Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": THE EGYPTIAN HIGH GOD IN THE AGE OF THE COFFIN TEXTS

I was (the spirit in ?) The Primeval Waters,

he who had no companion when my name came into existence.

The most ancient form in which I came into existence was as a drowned one.

I was (also) he who came into existence as a circle,

he who was the dweller in his egg.

I was the one who began (everything), the dweller in the Primeval Waters.

First Hahu1 emerged from me

and then I began to move.

I created my limbs in my 'glory'

I was the maker of myself, in that I formed myself according to my desire and in accord with my heart.

1. Hahu, the wind which began the separation of the waters and raised the sky.

Translated by R.T. Rundle Clark, in his Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt (London 1959) p.74

Bibliography for this page:

• Robert Thomas Rundle Clark “Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt”

More on Ancient Egypt:

• W. M. Flinders Petrie “Religion of Ancient Egypt”
• Henri Frankfort “Ancient Egyptian Religion: An Interpretation”
• Salomon Reinach “Orpheus: A History of Religions”
• Alexandre Piankoff “Shrines of Tut Ankh Amon; Egyptian Religious Texts and Representations Volume 2. Bollingen Series XL”
• Rosemary Clark “The Sacred Tradition in Ancient Egypt: The Esoteric Wisdom Revealed”

More on Egyptian Book Of The Dead:

• Raymond Faulkner, Ogden Goelet, Carol Andrews, James Wasserman “The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day”
• Lewis Spence “Myths and Legends Ancient Egypt”
• E. A. Wallis Budge “The Book of the Dead”
• Normandi Ellis “Awakening Osiris: The Egyptian Book of the Dead”
• Erik Hornung, David Lorton “The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife”

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