Commendation to Atum at Dawn - Anonymous

Recitation

Sun Atum, this Unis has come to you—an imperishable akh, 

lord of the property of the place of the four papyrus-columns.

Your son has come to you, this Unis has come to you. 

You shall both traverse the above, after gathering in the netherworld, 

and rise from the Akhet, from the place in which you have both become akh. 

Seth and Nephthys, go, 

announce to the gods of the Nile Valley as well as their akhs: 

"This Unis has come, an imperishable akh. 

Should he want you to die, you will die; 

should he want you to live, you will live."

Sun Atum, Unis has come to you—an imperishable akh, 

lord of the property of the place of the four papyrus-columns. 

Your son has come to you, this Unis has come to you. 

You shall both traverse the  above, after gathering in the netherworld, 

and rise from the Akhet, from the place in which you have both become akh. 

Osiris and Isis, go, 

announce to the gods of the Delta as well as their akhs: 

"This Unis has come, an imperishable akh, 

as the one who is to be worshiped, (Osiris) who is over the inundation: 

let the akhs in the water worship him. 

The one he wants to live, he will live; 

the one he wants to die, he will die."

Sun Atum, Unis has come to you—an imperishable akh, 

lord of the property of the place of the four papyrus-columns. 

Your son has come to you, this Unis has come to you. 

You shall both traverse the  above, after gathering in the netherworld, 

and rise from the Akhet, from the place in which you have both become akh. 

Thoth, go, announce to the gods of the West as well as their akhs: 

"This Unis has come, an imperishable akh, 

arrayed on the neck as Anubis at the head of the western height, 

that he may claim minds and control hearts. 

The one he wants to live, he will live; 

the one he wants to die, he will die."

Sun Atum, Unis has come to you—an imperishable akh, 

lord of the property of the place of the four papyrus-columns. 

Your son has come to you, this Unis has come to you. 

You shall both traverse the  above, after gathering in the netherworld, 

and rise from the Akhet, from the place in which you have both become akh. 

Horus, go, announce to the bas of the East as well as their akhs: 

"This Unis has come, an imperishable akh. 

The one he wants to live, he  will live; 

the one he wants to die, he will die."

Sun Atum, your son has come to you, this Unis has come to you. 

Elevate him to you, encircle him within your arms: 

he is your bodily son forever. 

---

Anonymous (c. 2323 BC) Egypt

Translated by James P. Allen

Source: The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts by James P. Allen, Society of Biblical Literature, 2005

• Akh (effective on) - Deceased person whose ba (the nonphysical essence of an individual or thing) has reunited with its ka (the force of conscious life), making possible eternal life.
• Akhet (Place of Becoming Akh) - The latter half of the Duat (term for the region through which the Sun travels at night), lying between the Duat’s center, where the Sun unites with Osiris in the middle of the night, and the visible horizon, above which the Sun rises at dawn. In the Pyramid Texts, associated with the antechamber of the pyramid.
• Atum (finished, complete) - Primordial source of all the elements and forces of the world.