Cannibal Hymn
From ArchaeoWiki
The Cannibal Hymn, so-called, represents a discrete episode (Utterances 273-274) in the anthrology of ritual texts that make up the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom period.
Appearing first in the Pyramid of Unas at the end of the Fifth Dynasty, the Cannibal Hymn preserves an early royal butchery ritual in which the deceased king—assisted by the god Shezmu—slaughters, cooks and eats the gods as sacrifical bulls, thereby incorporating in himself their divine powers in order that he might negotiate his passage into the Afterlife and guarantee his transformation as a celestial divinity ruling in the heavens.
The style and format of the Cannibal Hymn are characteristic of the oral-recitational poetry of pharaonic Egypt, marked by allusive metaphor and the exploitation of wordplay and homophony in its verbal recreation of a butchery ritual.
Apart from the burial of Unas, only the Pyramid of Teti displays the Cannibal Hymn.
Text
Source: [1]
Sky rains, stars darken,
The vaults quiver, earth's bones tremble,
the planets (?) stand still
At seeing Unis rise as a power,
A god who lives on his fathers,
Who feeds on his mothers!
Unis is master of cunning
Whose mother knows not his name;
The glory of Unis is in heaven,
His power is in lightland;
Like Atum, his father, his begetter,
Though (he is) his son, he is stronger than he!
The forces of Unis are behind him,
His helpers are under his feet,
His gods are on his head, his serpents on his brow,
Unis's lead-serpent is on his brow,
Soul-searcher, whose flame consumes;
Unis's neck is in its place.
Unis is the bull of heaven
Who rages in his heart,
Who lives on the being of every god,
Who eats their entrails
When they come, their bodies full of magic,
From the Isle of Flame.
Unis is an equipped being who has gathered his spirits,
Unis is risen as the Great One, master of servants;
He will sit with his back to Geb,
Unis will judge with Him-whose-name-is-hidden
On the day of slaying the eldest.
Unis is the lord of offerings who knots the cord,1 (1. Perhaps referring to an act similar to measuring out the harvest with a knotted cord on earth.)
Who himself prepares his meal.
Unis is he who eats men and feeds on gods,
Master of messengers, who sends instructions:
It is Horn-grasper in Kehau (?) who lassoes them for Unis,
It is Serpent Raised-head who guards and holds them for him.,
It is He-who-is-upon-the-willows who binds them for him.
It is Khons who tears their entrails out for him,
He (being) the envoy who is sent to punish;
It is Shesmu who carves them up for Unis,
Cooks meals of them for him in his dinner-pots.2 (2. Khons is the moon god and Shesmu the god of the wine- and oil-press.
Unis eats their magic, swallows their spirits: The other deities referred to in this passage are obscure.)
Their big ones are for his breakfast,
Their middle ones are for his dinner,
Their little ones are for his evening snack.
The oldest males and females are for his fuel:
The Great Ones in the northern sky light him fire
For the kettles' contents with the old ones' thighs,
For the Sky-dwellers serve Unis
And the pots are scraped for him with their women's legs.
He has encompassed the two skies,
He has circled the Two Shores (=Egypt);
Unis is the great power that overpowers the powers,
Unis is the divine hawk, the great hawk of hawks:
Whom he finds on his way he devours whole.
Unis's place is before all the nobles in lightland:
Unis is a god, oldest of the old.
Thousands serve him, hundreds offer to him:
Great-power rank was given to him by Orion, father of the gods.
Unis has risen again in heaven,
He is crowned as lord of lightland,
He has smashed bones and marrow,
He has seized the gods' hearts;
He has eaten the Red, swallowed the Green.3 (3. Referring to the Red Crown and the green body of its protectress,
Unis feeds on the lungs of the wise, the goddess Edjo of the Delta city of Buto.)
Likes to live on hearts and their magic;
Unis detests licking the coils of the Red
But delights to have their magic in his belly.
The dignities of Unis will not be taken from him,
For he has swallowed the knowledge of every god.
The lifetime of Unis is forever, his limit is eternity
In his dignity of "If-he-likes-he-does" and "If-he-hates-he-doesn't"
As he dwells in lightland for all eternity.
Lo, their power is in Unis's belly,
Their spirits are before Unis as broth of the gods,
Cooked for Unis from their bones.
Lo, their power is with Unis,
Their shadows (are taken) from their owners,
For Unis is one of those who risen is risen, who lasting lasts;
Nor can evildoers harm Unis's chosen seat
Among the living in this land for all eternity!
Bibliography
- Eyre, Christopher [2002], The Cannibal Hymn: A Cultural and Literary Study, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002. ISBN 0853236968 (cloth) ISBN 0853237069 (paper)
