Skatha wrote:

> But you're still using the old mish-mashed text and outdated
> references.

I think you might have a mistaken idea of what I'm doing here. This is not a case of using modern ideas, math, science, or language to impart meaning that doesn't exist into the writing. At every single point care is taken to exclude my own beliefs and knowledge from determination of meaning. The process as represented by this thread was to simply ask at every juncture "what must this mean to make sense?". This was always kept consistent with the words themselves by analyzing each word in context. Word meaning was deduced by figuring out what the word must mean to always have the exact same meaning and to fit into context. It was very fortuitous that the ancient language could be solved using this means. Ancient language could be solved largely because every word had a single meaning and it just didn't matter who translated them so long as they consistently translated them the same way. Indeed, most of the most important words to decipherment were not translated at all by Mercer; I3.t-wt.t, D3.t, and 3gb among them. Most of the difficulty in understanding the PT are the result of words that "seem" the same like horus/ horus, dead king/ everything, nut/ sky etc etc. as well as words which changed their meaning from the time the utterance was initially written to the time the redacted version was inscribed in stone like atum/ osiris or D3.t/ duat.

It's ironic that the concept of zep tepi is so highly confused. The words aren't even used in the PT and first appear in the Coffin Texts as a later confusion of the idea that there was a time before the first eruption and that it required man's ingenuity and hard work to create the first true eruptions and the extension of the primaval mound to the heavens. This process caused by the simplest expedient of merely needing clean, cool, fresh water for the animal needs of human beings was instrumental in causing the human progress that manifested as the Egyptian state and may have even been intimately tied to very early times in the development of human civilization. There are clues that suggest even agriculture owes much to this small area of land they called the Land of Horus. The "cool effervescent water like wine" may have been critical to the development of the human race. It was certainly critical to the rise of Egypt.

The concept of "zep tepi" was very important to the pyramid builders and they certanly had the word but it never appeared in a sentence because a descriptive terms was simply more likely to appear in rituals that take place at the site of zep tepi; it's a sort of sample error.

Even the translator's beliefs and knowledge must be factored out in order to understand one of his translations that he himself didn't understand. Mercer believed in stone dragging superstitious bumpkins so at every juncture translated things to reflect the ideas of stone dragging superstitious bumpkins. This is why I've studied Mercer to try to understand him and factor his beliefs out of his translation. The process is the same but knowing Mercer fascilitates insights I wouldn't otherwise have. I've also studied all the other translations but it is important to use a single source to the degree possible. These words are so highly enigmatic to modern speakers that each translator simply has his own translation and if you pick and choose among them you could come up with any understanding at all.

Mercer wins hands down because he tried to "stick with the script". Yes, he did mix and match some of the lines but most of these are of no special value to me anyway. Indeed, there is less consistency with my model among the mixed and matched lines.

"Zep tepi" was the legendary time of the first eruption which was in the distant past even in the great pyramid building age. It was when atum created himself from the ben ben on the primeval mound and gave birth to shu ("upward" who took water from the earth) and tefnut ("downward" who brought water to the earth). It was this event that gave rise to all the gods (natural processes) of the horizon who eventually banded together to build G1. This is exactly what the Pyramid Texts say in plain English whether you're reading Maspero or Allen or anyone in between.

People don't comprehend it not because translators are trying to understand a dead language. They don't understand it because translators don't understand the language they are translating is a metaphysical language that can not be translated into modern language. You can't take this language apart to understand it because it is based on context and perspective. This is why even the simplest concepts like "eye of horus" are wholly and completely not understood. This is why Egyptologists believe "eye of horus" has a different meaning each time it's used.

I know these concepts in this post are very difficult to understand for most individuals. You almost have to understand all of it to understand any of it. Well, welcome to my world. This is the way camera directions are written to my eye. I can't use a camera for this reason and I suppose you won't be able to understand the post for the very similar reason. So just suffice to say that it doesn't really matter which translation or glyphs you use because they all are the exact same thing. Some just say it more clearly than others but the original authors believed the king ascended to heaven upon, in, on, as, with, by, and by means of the pyramid. This is what the PT says no matter who translates it or interprets it. They said it in a type of language that no longer exists and looks like the musings of sun addled bumpkins if you try to translate it.



Post Edited (23-Jan-15 16:02)