TRADICIÓN
Religión egipcia
Los dos volúmenes que hablan desde dentro de esta religión traducen textos que no llevan nombre de escuela ni de doctrina: lo que nombran es el sitio donde están escritos y lo que hacen. Faulkner presenta el primero así: «THE Pyramid Texts of Ancient Egypt were carved on the walls of the pyramids of King Wenis of the end of the Fifth Dynasty and of the rulers of the Sixth Dynasty, and constitute the oldest corpus of Egyptian religious and funerary literature now extant» «Textos de las Pirámides, trad. Faulkner (Clarendon Press) · p. 5». El nombre con que se conoce el segundo es moderno, y su propia edición lo declara: «The term Book of the Dead was chosen by modern Egyptologists because the texts on funerary papyri are divided into individual spells, or chapters, nearly two hundred in number» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 13». Carol Andrews da el nombre egipcio, que dice lo que el difunto hace y no lo que le ocurre: los egipcios «called the text of funerary papyri the Book of Coming Forth by Day, for it concerned to so great an extent the freedom granted to the spirit forms which survived death to come and go as they pleased in the afterlife.» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 14». «Egyptian religion» es también nombre de fuera, y los dos volúmenes lo usan con dueño: Faulkner lo escribe al cerrar su Preface, agradeciendo las conversaciones que tuvo: «Apart from the very great debt I owe to Sethe’s publications, I have had valuable suggestions from Mr. C. H. S. Spaull, who read a considerable portion of the typescript and raised a number of points, and from Mr. H. S. Smith, Reader in Egyptology at University College, London, with whom I have had a number of fruitful discussions on various points of Egyptian religion.» «Textos de las Pirámides, trad. Faulkner (Clarendon Press) · p. 8», y Andrews escribe que «In Egyptian religion old beliefs were rarely discarded, new ideas and concepts were merely tacked on, even when in direct contradiction to existing views.» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 14».
Lo primero que las Utterances dicen del rey lo ponen en boca de dioses que lo reclaman como hijo. Habla Nut: «Recitation by Nut, the greatly beneficent: The King is my eldest son who §: split open my womb; he is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.» «Textos de las Pirámides, trad. Faulkner (Clarendon Press) · p. 15». Habla Géb: «Recitation by Géb: The King is my bodily son [. . .]» «Textos de las Pirámides, trad. Faulkner (Clarendon Press) · p. 15». Y habla Nit, que le devuelve a sus hermanas para que le restituyan el corazón al cuerpo: «Recitation by Nit: O King, I have given! to you your sister Isis, that she may lay hold of you and give to you your heart for your body.» «Textos de las Pirámides, trad. Faulkner (Clarendon Press) · p. 15». La filiación no se argumenta: se recita, y la rúbrica de cada Utterance dice quién la recita.
De la muerte del rey el texto dice expresamente que no es muerte: «O King,’ you have not departed dead,? you have departed alive; sit upon the throne of Osiris, your sceptre in your hand, that you may give orders to the living; your lotus-bud sceptre in your hand, that you may give orders to those whose seats are hidden.» «Textos de las Pirámides, trad. Faulkner (Clarendon Press) · p. 54». Lo que sigue es un ascenso con estaciones nombradas: «But you shall bathe in the starry firmament, you shall descend upon the iron bands on the arms of Horus in his name of Him who is in the Hnw-bark.! The sun-folk® shall call out to you, for the Imperishable Stars have raised you aloft. Ascend to the place where your father is, to the place where Géb is, that he may give you that which is on the brow of Horus,’ so that you may have a soul thereby and power thereby and that you may be at the head of the Westerners thereby.» «Textos de las Pirámides, trad. Faulkner (Clarendon Press) · p. 55». En la puerta hay un examen, y la fórmula lo enuncia como regla del cielo: «O King, your messengers go, your heralds run to your father, to Atum. O Atum, raise him up to you, enclose him within your arms. There is no star-god who has no companion, have you your companion?» «Textos de las Pirámides, trad. Faulkner (Clarendon Press) · p. 56». El rey se presenta entonces con el título que el corpus repite: «O Ré‘-Atum, this King comes to you, an imperishable spirit, lord of the affairs(?)' of the place of the four pillars ;? your son comes to you, this King comes to you. May you! traverse the sky, being united in the darkness; may you rise in the horizon, in the place where it is well with you.» «Textos de las Pirámides, trad. Faulkner (Clarendon Press) · p. 58».
Con los dioses la relación se dice en términos de reciprocidad y de mesa compartida. El amanecer del sol es también el del rey: «O Ré¢, if you dawn in the sky,’ you dawn for the King, lord of all things; if all things belong to? yourself, then all things will belong to the double of the King, all things will belong to himself—the lifting up before him of a sanctified offering.» «Textos de las Pirámides, trad. Faulkner (Clarendon Press) · p. 24». La petición al par que cruza el cielo no es de favor sino de igualdad de condición: «you two Companions" who cross the sky, who are Ré‘ and Thoth," take me!? with you,! that I may eat of what you eat, that I may drink of what you drink, § 129 that I may live on what you live on, that I may sit on what you sit on, that I may be strong through that whereby you are strong, that I may sail in that in which you sail.» «Textos de las Pirámides, trad. Faulkner (Clarendon Press) · p. 53». Y a Osiris se lo nombra por su sitio en el cielo y por su estación: «In your name of Dweller in Orion, with a season in the sky and a season on earth. O Osiris, turn your face and look on this King, for your seed which issued from you is effective.» «Textos de las Pirámides, trad. Faulkner (Clarendon Press) · p. 61».
En el Libro de los Muertos quien habla ya no es el rey sino un difunto cualquiera, y lo primero que hace es saludar al sol: «Worship of Re when he rises in the eastern horizon of the sky by N He says: Hail to you, you having come as Khepri, even Khepri who is the creator of the gods.» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 29». Lo que pide es ver y moverse: «May he grant that I see the sun-disc and behold the moon unceasingly every day; may my soul go forth to travel to every place which it desires;» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 29». Después viene la escena que el propio volumen rotula en versalitas: «THE HEART OF THE DEAD MAN IS WEIGHED IN THE SCALES OF THE BALANCE AGAINST THE FEATHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 29». El conjuro del corazón se dirige al órgano mismo, que puede declarar en contra: «O my heart which I had from my mother! O my heart which I had from my mother! O my heart of my different ages! Do not stand up as a witness against me, do not be opposed to me in the tribunal, do not be hostile to me in the presence of the Keeper of the Balance, for you are my ka which was in my body, the protector who made my members hale.» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 29». La declaración ante el tribunal se enuncia por negaciones: «Behold, I have come to you, I have brought you truth, I have repelled falsehood for you. I have not done falsehood against men, I have not impoverished my associates, I have done no wrong in the Place of Truth, I have not learnt that which is not, I have done no evil,» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 31», y el difunto la cierra en primera persona ante el señor del Occidente: «Thus says N: Here I am in your presence, O Lord of the West. There is no wrong-doing in my body, I have not wittingly told lies, there has been no second fault. Grant that I may be like the favoured ones who are in your suite, O Osiris, one greatly favoured by the good god, one loved of the Lord of the Two Lands, N, vindicated before Osiris.» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 30».
El mismo repertorio de conjuros da al difunto el otro recurso, que es decirse dios: «I am Atum at the head of the Abyss, my protection is from the gods, the lords of eternity, | am He whose name is secret, more holy of throne than the Chaos-gods; I am among them, I have gone forth with Atum, I am one who is not examined, I am hale, I am hale!» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 38». Y le da un sustituto para la faena, porque la ultratumba que promete tiene trabajo agrícola dentro: «O shabti, allotted to me, if I be summoned or if I be detailed to do any work which has to be done in the realm of the dead; if indeed obstacles are implanted for you therewith as a man at his duties, you shall detail yourself for me on every occasion of making arable the fields, of flooding the banks or of conveying sand from east to west; ‘Here am I,’ you shall say.» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 38». A dónde va el alma lo dice la petición: «May you ignore my wrong-doing and may you set me as one honoured with the spirits; may you protect my soul in the Sacred Land, may it navigate in the Field of Rushes, because I have passed on in joy.» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 45». Para qué sirve el rollo entero lo dice la edición al definirlo: «The Book of the Dead is the name now given to sheets of papyrus covered with magical texts and accompanying illustrations called vignettes which the ancient Egyptians placed with their dead in order to help them pass through the dangers of the Underworld and attain an afterlife of bliss in the Field of Reeds, the Egyptian heaven» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 13».
Lo que el aparato moderno adjudica va con su firmante y no se confunde con lo anterior. Carol Andrews ata los dos corpus: «Some of the spells in the Book of the Dead originated in the Pyramid Texts which first appeared carved in hieroglyphs on the walls of the burial chamber and anteroom of the pyramid of King Wenis, last ruler of the Fifth Dynasty, about 2345» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 13». Distingue dos ultratumbas en el corpus más viejo: «The Pyramid Texts also reflect a belief in an astral afterlife among the circumpolar stars which predates the ideas of the pyramid-builders who believed in a solar afterlife spent in the company of the sun-god.» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 13». Fecha en los Textos de los Sarcófagos el cambio de señor: «A new development in the Coffin Texts is that the sun-god is no longer supreme: Osiris is the king under whom the blessed dead hope to spend eternity, the god with whom the dead became assimilated as ‘the Osiris so» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 14», y ahí mismo la ultratumba de labor: «Another new concept appearing in the Coffin-Texts is a belief in an afterlife spent in the Field of Reeds where agricultural tasks would have to be carried out by the deceased for all eternity.» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 14». Su conclusión es que lo que hay no es un sistema sino un apilamiento: «Thus the chapters of the Book of the Dead papyri of the New Kingdom and later incorporate at least three quite separate traditions: there are traces of the earliest beliefs in an astral afterlife, spells in which the sun-god with his associated gods is supreme, and others in which Osiris is all-important.» «Libro de los Muertos egipcio, trad. Faulkner, ed. Andrews 1985 · p. 14».
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cada adscripción se consigna en la ficha de su obraQué dicen de ella las obras
cómo la define cada obra, con su pasajeAssmann — Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt (2005)
Fowden — The Egyptian Hermes (1986)
Hornung — The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife (1999)
Hornung — The Secret Lore of Egypt (2001)
Afirmaciones
30 entradas«THE Pyramid Texts of Ancient Egypt were carved on the walls of the pyramids of King Wenis of the end of the Fifth Dynasty and of the rulers of the Sixth Dynasty, and constitute the oldest corpus of Egyptian religious and funerary literature now extant» — la primera frase del Preface de Faulkner, que sitúa los Textos de las Pirámides en los muros de las pirámides de Wenis y de los reyes de la VI dinastía y los declara el corpus más antiguo conservado de literatura religiosa y funeraria egipcia.
«Recitation by Nut, the greatly beneficent: The King is my eldest son who §: split open my womb; he is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.» — Utterance 1, la primera del volumen: habla la diosa Nut y declara al rey hijo mayor suyo; el *§:* dentro del verbatim es el parágrafo 1 de Sethe, caído a media frase por el escaneo.
«Recitation by Géb: The King is my bodily son [. . .]» — Utterance 2: habla Géb y declara al rey hijo de su cuerpo; los corchetes con puntos son la laguna del original.
«Recitation by Nit: O King, I have given! to you your sister Isis, that she may lay hold of you and give to you your heart for your body.» — Utterance 4: Nit entrega al rey a su hermana Isis para que lo sostenga y le devuelva el corazón a su cuerpo.
«O King,’ you have not departed dead,? you have departed alive; sit upon the throne of Osiris, your sceptre in your hand, that you may give orders to the living; your lotus-bud sceptre in your hand, that you may give orders to those whose seats are hidden.» — Utterance 213: la fórmula niega expresamente que el rey se haya ido muerto, afirma que se fue vivo y lo sienta en el trono de Osiris con el cetro para mandar sobre los vivos y sobre los que tienen ocultos sus asientos.
«But you shall bathe in the starry firmament, you shall descend upon the iron bands on the arms of Horus in his name of Him who is in the Hnw-bark.! The sun-folk® shall call out to you, for the Imperishable Stars have raised you aloft. Ascend to the place where your father is, to the place where Géb is, that he may give you that which is on the brow of Horus,’ so that you may have a soul thereby and power thereby and that you may be at the head of the Westerners thereby.» — cierre de la Utterance 214: las Estrellas Imperecederas alzan al rey y Géb le da lo que está en la frente de Horus para que tenga alma y poder y esté a la cabeza de los Occidentales.
«O King, your messengers go, your heralds run to your father, to Atum. O Atum, raise him up to you, enclose him within your arms. There is no star-god who has no companion, have you your companion?» — Utterance 215: Atum ha de alzar al rey y encerrarlo en sus brazos, y la fórmula enuncia la regla del cielo, que ningún dios-estrella carece de compañero, en forma de pregunta al recién llegado.
«O Ré‘-Atum, this King comes to you, an imperishable spirit, lord of the affairs(?)' of the place of the four pillars ;? your son comes to you, this King comes to you. May you! traverse the sky, being united in the darkness; may you rise in the horizon, in the place where it is well with you.» — Utterance 217: el rey llega a Ré-Atum como espíritu imperecedero y señor del lugar de los cuatro pilares; el estribillo se repite cinco veces a lo largo de la Utterance.
«In your name of Dweller in Orion, with a season in the sky and a season on earth. O Osiris, turn your face and look on this King, for your seed which issued from you is effective.» — Utterance 219: la serie de nombres de Osiris lo sitúa en Orión con una estación en el cielo y otra en la tierra, y le pide volver el rostro al rey.
«O Ré¢, if you dawn in the sky,’ you dawn for the King, lord of all things; if all things belong to? yourself, then all things will belong to the double of the King, all things will belong to himself—the lifting up before him of a sanctified offering.» — Utterance 50: si Ré amanece en el cielo amanece para el rey, y la posesión de todas las cosas por el dios pasa al doble del rey; la condicional traza la correspondencia entre el orden solar y el destino del difunto.
«you two Companions" who cross the sky, who are Ré‘ and Thoth," take me!? with you,! that I may eat of what you eat, that I may drink of what you drink, § 129 that I may live on what you live on, that I may sit on what you sit on, that I may be strong through that whereby you are strong, that I may sail in that in which you sail.» — cierre de la Utterance 210: el rey pide a los dos Compañeros que cruzan el cielo, que la nota de Faulkner identifica como Ré y Thoth, comer, beber, vivir, sentarse, ser fuerte y navegar en lo mismo que ellos.
«Apart from the very great debt I owe to Sethe’s publications, I have had valuable suggestions from Mr. C. H. S. Spaull, who read a considerable portion of the typescript and raised a number of points, and from Mr. H. S. Smith, Reader in Egyptology at University College, London, with whom I have had a number of fruitful discussions on various points of Egyptian religion.» — el agradecimiento con que cierra el Preface: es el sitio donde Faulkner, por su cuenta y en su propia voz, llama a la materia del volumen religión egipcia.
«The term Book of the Dead was chosen by modern Egyptologists because the texts on funerary papyri are divided into individual spells, or chapters, nearly two hundred in number» — la edición declara que el título por el que se conoce el corpus lo eligieron los egiptólogos modernos, por la división del texto en conjuros o capítulos.
«The Book of the Dead is the name now given to sheets of papyrus covered with magical texts and accompanying illustrations called vignettes which the ancient Egyptians placed with their dead in order to help them pass through the dangers of the Underworld and attain an afterlife of bliss in the Field of Reeds, the Egyptian heaven» — la definición que la propia edición da del corpus: hojas de papiro con textos mágicos y viñetas que los egipcios ponían con sus muertos para pasar los peligros del Inframundo y alcanzar el Campo de Juncos.
«called the text of funerary papyri the Book of Coming Forth by Day, for it concerned to so great an extent the freedom granted to the spirit forms which survived death to come and go as they pleased in the afterlife.» — Carol Andrews da el nombre egipcio del corpus, Libro de la Salida al Día, y lo explica por la libertad de ir y venir que se concede a las formas espirituales que sobreviven a la muerte.
«In Egyptian religion old beliefs were rarely discarded, new ideas and concepts were merely tacked on, even when in direct contradiction to existing views.» — Andrews describe el modo de crecer de la religión egipcia: lo viejo rara vez se descartaba y lo nuevo se añadía encima, aun en contradicción directa con lo anterior.
«Thus the chapters of the Book of the Dead papyri of the New Kingdom and later incorporate at least three quite separate traditions: there are traces of the earliest beliefs in an astral afterlife, spells in which the sun-god with his associated gods is supreme, and others in which Osiris is all-important.» — Andrews cuenta tres tradiciones separadas dentro de los papiros del Reino Nuevo y posteriores: la ultratumba astral, la solar y la osiriana.
«Some of the spells in the Book of the Dead originated in the Pyramid Texts which first appeared carved in hieroglyphs on the walls of the burial chamber and anteroom of the pyramid of King Wenis, last ruler of the Fifth Dynasty, about 2345» — Andrews ata los dos corpus del bloque: algunos conjuros del Libro de los Muertos nacen en los Textos de las Pirámides de la pirámide de Wenis, último rey de la V dinastía, hacia el 2345.
«The Pyramid Texts also reflect a belief in an astral afterlife among the circumpolar stars which predates the ideas of the pyramid-builders who believed in a solar afterlife spent in the company of the sun-god.» — Andrews distingue dentro de los Textos de las Pirámides una ultratumba astral entre las estrellas circumpolares, anterior a la solar de los constructores de pirámides.
«A new development in the Coffin Texts is that the sun-god is no longer supreme: Osiris is the king under whom the blessed dead hope to spend eternity, the god with whom the dead became assimilated as ‘the Osiris so» — Andrews fecha en los Textos de los Sarcófagos el cambio de señor de la ultratumba: el dios solar deja de ser supremo y Osiris pasa a ser el rey bajo el cual los bienaventurados esperan pasar la eternidad; el tramo se corta a media palabra, donde el impreso empieza la fórmula con que se nombra al difunto asimilado.
«Another new concept appearing in the Coffin-Texts is a belief in an afterlife spent in the Field of Reeds where agricultural tasks would have to be carried out by the deceased for all eternity.» — Andrews introduce el Campo de Juncos como ultratumba de labor agrícola perpetua; el troceo imprime *Coffin-Texts* con guion.
«Worship of Re when he rises in the eastern horizon of the sky by N He says: Hail to you, you having come as Khepri, even Khepri who is the creator of the gods.» — la rúbrica y el arranque del himno introductorio: adoración de Re cuando se levanta en el horizonte oriental, y el saludo que lo nombra Khepri y creador de los dioses.
«May he grant that I see the sun-disc and behold the moon unceasingly every day; may my soul go forth to travel to every place which it desires;» — la petición del himno: ver el disco solar y la luna sin cesar y que el alma salga a viajar a donde quiera.
«THE HEART OF THE DEAD MAN IS WEIGHED IN THE SCALES OF THE BALANCE AGAINST THE FEATHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS» — el rótulo en versalitas del Juicio de los Muertos: el corazón se pesa contra la pluma de la rectitud.
«O my heart which I had from my mother! O my heart which I had from my mother! O my heart of my different ages! Do not stand up as a witness against me, do not be opposed to me in the tribunal, do not be hostile to me in the presence of the Keeper of the Balance, for you are my ka which was in my body, the protector who made my members hale.» — el conjuro del corazón se dirige al propio corazón y le pide que no testifique contra su dueño ante el Guardián de la Balanza, y lo identifica con el ka que estuvo en el cuerpo.
«Behold, I have come to you, I have brought you truth, I have repelled falsehood for you. I have not done falsehood against men, I have not impoverished my associates, I have done no wrong in the Place of Truth, I have not learnt that which is not, I have done no evil,» — arranque de la declaración de inocencia: traer la verdad, repeler la falsedad y negar el daño a los hombres y a los allegados.
«Thus says N: Here I am in your presence, O Lord of the West. There is no wrong-doing in my body, I have not wittingly told lies, there has been no second fault. Grant that I may be like the favoured ones who are in your suite, O Osiris, one greatly favoured by the good god, one loved of the Lord of the Two Lands, N, vindicated before Osiris.» — la declaración del propio difunto cierra la escena del juicio: sin mal en el cuerpo, sin mentira consciente y sin segunda falta; la N es el hueco donde va el nombre del dueño del papiro.
«O shabti, allotted to me, if I be summoned or if I be detailed to do any work which has to be done in the realm of the dead; if indeed obstacles are implanted for you therewith as a man at his duties, you shall detail yourself for me on every occasion of making arable the fields, of flooding the banks or of conveying sand from east to west; ‘Here am I,’ you shall say.» — el Spell 6 es la fórmula del shabti: la figurilla se compromete a responder Aquí estoy y a hacer la faena agrícola en lugar del difunto.
«I am Atum at the head of the Abyss, my protection is from the gods, the lords of eternity, | am He whose name is secret, more holy of throne than the Chaos-gods; I am among them, I have gone forth with Atum, I am one who is not examined, I am hale, I am hale!» — cierre del Spell 7, donde el difunto se dice Atum a la cabeza del Abismo, de nombre secreto, más sagrado de trono que los dioses del Caos y no sujeto a examen.
«May you ignore my wrong-doing and may you set me as one honoured with the spirits; may you protect my soul in the Sacred Land, may it navigate in the Field of Rushes, because I have passed on in joy.» — la petición del difunto es de indulgencia expresa y de navegación: que el dios pase por alto su mala obra, lo cuente entre los espíritus honrados y proteja su alma para que navegue en el Campo de Cañas.