God Khnemu: Selections from “Legends of the Gods” of Egypt, Part 2 of 2

The god Khnemu, also known as Khnum, is one of Egypt’s most ancient gods and is regarded as the Creator of Life. He is directly connected to the fertility and bounty of the River Nile, the center of ancient Egyptian civilization. In this legend, god Khnemu helps King Tcheser, also known as King Djoser, to relieve a long-standing famine.

A LEGEND OF THE GOD KHNEMU AND OF A SEVEN YEARS’ FAMINE.

“[…] And I found the God standing in front of me, and I made him to be at peace with me by means of the thank-offering which I offered unto him, and I made prayer and supplication before him. Then he opened his eyes, and his heart was inclined [to hear] me, and his words were strong [when he said], ‘I am Khnemu, who fashioned Thee. My two hands were about Thee and knitted together Thy body, and made healthy Thy members; and it is I who gave Thee Thy heart. Yet the minerals (or, precious stones) [lie] under each other, [and they have done so] from olden time, and no man has worked them in order to build the houses of the god, or to restore those which have fallen into ruin, or to hew out shrines for the gods of the South and of the North, or to do what he ought to do for his lord, notwithstanding that I am the Lord and the Creator.

I am [he] who created himself, Nu, the Great [God], who came into being at the beginning, [and] Hapi, who rises according to his will, in order to give health to him that labors for me. I am the Director and Guide of all men at their seasons, the Most Great, the Father of the Gods, Shu, the Great One, the Chief of the Earth. The two halves of the sky (the East and the West) are as a habitation below me. A lake of water has been poured out for me, [namely,] Hapi (the Nile), which embraces the field-land, and his embrace provides the [means of] life for every nose (every one), according to the extent of his embrace of the field-land. With old age [comes] the condition of weakness. I will make Hapi (the Nile) rise for Thee, and [in] no year shall [he] fail, and he shall spread himself out in rest upon every land. Green plants and herbs and trees shall bow beneath [the weight of] their produce. The goddess Renenet shall be at the head of everything, and every product shall increase by hundreds of thousands, according to the cubit of the year. The people shall be filled, verily to their hearts’ desire […].

Misery shall pass away, and the emptiness of their store-houses of grain shall come to an end. The land of Ta-Mert (that is Egypt) shall come to be a region of cultivated land, the districts [thereof] shall be yellow with grain crops, and the grain [thereof] shall be goodly. And fertility shall come according to the desire [of the people], more than there has ever been before.’ […]”