This version, having been published in 1895, the year after the publication of Erman's version, has long since passed into the public domain, as well, under existing copyright law, thus its presence among the Dover books reprints. This version appears on pp. lxxxix through xci of the introduction to "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" by E. A. Wallace Budge, for which the "Standard Book Number" (which I assume is the same as its ISBN) is 486-21866-X, and the Library of Congress catalog number is 67-28633.

As with Erman's version, the underlining is mine, but, aside from those alterations made necessary by the limits of the format I am working with (the limited range of symbols available), what follows is a faithful copy of the original. (Note that Ra, in Budge's work, is spelled with a bar over the a, signifying that the a is long : "Ra" is to be pronounced as "Ray", not as "Rah", as it was in Stargate).

Where you see a footnote labeled "(M)", you will find a link into my retelling of this story, put in for the purposes of side by side comparison. One labeled "(E)" will take you into the Erman's translation (or, to be more accurate, Tirard's English translation of Erman's German translation, which, admittedly, does raise the issue of cumulative translation errors). Either way, the link will take you to the top of the passage in the other version, that corresponds to the passage in Budge which you've just read.

The Legend of Ra and Isis

Now Isis was a woman who possessed words of power; her heart was wearied with the millions of men, and she chose the millions of gods, but she esteemed more highly the millions of the khus. And she meditated in her heart, saying "Cannot I by means of the sacred name of God make myself mistress of the earth and become a goddess like unto Ra in heaven and upon earth?" (M) Now, behold, each day Ra entered at the head of his holy mariners and established himself upon the thrown of the two horizons. The holy one had grown old, he dribbled at the mouth, his spittle fell upon the earth, and his slobbering dropped upon the ground. And Isis kneaded it with the earth in her hand, and formed thereof a sacred serpent in the form of a spear; she set it not upright before her face, but let it lie upon the ground in the path whereby the great god went forth, according to his heart's desire, into his double kingdom. (M) (E) Now, the holy god arose, and the gods who followed him as though he were Pharaoh went with him; and he came forth according to his daily wont; and the sacred serpent bit him. (M) The flame of life departed from him, and he who dwelt among the cedars (?) was overcome. The holy god opened his mouth, and the cry of his majesty reached unto heaven. His company of gods said "What hath happened ?" and his gods exclaimed "What is it ?" But Ra could not answer, for his jaws trembled and all his members quaked; the poison spread swiftly through his flesh just as the Nile invadeth all his land. (M) (E) When the great god had stabilised his heart, he cried unto those who were in his train, saying "come unto me, O ye who have come into being from my body, ye gods who have come forth from me, make ye known unto Khepera that a dire calamity hath fallen upon me. My heart perceiveth it, but my eyes see it not; my hand hath not caused it, nor do I know who has done this unto me. Never have I felt such pain, neither can sickness cause more woe than this. (M) (E) I am a prince, the son of a prince, a sacred essence which hath proceeded from God. I am a great one, the son of a great one and my father planned my name; I have multitudes of names and multitudes of forms, and my existence is in every god. I have been proclaimed by the heralds Tmu and Horus, and my father and my mother uttered my name; but it hath been hidden within me by him that begat me, who would not that the words of power of any seer should have dominion over me. (M) I came forth to look upon that which I had made, I was passing through the world which I had created, when lo! something stung me, but what I know not. Is it fire? Is it water? My heart is on fire, my flesh quaketh, and trembling hath seized all my limbs. (M) Let there be brought unto me the children of the gods with healing words and lips that know, and with power that reacheth unto heaven. " The children of every god came unto him in tears, Isis came with her healing words and with her mouth full of the breath of life, with her enchantments which destroy sickness, and with her words of power which make the dead to live. And she spake (M), saying, "What hath come to pass, O holy father? What hath happened? A serpent hath bitten thee, and a thing which thou hast created hath lifted up his head against thee. Verily shall it be cast forth by my healing words of power, and I will drive it away from before the sight of thy sunbeams. (M) (E)

The holy god opened his mouth and said, "I was passing along my path, and I was going through the two regions of my lands according to my heart's desire, to see that which I had created, when lo! I was bitten by a serpent which I saw not. Is it fire? Is it water? I am colder than water, I am hotter than fire. All my flesh sweateth, I quake, my eye hath no strength, I can not see the sky, and the sweat rusheth to my face even as in the time of summer." Then said Isis unto Ra, "O tell me they name, holy father, for whosoever shall be delivered by thy holy name shall live." (M) [And Ra said], "I have made the heavens and the earth, I have ordered the mountains, I have created all that is above them, I have made the water, I have made come into being the great and wide sea, I have made the 'Bull of his mother,' from whom spring the delights of love. I have made the heavens, I have stretched out the two horizons like a curtain, and I have placed the soul of the gods within them. I am he who, if he openeth his eyes, doth make the light, and if he closeth them, darkness cometh into being. At his command the Nile riseth, and the gods know not his name. I have made the hours, I have created the days, I bring forth the festivals of the year, I create the Nile-flood. I make the fire of life, and I provide food in the houses. I am Khepera in the morning, I am Ra at noon, and I am Tmu at even." Meanwhile the poison was not taken away from his body, but it pierced deeper, and the great god could no longer walk. (M) (E)

Then said Isis unto Ra, "What thou hast said is not thy name. O tell it unto me, and the poison shall depart; for he shall live whose name shall be revealed." Now the poison burned like fire, and it was fiercer than the flame and the furnace, and the majesty of the god said, "I consent that Isis shall search into me, and that my name shall pass into her." Then the god hid himself from the gods, and his place in the boat of millions of years was empty. And when the time arrived for the heart of Ra to come forth, Isis spake unto her son Horus, saying, "the god hath bound himself by an oath to deliver up his two eyes" (ie. the son and the moon). (M) Thus was the name of the great god taken from him, and Isis, the lady of enchantments, said, "Depart, poison, go forth from the god, and shine outside his mouth. It is I who work, it is I who make to fall upon the earth the vanquished poison; for the name of the great god hath been taken away from him. May Ra live ! and may the poison die, may the poison die and may Ra live !" These are the words of Isis, the great goddess, the queen of the gods, who knew Ra by his own name. (M) (E)

Here, Budge ends the story, noting that "even to the great god Ra were attributed all the weaknesses and frailty of mortal man; and that 'gods' and 'goddesses' were classed with beasts and reptiles which could die ...", concluding that the word "God" should be reserved for the creator of the universe, and that neteru (or netjeru, as the House of Netjer prefers), should be translated as some other word, though he had no idea of what that word might be. In Kemetic Orthodoxy, the word 'Name' is used, though that choice has unfortunate results, as discussed in a footnote to some commentary made elsewhere on this site. Other Traditionalists, albeit mostly non-Kemetic ones, given such a situation, will simply accept traditional usage and use the word god, distinguishing between God (the almighty) and the gods, which produces no confusion in print, although it does occasionally trip some up in conversation. ("You are saying that God is not one of the gods? Isn't that a contradiction?") Alas, capital letters are invisible in the spoken language. Yes, better words should be sought.

In a monolatrous context, the word "aspect" would probably work and has a lengthy history of being applied under analogous circumstances, so it would be the one we'd be inclined to suggest. Click here to continue on to a few comments about this myth.