ADORATION OF AMOUN WHEN HE RISES AS RAH-HORAKHTI

By the brothers Suti and Hor, Thebes 18th Dynasty.

 

Hail to you, Rah, perfect every day

Whose rise creates the dawn and creates the day

Like Khepri [scarab beetle] who toils endlessly.

 

Your rays will shine on faces of generations yet unborn

Finest gold does not compare with your splendor.

Self-made, your passage creates time

Creator uncreated.

 

Sole, solar, one. You traverse eternity.

You are above the ways. Overseeing the millions below.

 

Your splendour is that of the heavens

Your colour brighter than all others.

 

All watch while you cross the sky

When you set you are hidden from their sight.

 

Daily you show yourself at dawn

Protected are those who sail beneath your majesty.

 

In a brief day you complete your circuit

Hundreds, thousands, millions of miles

A moment to you is a day to us

It has passed when you depart our horizon.

 

You also support the hours of night

You command it without pause in your journey.

 

Only through your light do all eyes see

They lack clarity when your majesty sets.

 

When you rise again at dawn

Your brightness illumines the eyes of creatures

When you set in the western mountain

They sleep as in a state of death.

 

First of two prayers to Amoun-Rah, Theban stela, British Museum 826.