The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) · 315 of 357 · tr. E.A. Wallis Budge
Chapter 43 (part 76)
These eight elements were called Nu and Nut, Heh and Hehet, Kek and Keket, and Enen and Enenet, or Khemennu, the "Eight," and they were considered as primeval fathers and mothers. They are often represented in the forms of four male and four female apes who stand in adoration and greet the rising sun with songs and hymns of praise, but they also appear as male and female human forms with the heads of frogs or serpents. The birth of light from the waters, and of fire from the moist mass of primeval matter, and of Ra from Nu, formed the starting point of all mythological speculations, conjectures, and theories of the Egyptian priests. The light of the sun gave birth to itself out of chaos, and the conception of the future world was depicted in Thoth the divine intelligence; when Thoth gave the word, what he commanded at once took place by means of Ptah and Khnemu, the visible representatives of the power which turned Thoth's command into deed.
Khnemu made the egg of the sun, and Ptah gave to the god of light a finished body. The first paut of the gods consisted of Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys and Horus, and their governor Tmu or Atmu. Egyptian account of the Creation.
In a late copy of a work entitled the "Book of knowing the evolutions of Ra, the god Neb-er-tcher, the "lord of the company of the gods," records the story of the creation and of the birth of the gods:--"I am he who evolved himself under the form of the god Khepera, I, the evolver of the evolutions evolved myself, the evolver of all evolutions, after many evolutions and developments which came forth from my mouth. No heaven existed, and no earth, and no terrestrial animals or reptiles had come into being.
I formed them out of the inert mass of watery matter, I found no place whereon to stand .
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I was alone, and the gods Shu and Tefnut had not gone forth from me; there existed [1.
Brugsch, Religion , pp.
128, 129.
2.
Ibid.
, p.
132.
3.
Ibid.
, p.
140.
4.
Ibid.
, p.
142.
5.
Ibid.
, p.
148.
6.
Ibid.
, pp.
149, 152.
7.
Ibid.
, p.
158.
8.
Ibid.
, p.
160.
9.
Ibid.
, p.
161.
10.
Ibid.
, p.
163.
11.
Ibid.
, p.
187.
12 The variant version says, "I developed myself from the primeval matter which I had made." and adds, "My name is Osiris, ###, the substance of primeval matter."] "none other who worked with me.
I laid the foundations of all things by my will, and all things evolved themselves therefrom. I united myself to my shadow, and I sent forth Shu and Tefnut out from myself; thus from being one god I became three, and Shu and Tefnut gave birth to Nut and Seb, and Nut gave birth to Osiris, Horus-Khent-an-maa, Sut, Isis, and Nephthys, at one birth, one after the other, and their children multiply upon this earth." Summary of theories.
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
[auto] The text attributes human characteristics to the divine, describing Tmu as a 'father,' creation from his 'own body,' and the spirit feeling 'desire.'
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
[auto] The passage describes a generative chain where Tmu creates Shu and Tefnut, followed by Seb and Nut, and then Osiris and Isis, establishing a downward flow of divine beings.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
[auto] The text explicitly states that the primeval spirit's 'word woke to life the world,' aligning with the concept of a divine ordering principle or word effecting creation.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
[auto] The passage identifies a single 'divine primeval spirit' or 'boundless primeval mass' as the sole source from which all existence and gods emerge.