Chapter X: The Name of Ra

Published: Pleyte and Rossi, _Papyrus de Turin_, pls. 31, 77, 131-138.

Translated: Wiedemann, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_; p. 54.

This tale is found in a hieratic papyrus of the xxth dynasty (about 1200-1100 B.C.). It is written on both sides; the handwriting on one side differs from the handwriting on the other, showing that it is the work of two scribes. The writing is in black ink with occasional sentences in red. Hieratic is the running hand, derived from the hieroglyphs; the earliest example occurs in the first dynasty; it was superseded by demotic in the latest period of Egyptian history.

This papyrus is not quite complete, but the part containing the legend is fortunately uninjured. The text consists of magical formulae against the bites of serpents. In healing by magic, the magician recited an event in the career of some deity in which the god suffered from the same malady as the human patient then seeking relief. The words which cured the divine patient would also cure the human invalid. The same idea prevails in the legend of the Scorpions of Isis.