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 (275-299)

415a. To say: N. comes to you, ye falcons,

415b. since (?) your houses are barred off for N.,

415c. his m‘rḳ-garment of ape-skin on his back.

416a. N. opens the double doors (of heaven); N. goes to the boundary of the horizon;

416b. N. laid down the mśd.t-garment on the ground;

416c. N. became like the Great One who is in Crocodilopolis.

417a. To say: Thy act is against thee, what thou doest is against thee,

417b. O sksk-serpent, which is in his (thy) hole?, the opponent.

418a. To say: Horus falls because of his eye; the bull (Set) collapses because of his testicles.

418b. Fall, collapse!

419a. To say: Bȝbi is arisen, he is against the chief of Letopolis,

419b. whom that spittle protected; this (spittle) protects every one beloved of me.

419c. Thou art loosed, O wfii-serpent. Cause N. to be protected.

420a. To say: N., I have trampled the mud of the water-courses. Thot is the protector of N.,

420b. when it is dark, when it is dark.

421a. To say: Doer, doer; passer, passer;

421b. thy face behind thee; guard thyself against the great door,

422a. To say: Punish the serpent, Kbbhḥrwbi,

422b. O lion of phti, O lion of ptti, the phti (and) ptti.

422c. Give to me now, ḥrwtwbś, meat, now, one pot.

422d. Go, go, serpent, serpent.

423a. To say: Lo, this foreign country of the mouth of the river, this is thy complaint:

423b. "This foreign country of the mouth of the river belongs to me, the lord of Ḥknw."

423c. It is Ḫ‘i-tȝw of Ḥknw, this thine ox-god, the renowned, against whom this has been done.

424a. To say: Truly, N. wags his thumb, the left one, against thee.

424b. He gives a sign with it to Min (with his) thunderbolt. O robber, rob not.

425a. To say: He (serpent) whom Atum has bitten has filled the mouth of N.,

425b. while he wound himself up (lit. wound a winding).

425c. The centipede was smitten by the householder, the householder was smitten by the centipede.

425d. That lion is inside this lion.

425e. Two bulls fight inside the ibis.

426a. Thy two drops of poison are on the way to thy two poison-vessels. Spit both out now,

426b. for they two are rich in water. O thou who winkest, thou . who art (adorned with) a head-band, O Śšȝ.w,

426c. rain, that the serpent may become cowardly and the throat (canal) of my heart may be safe;

426d. storm, that the lion may drown himself in water and the throat of the heart of the king (?) may be wide.

427a. To say: O ye, who gurgle like the young of a "water-pest" (crocodile), tmti, thn.w,

427b. kbnw, those who glide away! The red crowns (i.e. water-flowers) praise

427c. the tiw-šii; the tiw-šii belong to him who has elevated the red crowns.

427d. Hail, we two!

428a. To say: Nni, his mother; Nni, his mother.

428b. Art thou really here, art thou really here? Lion, get away.

429a. To say: Hki-serpent or hkr.t-serpent, go away

429b. (with) face on the road. Eye of N., look not at him.

429c. Thou shalt not do thy will with N. Get away.

430a. To say: A bull is fallen because of the śdḥ-serpent; the śdḥ- serpent is fallen because of the bull.

430b. Fall, glide away.

43m. To say: Face falls on face; a knife coloured and black, goes out against it, until it has swallowed that

431b. which it has seized.

432a. To say: Thine honour is effaced, O white hole, by him who has escaped the fnt-worm.

432b. Thine honour is robbed, O white hole, by him who has escaped the fnt-worm.

433a. To say: Thou art seized, thou, O ’iknhi-serpent;

433b. thy neighbour (?) has seized thee, ’iknhi-serpent.

434a. To say: Back, hidden serpent; hide thyself,

434b. and let N. not see thee.

434c. Back, hidden serpent; hide thyself,

434d. and come not to the place where N. is,

434e. lest he pronounce against thee that name of thine, Nmi son of Nmi.t.

435a. A servant (holy person) as the Ennead's pelican (once) fell into the Nile, (so) flee, flee.

435b. Serpent (beast), lie down.

436a. To say: N. is Horus who comes forth from the acacia, who comes forth from the acacia,

436b. to whom it was, commanded: "Be thou aware of the lion," he comes forth to whom it was commanded: "Be thou aware of the lion."

437a. N. has come forth from his dni.t-jar, after he had passed the night in his dni.t-jar, 437b. and N. appears in the morning.

437c. He has come forth from his dni.t-jar, after he had passed the night in his dni.t-jar,

437d. and N. appears in the morning.

438a. To say: The mȝfd.t-lynx springs on the neck of the ’in-di-f-serpent.

438b. It repeats it on the neck of the serpent with the raised head (dśr-tp). 438c. Who is it who will remain? It is N. who will remain.

439a. To say: Tt.w-serpent, where to? Thou shalt not go. Stand by N.

439b. N. is Geb. Hmt-serpent, brother of hmt.t-serpent,

439c. should thy father, the d‘‘miw,die?

440a. The hand of N. which is come upon thee--

440b. it is a violent one which is come upon thee,

440c. it is the mȝfd.t-lynx, which is in the house of life.

440d. She strikes thee in thy face; she scratches thee in thine eyes,

441a. so that thou fallest in thy dung and glidest in thy urine.

441b. Fall, lie down, glide away, so that thy mother Nut may see thee.

442a. To say: Rē‘ dawns, his uraeus on his head,

442b. against this serpent, which is come out of the earth, (and) which is under the fingers of N.

442c. He (N.) cuts off thy head with this knife, which was in the hand of the mȝfd.t-lynx, [which lives in the house of life];

443a. he draws, (the teeth) which are upon (in) thy mouth; he saps thy poison

443b. with those four strings, which were in the service of the sandals of Osiris.

443c. Serpent (beast), lie down; bull, glide away.

444a. To say: The uraeus-serpent is for heaven; the centipede of Horus is for the earth.

444b. Horus had a sandal as he advanced (towards) the master of the house, the bull of the hole,

444c. the combat-serpent. N. will not be beaten,

444d. (for) his protective sycamore is the protective sycamore of N., his refuge is the refuge of N.

444e. Whom N. finds in his way, him he eats for himself bit by bit.