Excerpts of Coffin Texts Referencing Aset/Isis
The Coffin Texts first appeared during what is called the Middle Kingdom, as early as the 8th Dynasty, while the Pyramid Texts were still being used on coffins. The Coffin Texts had a broader appeal than the earlier funerary texts, being used not only for kings now, but for nomarchs and other officials, and their subordinates as well, and not only on coffins but on tomb walls, stelae, canopic chests, mummy masks and papyri.
The texts are gratefully taken from The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts as translated by R.O. Faulkner.
Spell 6
How great is the monthly festival of the height of heaven, even the festival of the New Moon!....You suck at your mother Sothis as your nurse who is in the horizon, Isis squats by you, she makes you bright, she makes for you fair ways of vindication against your foes, male and female, etc., and those who would have judgment against you in the realm of the dead on this happy day.
Spell 7
The vindication of a man against his foes is brought about in the realm of the dead. The earth was hacked up when the Rivals fought, their feet scooped out the sacred pool in Uinu. Now comes Djehuty/Thoth adorned with his dignity, for Atum has ennobled him with strength, and the Two Great Ladies are pleased with him...N is vindicated before you on the day,...May he be joyful before you even as Isis was joyful in that her happy day of playing music, when her son Heru/Horus had taken possession of the Two Lands in triumph.
Spell 45
...O N, may you be vindicated through your protection, for the power of Isis is your strength; see, you are more spirit-like and more soul-like than the southern or northern gods. (Alternative translation: O vindicated N, I have set my arms (alternative, magic) as your protection).
Spell 47
How good it is that my father should receive bread and beer from my hand, for he has no adversaries among the gods!...The gods acclaim you when you arrive at interment, the Westerners speak to you in giving praise, as when they see this god devising it. Isis rejoices when she sees you, she is happy when she sees your appearings, for you are beautiful and made anew like Ra; you have appeared as Heru/Horus of the distant ones.
Spell 48
Hail to you, N! is what Isis, the Lady of the Deserts, says. Be pre-eminent in the Sacred Booth, for she speaks your good name within the Bark on the day of reckoning characters...
Spell 66
Presenting glorifications. O N, be great, be mighty...Horus the Ascendant has equipped you, the earth has been removed for you in the sight of him who has come forth from Iunu-so says Isis. She shall suckle you, Nephthys shall give you her breast...they shall lift you up and carry you. Recite four times.
TopSpell 148
(this text is notable for its recounting of Aset/Isis becoming pregnant with Heru/Horus via a bolt of lightning, as well as for Aset's dialogue with the Gods.)
The lightning flash strikes, the gods are afraid, Isis awakes pregnant with the seed of her brother Osiris, She is uplifted, even she the widow, and her heart is glad with the seed of her brother Osiris. She says "O you gods, I am Isis, the sister of Osiris, who wept for the father of the gods, even Osiris, who judged the slaughtering of the Two Lands. His seed is within my womb, I have molded the shape of the god within the egg as my son, who is at the head of the Ennead. What he shall rule is this land, the heritage of his grand-father Geb, what he shall say is concerning his father, what he shall kill is Set the enemy of his father Osiris. Come, you gods, protect him within my womb, for he is known in your hearts. He is your lord, this god who is in his egg, blue-haired of form, lord of the gods, and great and beautiful are the vanes of the two blue plumes.
"Oh!" says Atum, "guard your heart, O woman! How do you know? He is the god, lord and heir of the Ennead, who made you within the egg."
"I am Isis, one more spirit-like and august than the gods; the god is within this womb of mine and he is the seed of Osiris."
Then says Atum, "You are pregnant and you are hidden, O girl! You will give birth, being pregnant for the gods, seeing that he is the seed of Osiris. May that villain who slew his father not come, les he break the egg in its early stages, for the Great-of-Magic will guard against him."
Thus says Isis, " Hear this, you gods, which Atum, Lord of the Mansions of the Sacred Images, has said. He has decreed for me protection for my son within my womb. He has knit together an entourage about him within this womb of mine, for he knows that he is the heir of Osiris, and a guard over the Falcon who is in this womb of mine has been set by Atum, Lord of the Gods. Go up on earth, that I may give you praise. The retainers of your father Osiris will serve you, I will make your name, for you have reached the horizon, having passed by the battlements of the Mansion of Him whose name is hidden. Strength has gone up within my flesh, power has reached into my flesh..."
Spell 158
(this text is notable for its reference to Aset/Isis having severed the hands of Her son Heru/Horus, as told also in the story of The Contendings of Heru and Set, which is actually dated from a later source. Perhaps this is some indication of the earlier sources for that later document.)
KNOWING THE SOULS OF NEKHEN. I know the mystery of Nekhen; it is the hands of Horus of his mother's making which were thrown into the water, she saying: "You shall be the two severed portions of Horus after you have been found." And Ra said: "This son of Isis is injured by reason of what his mother herself has done to him; would that we mght fetch Sobek from the back of the waters that he may fish them out and so that his mother Isis may cause them to grow again in their proper place...."
Spell 227
BECOMING THE COUNTERPART OF OSIRIS. I indeed am Osiris, I indeed am the Lord of All, I am the Radiant One, the brother of the Radiant Lady; I am Osiris, the brother of Isis. My son Horus and his mother Isis have protected me from that foe who would harm me; they have put cords on his arms and fetters on his thighs because of what he has done to me.
Spell 286
BECOMING A FALCON. The Two Enneads of Horus are afraid of me and tremble at me,....regard me, one who was conceived and born as Horus the heir; I was created for you, even I, the Lord of the Enneads. O you plebs, look on me, the son of Isis; I was conceived in Pe and born in Chemmis;...
TopSpell 312
SPELL FOR BEING TRANSFORMED INTO A DIVINE FALCON
Osiris speaks: O Horus, come to Djedu, clear my ways ofr me, and go all over my mansion, that you may see my form and extol my shape. May you inspire fear of me, may you create awe of me, that the gods of the Netherworld may fear me, that the gates may beware of me....
Horus speaks: ...I ally myself with the divine Isis,...I shall go and come to the confines of the sky, that I may ask the word from Geb, that I may demand authority from the Lord of All. Then the gods shall fear you, even they who shall see that I send to you one of those who dwell in the sunshine....
The messenger: ...I am one of those serpents which the Sole Lord made, before Isis came into being that she might give birth to Horus. I have been made strong,...I have made my appearance as a divine falcon, and Horus has invested me with his shape in order that I might take his affairs to Osiris, to the Netherworld.
The messenger, now possessed of his passport, the Royal Nms, continues his journey: O Heret, clear my way for me...I come today from the House of the Double Lion, I have come forth from it to the House of Isis, to the secret mysteries, I have been conducted to her hidden secrets, for she caused me to see the birth of the great god.
Spell 332
...I am Isis whom Nut bore, who displays her beauty, who puts together her power and who lifts up Ra to the Day-bark.
Spell 334
BECOMING THE SISTRUM-PLAYER O You [...]...I am that first seed of Ra; he begot me in the womb of my mother Isis [...]powerful in the sky, mighty (on) earth. Such is my condition before my father Ra and my mother [...], I will be in this land in company of the living, I desire my [name]to be on their lips as the Sistrum-player, son of Hathor.
Spell 775
See [I am a protection] from fear, for I am your mother, I am Isis;...
Spell 1095
This is Isis who is before him as Ma'at, who shows him the paths when crossing the sky, that he may imitate what Ra does.
Spell 1128
..The fire of the Night-bark. The company which is in the bow is Isis, Set and Horus. The company which is in the stern is Hu, Sia and Ra.
END
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