ("pt", "pet") of the "imperishable" circumpolar stars (Alpha Draconis rather than Alpha Polaris), about 26° to 30° above the northern horizon in the area of the pyramids.

In the reign of King Sneferu (ca. 2600 - 2571 BCE), the first king of the IVth Dynasty, radical changes in the overall plan of the Pyramid complex happened. A new form was sought. The royal tomb changed into a true pyramid. A new orientation was applied (the main axis of the complex was now from East to West instead as the previously North - South direction), and the mortuary temple was built against the Eastern face of the Pyramid (Djoser's is to the North). It was linked by a causeway to a valley temple, close to the edge of the cultivated area further to the East, which provided a monumental entrance to the complex as a whole ... 

This new standard, so-called Meidum-type arrangement, was amplified by the gigantic Giza complex of King Khufu (ca. 2571 - 2548 BCE), and remained unchanged throughout the Old Kingdom. Only in the Middle Kingdom (ca. 1938 - 1759 BCE), when the earliest Meidum-type were fading into ruin, did pyramid builders return to the basic elements of Djoser's complex, with a long North - South rectangular enclosure, defined by a decorated wall with a single entrance at the far South end of the East side.

During his reign, Pharaoh Sneferu finished in half a century three giant pyramids at Meidum and Dahshur. But the largest pyramid, 146.59 m high, would be built by his son Khnum-khuf ("Khnum is his protector"). The only known figure of him is a tiny figurine around 7.6 cm high with his name on its throne !

Plan of the Pyramid-complex of Pharaoh Khufu (ca. 2571 - 2548 BCE). The northern ventilation shaft pointed directly to Alpha Draconis, the Pole Star. But once every 24 hours, the three stars in Orion's belt passed at culmination above the southern ventilation shaft of the burial-chamber ; a combination of the myths of Re and Osiris ?