The Pyramid Texts were funerary inscriptions that were written on the walls of the early Ancient Egyptian pyramids at Sakkara. These date back to the fifth and sixth dynasties, approximately the years 2350-2175 B.C.E. However, because of extensive internal evidence, it is believed that they were composed much earlier, circa 3000 B.C.E. The Pyramid Texts are, therefore, essentially the oldest sacred texts known.

Samuel Mercer was the first to produce a complete English translation of this mysterious text, in 1952. This was also the first complete translation in any language. The Mercer translation was followed by the R.O. Faulkner translation in 1969, which is considered the standard today.

Utterances (226-243)

225a. To say: One serpent is encircled by another serpent,

225b. when a toothless (?) calf born on pasture-land is encircled.

225c. Earth, devour that which has come forth from thee. Monster (beast), lie down, glide away.

226a. A servant (holy person) who belongs to the Ennead (pelican) is fallen in water.

226b. Serpent, turn over that Re‘ may see thee.

227a. To say: The head of the great black bull was cut off.

227b. Hpn.w-serpent, this is said to thee. Ḫśr?-ntr-scorpion, this s said to thee:

227c. Turn over, glide into the ground. I have said this to thee.

228a. To say: Face falls on face; face sees face.

228b. A knife, coloured black and green, goes out against it, until it has swallowed that which it has licked.

229a. To say: This is the finger-nail of Atum,

229b. which is upon the dorsal vertebra of the Nḥb.w-kȝ.w (serpent) and which caused the strife in Wn.w to cease. 229c. Fall, glide away.

230a. To say: Be thy two poison-glands in the ground; be thy two rows of ribs in the hole.

230b. Pour out the liquid. The two kites stand there.

230c. Thy mouth is closed by the hangman's tool; the mouth of the hangman's tool is closed by the mȝfd.t (lynx).

230d. The one made tired is bitten by a serpent.

231a. O Re‘, N. has bitten the earth; N. has bitten Geb.

231b. N. has bitten the father of him who bit him.

231c. This is the being who has bitten N., (though) N. did not bite him.

232a. It is he who is come against N., (though) N. does not go against him;

232b. the second moment after he saw N., the second moment after he perceived N.

232c. If thou bitest N., he will make one (piece) of thee; if thou regardest N., he will make two of thee.

233a. The n‘w-serpent (male) is bitten by the n‘.t-serpent (female); the n‘.t-serpent is bitten by the n‘w-serpent.

233b. Heaven is protected magically; earth is protected magically; the "manly" who is behind mankind is protected magically.

234a. The god whose head is blind is protected magically; thou thyself, scorpion, art protected magically.

234b. These are the two knots (charm) of Elephantiné which are in the mouth of Osiris,

234c. which Horus knotted concerning the backbone.

235a. To say: Thy bone is a harpoon-point by which thou wilt be harpooned. Hearts are checked; the nomads are in the place of the spear,

235b. they are cast down. That is, the god Ḥmn.

236a. To say: Mti, Mti, Mti, Mti;

236b. Tiw, his mother, Tiw, his mother; Miti, Miti.

236c. Be thou watered (washed), O desert; (let there be) water, not sand.

237a. To say: The serpent which came forth from the earth is fallen; the flame which came forth from Nun is fallen.

237b. Fall; glide away.

238a. To say: A face is upon thee; thou who art on thy belly. Descend on thy backbone, thou who art in thy nȝw.tt-bush.

238b. Give away before the serpent who is provided with her two heads.

239a. To say: Kwtiw, ’Imḥw, ’Imḥw.

239b. Thou hast raped the two keepers of the stone door-jamb of ’It-ti-i-iȝ-i.

240. To say: Kbbhititibiti Šś, son of Ḥifg.t, that is thy name.

241a. To say: Spittle, which is not dried up (in dust?), (which has not) disappeared (flown) into the house of his mother,

241b. serpent (beast), lie down.

242a. To say: The bread of thy father belongs to thee, ’Iki-nhii;

242b. thine own bread belongs to thy father and to thee, ’Ik(i)-nhii.

242c. jewelry, oil, Ḫ‘i-tȝw, that is thine ox, the renowned, for whose deed this is being done.

243a. To say: The white crown is gone forth; she has devoured the Great.

243b. The tongue of the white crown has devoured the Great, yet the tongue was not seen.

244a. To say: The uraeus-serpent belongs to heaven; the centipede of Horus, belongs in the earth.

244b. Horus was an ox-herd when he trod on (things). N. treads upon the walk (gliding-place) of Horus,

244c. while N. knows not him who is not known.

245a. A face is, upon thee, thou who art in his (thy) nȝw.t-bush; mayest thou be lain on thy back, thou who art in his (thy) hole.

245b. Meat-cooker of Horus, escape into the earth. O let the beast, O desert, glide away.

246a. To say: "Spitting of the wall"; "Vomiting of the brick,"

246b. that which comes out of thy mouth is thrown back against thyself.

247a. To say: Extinguished is the flame. The flame-serpent is not found in the house of him who possesses Ombos.

247b. It is a serpent, which will bite, which has slipped back into the house of him whom it will bite, that it may remain in it.

248a. 248a. To say: Two ḥtś-sceptres and two ḥtś-sceptres are for both dm‘-cords, (to say) twice, as bread which is withheld from thee.

248b. Art thou then really here, art thou then really there? O slave, go away.