Mummeries of Resurrection
 
The Cycle of Osiris in Finnegans Wake 


Mark L. Troy

Uppsala 1976
Doctoral dissertation at the University of Uppsala 1976




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Kirby Mountain Composition & Graphics
2002

Note: Page numbers from the printed text have been retained in the table of contents to use as approximate guides for the references in the bibliographies, line index, and elsewhere.

Also note: Section heads are linked back to the table of contents, illustrations are linked back to the illustrations list, and each footnote is linked back to its link in the text.

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Contents

Illustrations — 7

Abbreviations and Conventions Adopted — 9

Acknowledgements — 11

Preface — 13

Introduction — 18

The Cycle of Osiris: A Summary — 23

Part I: The Passion of Osiris

1. Osiris — 27
The Coffin of Osiris: treachery and death by water (27); The Erica or Heather (31); Death by Rending (32); Osiris, Mummified and Roused (32); The Pillar of Osiris (34); Trial of Osiris (35); Osiris, First of the Westerners (37); Transcriptions and Etymologies of the Name Osiris (38).

2. Isis — 42
The Quest of Isis (42); Isis and Nephthys, Les Pleureuses (44); Isis Reconstituting Osiris (47); Isis and Horus, Mother and Child (48).

3. Horus — 49
Horus the Avenger of His Father (49); Cycling Horus (49).

4. Set — 51
Hostile Set in a Continuum (51).

5. Thoth — 55
Thoth, toth, and the Power of Creation (55).

Part II: Mummeries of Resurrection

1. Interment — 61
The Tomb (61); Funerary Charms (64); Mummification (67); The Four Genii (67); Grain Osiris (68); The Soul or Spirit Released (70).

2. Ritual Revival — 72
The Book of the Dead (72); Opening of the Mouth (74); The Hall of Truth (77).

3. The Path into Day — 80
Coming Forth into Light (80); Images of Ascending (80); The Bark of the Sun (84); The Otherworld (86).

Conclusion — 88

Bibliography I — 90

Bibliography II — 93

Line Index — 97



Illustrations

Figure I. Osiris, First of the Westerners — Frontispiece
From E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Dead. Facsimiles of the of Hunefer, Anhai, Kerasher and Netchemet, London (1899), ch. cxxv, vignette 5. (This vignette is also the model for the line drawing in Budge, BD, p. 36.)

Figure II. "Only a fadograph of a yestern scene" (7.15) — 33
From A. Moret, Rois et Dieux D'Egypte. Paris (1911), p. 88

Figure III. The Serpent Sata — 53
From Albert Champdor, Le Livre des Marts, Editions Albin Michel, 22, rue Huygens, 75014 Paris, 1963. Reproduced here with permission of the publishers. (This vignette, from the Papyrus of Nu, is also the model for the line drawing in Budge, BD, p. 277)

Figure IV. "The cropse of our seedfather" (55.08) — 69
From Moret, Rois et Dieux D'Egypte, Paris (1911), p. 104.



Abbreviations and Conventions Adopted

Referring to Finnegans Wake in the text and notes I have used the customary abbreviation FW. Page/line references indicate the line on which quotations begin, and are given as follows: 387.12 (page 387 line 12).

The text used is the fourth edition, London (1975). Editions of the other texts of Joyce used are as follows:

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York (1964).

Ulysses, New York (1964).

The Critical Writings of James Joyce, ed. Ellsworth Mason and Richard Ellmann, New York (1964).

Letters of James Joyce. I, ed. S. Gilbert, New York (1967).

Critical sources which are frequently cited will be acknowledged in the body of the text. The following abbreviations are used:

AWN: A Wake Newslitter. ed. Clive Hart and Fritz Senn.

Books: James S. Atherton, The Books at the Wake. expanded and corrected edition, Mamaroneck New York (1974).

Skeleton Key: Joseph Campbell and Henry Morton Robinson, A Skeleton Key To Finnegans Wake. London (1947).

Ellmann: Richard Ellmann, James Joyce, New York (1965).

Givens: Seon Givens, James Joyce: Two Decades of Criticism, augmented edition, New York (1963).

Second Census: Adaline Glasheen, A Second Census of Finnegans Wake, Evanston (1963).

Frequently cited Egyptological sources will be acknowledged in the body of the text, while the following abbreviations being used (if two dates are given, the first is of an edition which would have been available at the time Joyce was writing; the second is the edition used in the dissertation).

Boylan: Patrick Boylan, Thoth: the Hermes of Egypt. London (1922).

DRT: James Henry Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt. New York (1912, 1959).

EB: Encyclopaedia Britannica, eleventh ed., Cambridge (1910–1911). It is generally acknowledged that Joyce made great use of this edition.

Osiris: Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, London (1891).

BD: Budge, The Book of the Dead, London (1899, 1974). This is the three-volume Kegan Paul edition which Joyce is known to have possessed and studied (see below, p 21).

Gods: Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, London (1904).

Facsimiles of Papyri: Budge, Facsimiles of Egyptian Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum. London (1910).

Dictionary: Budge, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary. London (1920).

Mummy: Budge, The Mummy, second ed., revised and expanded, London (1925).

Müller, Myths: W. Max Müller, Egyptian, The Mythology of All Races, XII, Boston (1918). Since Mrs. Glasheen's use of Vol. V in this series, Semitic, in AWN, no.15 (August 1963). 3, it has generally been acknowledged that Joyce made use of The Mythology of All Races.

Renouf, Life Work: Sir Peter Le Page Renouf, The Life Work of Sir Peter Le Page Renouf; ed. E. Naville, Paris (1907).

Wilkinson: Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, rev. Samuel Birch, London (1878).

Wilson: John A. Wilson, Signs & Wonders Upon Pharaoh, Chicago (1964).

For full bibliographical information on these and all other works cited in the dissertation, see Bibliography. The Bibliography is divided into two sections. The first includes information on the editions of Joyce's texts used, and those critical books and articles dealing with Joyce's work that are referred to in the dissertation. The second includes Egyptological sources and references to the pages in the dissertation where the works are cited.



Acknowledgements

I take great pleasure in expressing my appreciation to those who have aided me during the course of this study. I have had the privilege of having Docent Birgit Bramsback as my faculty advisor. Dr. Bramsback's keen observations and criticism have provided a stimulating intellectual challenge during the years I have spent in research. I especially wish to thank Professor Gunnar Sorelius and also Docent S.J. Spanberg, who read the dissertation in manuscript and suggested valuable improvements. I am also grateful to my fellow students, participants in Professor Sorelius' seminars, who have given much helpful advice. I have been fortunate in having Dr. W. Lansburgh to lend his expert advice in typographical matters. Grateful thanks are extended to Mr. Mongi Raddadi, who assisted with the reading of proof.

My interest in Joyce dates from the time of my graduate studies at California State University at San Francisco. There I was fortunate enough to have Professor R.E. Gajdusek as one of my instructors. It was because of his inspiring teaching that I was able to gain sufficient knowledge of Joyce to continue my studies after a lapse of a few years. Professor J. Wilson also aided me in my early research, as did Professor M. Gregory, whose wise advice has made it possible for me to dispose of the dead hippopotamus, or to be engaged in the attempt.

After I had completed several years' research, and determined the basic form of my thesis, I contacted several Joyceans whose published work I particularly admire. One of these was Adaline Glasheen, of Fairington, Connecticut, with whom I have since corresponded regularly. Mrs. Glasheen has provided many interesting bits of information about FW, and useful advice. Mr. James Atherton of Wigan, Lancashire, has proven to be not only a very perceptive reader of Joyce, but also unselfish and generous. He has read through several drafts of my prepared research and offered much criticism aimed at making my meanings clearer. To the extent that his attempt may have failed, the responsibility is my own. Through Mr. Clive Hart of the University of Essex, who has always been willing to advise and encourage, I learned that Mr. Maciej Slomczynski of Krakow was also very interested in the Egyptian aspects of FW, and had been studying independently for a number of years. Throughout the course of our correspondence, Mr. Slomczynski has proven generous of his wisdom and considered advice. Dr. Nathan Halper of New York has also been kind enough to read through a draft of my dissertation, and has offered some carefully weighed words of advice, which I have tried to follow. Mr. Luigi Schenoni of Bologna has also shown the affirmative intellectual spirit of Joyceans through his thoughtful observations.

Most of my research has been carried out at the library of the University of Uppsala and the Victoria Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, Uppsala. A generous grant from the University of Uppsala made it possible for me to spend some time studying the FW manuscripts in the British Museum. I am grateful to the staff of these institutions for their service and cooperation. It was because of a research grant awarded by the University of Uppsala that I have been able to continue my studies at all, and for this I am deeply grateful.

Finally, I would like to thank my friends for their consideration and encouragement. My wife Lana has provided material, intellectual and spiritual support without which my work would never have been completed; no thanks I offer her can be sufficient. I must certainly acknowledge the moral support lent me by my daughter Anna Livia, who has done her best to digest my paper, page by page.

Uppsala, May 1976 — MLT



Preface

Although it has long been recognized that the Egyptian Book of the Dead was a major source for Finnegans Wake, and that James Joyce employed the theology of ancient Egypt in the creation of his last book, no detailed study of this important area of FW has been attempted. The purpose of this thesis is to point out some of the ancient Egyptian elements that contribute to FW, and to examine the place they take in that work.

All aspects of Egyptian culture play a part in FW. It is my hope, however, that by sharpening the focus to a detailed examination of a limited number of events and characters, a more complete picture of the roles they play in FW will be possible. In the following pages my primary concern will be with Joyce's use, in FW, of a major aspect of ancient Egyptian religion and literature, the cycle of Osiris and the ritual ceremonies related to the cycle.

It may be considered an exaggeration to state, as Dr. Petr Skrabanek has done, that James Joyce, "not unlike Bruno . . . is obsessed with Egyptian mythology".1 Joyce was, however, certainly interested in many facets of ancient Egyptian religion, as he made clear to Arthur Power shortly after the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb in November, 1922.2 We should not be surprised at Joyce's interest. Through events, such as the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb, and through the writings of scholars, the sacred places and esoteric writings of the ancient Egyptians have in the last century been made accessible to a popular audience: in a very real sense, Egypt has, after a sleep of thousands of years, been roused from the dead. A continually growing number of publications provided Joyce with accounts of creation, of conflicts, death and resurrection, bits of language and references to monumental artifacts which found a place in the intricate patterns of FW.

Joyce himself made it clear that he felt study of his use of the matter of ancient Egypt was necessary for full critical appreciation of FW; this is shown by a letter to Harriet Shaw Weaver, dated 28 May, 1929. To succeed with FW, Joyce writes, "I am planning X, that is a book of only four long essays by 4 contributors (as yet I have found only one — Crosby — who has a huge illustrated edition of the Book of the Dead . . .)" (Letters, I, 281).3 The plans for this volume were not, however carried out.

There is additional evidence of the extent to which Joyce related his own book, with its multiple cycles of existence and resurrection to the ancient Egyptian texts. At one of their last meetings, Joyce suggested to Frank Budgen that he write an article about FW, entitling it James Joyce's Book of the Dead.4 Budgen followed Joyce's advice, making the reference to ancient Egypt even more specific with the title "Joyce's Chapters of Going Forth by Day" (Givens, pp. 343–367). This alludes to the Egyptian title of a section of the Book of the Dead, the PRT M HRW or "Coming Forth by Day", which links the day of FW to the ancient Egyptian belief that the journey to the Otherworld occupies the deceased for the entire night of the day of his death. He does not come forth into the realms of the blessed, reborn as the resurrected god Osiris until the following morning at sunrise (BD, p. lxxxviii). As we shall see in more detail later, the phrases and philosophy of the "Coming Forth by Day" are clearly echoed through FW in such phrases as "Irise, Osirises!" (493.28). In his article, however, Budgen has little to say about Joyce's use of Egypt, other than in a passing reference to ancient books in FW: "ancient ritual books and compilations, particularly the Norse Edda and the Egyptian Book of the Dead are . . . constantly recurring themes" (Givens, p. 364).

During the years that have passed since the publication of FW, several critics have attempted, in more detail than Budgen, to treat the Egyptian content of the book. Most noteworthy is a section entitled "The Book of the Dead" (pp. 191–200) in Mr. J. S. Atherton's The Books at the Wake (1959; with revised introduction and appendix, 1974). In his study of Joyce's sources, Mr. Atherton points out that Joyce "undoubtedly knew a great deal about Egyptology, and had more than one source-book" (Books, p. 197). Using the phrase "a budge of klees" (511.30), he explains that it is an acknowledgement by Joyce that the works of Sir E. A. Wallis Budge are a "bunch of keys" to FW (Books, p. 200). He speculates that The Gods of the Egyptians and Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection are probably important sources, and this is true, as we shall see later. Mr. Atherton also demonstrates that a number of citations from The Book of the Dead are to be found throughout FW.5 In the space that he allots to the subject, Mr. Atherton shows that references to several important gods and to other aspects of ancient Egyptian theology are widespread in FW. Especially significant is his treatment of Joyce's use of the Heliopolitan account of the creation myth (Books, p. 32), and his demonstration of the use of the so-called Negative Confession section of The Book of the Dead (Books, p. 195), both of which we shall have occasion to examine in more detail. The Books at the Wake is, however, a general outline of Joyce's use of his source material, and the range of subjects covered is vast. No attempt is made at a detailed study of any area of Egyptiana in FW.

Adaline Glasheen's A Second Census of Finnegans Wake (1963) is of course helpful in identifying the names of some Egyptian gods. Even more than Mr. Atherton, however, she is attempting to deal with a tremendous area, identifying the thousands of proper names which appear in FW. Invaluable though it is to reading FW, The Second Census can do no more than briefly indicate the importance of any name or group of names.

There have been several articles published which are useful for demonstrating the concentration of references to be found within a specific section of FW. Most important of these is Clive Hart's "His Good Smetterling of Entymology" in the February, 1967 issue of A Wake Newslitter, pp. 14–24. Mr. Hart examines, among other things, the occurrence of Egyptian gods and ritual in "The Fable of the Ondt and the Gracehoper" (414.18–419.10). He draws attention to "the splendidly magical atmosphere created by this rich association of gods, insects and Elysian Fields" (Hart, AWN, p. 15). Mr. Hart's listings of the variety of gods that appear in animal and vegetable form (p. 14) is informative in itself, and as an indication of Joyce's ability to manipulate his Egyptian material.

Worthwhile for its mention of the ancient Egyptian content and more generally for its demonstration of Joyce's accretive method is David Hayman's ". . . a Sentence in Progress" in the PMLA, March, 1953, pp. 136–154. Mr. Hayman presents the successive stages of composition which went into the sentence found at 449.26–450.02 as Shaun "reenacts the tragedies of Osiris and the Savior" (Hayman, PMLA, p. 137). There are many allusions to ancient Egypt in this rich sentence, and Hayman mentions some of them in his essay. Especially interesting is his illumination of the manner in which Joyce developed the image of the Solar Bark, 449.27 (Hayman, PMLA, pp. 138–140).6

These studies are the ones which I have found useful in approaching the Egyptian matter in FW. Both through discursive examination of the entire contents of the book and more specific scrutiny of several isolated passages, they demonstrate that ancient Egypt plays an important part in the book.

The work that has been done is, however, limited: a more thorough account would be of use to the reader. The present study of the cycle of Osiris in FW is intended as a first step. Part I of the dissertation, "The Passion of Osiris", will concentrate on the related cycle of the life, death and rebirth of Osiris. My presentation will not treat all of the available material in all of the versions of the narrative, but is limited to those data which seem important for a further understanding of FW.

The various characters in the mythic cycle, and the events in which they interact each carried its own distinct significances to the ancient Egyptians; Joyce drew on individuals and events according to his needs in FW. This leads to a fragmentation of the sequential order of the events as they are presented in Joyce's sources. For this analytic study, illustrative examples of the myth will be abstracted from their FW context and rearranged in roughly the order in which they appear in the ancient narrative. In order to achieve some sort of balance between the myths themselves, and the way the figures and events appear in FW, I approach each character individually, beginning with Joyce's use of Osiris, then Isis and the other gods, using their place in the myths as a starting point, shifting emphasis as Joyce seems to do so. This will, I hope, simplify the task of simultaneously grasping both the myth and Joyce's use of it.

It was the belief of the early Egyptians that, since Osiris was raised to life by the ceremonies that Thoth taught to Isis, those same words and ceremonies will raise us to life and give us immortality also (Budge, Gods, I, 150–151). With this belief in mind, the theologians of ancient Egypt developed the words and rituals which would lead the deceased out of the darkness and paralysis of death through the labyrinth of night into light, by the path of Osiris and the dawning sun. Acquaintanceship with the most important of these rituals is important if we are to understand the significance of Osiris for FW. Part II of this study, "Mummeries of Resurrection", will examine the ceremonial structures intended to transform the dead into a reborn Osiris.

Most of the important aspects of the funerary rituals which were involved in the rebirth of the deceased, and many of the important charms as Joyce learned of them, are mentioned in FW. As is the case with the mythic cycle, however, Joyce took from his sources and then worked according to his own ordering principles, re-distributing ceremonies and scarab beetles. If we treat them in the order in which they appear in FW, the analysis becomes extremely difficult to follow. Accordingly in Part II I have abstracted the more significant rituals and artifacts and present them roughly in the order that the ancient Egyptian might have encountered them (or at least the order in which they are found in Joyce's Egyptological sources). Beginning with a look at the tomb itself, we will discuss the meanings Joyce seems to have derived from his sources, and examine briefly examples of the creative use he made of the material.

This dissertation is being presented in the hope that it may be of assistance in a fuller understanding of FW, and of use in reading the book. Accordingly, a line index is appended, in which the lines examined are presented in the order in which they appear in FW, with a listing of the pages on which they are referred to in my dissertation.

I will begin this study with a brief introduction to the Osirian religion, and to some of Joyce's important Egyptological sources. Attempting to preserve something of the dynamic of the interactions in the original myth, I have drawn on those sources which seem to have been important to Joyce, and have assembled a summary of the cycle, with the events organized in a chronological sequence. Although this necessitates a certain amount of repetition, the summary is being presented in the hope that it will help the reader to follow my argument. It will form the concluding section of the introductory material.



Introduction

The theology of ancient Egypt plays a significant part in a massive and complex work of art. Joyce was a voracious reader, with a command of several languages and having access to the scholarly works of many nations; he also kept his friends and acquaintances busy working at various projects pertaining to FW, finding books or looking up references.7 Thus we find that he drew to a greater or lesser extent from a number of books and periodicals for allusions to ancient Egyptian religion, language, and art. For this study, we shall confine our examination to those volumes which seem to have contributed to various aspects of Osirian religion as they are encountered in FW.

At the time Joyce explained his interest in ancient Egyptian religion to Arthur Power,8 Egyptology was not yet considered the specialized — and, to the non-specialist, forbidding — field that it has since become. Certainly, learned journals and books were produced, but in the century which elapsed between the deciphering of the Rosetta stone9 and the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb, a significant part of those research results which contributed to an increasingly detailed picture of ancient Egypt were presented at a level accessible to laymen. Many handsome volumes were prepared for an interested public.10

It should be emphasized that, though I am primarily interested in establishing Joyce's use of scholarly sources, this study will not be concerned with their standing as scientific works. What concerns us here is that Joyce employed Egyptological source-books in constructing FW. It is interesting, however, that a brief survey of the authors of those books takes us through several important stages in the growth of Egyptology.

Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1797–1875), to begin with, represents the gentleman-scholar of the nineteenth century. He had a house built above the tombs of the nobles in Thebes and conducted his hobby in a leisurely fashion. Wilkinson was a skilled copyist, and the respected American Egyptologist John A. Wilson explains that Wilkinson's clear and analytic work had great influence on the understanding of ancient Egypt. His books were popular, and no library of distinction in the mid-nineteenth century would have been complete without his Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians,11 which was first published in 1837. A second, illustrated and revised edition, which is the one I think Joyce used, was issued in 1878. Mr. Atherton explains that Joyce often took only a word or a phrase from a book, as he developed the vocabulary of FW (Books, p. 27). This is probably the case with Wilkinson. Joyce uses this learned and well-known author primarily for distinctive transcriptions of words and the names of gods.12

Sir Peter Le Page Renouf (1822–1897) and, later and more importantly, James Henry Breasted (1865–1935) exemplify the more scholarly approach within Egyptology which can be seen developing around the turn of the century. As is the case with Wilkinson, Joyce probably took a limited amount of material from the works of Renouf, but here the few words are more important. Renouf, who had taught for a few years at the Catholic University, Dublin13 (which might in itself be a reason for Joyce to have been interested in his writings), was extremely interested in philology. He gives examples of puns linking natural images and metaphysical concepts in many of his articles, such as "The Myth of Osiris Unnefer" (Life Work, II, 409–416) which I think Joyce used. Renouf explains here that various animal hieroglyphics showing animals which characteristically sprang or flew up into the sky, such as the hare, grouse, grasshopper, were used to express the concept of ascending or leaping into heaven. These etymological puns were, as we shall see, incorporated into the resurrection imagery of FW.

James Henry Breasted is generally acknowledged as a scholar of great merit, and a brilliant writer whose works had a great popular appeal; his A History of Egypt had been through eight printings by March, 1923. Joyce seems to have been more interested in another of Breasted's works, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt (1912). In this book Breasted attempts to trace religious and intellectual progress from the earliest times to Christian days in Egypt. In a book which was considered "epoch making in its significance for the history of human thought" (Wilson, p. 141), he develops the thesis that the Mosaic ethical tradition originated thousands of years before Moses in the solar religion of Heliopolis. Breasted also, in one of the first extensive uses of the ancient Pyramid Texts, demonstrates the gradually accomplished unity between the religion of the sun and that of Osiris. These impressive trans-cultural continuities spanning many centuries reinforce an important aspect of FW, and this is why I think that Joyce "acknowledges" his use of Development of Religion and Thought in the phrase "this new book of Morses responded most remarkably to the silent query of our world's oldest light" (123.35). Breasted's book is a reprint of the Morse Lectures, thus it is a new book of Morses. The importance of the book lies in its comparative treatment of the Mosaic tradition, hence the play on "book of Moses". The Judeo-Christian heritage is traced back to worship of the sun, "the world's oldest light".

The presence of Sir James Frazer's pioneering work in comparative religion, The Golden Bough, can, as Mr. Atherton notes (Books, pp. 193–194), be detected in FW. A treatment of Frazer, and Joyce's use of the pattern of the divine priest-king as it is developed in the pages of Atthis, Adonis, Osiris would go beyond the scope of this dissertation. We will, however, be concerned with the textual evidence for Joyce's use of Alexandre Moret, who developed and defended Frazer's concept of Osiris as a god of nature and cyclical rebirth. Our interest is quite specific, centering on several plates in Moret's Rois et Dieux d'Egypte (1911), especially the photograph facing page eighty-eight, of a relief portraying the arousal of Osiris by Isis. This plate is reproduced as fig. II in this dissertation, its significance to FW being treated in the section entitled "Osiris, Mummified and Roused". Another striking photograph found in Moret is of a funerary charm, a "grain Osiris". This plate is found in the dissertation as fig. IV. Its relevance is treated in the appropriate section, "Grain Osiris".

Sir E. A. Wallis Budge presents a titanic figure in the history of popular archaeology. He did more than any other person to rouse in the ordinary reader of the English-speaking world an interest in the language and writings of ancient Egypt (Wilson, p. 89). Tremendously energetic, Budge turned out more than a hundred volumes, and the most popular of these would almost certainly have been available to Joyce. I will draw on Budge's Gods of the Egyptians (1904) for much information, as Mr. Atherton does. This is because I assume that it was not only one of several general surveys used by Joyce, but that it is probably also the one most easily obtained by readers of this dissertation. Thus, I will refer to The Gods of the Egyptians, or the other popular work mentioned by Mr. Atherton, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection (1891), when Budge's material is most likely Joyce's source, and also when his books are in general agreement with others I have encountered.

It was through Budge's great ingenuity that the British Museum obtained many of its most beautiful papyri, such as the recension of The Book of the Dead known as The Papyrus of Ani. Budge was a "prodigious editor of texts in a wide range of oriental languages" (Wilson, p. 216). He produced many large-folio facsimiles of papyri for the British Museum, and translated several recensions of The Book of the Dead. The most well-known of these is that of the Theban recension, first published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner in 1899. Though Joyce used bits of information from more than one edition of The Book of the Dead, we can now be sure that he used the Kegan Paul edition extensively, for Frank Budgen assured Mr. Atherton that "Joyce at one time owned the three-volume translation by Budge and he had seen him studying it."'14 Thus, unless there are textual reasons for using other translations of The Book of the Dead (as for example, in the case of "Les Pleureuses", where Joyce has taken a phrase from a French translation) we will use the Kegan Paul edition.

The Theban recension is so called because it is a compilation of several important papyri found chiefly in Thebes, composed between the XVIII and XXII dynasties, which Budge dates "from about B.C. 1600 to B.C. 900" (BD, p. v). It is important to note, however, that in the Kegan Paul translation, Budge does not adhere to conventional Egyptological practise, which would be to restrict the label "Book of the Dead" to certain funeral papyri only, while referring to the texts found on the walls of pyramid tombs as The Pyramid Texts, etc. Instead, Budge makes it clear that with the term "Book of the Dead" he refers to all Egyptian funeral compositions, whether found on the walls of tombs or on coffins, funeral papyri or amulets (BD, p. v).

From his reading of Budge, Joyce would have learned that these collected compositions make up a sort of verbal map of the path to be taken through the Netherworld by the dead, in order for them safely to achieve eternal justification and resurrection in Amenti, the Elysian Fields. Using the words of The Book of the Dead the deceased not only called upon various gods for assistance during his journey, he assumed their particular power by taking on their roles; using ritual gestures and words of magic or power, he identified himself with the gods, in effect became the gods.

The overriding identification was with Osiris, the archetypal resurrected being: "the absolute identity of the deceased with Osiris is always assumed . . ." (BD, p. iiv). As the cycle of the god involved a physical rebirth (for Osiris and for those who followed him), and a voyage to the fields of Amenti, the journey of the god was related to the elemental and visible voyage of the sun, with his daily rebirth and journey across the heavens in the solar bark.

Not only the projected life of the deceased, but also the life of the living was permeated by a constant awareness of the perpetually recurring cycle of the sun, and the life and death of Osiris. Each year a dramatic cycle was presented, which can "properly be called a passion play" (Breasted, DRT, p. 287). The populace took part in a re-creation of the life, death and rebirth of the god; identification with each individual character was intense. Through the cycle of the god, Osiris played many roles: he was the civilizing king, the treacherously murdered brother, the judge of the dead, the avenged father. As an affirmation of the life force, he was also seen as the power of germinating nature, soul of the grain.

"One of Joyce's favorite images for the world, or the Wake", Mr. Atherton explains, "is as a stage" (Books, p. 149). Thus, the Egyptian approach to religion as he would have read of it must have had a great appeal. Osiris interacted with his sister-wife Isis, who also played many roles, the loving wife and sister, the mourning widow, the personification of creative magic. All of the other characters, the other gods in the cycle, also had distinct roles to play, in specific situations. These were extended and ritualized, and followed by men who wished to assume the identity of the god who had attained immortality after resurrection. Through the use of creative word formation, situational juxtaposition and all the other tools of his art15 Joyce extended and developed the figures, patterns and symbolic actions as they found place in the microcosmic universe of FW.



The Cycle of Osiris: A Summary

The following is my own summary, intended to give a brief, wholistic picture of the cycle of Osiris. Documentation will be given in the body of the dissertation as each event is treated in detail.16 This is also true of the summary account of the path of the dead from the grave to the Otherworld, which is also given here. The number in brackets refers to the page number of that section in the dissertation where the individual event is examined as it is found in FW.

Osiris, god-king of Egypt, was treacherously murdered by his brother Set, a generally hostile character (27) who tricked him into entering a coffer, sealed it and set it afloat in the Nile (27). Isis, sister-wife of Osiris (42) and their sister Nephthys mourned the dead god (44). Isis appeared in the form of the dog-star Sirius or Sothis when she mourned. Her tears, dropping into the Nile cause the Nile inundation, which fertilizes the Nile valley yearly (44). Osiris' coffin was borne on the flood, either to the Delta swamp or to Byblos in Phoenicia (42). At the place where it landed a large tree or shrub grew up, usually considered to be an erica or heather. It enclosed the body of the god (31). The tree was cut down and formed into a rooftree, still containing Osiris. After a long and arduous quest, Isis was able to recover the body of Osiris (32), which she concealed in the Delta marches. Their hostile brother Set, however, discovered it and in a fierce rage tore Osiris into fourteen pieces which he scattered all over Egypt (32), though some accounts say the pieces were scattered through the stars (27). In effect, Osiris had died twice: he was the drowned god, and also the rent god (32). Isis, in the form of a bird (42) and still accompanied by her shadowy sister Nephthys continued to search, once again, until they had recovered all of the pieces but the phallus, which had been consumed by a denizen of the Nile (32). Isis and Nephthys carefully reconstructed the body, reciting powerful prayers which Thoth had given them (47), and forming the pieces of Osiris into the prototypal mummy (32). Isis then, according to Plutarch's version of the narrative, which is the best known, fashioned Osiris an artificial phallus and aroused the god, so that Horus was conceived (48). With this same act Osiris was reborn (32), and his heart being found pure at the Weighing of the Heart (35), he either sailed off or climbed up a ladder to his throne in the spirit kingdom of the West (37). His heir on earth, Horus, became known for his warlike righteousness: he was the avenger of his father (49) defeating Set and succeeding to the throne of Egypt. The prime symbol of Osiris in his majesty, and of his rebirth is, when it is ceremonially erected, the red Tet pillar (34).

The rituals performed on behalf of the dead Egyptian were intended to reenact the resurrection of Osiris. The body was first mummified as Osiris' had been (67). The deceased was then placed in the tomb-chamber (61) and surrounded by charms intended to protect and assist him on his journey to the Otherworld and make him comfortable there (64). Especially significant was a small shaped mold outlined to resemble Osiris and planted with grain. As the grain sprouted, it was supposed, through a form of sympathetic magic, to help the body undergo a similar germination or rebirth (68). In the tomb, the various aspects of the soul dissociated themselves from the body (70). The tomb and the dead were watched over by four genii (67). The most important item in the tomb was The Book of the Dead (72) for it was the map or passport which would lead the deceased from darkness and the grave into the light, as Osiris had been reborn, and as the sun was renewed each day. The Book of the Dead supplied him with the necessary words of power, and the identities of the obstacles in his path. By knowing their names, he gained mastery over them (74). Before he was able to arise and utter the words, it was necessary that the deceased be "given a mouth" that his jaw be freed and he be provided with the means of utterance (74). The metaphysic of the journey to the Otherworld filled the life of the ancient Egyptian. Perhaps due to the pictorial nature of his writing, many etymological puns grew up to express the concept of heavenly ascension, so that words formed from pictures of commonly seen animals grew to signify moving into the day of immortal life (80). The solar cycle was identified with the voyage of Osiris; it was on a bark that the deceased was transported into the Otherworld (84), which was an idealized version of an Egyptian home and farm (86).









Part I
The Passion of Osiris




1. OSIRIS


The Coffin of Osiris: treachery and death by water

"The coffin, a triumph of the illusionist's art" (66.28)

Our feelings of bewilderment or alienation on first opening FW are, first of all, the result of an encounter with an unfamiliarly complex use of creatively employed language. Utilizing a variety of semantic devices, most obviously multilingual puns and portmanteau words, Joyce created words that convey, or attempt to convey, several meanings simultaneously. Every syllable in FW has its individual contextual significance, every letter that may seem incongruously placed has a reason for its position.

We need only to look at the title, Finnegans Wake, to see how much, with a slight variation in usage (here, the omission of the apostrophe, which one would expect signifying a genitive "Finnegan's") Joyce can add to the meaning of a word or phrase. The title refers most immediately to the wake of one Tim Finnegan, which is the central event in an anonymous ballad used extensively by Joyce in FW. Tim is, the words of the ballad tell us,1 a bricklayer who, falling off his ladder, breaks his head and is taken for dead. Laid out at his wake, he is splashed with good Irish whiskey, usquebaugh, "the water of life". This revives him: "Timothy, jumping up from bed," runs the ballad, "sez 'Whirl yer liquor around like blazes — Souls to the devil! D'ye think I'm dead?'"

The use of "Finnegan's Wake" in the title of his last work confirms Joyce's concern with Ireland, and with the daily life of ordinary people. Finnegan, arising from the dead is also the expression of a theme central to FW: the affirmation of man's rebirth, the start of a new cycle of existence. We should always remember that it is not a sober image, though the dry process of analysis may make it seem so. The picture of indignant Finnegan, splattered with whiskey and suddenly awake, is rollicking fun, as is so much of FW.

If we consider the aspect of revival implicit in the title, an obvious pun becomes visible: "Finn, again". Although still bearing the important "return" theme, this expands the field still more. The Finn referred to is the giant CeltoNordic hero, who, according to tradition, will arise and come again in his country's hour of need ("Finn", Second Census, p. 81). Additionally, as Joyce finished writing FW, the invasion of Finland by the Russians took place (November, 1939) and the manful resistance of the Finns adds, as Joyce himself pointed out, another aspect to the wakening of Finn, or The Finn.2 Thus, by the simple omission of an apostrophe, Joyce expands the field of meaning greatly. Not just the giant Finn, or Tim Finnegan is brought to mind, but also the Finns, pointing to a more general vision of wakening, of "Finnegans", the ordinary men of the earth arising. As we have mentioned, the potential rebirth of each individual as the god was an essential feature of the Osirian religion, which was thus an ancient and detailed prototype from which Joyce could draw in developing this important aspect of FW. The significance Joyce attached to the ancient Egyptian parallel, to the united vision of all men renewed as the deity was renewed can be illustrated by the fact that when he heard the title of Conrad Aiken's "The Coming Forth by Day of Osiris Jones", he immediately asked Maria Jolas to send for a copy from New York. It was June, 1940, more than a year after the publication of FW (May 4, 1939), and Joyce was in Vichy. Even so, as Ellmann writes, "the title of Aiken's book sounded so close in theme to Finnegans Wake that it seemed more urgent for him to read the book than to move."3 For Joyce, it was not Jones, but Finnegan who was an Osiris. As Harry Levin writes, "Joyce's book of the dead calls upon the O'Learys and the Finnegans and all good Irishmen to awake and come forth by day. 'Irise Osirises!' 493" (James Joyce, p. 203).

Another meaning is contained within the title of Joyce's book; we are invited to consider the wake of Finnegan or Finnegans, the white track cut through the water by a vessel of some sort. If we return now to what will be our primary concern in this dissertation, and consider the Osirian parallels suggested by the title, the wake of a ship also suggests the rebirth of god and man, for it was in the bark of the sun or of Osiris that the deceased would voyage to a new existence. Considering FW as Joyce's "Chapters of Coming Forth by Day" we will be following in the wake of that bark of resurrection. The object of this first section, however, will be to examine another aspect of the journey by water. The wake we trace is not only that of rebirth, it also signifies death: the coffin of Osiris leaves its trail after having been cast into the Nile by Set.

According to the ancient account, Osiris, god-king of Egypt, was murdered by his jealous brother Set and seventy-two fellow conspirators. A feast was held in Osiris' honor, which turned out to be a sort of wake: Set announced that whoever fitted into a certain coffer, exquisitely wrought (and designed to fit the body of Osiris) might keep the box. Osiris obligingly placed himself inside, and the conspirators treacherously nailed down the lid and sealed it with black lead, dropping the coffin-ark into the Nile (Budge, Gods, II, 186-194).

When, in FW, we encounter Egyptian names or artifacts in a description of the wake itself, we can generally be sure that the pattern of Osiris' "wake" is embedded in the scene. The mourners will display a hostility or hypocrisy we would expect in such a case: they are those responsible for the very death they are mourning. They show themselves conspiringly eager to seal the old man up in his coffin and be done with him, just as Set wished to be rid of Osiris.

The Osirian parallels can be seen by a brief examination of the scene beginning in FW on p. 24. This particular episode is central to any treatment of Joyce's use of ancient Egypt, for, as we shall see later, it contains many references to funeral customs and ancient Egyptian theology, as well as artifacts such as Shabti figures (25.02), The Book of the Dead and Tutankhamen's tomb (26.17) and gods such as Horus and Set (29.27–28).

In this scene, Finnegan suddenly (as in the ballad) springs to life, after having been sprinkled with a few drops of whiskey. He exclaims: "will you whoop for my deading is a? Wake? Usqueadbaugham!" (24.14). That "deading is a" gives an Egyptian cast to the wakening, as it includes "dead in Giza", which is the site of the most famous pyramid (treated in detail below).4 This is, as can be expected, a signal that the Egyptian parallel will be found here, and we see that the mourners are acting more like conspirators than mourners. They are less than happy to see Finnegan spring to life. In fact, they want him to lie back in his coffin like an inert god: "Now be aisy, good Mr. Finnimore, sir. And take your laysure like a god on pension and don't be walking abroad. Sure you'd only lose yourself in Healiopolis now." (24.16). Mr. Atherton has shown that the Egypt-Ireland connection is firmly established with "Healiopolis", for it ties Heliopolis, the name of the ancient Egyptian city of the sun to Dublin, where T. M. Healy was once installed as Governor General, as well as the Dublin suburb of Chapelizod, where Healy lived for a number of years (Books, p. 125). Now, Healy is known as the man who, as Mrs. Glasheen succinctly puts it "ratted on Parnell" ("Healy", Second Census, p. 113). Thus, the name "Healiopolis" serves not only to strengthen the Egypt-Ireland link, it also reinforces the suggestion of betrayal. Those present at the Irish wake are trying to seal Finnegan — still alive — into his coffin, along the lines of the ancient myth: "Aisy now, you decent man, with your knees and lie quiet and repose your honour's lordship!" (27.22). They are prepared to use force to keep him there: "Hold him here, Ezekiel Irons, and may God strengthen you!" (27.23). They want him to remain inert, asleep: "O sleepy! So be yet!" (27.29).

I mentioned above that Osiris was in a sense murdered twice, first sealed into his coffin, then later dismembered. In this scene, the events are abstracted and compressed. Having forced Finnegan back into his coffin, the mourner-conspirators witness his dismemberment. This is one of the occasions in FW where Joyce uses the alternative version of the myth, in which the pieces of the god-king's body are scattered through the heavens. The mourners cry: "Seven times thereto we salute you! The whole bag of kits, falconplumes and jackboots incloted, is where you flung them that time. Your heart is in the system of the Shewolf and your crested head in the tropic of Copricapron. Your feet are in the cloister of Virgo. Your olala is in the region of sahuls." (26.09). Mr. Atherton first mentioned this use of the dismemberment (Books, 198), but he did not include the salute, "Seven times thereto", which is important in the Osirian context, expressing as it does "seven times two" or fourteen, the number of pieces into which the body of Osiris was torn (Budge, Gods, II, 127). As Mr. Slomczynski points out in a personal correspondence this salute may also include the number of conspirators, seventy-two.

In later episodes Joyce develops the resemblance of Finnegan's coffin to that of the god. Descriptions give us a picture of an ornate, strangely watertight structure, often related somehow to trickery or deceit, as at 66.28: "The coffin, a triumph of the illusionist's art", which might be mistaken for something else entirely. Times have changed since Osiris was first thrown into the Nile, and now that watertight coffin, "This wastohavebeen underground heaven" (76.33) has such conveniences as a "shieldplated gunwale" (77.09) and even a "conning tower" (77.10).

The floating god can be found in unexpected circumstances, as when Byron's Assyrian, descending upon the army of the Hebrews is united with Osiris sailing in his coffin to an unknown port: "when th'osirian cumb dumb like the whalf on the fiord" (350.24). This seems to be one of the many phrases in FW which unite opposites, as a single image carries both the Assyrian soon to be frozen into death and the Osirian, soon to be erect and reborn.

We frequently come across phrases suggesting the presence of the ark-enclosed god in FW, for "oldbuoyant, inscythe his elytrical wormcasket" (415.01)is, as amusing as that buoyant old boy in his electrical casket may be, a significant representation of life in death: implicit is the thought that the archetypal god in the sealed coffin, Osiris, shall soon spring forth as did the phoenix. His murder by Set is finally not a defeat but a profound affirmation, a "phoenish" (4.17) from which he will rise.

The image of the god in a suspended state, yet bearing promise of rebirth, is most fully developed in Book III of FW, in which the coffin of Osiris "floating down the river is identical with Shaun's barrel" (Hart, Structure and Motif in Finnegans Wake, p. 122). Joyce himself pointed out the Osirian identity of the twin Shaun, bidding farewell to the girls on p. 470 (Shaun's actual departure will be examined under "Les Pleureuses" below). The envisioning of the encoffined god as barreling along, that "export stout fellow" (471.36) keeps us from grieving at his departure: floating away in the dark towards light, he is a kind of "midnight middy" (480.09), a "middy" or midshipman sailing from midnight into midi, noon. In FW this is an oft repeated ritual act, a cyclical voyage of thematic importance yet embodying gestures of incongruously "funny funereels" (414.35).5



The Erica or Heather

"clad in its wood, burqued by its bark" (503.36)

After drifting for a time, the ark-coffin of Osiris floated to shore, and around it grew a huge tree or bush, usually identified as an erica or heather. We find that an erica also seems to have sprung up around Finnegan at 498.30, for he lies with "erica's clustered on his hayir." As we shall see, another tree stem signified the rebirth of the god ("Pillar of Osiris", below), but there are a number of cases where the erica, containing the body of Osiris, seems to be most immediately suggested in FW. For example, a description of what the Skeleton Key (p. 254) calls "the great World Tree . . . known to all mythologies" includes "clad in its wood, burqued by its bark" (503.36). This brings to mind the erica of Osiris, for burk is Swedish for "jar" or "container", here a mythical tree, encompassing the god.

There are several such references, adding a note of the enclosing tree. The Russian General for example, soon to fall victim to the attack of Butt and Taff, who lie in wait, is described as wearing "treecoloured camiflag" (339.12) which includes a reference to the ambushed god, inert and "camouflaged" by the erica.6

According to the ancient Egyptian narrative, the tree was cut down and, still containing the god, made into a roof tree. This was an important symbol to the ancient Egyptians (see also p. 35 below); it is included in FW as part of 25.13 "the sacred rooftree".



Death by Rending

"Outstamp and distribute him at the expanse of his society" (302.29)

After Isis had recovered the body of Osiris, she carefully concealed it in the marshes of the Nile Delta. Set, however, out hunting boar one evening, came across the hidden corpse of his brother. He furiously tore it into fourteen pieces, which he then proceeded to scatter all over Egypt (or in the sky, as we saw on p. 30). To the ancient Egyptian, believing in the potential immortality of the body, this was as if Osiris had been murdered a second time. Isis was forced to resume her quest, and eventually gathered together thirteen of the pieces. The fourteenth, the phallus of Osiris, had been devoured by a fish or crab, and Isis had to replace it with an artificial member, as we shall see shortly.

As a result of taking part in Set's raffle, then, and placing himself in the coffer, it can be seen that Osiris died twice over. He was first the drowned god, then also gained the status of rent god as well. This multiple identity is suggested in FW with "Two dies of one rafflement. Eche bennyache. Outstamp and distribute him at the expanse of his society. To be continued. Anon" (302.27). The word "bennyache" has overtones of Bennu or phoenix for, though dead, the god will "be continued". Yet it is clear also that a bellyache has been replaced by a benny-ache. As we shall see below (p. 83) it is usually the case in FW that a reference to the rising Bennu bird is related to the rising ben (phallus) or to Benni, a god of the phallus (Budge, Dictionary, p. 217). Outstamped and distributed, the ben, personified as Benni, would naturally ache, yet in the myth will rise again, anon.

The same image of a double death, death by water and death by land, is linked to the scarab beetle, another important sign of resurrection in: "beetly dead whether by land whither by water" (100.01). Visible here is also the well-known phrase referring to Stephen Dedalus' mother, who is "beastly dead" (Ulysses, p. 8). "Beetly" dead suggests not dead at all, for the scarab or dung-beetle rises daily as the sun (see "Images of Ascending", below).



Osiris, Mummified and Roused

"healed cured and embalsemate, pending a rouseruction of his bogey" (498.36)

After much searching, Isis was able to gather together the pieces of Osiris, and added an artificial phallus. With the aid of words of magical power granted her by Thoth, she unified the parts of her brother husband and roused him.



The image of Osiris' literal erection from the dead, effected by Isis in the shape of a bird (see also "The Quest of Isis", below) is a vivid one. It is central to the cycle of Osiris, and important in FW. Mr. Slomczynski has discovered that, within the text of FW, we are referred to a photographic plate depicting the act. This happens at 6.32: "well, see peegee ought he ought, platterplate." If we observe the aural value of the phrase, and follow the suggestion of "see pg eighty-eight" in Moret's Rois et Dieux d'Egypte (1911, reprinted soon after the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb and popular at that time), we will find a "platterplate", that is a plate of "dished" or fallen Osiris, roused by Isis. This plate, reproduced here as fig. II, is titled "The Wake of Osiris" ("Veillée funèbre d'Osiris-Ounnefer mort").

Because we are actually told to "see" the plate, another significant level of meaning is added to the complex "fadograph of a yestern scene" (7.15). James Atherton has explained to me (personal correspondence) that fado in Gaelic can mean "far off" in either spatial or temporal dimensions, and, of course, there is the English fade meaning a weakening of effect by time and space. The "fadograph" is then a photograph of a faded scene, removed in time and space. As we shall see (p. 46) Joyce refers to Osiris, passing away, as a "Yesterday", a "Guestern" god. These two words are combined in "yestern" and describe the Moret plate of the deceased Osiris.

Verbal representations of the god's state, physically roused from death by the ministrations of his sister-wife, are found in different contexts in FW. At 240.04 for example, the twin Glugg (Shem)7 lies defeated, in his grave, yet his mind is filled with a crave for his sister, just as Osiris desired Isis: "late in his crave, ay he, laid in his grave."



The Pillar of Osiris

"under the mysttetry" (60.19)

The most important symbol of Osiris' reconstitution and resurrection was the red wooden pillar known as the Tet (Gods, II, 125) or Tjet, Djed, Ded or Dad. This potent device probably carried a number of meanings for the ancient Egyptians over the thousands of years it was reverenced. There is general agreement among Egyptologists that the Tet was a wooden pillar of some sort, and it may have been the stylized representation of a tree, perhaps that in which the body of Osiris had been concealed. Boylan, in Thoth, the Hermes of Egypt expresses the belief that, in the mysteries of Osiris, the god himself was worshipped in the form of a tree (Boylan, p. 15). I think this is echoed by the word "mysttetry" as found at 60.19: "Sankya Moondy played his mango tricks under the mysttetry". Immediately evident here, as the Skeleton Key points out (p. 66), is Sankyamundi and his bodhitree. Knowing the meaning of the Tet, we can see that the tree of Buddha is made one here with the pillar tree of Osiris, the mystery-tet-tree.

At 567.5–10 we have what amounts to a list of the other meanings which are ascribed to the pillar and are important to FW. That the Tet is involved is signalled by "a setting up?" (567.05), especially as the query comes soon after a few important Egyptian references, "Lord of ladders" (566.35, a title of Osiris discussed below, in "Osiris, First of the Westerners"), and "hather" (566.36, the goddess Hathor) as well as "O Sire!" (566.29, Osiris himself). In ancient Egypt (as well as in FW) the setting up of the Tet was the symbolic action signifying that the god himself had risen (BD, p. 116, n.2). The setting up of the Tet is here followed by the "bigbagbone", "(O my big, O my bog, O my bigbagbone!)" (567.06) which suggests first of all the fact that the pillar was also considered to be the backbone of the risen god (Osiris, II, 280): bog is "god" in the Slavic languages. Also, as we have seen, another rising pillar important to Osiris was his artificial penis, fashioned by Isis and here rising.

The pillar or post was usually used in Egyptian texts as a sign of Osiris, and in one scene the god even takes the form of the pillar (Gods, II, 130), hence "effigy of standard royal" (567.10). Also "roofstaff' (567.10) for as we have mentioned, the Tet may have been a form of the sacred erica, shaped as a roof tree. Throughout this close survey of the Tet, "tet-at-tet" (567.09), the erective and resurrective significations of the holy pillar predominate, inextricably — and amusingly — implicated with the "so a stark pointing pole" (566.34) of Earwicker: "That crag! Those hullocks! O Sire!" (566.29); "Lord of ladders, what for lungitube!" (566.35).



Trial of Osiris

"the prisoner, soaked in methylated" (85.31)

Though reconstituted by Isis, it was necessary for Osiris, like all the dead that followed his path, to successfully undergo a trial of conscience, the Weighing of the Heart, before proceeding to the Otherworld. In FW, the Weighing of the Heart of Osiris seems to be blended with a Joycean version of the Parnell case (for which see Books, pp. 100–104). By means of a few well-chosen insertions, Joyce adds an Osirian touch to the frenetic courtroom scene which begins in FW on p. 85.

Several consecutive key witnesses in the episode seem to assume the role of Osiris before his judges, but because the atmosphere is hectically Gaelic in tone, the mystic rituals tend to be distorted in a decidedly irreverent and comic fashion. The defendant "Festy King" (85.23), to begin with, "soaked in methylated, appeared in dry dock" (85.31). This includes a parody of mummification, in which the defendant has been "soaked" and desiccated, "in dry dock". (See also "Mummification", below). The embalming procedure, necessary for physical rebirth has given him, as he nears godhood, a taste of immortality: he is "ambrosiaurealised" (85.32) having imbibed the ambrosia of immortality. (Though in this case, it is alcoholic embalming fluid.) Osiris is titled Lord of Ladders; here, it is suspected that the defendant "King" has been "impersonating a climbing boy" (86.08). Osiris' face was sometimes shown as black, a sign of the fertile Nile waters in which he had been immersed. "King" it is stated, "rubbed some pixes of any luvial peatsmoor o'er his face" (86.09).

The spectators at this trial play an active role. The "thicksets" in court cry out: "Ay! Exhibit his relics! Bu!" (87.32). The cry "Bu" would seem to be negative (Boo!) calling for the defendant's downfall. However, as Mr. Atherton points out, "Much of the confusion at the Parnell inquiry was due to the fact that the different races in court did not realize they spoke different languages" (Books, p. 104). In FW, the same situation arises, as characters constantly misunderstand each other. Bu (or more correctly, abu'), Mr. Atherton explains, "if it is taken as a Gaelic word . . . means 'Up with — this unknown person.'" (Books, p. 101). In this phrase, then, Bu would seem to be equivalent to the title given to the risen Egyptian dead, "Osiris X" with the name to be filled in later by the individual. That this is the case seems to be confirmed by "Ay! Exhibit his relics!" for Ay is the name of the personage who arranged the interior of the tomb of Tutankhamen (Carter, The Tomb of Tutankhamen, I, London [1923–33], 44) so that the king might rise: Bu!

By introducing bits of information taken from a variety of disparate contexts, Joyce is able to consistently short-circuit the proceedings for the reader as well as for the participants at the trial. The reader, however, has the opportunity to analyse the different references and to understand at least a few of the different voices trying to be heard. For example, tracing the Osirian presence at the trial, we are confronted with the statement, "But, of course, he could call himself Tem, too, if he had time to? You butt he could anytom" (88.35). This is certainly a reference to the god Tem or TM, and to the multiple identity of the FW father-figure, who could call himself Tem, too,8 but this seems arbitrarily placed at this point. That is, until the reader checks to see what role Tem plays in the trial of the dead. In his treatment of Osiris as Judge of the Dead, Budge writes that the deceased (as depicted in the Papyrus of Ani) addresses, at one point, not Osiris, but Tem. This is done so that the belief in immortality can be affirmed: Tem is equated with Ra, the father of Osiris. As Budge explains, "to all intents and purposes the question . . . was addressed to Osiris" (Gods, II, 141).

By addressing the father embodied in the son (or the son in the father) the ancient Egyptian affirmed not only the immortality of his gods, but also the immortality inherent in man, who was to become like a god. Thus, when we have studied it more closely, "he would call himself Tem, too" contains an affirmation relevant to the trial of Osiris, and to the immediate context, for, in speculating on the identity of the defendant, it has been arrived at that he was "the very phoenix!" (88.24). It can be seen that Tem, in the trial sequence, is also a prime symbol of rebirth. In order to see through the verbal static, or what seems to be static, we must be flexible and receptive to a variety of perspectives: we must take the trouble to read, and to listen.

Another aspect of Osiris appears in the confusion with "the expiry of the goat's sire" (89.20), which suggests both the death of Osiris and also the Ram or Goat of Mendes, in which the god's soul was considered to be found (Gods, II, 354).9 The synthesized "expiry" also suggests rebirth in death, for the name of the ever-reborn sun god as it was retained in Coptic, pi-rê (Wilkinson, III, 44) is seen here: the sun (pi-rê) rising out of death (expire): "expiry".

There are many references to ancient Egypt, and suggestions of the trial of the dead to be found scattered about the scene. A general conclusion that may be reached is that, through inclusion of a few words or phrases per page, Joyce is able to add, in the midst of the confused trial, notes of other, more ancient patterns. At one point, the four presiding judges are called, among other things, "the fourbottle men" (95.27) an expression which, if taken literally, gives us a vision of the four ancient canopic jars (examined in more detail below, "The Four Genii") with their human heads, here gathered in arid judgement.



Osiris, First of the Westerners, Lord at the Top of the Staircase

"Look for me always at my west" (457.20)

We cannot be certain as to the exact location of the Egyptian Otherworld. There were several different theories, which related to different aspects of religion: the sun traveled through a netherworld during the night, while the kingdom of the dead which was ruled by Osiris was found somewhere in the heavens, probably in the west. This is a characteristic it shares with the heaven of many other cultures. There are, however a number of places in FW where the Osirian note is clearly distinguishable.

This is true from the first page of the text, where "the west" is related to the Egyptian god. As Mr. Atherton writes (Books, p. 198), "The scattering of the parts of the body of Osiris has many echoes in the Wake, beginning on the first page when Finnegan 'sends an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes' (3.20)". The one making a quire of the parts, and inquiring about them is sent to the west, towards Osiris' kingdom: well to the west, because it was believed that the quickest way to arrive was through a magic well which had its mouth in Abydos and its origin in the Otherworld (Osiris, II, 12). When Shaun prepares to sail off in Book III according to the pattern of Osiris he admonishes the girls, "Look for me always at my west" (457.20).

After reaching his kingdom, Osiris took on the title of First of the Westerners (DRT, p. 143). In the frontispiece to this dissertation Osiris can be seen upon his throne in the western kingdom, the Judge of the Dead: First of the Westerners. The title is echoed in FW with: "first in the west" (77.03). The throne of Osiris is sometimes described as being located on an elevated platform, at the top of a short staircase. He is portrayed as seated upon this throne in different reliefs and papyri from earliest times. The position earned him, as Budge explains (BD, p. xxxv), the title "god at the top of the staircase". This is given clearly in FW, "god at the top of the staircase" (131.17). Egyptian Hagar seems to be involved in a prayer to this form of Osiris with: "He's cookinghagar that rost her prayer to him upon the top of the stairs." (530.34). She may pray to the Egyptian god in Swedish, for "rost" suggests rost, Swedish "voice".

Though it was often considered that Osiris (like the sun) made his voyage across the sky in a bark (see "The Bark of the Sun", below), Budge tells us that according to the oldest traditions, it was necessary to employ a ladder to reach the heavens, ruled by Osiris as "lord of the ladder" (BD, p. lxxiv). It is, of course, a purely Joycean concept to have the lord of the ladder come tumbling back down again, as suggested at 114.18, "louds of latters slettering down". At one point Finnegan tumbles from the ladder through time and space into an ancient Egyptian mastaba-tomb: "Dimb! He stottered from the latter. Damb! he was dud. Dumb! Mastabatoom, mastabadtomm" (6.09). We have already seen an example in which it was the rise rather than fall from the ladder that seemed most important: "Lord of ladders, what for lungitube!" (566.35).



Transcription and Etymology of the Name Osiris

"Irise, Osirises!" (493.28)

Mr. Atherton observes that from the phrase "But, of course, he could call himself Tem, too, if he had time to? You butt he could anytom" (88.35), the reader can deduce Joyce's use of Middle Egyptian (Books, p. 196). This is so because that ancient script, like written Hebrew, records only the consonants of each word, so that the name of the creator-god which is written TM, is transcribed Tem or Atem or Atoum, and could even be Tom. With his use of the ancient Egyptian form of "Osiris" Joyce has an even larger area within which he may work creatively. Not only is the pronunciation uncertain, the hieroglyphic signs which make up the name (an eye and a throne) do not make clear sense. A number of explanatory, punning etymologies arose and, as we might expect, Joyce takes full advantage of these. The transcriptions of the name and the etymological puns afford him a variety of images which are relevant to the cycle of Osiris, yet sufficiently diverse to provide links with other languages and cultures used in FW.

What is perhaps the most popular etymology for the name Osiris derives from the "eye" half of the hieroglyphics. The god was, it was reasoned, the "Power of the Eye" (Gods, II, 113). Joyce places this etymology in a multilingual frame by employing the transcription "Ser"10 which is also ser, "see" in the Scandinavian languages.11 In the context in which Joyce places it, reborn Osiris (Ser) as the personification of divine sight (ser) merge in: "Ser Oh Ser! See ah See! Hamovs! Hemoves!" (499.10). The observation that "He moves" also suggests another cross-cultural reference relevant to Osiris: Mr. M. Raddadi informs me that ser is the infinitive form "to move" in Arabic. The compounding of renewed sight and movement also extends to an aural meaning of "See a See" for ÇaÇ is a Sanskrit root, meaning "to spring forward".12

In the above example, Osiris is related both to a physical rebirth, "Hemoves!", and also to a renewed sense of vision, "See ah See!". Uniting the images of the "rising" of the eye and that of the "rising" god in such a fashion indicates that Joyce was drawing on the fact that Osiris "Power of the Eye" was related by the ancient Egyptians to the Eye, that is, the sun god (Gods, II, 113). Osiris' journey of rebirth was embodied in the daily journey of the sun, and the resurrected dead were seen as riding up, coming forth as Osiris and the sun into day (DRT, p. 160). This conjunction is to be found in the only FW reference to the rising of the god that employs the conventional transcription, "Osiris". As is the case with Ser, both the opening of the eye (here the iris) and the reanimation of the god are suggested with: "Irise, Osirises!" (493.28).

The second half of the hieroglyphic name is a throne, and the simplest etymology explained that Osiris was "He who is seated on the throne" or just "The Sitter". Ingenious-minded scribes, however, elaborated on this. The throne, like the eye, became a symbol of the victory of light over darkness, Osiris over Set. It was said that, after the final defeat of Set by Horus, Horus persuaded Osiris that he should come forward and seat himself upon Set, as token of his victory. Hence, Osiris "The Seat-Maker" (Osiris, I, 26–27). In FW the victory of Osiris as symbolized by his sitting upon Set is found in a variety of environments. We find, for example, that it is an event to be recorded upon a Breton monumental stone or menhir, as suggested at 25.11 "The menhere's always talking of you sitting around on the pig's cheeks under the sacred rooftree, over the bowls of memory where every hollow holds a hallow". Here Osiris sits under his symbol, which as we have seen was often considered a sacred roof tree; a black pig is (like the serpent) a common form of Set.

Though the outer garb shifts through the chapters of FW, it is possible to discern the distinctive image of Osiris seated upon Set at several places. The note of sombre reflection is repeated in "the great tribune's barrow all darnels occumule, sittang sambre on his sett, drammen and drommen" (198.33). Osiris in his role of "midnight middy" (480.09), the sailor who came forth into day, seems to be seated on a form of Set with: "Meagher, a naval rating, seated on one of the granite cromlech setts" (61.13).

The presently accepted transcription of the name Osiris is Wsir,13 which is pronounced like one of the minor variations listed by Budge, "User" (Gods, II, 113). The Egyptian name of Osiris is thus probably a part of the word "uscertain" as found at 609.35, "An I would uscertain in druidful scatterings one piece tall chap he stand one piece same place?" Here, the use of "uscertain" rather than "ascertain" the "scatterings" suggests the dismemberment of Osiris. "Druidful" instead of "dreadful" brings to mind not only the tree-spirits of the druids (and with Ani and User, the tree of Osiris), but also Joyce's statement that "Ireland . . . the religion and civilization of this ancient people, later known by the name of Druidism were Egyptian".l4 The phrase "stand one piece same place" suggests both the reassembly of the god's body and the replacement of his phallus, the "one piece same place".

Osiris is an important figure in the book, and Joyce chose to use different transcriptions in different ways. Variations were taken from Egyptological sources as they were suited to various situations in FW. Max Müller, for example, uses the transcription "Osor" at one point (Müller, Myths, p. 98). Joyce seems to use this because it blends well with the English "sorrow" and its Swedish equivalent, sorg, and thus can be used in presentations of the mourned Osiris, as at 135.22: "O sorrow the sail and woe the rudder that were set for Mairie Quai!" This gives us an image of the mourned god, laid out by Set, sailing away in his coffin-bark (Mrs Glasheen first noted Osiris in "O sorrow": Second Census, p. 123). As we shall see, knowing all the names of power are important as one sails on the archetypal journey: here we have the name of the ship's rudder, "woe" and the sail, "sorrow".

The destination of Osiris in the above example, "Mairie Quai" seems obscure as we read it; the aural significance is, however, very close to "Amerikee", which reinforces the image of Osiris sailing off to a new world in the west. At 578.11 "Mr. O'Sorgmann" is described as "the dibble's own doges for doublin existents!" (578.13). This use of Osor also sounds the note of a second, or, more correctly, "doubled", existence, and the distinctive spelling "doublin" suggests once again the exchange of the old world Dublin (Ireland) for that in the new, Dublin (Georgia).

Clive Hart's A Concordance to Finnegans Wake (p. 81) confirms that the Joycean "doublin" is found on two occasions in FW. We have just examined the usage on 578.11, where the word was seen to be related to Osor or Osiris, who was reborn, sorrow being replaced by affirmative joy. The first time "doublin" is employed is at 3.06. The phrase runs "nor had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time". This strongly suggests that Osiris is a major aspect of the topsawyer, for he is a prototypical wanderer, setting a pattern followed by other wanderers across the sea as presented in FW. They would seem to include Peter Sawyer, founder of Dublin, Georgia. It is the topsawyer's "rocks" that go "doublin their mumper" to Georgia; the myth of the god tells, as we have related, that, when dismembered, the parts of his body were scattered about and he lost his organs of generation ("rocks") in the river Nile. On p. 3 the design is followed15 but it is not the Nile but the river Oconee, upon whose banks stands Dublin, in Laurens County, Georgia. Its motto is "Doubling all the time".16 The Skeleton Key (p. 32) points out that "the word Oconee resembles the Irish exclamation of grief, 'ochone'". This gives us a stronger tie to the Irish-looking appearance of the name we have been discussing, Osor as found in "O'Sorgmann", for the name embodies another expression of grief or sorrow found with the image of the Irishman sailing to the new world, and with that of the god, washed by the waves yet bearing promise of reconstitution and a new existence.



2. ISIS


The Quest of Isis

"a parody's bird" (11.09)

Through the cycle of Osiris, Isis plays a number of important roles; she is mother, faithful wife, sister-lover, steadfast widow. The goddess had thousands of names, and many shapes; she might be a divine cow, a bird, or even the star Sothis (Sirius). Her manifest nature is shown at one point in FW as several of these forms, and the search for the parts of Osiris is suggested simultaneously, as a questing crone runs to "sothisfeige her cowrieosity" (14.02). It was possible for Joyce to draw on Isis in building aspects of all the female characters in FW, Anna Livia, young Issy and her imaginary double, and even the hen, pecking her way through the midden heap. Though the roles are often developed creatively in FW, Joyce has as usual a firm take-off point in the accounts of the mythic cycle with which he was familiar, and it is to these accounts we should turn in making Joyce's usages manageable, as they relate to the matter of ancient Egypt.

The hieroglyphic sign for Isis (Middle Egyptian IST, AST or ESET') is the throne. As she is sister-wife of Osiris, scribes reasoned that she is her husband's seat or throne (Osiris, II, 272). In FW, her sign is included as a sort of "osiery chair" (198.24). The goddess is the all-enduring eternal female, as suggested by: "I'll wait. And I'll wait. And then if all goes. What will be is. Is is" (620.31). Her roles, however, are not always the passive ones implied in the contrived etymology of her name. It is Isis who actively seeks Osiris after his death. Breasted explains that "the oldest literature is full of references to the faithful wife unceasingly seeking her murdered husband" (DRT, p. 26).

Most versions of the myth relate that Isis took the form of a bird when she sought Osiris, and that she was accompanied by their shadowy sister, also a bird. Budge writes that, though the bird must certainly have been some noble creature, such as a falcon, the "bird" determinative after the goddesses' name looks like a goose, or perhaps even a brood hen (Facsimiles of Papyri, p. x). Joyce, showing Isis as little reverence as he shows Osiris or any of the other deities encountered in FW, seems to have used this. The hen, patiently making her way through the pages of the book is probably formed, in part, of Isis in her role of patient seeker. At one point the hen is referred to as "a parody's bird, a peri potmother" (11.09). Isis is both the bird who brings paradise to Osiris and (in FW) as the hen she is the bird of a parody, a parodied bird, in a parodied ritual search.17 She is a "peri potmother": peri, both in the mythological sense of a supernatural being, and in the meaning of the Greek peri she searches "round, round about". Osiris' reputed grave, piled high with fragments of offered pots is referred to as "Mother of Pots" (Umm al Ka-ab; Osiris, II, 8). She is the potmother, picking in the mound.18

By transforming Isis, the questing and sorrowing bird into a hen, Joyce is able to poke fun at a ritual taking place in a deltic, rather than Celtic twilight. It is not the cries of a falcon that we hear, searching the Delta marshes for the washed up coffin. It is "Annie Delittle, his daintree diva, in deltic dwilights, singing him henpecked rusish through the bars?" (492.08).

In the early Egyptian version of the myth, Budge writes, Isis finally discovers the body of Osiris in the papyrus swamps of the Nile Delta. Also in FW, Isis searches through the delta: "Izzy's busy down the dell!" (588.24). The most important center of Osiris in the area of the Delta, the site of his eventual reconstitution was Busiris. Budge transcribes the Egyptian name for this place Tettu (Gods, II, 121–122), and Max Müller as Dedu (Myths, p. 92). The quest of the goddess, which leads her to Dedu, is suggested in FW as "her tour d'adieu" (580.17).

The Middle Egyptian word for the papyrus plants of the swamp in which Osiris was found was rendered by Greek scribes as byblos, which Plutarch in his account of Osiris' journey accepts as a place name: Byblos (Gods, II, 124). In Plutarch's telling of the tale, then, Osiris drifts out to sea and to Byblos in Phoenicia. This is the best-known version of the Osiris cycle, and Joyce seems to have associated Phoenicia with the Egyptian god. This adds a distinctly Osirian note to many of the FW references to Phoenicia as a land of rebirth, for example at 608.32, "the Phoenican wakes".19

Yet another place-name associated with the quest of Isis is Nedyt or Nadit, where Isis may have located the body of her brother-husband. Breasted speculates that Nedyt may be an ancient name for Byblos, though it was later localized in Egypt, near Abydos (DRT, p. 26). This name is associated with the quest in FW as the question is asked: "Sawyest? Nodt?" (608.21). By conscientiously recording this and the various other possible landing-sites of the god and his coffer-tree-ark, the vagueness of the actual site is increased. It is the voyage itself which tends to be emphasized, and the tireless quest of the goddess, which may in FW lead to Ireland, to Egypt, or to Phoenicia, following in the wake of Finnegan.20

That Joyce intends to take advantage of the multiplicity of destinations is signalled as early as 5.23, as the bird Isis ("Cropherb the crunchbracken") with a gift of "seek on site" (5.25) seeks the site "bedoueen the jebel and the jpysian sea" (5.23). Looking "Otherways wesways" (5.22) to the west, it may be Jebel she is seeking, which Budge writes is "near the site" of ancient Phoenician Byblos (Osiris, I, 4). At this level Isis was searching in an eastwest direction until she passed the western jebel, the mountains, finally recovering Osiris' body, across the sea. However, "Otherways wesways" can also signal another Wes-way, a move from Bahr-el-Jebel, the "mountain river" as the upper Nile is known, down to Wes or Wesi, the ancient name of Thebes ("Thebes", EB, XXVI, 739). In this case, Isis searches the length of the Nile, from the upper reaches of the stream down to the Delta and the sea.



Isis and Nephthys, Les Pleureuses

"Two belles that make the one appeal" (194.26)

When Isis sought Osiris, and then again when she mummified him, she had the help of her sister Nephthys. The power of the two sisters was considerable, for it was believed that their prayerful weeping and magical formulas had done much to effect the rebirth of the god their brother. Thus they are portrayed as sheltering his throne in the vignette reproduced as the frontispiece to the dissertation.

Budge explains that an entire class of literature grew up around the goddesses, and the various words they chanted over the bier of the dead Osiris. He gives a number of examples of the works which he considers to be representative: the "Book of Respirations", "Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys", "Festival Songs of Isis and Nephthys", and the "Litanies of Seker". These texts were extremely important for the resurrection of Osiris or the deceased who wished to become an Osiris, for they "supply us with the very words which were addressed to Osiris and all those who were his followers" (Gods, II, 259). The names of the compositions given by Budge as well as several others that may be considered to embody the magical prayers of the goddesses are included in FW, or their texts are cited or parodied. The resurrective role of the female is thus clearly emphasized. Joyce's use, first of all, of the work which Budge calls the "Book of Respirations" in Gods of the Egyptians is probably the source of inspiration for those mysterious deities "Enel-Rah" and "Aruc-Ituc" as found at 237.27, "Your head has been touched by the god Enel-Rah and your face has been brightened by the goddess Aruc-Ituc". These are the cosmetics firms Cuticura and Harlene, "reversed" to give an ancient Egyptian atmosphere. Their presence is logical in a parody of the sisters' prayers, for, in de Horrack's translation of "The Book of Respirations" (p. 101) we are told that the deceased will "be made pure by lotions" and "perfuming".21

In the Kegan Paul edition of The Book of the Dead Budge does not entitle his own translation the "Book of Respirations" but "Book of Breathings" (BD, pp. 663–678). As Mr. Hart points out (AWN [Feb. 1967], p. 14), this is to be found in FW without distortion, "Book of Breathings" (415.23).

I have mentioned the "quiring" of the god by Isis at 3.21. This suggests both the gathering of Osiris' parts, and also that he is reconstituted in the manner of, or within, the pages of a book. The idea is extended at 491.31, where the god waits, it seems, for rebirth, "resting between horrockses' sheets". This includes the suggestion that he is resting between the "sheets" of de Horrack's well-known translation of "The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys".22

Through one of those coincidences of which Joyce was always willing to take advantage, the character of the two sisters is such as to place them neatly within the structure of FW. As Mrs. Glasheen explains ("Issy", Second Census, p. 124), Anna Livia and HCE, the parents in FW, have but one daughter, Issy. She suffers from a multiple or dissociated personality, and in the dream logic of FW may appear as two girls, who are "sosie sesthers" (3.12).23 It happens that the details concerning Isis' sister are so scarce, and her role so colorless, that it has been speculated that Nephthys was not an independent figure at all. In a volume with which Joyce was probably acquainted, it is argued that Nephthys exists only as a reflection of Isis, as her "shadowy double".24 In FW, the two sisters seem to appear like this, Isis and her double, a part of young Issy and her imagined companion, "sosie sesthers".

The two goddesses act as one in FW. They are an aspect of "two belles that make the one appeal" (194.26). Appeal can be seen here to have at least two meanings: the belles make the one appeal in their prayers, yet they appeal to the god in a specifically sexual sense. The dominant reference here is to the two temptresses in the park, who shall provoke the father into falling through a guilt-laden "rise".25 The note of devotion and sadness is clearer in "pleures of bells" (11.25) and more transformed expressions such as "bluerybells" (7.02) which reflect the title given to the "Two Weepers" in some French texts,26 Les Deux Pleureuses. Just as we saw Isis searching alone in the Delta as "Izzy's busy down the dell:" (588.24), so too do the weeping "belles" "wail him rockbound (hoahoahoah!) in swimswamswum and all the livvylong night, the delldale dalppling night, the night of bluerybells" (6.36).

Joyce's most visible use of the weeping sisters involves not two "sosie sesthers" but seven linked girls, the rainbow girls, colorful manifestations of Issy in FW. However, the basic pattern of the texts is followed, with the goddesses or priestesses praising, weeping, and giving their blessings. This is at 470.13–20, where the girls pray in the name of Isis ("Oisis", "Oasis"). They are mourning the passage of their brother Shaun who here, as Joyce himself explains, "departs like Osiris the body of the young god being pelted and incensed. He is seen already as a Yesterday ("Gestern, Guesturning . . . back his glance amid wails of 'Today!' from To-Morrow . . ."27). Yesterday's Phoenician Byblos is in today's Lebanon; the girls set up a "to-maronite's wail" (470.14), the wail of today's Lebanese Maronite Christians, also of tomorrow night, and perhaps of Tomeri or Ta-mera, "The Beloved Land" of yesterday, ancient Egypt (BD, ch. cxxv, p. 372).

Circling round Shaun the girls weep, their mourning song echoes, "dosiriously it psalmodied" (470.13). The girls are sadly desirous of Osiris, desirous as Sirius (Sothis). It was in the form of this star that Isis wept for the lost Osiris. The sight of the rising Dog-Star has always coincided with the overflow of the Nile waters, thus it was considered that the tears of the goddess, weeping for her brother-husband, caused the inundation which fertilized the land of Egypt (DRT, p. 22). This idea is expanded at 254.16, "A and aa ab ad a bu abiad. A babbel men dub gulch of tears." In this watery babbling runs the Nile, which flows (after leaving the Nyanzas and Jebel) as the Abiad or White Nile, until it reaches Abu, the area of the first cataract, at which point the Nile Valley begins ("Nile", EB, XIX, 695). Thus, a naturalistic explanation is given for the babbling waters flowing down into the valley, which the ancients saw as a vale or gulch of tears.



Isis Reconstituting Osiris

"she who shuttered him after his fall
and waked him widowt sparing and gave
him keen and made him able" (102.01)

After much wandering, having lost the body of her brother, Isis finally gathered together the various parts and, with the utterance of magical words of power and the fanning of her wings, roused Osiris to life, conceiving Horus. This entire task, from the recovery of the body to the erection of the god seems to be summed up in the phrase cited at the beginning of this section (102.01), which expresses the paradox of the widow making her husband able, "shuddering" him, it is suggested, after bearing his body away, "shuttering" him.

In a less orthodox presentation, the fate of Humpty-Dumpty and that of Osiris sometimes blend in FW, and it seems to be the unfortunate egg as much as the Egyptian god being reassembled. We have already seen the search for the parts of Osiris referred to as a quest after his "tumptytumtoes" (3.21), initiated by his "humptyhillhead" (3.20). This is developed at 219.15, where all the king's horses and all the kings' men merge with the king's son Horus ("King's Hoarsers") and with Osiris, who is revived as the mummy of the queen, Isis ("Queen's Mum"). This has the effect of reviving Humpty, as an Osiris: "after humpteen dumpteen revivals. Before all the King's Hoarsers with all the Queen's Mum".28

According to Plutarch, Isis had not recovered the phallus of Osiris, rather she herself "hand-made" an imitation. So far, we have presented the arousal of Osiris' from the god's point of view. Naturally, the female view is also important, and helps explain a number of references in FW. It adds, for example, another area of meaning at 239.10 where the handmaiden of the Lord becomes: "Behose our handmades for the lured". Mr. Atherton has seen this line as advancing the incest theme, hence connecting the Christian era with that of Ancient Egypt (Books, p. 187). The handmade-handmaid pun indicates that resurrection, according to the Egyptians, is also present. Another example is found when little Issy dreams back to the role of heroine, restorer of life which seems to be, in FW, embedded in the nature of the female: "behold, she had instantt with her handmade as to graps the myth inmid the air" (561.25).



Isis and Horus, Mother and Child

"How to Pull a Good Horuscoup even when Oldsire is Dead to the World" (105.28).

All the members of the Osirian trinity are involved in the above citation, but it is Isis who sets the cycle in motion by conceiving Horus upon the dead old sire, Osiris. Then, the coup of Horus is the blow he strikes against Set, when assuming the throne of his old sire. The various forms in which the "horuscoup" are found in FW may emphasize the role of either Isis or Horus. At 462.05, "A stiff one for Stafetta mullified with creams of hourmony, the coupe that's chill for jackless jill" reminds us that Isis was "widowt" when Horus was conceived. The roles of Horus and Set are suggested in a dislocated reference to the coup at 319.20: "And be the coop of his gobbos, Reacher the Thaurd . . . apopo of his buckseaseilers, but where's Horace's courtin troopsers?" A definite note of hostility can be detected here, and it seems that the "coop" of Horus and his followers is pitted against Apophis ("apopo of his") and Richard III, both of whom play hostile, Set-like roles in FW, as we shall see shortly.

Before Horus grew strong enough to avenge his father, he and his mother had many adventures together. At one point she even assisted with the capture of Set, but later, feeling sorry for the bound god, she let him go free. Horus became furious when he learned of his mother's deed, and actually ripped off her head, which was replaced with the head of a cow by Thoth (Gods, I, 488). At one point in FW, Shaun's jealous anger seems to reflect this ancient pattern, for the "moo" head of his mother is odd and obvious: at 426.03, we find Shaun extremely disturbed at the idea of anyone "who would endeavour to set ever annyma roner moother of mine on fire". He becomes overemotional, "virtually broke down on the mooherhead" (426.07).

Usually, Horus displayed his filial piety in more fitting ways, and Isis and Osiris' "little white horse" (135.22) grew into Horus the avenger of his father.



2. HORUS


Horus the Avenger of His Father

"the night of making Horuse to crihumph over his enemy" (328.34)

An essential aspect of Horus' character within the cycle of Osiris is as the Victorious, he who defeats the powers of darkness, the enemies of his father. In his battle with Set, Horus castrates the god, an event that was equated with the rumblings of thunder in the heavens, howls of pain suggested in FW at 327.32 "a roaryboaryellas" in which the yells of the black pig merge with aurora borealis, the northern lights.

The falcon was sacred to Horus, and he is portrayed as having the head of a falcon, as in fig. II, and in the frontispiece to the Kegan Paul edition of The Book of the Dead. Thus, victorious over another form of Set, the snake or "worm", Horus the falcon seems to merge with the proverbial "early bird that catches the worm" as Jaun (Shaun) advises his sisters, "Keep airly hores and the worm is yores" (435.23).

The image of the triumphant Horus seems to be expressed most clearly in FW in a phrase which draws on BD, ch. xx, pp. 128–129: "The night of the making to stand up of the double Tet . . . and on the night of making Horus to triumph over his enemies". In FW we find "the night of the making to stand up the double tet of the oversear of the seize who cometh from the mighty deep and on the night of making Horuse to crihumph over his enemy" (328.32). At 358.24 "Loud lauds to his luckhump and bejetties on jonahs" gives us the loud cry Humph, with which Behdeti (Horus of Behdet) lands on the perpetually losing Jonah, Set.29

That battlecry, Humph, for Humphrey is of course Joycean rather than ancient Egyptian. Mr. Atherton points out that having Horus bellow out HCE's name helps to blend the narrative of Osiris with all other tales. "All the stories are the same story, so Joyce insists" (Books, 197). Horus is indeed vocal about his victory in FW, loud enough to give himself a sore throat: he be comes "victorihoarse" (472.20).



Cycling Horus

"ahorace . . . elderman adaptive" (325.13)

There were a number of different Horus-gods worshipped in ancient Egypt. In FW some of them merge with the figure we have been discussing, Horus the Younger, son of Osiris. For example, the Horus most popular in Heliopolis was a certain "Horus of the Horizon" (Müller, Myths, p. 388, n. 23). This title combines easily with the young Horus, personification of succeeding youth, giving us an image of the glowing horizon, "shimmering like the horescens, astroglodynamonologos, the child of Nilfit's father" (194.16). Horus is thus the dawn horizon, "hoerrisings" (449.28).

At other times, Joyce seems to combine older Horuses with the young god in order to emphasize the cyclic nature of existence. This "return" of things is shown clearly in Joyce's use of the old phallic god Amsu or Min, who was identified with Horus, as we find in BD, ch. xvii, p. 95: "Amsu is Horus, the avenger of his father, and his coming forth is his birth". He seems to return (French, revenir) for revenge in a younger form at 595.21: "Sure it's not revieng your? Amslu!" It does look as if we are going to swap a younger generation for an elder: "Conk a dook he'll doo. Swap" (595.30).



4. SET


Hostile Set in a Continuum

"futurepip feature apip footloose pastcast" (314.25)

In the cycle of Osiris, it is his brother Set who is the villain, representing the forces of turmoil and hostility. It is Set and his cronies who are suggested at 75.07, "watchful treachers at his wake". To understand the roles Set plays in FW, however, we must have a little more background material, for he was not always considered the nasty uncle of Horus. In some myths, Set was a warrior for good. It was he who fought the demon serpent of the heavens, Apep or Apophis, from the bark of the sun so that the sun could complete his daily journey. Yet Set became an unpopular god, a loud-mouthed braggart who finally grew so annoying to the sun-god that he was cast out of heaven, an ancestor of Satan, who would fall in the same manner (Müller, Myths, p. 109). Eventually, Set was identified with the very serpent that he fought.30

Budge writes that the battles between Ra and Apep, and Horus and Set were seen as the same conflict between the forces of dark and of light, "different versions of the same story, though belonging to different periods" (Gods, I, 405). Joyce obviously appreciated Budge's explanation. The identification of Set and the snake is extended in FW, the figures becoming in fact almost interchangeable: it is Apep or Apophis rather than Set who is cast, like Satan, from heaven: "Thrust from the light, apophotorejected" (251.06). Thus, when Shaun refers to his brother as having "prince of the apauper's pride, blundering all over the two worlds!" (422.15) it can be seen that, with the shift of a single letter from pauper to "apauper" in the title of Twain's book, Joyce has added an accretion of Apopish, satanic pride.

Having perceived in his source material a quality or identity he could employ in constructing FW, Joyce extended and transformed his material, as we have just seen in his use of the tie between Set and Apep. In FW it is often a serpent, or a character with serpent-like qualities who manifests the principle of hostility or rivalry. This is visible in such usages as "hiss blackleaded chest" (144.06), which links the lead-sealed coffin of Osiris to a snake's hiss. Again, it is not Set but evil Apophis who is suggested at the first presentation of the wake, found as an aural significance at 6.24, "tap up his bier".



Apep is definitely evil, and is linked to Set, but just being a serpent is enough to put one in bad company in FW; it is the snakiness that seems to matter. For example, the protective Uatchet goddess is linked to the malevolent Apep at 494.15, "Apep and Uatchet! Holy snakes".31 In fact, if we begin with Joyce's introduction of Apep into the myth of Osiris it soon becomes clear that, abstracting bits of information found in his source material, Joyce synthesizes his own version of "Satarn's serpent ring system" (494.10). That is, Joyce seems to have established a ring or spiral sequence of evil, personified in the shape of a serpent. "Satarn" combines the rings of Saturn and the name of the serpent Sata who, in a notable (and short) chapter of The Book of the Dead exclaims, "I die and I am born again each day" (BD, ch. lxxxvii, p. 278). Through this cyclical image of a large snake which, in FW accumulates overtones of evil and hostility (among other things) it is established that, within the microcosmic universe of FW it is not only the good god Osiris who is renewed. Set, the serpent, also reappears. As it is phrased in The Book of the Dead, "I am the serpent Sata . . . I die, and I am born again, and I renew myself, and I grow young each day" (BD, ch. lxxxvii, p. 278). The vignette at the head of chapter lxxxvii, which is reproduced here as fig. III, shows "the serpent Sata with human legs" (BD, p. 277). I think Joyce uses this sketch of a legged serpent, identifying it not only with Apep, but also with another more well-known snake: the satanic serpent of the fall, at 314.24: "ringround as worldwide eve her sins (pip, pip, pip) willpip futurepip feature apip footloose pastcast". Through the "pipping" static we hear that the past cast, the gods which participated in past roles are "footloose", not fixed to any time or culture, and will be featured again. In this enactment, however, Apep ("apip") will lose his legs ("footloose" suggesting foot-lose), for he plays opposite Eve, in the Judeo-Christian fall.

In FW Joyce uses images drawn from the most modern media to convey messages derived from the earliest historic cultures. We have just noted the name Apep as heard through the static of a radio; a reference to the making of a film is more equivocal, containing the suggestion that who plays what role in FW is a matter of relative perspective. We are told that Finnegan "reeled the titleroll opposite a brace of girdles in Silver on the Screen but was sequenced from the set as Crookback by the even more titulars, Rick, Dave, and Barry" (134.09). The father figure is, according to the line, seen as the hero, bearing the "titleroll" opposite the two females, but he is seen as descending from Set, as Richard III, Crookback, the evil uncle who must be overthrown if the "more titulars" are to assume the throne.

Thus, in FW it is not only the father who keeps his sons from the throne, it is also the figure of the uncle, as the role is played in Hamlet, Richard III, and perhaps originally, in the cycle of Osiris. The competition between Horus and Set, nephew and uncle, is brought out early, at 5.16: "that shebby choruysh of unkalified muzzlenimiissilehims that would blackguardise the whitestone ever hurtleturtled out of heaven." The images conveyed here of "kalif" and "Muslim" are immediately Islamic; a key to the possible Egyptian significance is "hurtleturtled out of heaven", for the turtle is considered a personification of those forces (like Set) hostile to the sun (Gods, II, 376). Mr. Atherton confirms that "choruysh" contains a reference to Horus (Books, p. 210). Here then, the turtle, cast out of heaven suggests the satanic fall of Horus' uncle ("unkalified"). He falls forward through time as he tumbles through space, landing as the Black Stone of the Ka'aba while Muslim pilgrims cast missiles in a ceremony called "pelting the devil" (for an introduction to Joyce's use of Islamic material see the relevant section of Books, pp. 201–217). Just as Finnegan falls through time and space back into his mastaba-tomb, Set tumbles forward, as the turtle, or as Apep, forward into "a mosselman's present" (422.16).

It can be seen that no matter which role Set is integrated into in FW, whether he is part of the prideful artist as portrayed by his Horus-like brother, whether he is the older man, keeping the throne from a younger heir, or is the treacherous enemy of his brother, a villain in a sequence of villains, he is the loser. He is cast from the light, sat upon by Osiris. He is a Jonah, the downed Set of the balanced "setdown secular phoenish" (4.17). He will, however, return as surely as hostility and conflict. This is shown as we enter the "museyroom", the museum of memories to recollect a Joycean version of the Battle of Waterloo. The three soldier-sons wait in ambush for their enemy, and are referred to as the "ombushes" (7.35): the word contains a distinct trace of Ombos, ancient seat of Set (Müller, Myths, p. 102). Through this verbal juxtaposition of "Ombos" and "ambush" we are reminded of the perpetual pattern of conflict as the children take roles in a newer rendition of the struggle for power.



5. THOTH


Thoth, toth and the Power of Creation

"it is always tomorrow in toth's tother's place. Amen" (570.13)

Thoth, the intelligence of the gods, was god of speech, magic and writing, possessor of the words of creation. He was secretary to the gods, responsible for the writing of The Book of the Dead (BD, p. ??). He also provided Isis with the words of power with which she was able to rouse Osiris. Naturally, he was an important god to the ancient Egyptians, and the variety of forms he assumes in FW indicates the care Joyce took to subsume the god of writers in his own book.32 We will concern ourselves with some of the aspects which draw on ancient Egyptian material as it is creatively blended in the book.

Joyce's use of Thoth reflects an interest in the Egyptian god visible long before he embarked on the writing of FW. As early as Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Thoth appears in Joyce's work, most obviously on p. 225 as ". . . Thoth, the god of writers, writing with a reed upon a tablet and bearing on his narrow ibis head the cusped moon". This image of Thoth is expanded in Ulysses as Stephen ponders: "Coffined thoughts around me, in mummy cases, embalmed in the spice of words. Thoth, god of libraries, a birdgod, moonycrowned" (p. 193). The ibis, "birdgod", also seems to be a favored form of the god in FW, but often in a fashion as amusing as Stephen's ponderings are sober. For example, when not an ibis, Thoth is often an ibis-headed man, and there are several places in FW which show Joyce using this quite literally, placing the head of an ibis or crane on HCE, as at 7.29 "the cranic head of him, castor of his reasons". This is repeated at 229.36 in an amusing phrase which combines the skull of Yorick with the head of the grus or "great ibis", Thoth (Boylan, p. 7): "his innersense and the grusomehed's yoeureeke".

Often a phrase in FW which has immediately accessible parodic content will, upon further scrutiny, prove to be richer than the reader may have assumed. For example, at 263.21, "The tasks above are as the flasks below, saith the emerald canticle of Hermes", is certainly playing with an allusion to the well-known "as above, so below" of Hermes' emerald tablet, but it also suggests, among other things, a less-known title of Thoth, who was the original of Hermes Trismegistus. He was "Lord of wine who drinks abundantly" (Boylan, pp. 187, 189).

In FW it seems to be through his relationship to literature that Thoth attains a divine immortality, as Shaun seems to indicate when he comments that he was "besated upon my tripos, and just thinking like thauthor how long I'd like myself to be continued at Hothelizod" (452.09). This reference to Thoth, the author ("thauthor"), comes at a point when Shaun is surrounded by references to ancient Egypt. Within a few pages he will predict a happy future for the family in the fields of the Seket Hetep (454.34). The atmosphere of prophesy and the ancient god of writing also explains Shaun's reference to "sothisfiction" (452.06) for Sothis is not only the name of Isis as the star Sirius, it is also the name of the first of the Greek Hermetic books, purportedly prophetic, predicting the future on the basis of events from the Egyptian past (Mead, Thrice Greatest Hermes, I, 104).

Sothis is a fiction; Shaun also mentions a section from a more conventionally accepted source, "the annals of our — as you so often term her — efferfreshpainted livy, in beautific repose, upon the silence of the dead, from pharoph the nextfirst down to ramescheckles the last bust thing" (452.18). This refers not only to the Annals of Livy, but also to a section of Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians entitled "Sculptures of Rameses III", in which Wilkinson writes of a sudden rebirth of Egyptian art, its final peak, ("the last bust thing"). The following sections deal with paints and colors, illustrated by a few exceedingly bright prints ("efferfreshpainted livy"). Shaun's "ramescheckles", in this context of Thoth and renaissance suggests both Rameses III and the "checkers", the scaled squares of the Egyptian art canon. It also brings to mind the shackles often associated with the building of the monumental works of Egypt. At this point in FW, with Shaun taking on the part of a prophetic Thoth, the key to Joyce's use of Wilkinson lies in Egypt's artistic renaissance having a last, brief resemblance to her high culture long before. It is a kind of microcosmic example of Viconian history, as is FW itself, returning to the beginning after the end of a cycle: "The Vico road goes round and round to meet where terms begin" (452.21).

Returning to the significance of Thoth within the cycle of Osiris, the revival of the dead god is dependent upon Thoth's words of power, as well as on the power of Isis to rouse her brother-husband physically. At one point in FW, these two sorts of magic seem to merge. The Gaelic word for the "female-place" or genitals is toth-ball or toth-bhall,33 which Margaret Solomon has located in FW when a new dawn, and a new Sire are predicted for Issy. At the same time, Issy is advised to have patience:34 "Well but to remind to think, you where yestoday Ys Morganas war and that it is always tomorrow in toth's tother's place. Amen" (570.12).

This suggests that the "other place" of Thoth is the female toth.35 An Egyptian reference brought to mind by "toth's tother's place" is The Place of Thoth, name of the ancient shrine of the god, which cannot now be located; it is buried in time (Boylan, p. 147). The image of his "other place" as the female genitals is strengthened by "Amen" which follows "tother's place", for amen in middle Egyptian means "concealed, hidden", and the god so named is, in Budge's words, "the personification of the hidden and unknown creative power which was associated with the primal abyss gods in the creation of the world . . ." (Gods, II, 2).

The link between the revivifying power of sexuality (the "primal abyss") and the Egyptian gods is made several times on p. 570, one phrase reinforcing the significance of the other. The ancient Egyptians believed that the god would beget the next pharaoh of Egypt upon the queen: the event is depicted in reliefs on the walls of a chapel that has been called a mammisi or "lying-in place". This was, as Wilkinson expresses it, "connected with the mysterious rite of the birth of infant deities" (Wilkinson, III, 148). A mammisi is suggested as part of "mamnesty" in: "a snow of dawnflakes, at darkfall for Grace's Mamnesty and our fancy ladies, all assombred. Some wholetime in hot town tonight: You do not have heard? It stays in book of that which is" (570.06). The positive force of the reproductive powers at work in the mammisi transforms the snowflakes of dawn into a "snow of dawnflakes". The affirmative tone is strengthened by the fact that this is recorded in "book of that which is", for it is the Bennu or phoenix who keeps the volume "of the things which are and of the things which shall be" (BD, ch. xvii, p.95). The presence of the fiery bird also helps explain why the "old town" is warm again, "wholetime in hot town tonight!" There is hope for tomorrow, as the magic powers of Thoth are expressed in terms of human generation: "Well but to remind to think . . . it is always tomorrow in toth's tother's place. Amen".

It would certainly seem, then, that Joyce gives the magic of the feminine full due in FW, imaging the ageless shrine of Thoth as toth, the female organs of generation, the human power of the phoenix. Considering the mythic cycle of Osiris as we have seen it, this is a logical development of the significance of Isis, for it is indeed to the female that we should look for the power which brought about the resurrection of the god. The specific link with Isis is developed in the final paragraph on this same page, beginning at 570.28: "Here we shall do a far walk (O pity) anygo khaibits till the number one of sairey's place. Is, is". Mr. Atherton explains: "What Joyce says here is that it will take a long time (khaibit is Middle Egyptian for shadow), and there will be many characters playing the part before we get back to the original Isis" (Books, 197). This is certainly true, yet the line says other things as well. There is movement, a "long walk" to a "place" where the original Isis can be located. This can be found through a Joycean pun on khaibit, that is, Khebit which is the name of a secret island in the middle of the Delta, associated with Isis the sorceress (Gods, II, 208, n.l). Just as "toth's tother's place" is the concealed power of the feminine, so too is "sairey's place. Is, is" the hidden Delta location of Isis, the wellspring of true creative sorcery.









Part II
Mummeries of Resurrection




1. INTERMENT


The Tomb

"Tal the tem of the tumulum" (56.34)

Each phase in the development of the Egyptian tomb, from the earliest sandheap tumulus past the immensity of the Great Pyramid is to be found in FW. At times, the structures are merely aspects of the wake, a reflection of the building in which Finnegan lies. Often, however, the tomb can play a more important part in articulating the world-view of FW. The most ancient ancestor of the pyramid, for example, was a mound of sand, a tumulus (DRT, p. 62).

The phrase "Tal the tem of the tumulum" (56.34) contains the tale of TM, the old god who, in FW is a type of HCE; here he falls into a tomb, a tumulus. Additionally, Mr. Atherton has rightly observed (Books, p. 133) that the word "tumulum" contains a clear reference to the primal mud-heap upon which TM as the creator-god, after masturbating into his mouth, spat out the first beings. Thus, the "tumulum" is both the mound of creation, and the tumulus tomb of burial. The two meanings are inclusive and simultaneous: the waked dead in the mound carrying the potential of new, first life.1

From the tumulus evolved the oblong brick mastaba-tomb. We have seen that Tim Finnegan, as an unorthodox "Lord of the ladder" fell into such a tomb at 6.09: "Dimb! He stottered from the latter. Damb! he was dud. Dumb! Mastabatoom, mastabadtomm." This fall is not final, for, as we shall see later, it contains Bataou, a title of Osiris as the "soul of the bread", which carries the image of the "germinating" god (see "Grain Osiris", below). The characteristic hiss of villainous Set serves to link a mastaba-tomb to the myth of Osiris at 493.23; "massstab" contains a serpent's "sss", a mastaba and also a conspirators' "mass-stab" which places the Egyptian god-king in that line of betrayed leaders which includes Caesar. As we have seen, however, Osiris is never down for long. This reference to a mastaba and murdered leader is followed by the cry "Irise, Osirises! Be thy mouth given unto thee!" (493.28).

The developmental link between the single-staged mastaba and the pyramid is the stepped tower of the Step Pyramid of Saqqarah.2 In constructing a "real" pyramid, a smooth casing is placed over the graduated levels to give a characteristically triangular shape of smooth stone. The "heart" of the pyramid is thus much like the ziggurat, the staged temple-tower of Babylon. Joyce seems to include a description of the pyramid's make-up with "beaconsfarafield innerhalf the zuggurat" (100.19). This also combines the pyramids of the pharaohfield (with an innerhalf which resembles a ziggurat), and the beacon of the lighthouse at Pharos. The beacon, in the FW context is being lighted in conjunction with "the infallible spike of smoke's jutstaff," (100.15). This indicates, the Skeleton Key suggests (p. 83), the election of a new pope: here signalled far afield in ancient Egypt and Babylon, among other places.

The oldest pyramid, found at Medem or Medum has, according to Joyce's sources, lost its outer casing over the centuries, so that the "step" of brick beneath has been revealed, and this pyramid Budge specifically describes as looking like "a Babylonian ziggurat" (Mummy, p. 31). The Encyclopaedia Britannica has much the same description, and a "before and after" plate to show how the years have worn down the structure ("Pyramid", EB, XXII, 684). Joyce uses this comparison most obviously at 624.08: "The Gowans, ser, for Medem, me. With acute bubel runtoer for to pippup and gopeep where the sterres be". The ancient Egyptian pyramid is combined with the most famous Babylonian ziggurat, the Tower of Babel.

Pyramid tombs are almost always found in FW embedded in a cultural merging of some sort, slight alterations in spelling suggesting links that span space and time, such as "El Monte de Zuma" (339.33) which includes most obviously the name Montezuma, but also the monte de Zuma, the mountains of Zuma: Budge explains that Zuma is the name of a pyramid field (The Egyptian Sudan, I, 129). This in turn reminds us of the vast new world pyramids of the Aztecs, whose monarch Montezuma was until he fell before the conquistadors.

The Great Pyramid of Giza, most impressive and well-known of the pyramids, was built for the pharaoh popularly known as Cheops. It is found as part of 553.10, "chopes pyramidous". Humphrey C. Earwicker becomes Cheops at 62.21: "Humpheres Cheops Exarchas".3 We have seen above (p. 29) that on one occasion the wake seems to be taking place at the Great Pyramid: "will you whoop for my deading is a? Wake? Usqueadbaughaml" (24.14). That tongue-twisting "Usqueadbaugham" is composed primarily of uisce beatha or usquebaugh, Gaelic "water of life" or whiskey. It is these life-giving spirits that raise Finnegan from the dead, but I think that in this particular line there is a more specific link between Giza and the "waters of life". This can be seen through a reference to the student of theosophic and masonic lore, Marsham Adams.4 We are not concerned here with his various esoteric theories, but with a general observation he makes in a central episode of his House of the Hidden Places5 in which Adams stands in the entrance way to the Great Pyramid, musing on the "perpetual presence of the life-giving river. From end to end of its territory, from age to age of its history, in the religion, in the commerce, in the honors of the dead, wherever we turn and on whatsoever object we may fix our eyes, we never for a moment lose sight of the blue waters of the Nile" (House of the Hidden Places, p. 50). For Adams, the work of Egyptologists, working by the banks of the eternally flowing river, had effected the rebirth of the ancient culture: "As we contemplate the heaven reflected in the blue waters of the river as it flows without . . . Egypt, for so many years the land of the buried, becomes the land of the risen dead" (House of the Hidden Places, p. 70).

We know that Joyce sought out examples of "resurrections" to include in FW, his use of Tutankhamen being an important example.6 Adams, from the vantage-point of the Great Pyramid, gives the entire land of Egypt as a type of rebirth. The linking of the risen dead to the eternally flowing river is important in FW. Perhaps because of his presentation of them, Adams is suggested in the very first line of FW, "riverrun, past Eve and Adam's" (3.01). The immediate reference is to the Liffey, and to the church of Adam and Eve's, past which the Liffey flows. Yet because Joyce has inverted the name, which as we have seen often signals an Egyptian meaning, the aural meaning of the phrase adds an overlay of the Nile, and Adams standing in the doorway of the Great Pyramid: river run, past even Adams.



Funerary Charms

"shabbty little imagettes, pennydirts and dodgemyeyes" (25.02)

The tomb was known as the "House of the Blessed" or "House of Eternity" (Budge, The Nile, p. 249). The "House" was stocked with an array of household items, and also with a variety of charms and inscriptions, intended to assist and protect the deceased on his journey to the Otherworld. There are references to these paraphernalia scattered through FW; at one point Joyce verbally reproduces the rich jumble of items to be found massed in the "House" or tomb: "But t'house and allaboardshoops! Show coffins, winding sheets, goodbuy bierchepes, cinerary urns, liealoud blasses, snuffchests, poteentubbs, lacrimal vases, hoodendoses, reekwaterbeckers, breakmiddles, zootzaks for eatlust . . . and for that matter, javel also, any kind of inhumationary bric au brac for the adornment of his glasstone honophreum, would naturally follow" (77.28).

These funerary charms or objects are not always found in situations which are immediately recognizable as having an Egyptian content. It is an odd fact, for example, that in the first wake sequence Finnegan's stone pillow comes to a point, as clearly indicated by "sharpen his pillowscone" (6.23). This would seem to indicate that it is an ancient Egyptian funeral cone. Budge writes (Mummy, p. 394) that these cones may merely have been some sort of memorial object, or they may have been representations of loaves of bread: at 6.23, then, a pillow-scone. They may also have been, Budge continues, some sort of phallic symbol, and this third possible significance is also suggested: a sharppenis pillowscone.

If the pillows were "scones", they would have been intended for the deceased's kau souls. There was a door built into the coffin itself, so that these little beings (see "The Soul or Spirit Released", below) might wander about, then return for sustenance and to visit the entombed body. Budge writes that in one of the best examples of the coffin door, it is actually equipped with a "sliding panel" (Mummy, p. 427). The loaves would be placed just outside this sliding panel. We find at 357.20 that an extremely original and amusing link is established between an ancient House of the Blessed, and another kind of building entirely.

As the publican sits is his wooden outhouse (lavatory or "lamatory") browsing through leaflets casually strewn about, he is also an Osiris in an Egyptian tomb, listening for his kau souls ("cawcaw"), turning over loaves left for the sustenance of the body of the casualty: "And whilst (when I doot my sliding panel and I hear cawcaw) I have been idylly turmbing over the loose looves leaflets jaggled casuallty on the lamatory, as is my this is". The modern and ancient images merge in the "my this is" which, like the loose loaves-leaves, has been left lying about. It is a copy of "myth Isis":7 the old man is whiling away the time with a copy of The Book of the Dead!

The Egyptian tone of the above scene is set by a reference to the false beard of godhood, brass-hued when found on the mummy case of the king: "(did he have but Hugh de Brassey's beardslie his wear mine of ancient guised)" (357.07). The same sort of false beard (which can be seen on Osiris in the frontispiece) was worn by the king in life on ceremonial occasions, hence the "beardwig" (625.02) of HCE playing "the king of Aeships" (625.04).

There were charms provided to prevent or ward off all sorts of mishaps. If, for example, the head of the deceased was for any reason detached from his body, it was believed that this would prevent rebirth as an Osiris. In FW the heads of a number of characters are protected, as they might be in the tomb, by the sacred Urs pillow (Mummy, p. 310). Shaun thinks the protective headrests will be provided on the way to the heavenly gardens of Seket Hetep ("Seekit Headup" 454.35), at least there is an Urs provided in his words: "in the suburrs of the heavenly gardens, once we shall have passed, after surceases, all serene through neck and necklike Derby and June to our snug eternal retribution's reward" (454.30).

The variety of burial charms placed about the tomb were intended not only to protect the deceased but also to ease his life in the plantations of the Otherworld, which was a sort of "flabberghosted farmament" (494.03) in which the privileged dead could relax through eternity. They could be secure in the knowledge that the many small "doubles" of the dead, the ushebti or shabti figures, which were placed in the tomb would be responsible for the heavy labor that might need to be performed in the heavenly fields. The recitation of The Book of the Dead was supposed to activate the little images. Mr. Atherton has located this chapter as part of: "We seem to us (the real Us!) to be reading our Amenti in the sixth sealed chapter of the going forth by black" (62.25).8 Another reference to shabti figures, also pointed out in Books, p. 194, is "shabbty little imagettes" (25.02), which adds a "shabbiness" to the shabti figures. This may allude to the ancient Egyptian fear, during one period, that their shabtis were not performing their work — acting shabbily — and the dead were suffering in consequence (Greenfield Papyrus, p. xvi).

The word "shabti" may be related, Budge writes, to usheb, "to answer" (BD, p. 53 n.l). The little figures were designed to answer the calls of the dead, and then perform tasks assigned to them. It would seem that characters in FW not only have characters from other works of literature to carry part of the load of meaning in the book, they may even, at times, be aware of it. This is suggested at 410.33 where Shaun, "being too soft for work proper" refers to "my answerers, Top, Sid and Hucky" (410.35). As Mr. Atherton writes, the three names probably refer to the last chapters of Huck Finn, in which Tom is Sid, and Huck is Tom (Books, p. 243). This would indicate that Huck Finn, with its long river journey becomes, in FW, a kind of Book of the Dead (moving from one state to another)in which Tom, Sid and Huck are several of Shaun's "multiple Mes" (410.12). If we follow up Mr. Atherton's lead and turn to Huck Finn, it is easily determined that the switch in identities first takes place in chapter xxxiii. Tom (like Shaun) arrives carrying a letter (a forgery): the identity switch is effected in order to steal the runaway slave, Jim. Because Shaun is drawing from this "theft" chapter for his shabtis or "answerers" it helps to explain why he does not refer to the Theban recension, rather to "the thieves' rescension" (410.36).

It can be seen that many of the magical devices found about the tomb have been incorporated into FW. In various ways, they are adapted to the situations in the book. Within the tomb, to take another example, was sealed a reed, intended to protect the deceased. It was inscribed, Budge observes, with exactly five lines of script (Mummy, p. 353). At 566.35 "Can you read the verst legend hereon? I am hather of the missed. Areed!" gives us such a reed, as signalled by the reference to Hathor, guardian of the dead, the missed. The reed is certainly unique, for it is an aspect of Earwicker's "so a stark pointing pole" (566.34), and the lines inscribed on this reed are also unique, for they guide one past the Dunleary obelisk, into Dublin Bay and up the Liffey in five directional phrases separated by colons or semicolons (566.36–567.05)9 and ending with "a setting up" (567.05) of a sacred Tet (see above p. 34). This is not the land of the heavenly Nile, but rather an example of one of the many cases in FW where Amenti is to be found "beside the Liffey that's in Heaven!" (26.08).



Mummification

"healed cured and embalsemate" (498.36)

Following the pattern of Osiris' path to rebirth, the body of the deceased was carefully preserved, just as Isis had supposedly preserved the body of her brother-husband after assembling his members. The deceased would be, like Osiris, "healed cured and embalsemate, pending a rouseruction of his bogey" (498.36). As Joyce's phrase suggests, the process of mummification was a lengthy one. After the inner organs were removed, the body was cured, and then soaked in natron salts (which had a desiccating effect)10 after which it was swathed in mummy wrappings.

This complicated process, or Joycean versions of it, are found several times in FW. We have already encountered one example, at 85.30 (see "Trial of Osiris", above). On another occasion the salting, curing and swathing all seem to be included. The preparation of the body seems to be taking place "theirinn" a pun, Dr. Bramsback suggests, on inn and Erin: "Withun. How swathed thereanswer alcove makes theirinn! Besoakers loiter on. And primilibatory solicates of limon sodias will be absorbable" (604.07).



The Four Genii

"the fourbottle men" (95.27)

The four old men who move through the pages of FW have many identities. They are the four evangelists, the annalist Four Masters of Ireland, the four elements, and, as Mrs. Glasheen writes, "doubtless many other forms as well".11 A previously unnoticed aspect of the old men is that of the four odd figures which are recurringly encountered in Egyptian religion, in a variety of roles. They can be seen, for example, poised on a lotus blossom before the throne of Osiris in the vignette which is reproduced as the frontispiece of this dissertation. These four, for whom Breasted uses the general term "the four genii" (DRT, p. 156) fulfill various tasks in regard to the dead. They are found in the tomb as the four canopic jars, holding the inner organs of the body, jars with animal or human heads which have sat around in the tomb for thousands of years, near the mummy. In this potted form, the old men are quite literally "the fourbottle men" (95.27).12

As well as being considered the guardians of the embalmed body, these four are also the personification of the four cardinal points, and they guide the ship of the dead (DRT, p. 157). They are then probably present in such phrases as "their oldenships the four coroners" (219.10). The four figures are seen in The Book of the Dead not only as coroners or corners. They also play a role together as a kind of deified gossip, much feared by the dead: those who steal the heart. In Books, p. 197, Mr. Atherton shows that the title "Stealer of the Heart" (570.35) is taken from The Book of the Dead, ch. xxvii. The heart of the deceased was not actually stolen. The stealers, it was feared, would "steal" control over the secrets which the dead held suppressed in the heart or conscience, and would reveal various unpleasantries at the judgement, the Weighing of the Heart. The vignette to ch. xxvii (BD, p. 139) shows the four genii, crouched and listening, just as the four old men do in FW.



Grain Osiris

"the cropse of our seedfather" (55.08)

Directly related to the "springing up" of the mummy was the ability of Osiris, as god of germinating grain, to spring into renewed life. The specific link between Osiris, spirit of grain, and the body in the tomb is developed in FW with the phrase "on the bunk of our breadwinning lies the cropse of our seedfather" (55.07). This strongly suggests one of the small grain Osirises placed within tombs. A mold, formed in the silhouetted shape of the reborn (mummiform) god was filled with Nile mud and sown with seed, so that it would soon spring up within the tomb just as would, it was hoped, the dead, who were assured that "thy material body doth germinate" ("Book of Breathing", BD, p. 668). In photoplates such as that found in Moret's Rois et Dieux d'Egypte, p. 104 (reproduced here as fig. IV), the figure seems to be resting on a cot or bunk, which is in fact referred to as "the bed of Osiris" (Mummy, p. 462). "Cropse" is then a significantly affirmative word, such as "phoenish" (4.17) containing both the corpse of the god and affirmation that the cycle will begin anew.



The specific tie made between Osiris and the "cropse" in FW explains why, at 29.28, the defeat of Set (Set-you-lose) merges with the cellulose of an overwintering plant, feeding on the starch it has made from stored sugar.13 The hibernating plant would be found in the darkness of the tomb, as Earwicker is "growing hoarish under his turban and changing cane sugar into sethulose starch (Tuttut's cess to him!)" Horus the White is here the growing heir, while the reference to the curse of Tut suggests the specific grain Osiris which was found in the tomb of Tutankhamen (Carter, Tomb of Tutankhamen, III, 61, pl. 64a). In this context, "hoarish" also suggests a blend of whitening hair and growing grain, or, as it is phrased at 26.08, "as your hair grows wheater".

The Egyptian identification of Osiris with sprouting grain may have been related, as pointed out in Books, p. 198, to the ceremonial eating of the god, a meal which in FW merges with the Mass and Communion Service. It may also have to do with a ritual survival of cannibalism in the rituals of the ancient Egyptians, the body of Osiris being not only divided but eaten as well (Books, p. 198). With "on the bunk of our breadwinning lies the cropse of our seedfather" Joyce manages to include both the idea of Osiris as sprouting grain, and also as bread. Another image which contains Osiris as bread is that of Finnegan, falling into a "Mastabatoom" (6.10) for this includes not only the mastaba-tomb but also Bataou, a title of Osiris as the spirit or soul of bread (Moret, Rois et Dieux d'Egypte, p. 114). The personification of Finnegan as bread at this point is most apt, for it is followed by a scene of ritual cannibalism at which "Grampupus is fallen down but grinny sprids the board" (7.08).

It is important to note the affirmative aspect of the cannibalism: the father, the older generation, will be consumed for the benifit of the new. It is the father or grandfather who is served up in FW, "our grainpopaw" (587.32) and it is the children who note his "cropulence" (294.22). Whether the act is actually accomplished or not, the suggestion is there that the devouring of the father is implicit in the continuing interaction of the family. Thus, even the phrase describing the location of the children's rooms suggests their role of eater or devourer: they are not to right and left, but "on the upstairs, at forkflank and at knifekanter" (561.02). The rooms, in their position of knife and fork, pattern a parodied communion: "Whom in the woods are they for? Why, for little Porter babes, to be saved!" (561.02)



The Soul or Spirit Released

"scarab my sahul!" (415.25)

At death, the constituent parts of a man's soul or spirit were released. As Clive Hart points out in "His Good Smetterling of Entymology" (p. 18) all the nine parts are named in FW. We have already considered the ka soul, or "spiritual double" of which a man had one, and a god several (Ra had fourteen kau souls; Gods, II, 300). Mr. Hart finds the ka along with the ba or heart-soul in 341.09 "balakcleivka". The khaibit, or shadow, closely associated with the ba, he locates at 570.29, "khaibits", and the sekhem or "vital force" is at 571.02, in "Seekhem seckhem!" The ren, or name of power, is at 39.14 "renn".

As I have mentioned, Mr. Hart's article is primarily concerned with the "Fable of the Gracehoper and the Ondt", pp. 414–419. In a single sentence beginning at 415.31 he has found the Ondt mentioning a number of the parts of a man's person: "Nor to Ba's berial nether, thon sloghard, this oldeborre's yaar ablong as there's a khul on a khat." Mr. Hart locates the ab, or heart, and the ba ("Ba's") plus the khu or spiritual soul ("khul") which dwells in the sahu (found at 415.25 in "sahul"). Also the khat ("khat") or physical body is found here. Joyce could have found all of the parts listed in the introduction to the BD, pp. lix-lxiv, but the fact that he capitalized "Ba's" suggests that he had seen the list in Gods, II, 299–300. Immediately above the nine component parts, Budge explains here that man's ba or soul is the human equivalent of "BA" which can be described as a World-Soul, which was the soul of the World-Body, the type of which was the body of Osiris. This would help explain the Ondt's animosity towards the "Ba" who is probably considered the same as the "oldeborre" at 415.32, whom it seems the Ondt would like to succeed.



2. RITUAL REVIVAL


The Book of the Dead

"For that (the rapt one warns) is what papyr is meed of, made of,
hides and hints and misses in prints" (20.10)

The most important item in the tomb was The Book of the Dead, the "mummyscrips" (156.05) which were to guide the deceased through darkness into renewed life. Joyce seems to have had a number of reasons for using The Book of the Dead and the title blends with other books and forms of literature in an astonishing variety of ways throughout FW. It is found with other religious works, such as the Book of Kells, "our book of kills" (482.33), or combined with the Egyptian Book of the Netherworld, which tells of the sun's nightly subterranean journey: "the book of the depth is" (621.03). A history book, book of deeds, is also a book of the dead, in the sense that the mortal is made immortal in its pages: "the leaves of the living in the boke of the deeds" (13.30). In our examination of shabti figures, we saw that even Huckleberry Finn could be a "thieves rescension" (410.36) with its river odyssey. There are several ways in which FW resembles The Book of the Dead; most immediately perhaps in the difficulty of the text, and its "coded" nature, "For that (the rapt one warns) is what papyr is meed of, made of, hides and hints and misses in prints" (20.10). FW takes us through a night-long labyrinth into the dawn, leads us through the darkness to light: "the book of the opening of the mind to light" (258.31).

There are a variety of references to versions of The Book of the Dead in FW. Budge's Theban recension is found several times; "thieves' rescension" (410.36), which we have seen can refer to Huckleberry Finn, also points to Shaun as plagiarist or thief, for he seems to claim the three-volume Kegan Paul edition of "The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day" (BD, p. v) as his own, and certainly better than anything his brother could ever do: "my trifolium librotto, the authordux Book of Lief, would, if given to daylight, (I hold a most incredible faith about it) far exceed what that bogus bolshy of a shame, my soamheis brother, Gaoy Fecks, is conversant with in audible black and prink" (425.20).

We shall have occasion to examine other references to The Book of the Dead in the following sections of this part of the dissertation. There are also a number of specific papyri mentioned (sometimes cited or parodied) by name. Many of these are probably drawn from the Kegan Paul edition, which is a composite version, made up of chapters taken from the papyrus of Nu, the papyrus of Ani and others. These were, Budge explains, "copied by scribes for themselves and for Egyptian kings and queens, priests and nobles, gentle and simple, rich and poor, from about B.C. 1600 to B.C. 900" (BD, p. v). Mr. Atherton points out (Books, p. 193) a reference to Ani in the following lines: "On the vignetto is a ragingoos. The overseer of the house of the oversire of the seas, Nu-Men, triumphant, sayeth: Fly as the hawk, cry as the corncrake, Ani Latch of the postern is thy name; shout!" (493.30). "Ani" is present, but the more elaborate reference is to Nu, for his name and title, mentioned at least a hundred times in the Budge translation, are "the overseer of the house of the overseer of the seal, Nu, triumphant". Nu is so titled at the beginning of ch. xcv, p. 291, which is the only place in The Book of the Dead that one finds "the vignette is a goose".

Joyce's use of Nu demonstrates his ability to manipulate his Egyptian source material. We have already seen Joyce use the title "the overseer of the house of the overseer of the seal" on other occasions as well. It was included in the Joycean version of BD, ch. xx, "of the night of the making to stand up the double tet of the oversear of the seize who cometh from the mighty deep and on the night of making Horuse to crihumph over his enemy" (328.32). The phrasing makes it certain that this comes from ch. xx, the only place in The Book of the Dead one finds a double tet (BD, p. 128). However, Budge does not take his ch. xx from Nu, but from another papyrus entirely, Nebseni. Joyce is making his own recension "Nu" here, and in so doing he is taking advantage of the fact that Nu is the namesake of the god of the primal deeps.14 This can be seen from his addition of "who cometh from the mighty deep" to "oversear". If we turn back to 493.30, the tie between Nu as the "keeper of the seal" and Nu as the god of the primal sea is clearer: "the overseer of the house of the oversire of the seas, Nu-Men, triumphant". Because the name here merges with the name of Cardinal Newman, it follows that the god of the sea also blends with the sire of the holy sees, the pope. In Joyce's recension of chapter xx, then, the princes of the Church are tied to the princes of ancient Egypt. In another reference this is carried further, as a saint's day calendar becomes a copy of The Book of the Dead: the setting up of the double tet takes place on a red-letter day, "Of a redtettetterday morning" (490.27).

Joyce did not rely on Budge only for his selection of papyri and inscriptions. The Papyrus of Aba, for example, can be found mentioned at 309.02, "aback in the doom of the balk of the deaf". Budge does not use this text, but Breasted presents it as an interesting example of the last redaction of The Book of the Dead (DRT, p. 366).

Earlier than the papyrus copies of The Book of the Dead were The Pyramid Texts, found upon the walls of certain pyramids. Joyce's use of these early inscriptions is indicated by the phrase "Beppy's realm" (415.36) which signals a parodied quotation from the Pyramid Text of Pepi II. An extract from this is given in the "Introduction" to Budge's The Book of the Dead, where the phrasing "the name of this Pepi . . . shall flourish . . . and this his building shall flourish for ever" (BD, p. lxiii) is repeated many times. In FW we find: "As broad as Beppy's realm shall flourish my reign shall flourish".15 Joyce also makes use of other common spellings of the name, besides that ("Pepi") used by Budge. The EB, in the lengthy article on "Egypt" (vol. XI, 81) gives the Greek version of the name Pepi, which is Piopi or Phiopi. If we are aware of this alternative spelling as it may have been used by Joyce, we find that Pepis are important in FW not only for their pious texts ("pepeace or anysing a soul", 345.12), but also because the first two Pepis ruled an enormous empire, and thus serve as a type of the empire-builder in FW. Hence we find references to a text linked to references to an empire: the reich of "Pioupioureich" (181.04) echoing "Beppy's realm" (415.36). It is Shaun (the Ondt) who wishes a realm like "Beppy"; at 470.07 he is praised as a "piopadey boy". It is noteworthy that this includes the name of the emperor, but it is also one of the places where Joyce reconciles opposites, for the powerful rulers share the word with the "Peep of Day Boys", eighteenth century Irish protestant rebels who, though also defenders of the established order were, according to Chart, associated with the very poorest peasants.16

Shaun's twin brother, the prideful artist Shem seems to claim The Pyramid Texts, written upon the walls of tombs, for his own work. Among the "alphybettyformed verbage" (183.13) littering the walls of his house are to be found "imeffible tries at speech unasyllabled" (183.14), which suggests he has been trying to inscribe, or recite, the Pyramid Text of Unas: "Unas-syllabled" (mentioned in Gods, I, 34).



Opening of the Mouth

"I horizont the same, this serpe with ramshead, and
lay it lightly to your lip a little" (486.21)

In order for the journey into light to begin, it was first necessary to free the body from the paralysis imposed upon it by the swathings, and by death itself. Most important, the jaws of the dead were freed, and the dead given a voice so that he could name, and thus control the various gods, demons and animated objects which would be encountered along the way. The words and names were provided by The Book of the Dead; the ceremony of the Opening of the Mouth made their recitation possible.

There are references to aspects of the Opening throughout FW, sometimes found in an overtly recognizable Egyptian context, sometimes functioning in other plot situations, usually as parody. Pragmatic Shaun, for example, seems to associate the Opening of the Mouth with stuffing himself with food. The first hint of this is given at 411.11, when instead of exclaiming "May the god Ptah open my mouth" (BD, p. 133), he cries "Amen, Ptah! His hungry will be done!" The name Moret gives to the ceremony of the Opening is oup-ra (Mystères Egyptiens [1913], p. 38). Shaun seems to open his mummy-mouth in an oup-ra ceremony in order to fill it at 437.19, "(Oop, I never open momouth but I pack mefood in it)".

Joyce seems to present the ceremony with an affair of amusement, yet in so doing he draws on a number of sources and distributes occasional references to different aspects of the ceremony through the text. The pressing of two fingers upon the lips of the deceased is, for example, an important part of the ritual (Budge, The Opening of the Mouth, I, 40). It is clearly indicated at 61.22: "I lay my two fingerbuttons, fiancee Meagher, (he speaks!)". As an interview seems to be taking place at this point in the action, an ability to "open mouths" is what the interrogators require.

The most important figure in the Opening of the Mouth is the Sem priest, (BD, p. 133) a coincidence which made it easy for Joyce to combine his functions with the name of the twin Shem. This happens at 286.30, as Kev (Shaun) implores Dolph (Shem) to use his creative magic and make the geometric figure (which contains the pudendal triangle of the mother) reveal its secrets, to "speak".17 Shaun implores: "tell it to oui, do, Sem!" The name or title "Sem" and the characteristic reversal of letters ("Babel" — "Lebab") are tied to a mouth opening at 258.11: "Immi ammi Semmi. And shall not Babel be with Lebab? And he war. And he shall open his mouth and answer".

Also Shaun plays the part of Sem priest on occasion, as we saw at 437.19, where he is able to open his own mummy-mouth. This is doing things backwards, so to speak, if the Sem priest uses his magic to open his own mouth. Perhaps this is one of the powers claimed by Shaun when he proclaims himself "letter potent to play the sem backwards" (419.23).

After his mouth had been ceremonially pried or chiseled open by the Sem priest,18 it would be possible for the deceased to participate in a number of revivifying ceremonies. He would, for example, be able to consume a sort of Communion cake known as the Eye of Horus. This was a powerful aid in rebirth, for Horus had sacrificed his eye in a battle with Set (as black pig).

The eye was later made whole again by Thoth, who spat upon it, after which time Horus presented it to Osiris to eat, and thus attain immortality. Hence, the dead ate a replica of the white Eye of Horus, along with some sacred beer as an aid to "coming forth". This ceremonial meal is found in FW, though referring to the eye as "luscious" and to the beer as "horus-broth" is a Joycean innovation: "White eyeluscious and muddyhorsebroth! Pig Pursyreiley! But where do we get off, chiseller?" (482.05).

Max Müller was of the opinion that the story of the Horus Eye could probably be traced back to an earlier myth, in which it is the eye of the sun that is torn out, and falls into the Nile, near its source, only to rise from the river each morning as a sign of rebirth (Myths, pp. 124–5). Joyce seems to draw on this explanation, presenting at one point a scene that involves rising from the waters, but also includes eyes healed (as in the later version) with the spittle of Thoth: "he rises, shrivering, with his spittyful eyes and his whoozebecome woice, Ephthah!" (240.05). Ptah or Phtah is also included, as he is called upon in the Opening of the Mouth (BD, ch. xxiii, p. 133). Joyce is actually improving on the ceremony: with the cry "Ephphatha!" Jesus opened the ears and mouth of the deaf man (Mark 7:34). There is a sailing vessel, a zebec, in the "whoozebecome" voice for, having been roused and given a mouth, the resurrected or revived one mounted the boat of the sun, as we shall see below.

With magically freed jaws, having been given a mouth, the deceased was able to utter the words and names of power that would enable him to travel safely through the world of darkness. The naming process was of considerable importance, for it was through knowledge of its ren or "name" that one gained the power of any being or object (DRT, p. 116). Indeed, Mr. Atherton speculates that "one of the chief attractions of The Book of the Dead for Joyce must have been insistence upon the value and efficacy of 'words of power' . . . used without alteration as 'words of power' (98.26) and 'words of silent power' (345.19)" (Books, p. 19).19

The recitation of names was obsessive in its completeness. The deceased did not merely name a closed door; it was necessary to name the hinges, the bolt, the guard of the door. This process is echoed at 26.17, "The headboddylwatcher of the chempel of Isid, Totumcalmum, saith: I know thee, metherjar, I know thee, salvation boat". A more succinct summation is found with: "like it or lump it, but give it a name" (455.07).



The Hall of Truth

"Its the fulldress Toussaint's wakeswalks experdition after
a bail motion from the chamber of horrus" (455.06)

Throughout The Book of the Dead and other texts are found utterances intended to provide the dead with words and names of power. Perhaps their single most important utilization is at the confrontation between the deceased and the mysterious Forty-Two Assessors to whom were recited the phrases of the so-called "Negative Confession", which is found as part of ch. cxxv of The Book of the Dead (p. 360). The deceased began by exclaiming, "I know the names of the two and forty gods who exist with thee in this hall of double Maati", that is, the Hall of Truth. The deceased was then to recite a number of statements, each of which begins: "I have not . . ." and was intended to firmly establish his innocence, and his eligibility for immortality. As Mr. Atherton explains (Books, p. 195), the thirty-third statement, "I have not stopped water where it should flow" is found in FW at 105.24: "I have not Stopped Water Where It Should Flow". A Joycean version of a negative confession is found at 311.12, "(I have not mislaid the key of Efas-Taem) . . . (I have not left temptation in the path of the sweeper of the threshhold)".

In his discussion of the Confession, Mr. Atherton explains that The Book of the Dead contains a second version, in which the deceased addresses each of the Forty-Two Assessors by name (Books, p. 195). From his reading of The Book of the Dead, Joyce would have been aware that it is of extreme importance that the deceased confess to each of the judges, that he knows each of their forty-two names, if he is to assure himself a voyage to the otherworld. In FW, however, Joyce does not relate the number forty-two to the Confession, but repeatedly, the number twenty-nine. This is clear at 105.23: "Of the Two Ways of Opening the Mouth, I have not Stopped Water Where It Should Flow and I Know the Twentynine Names of Attraente". Twenty-nine is further related to the Negative Confession and Opening of the Mouth with: "Geoglyphy's twentynine ways to say goodbett" (595.07). Budge writes that the assessors were originally representatives of geographic areas (Gods, I, 153), here suggested by "Geoglyphy", the geoglyphy of the Liffey, where this assessment takes place.20 We have observed above (p. 45) that young Issy, the daughter in the FW family, sometimes divides or appears as a number of girls, "sosie sesthers" (3.12). The figure twenty-nine has a general importance for FW as the number of the leap-year girls, a group of those nymphs whose identity seems to emanate from Issy.21 Thus, when we observe that it is indeed the young daughter or "dotter" (595.05)who knows the secret of "Geoglyphy's twentynine ways", the deduction is to be made that these girls, Issy and her twenty-eight reflections are somehow the equivalent of the formidable judges or assessors of the Negative Confession. The great power of the assessors come from their secret names, and it is this which ties them to the girls: Issy and "the twofromthirty advocatesses within echo" (93.12) are linked to ancient Egypt through their repeatedly posed name-riddle, with which they torment their brother Glugg (Shem). This reflection of ancient power in a children's game is elucidated by a glance at Edward Clodd's interesting Tom Tit Tot which, as Mrs. Glasheen has recorded in the Second Census (p. 258), is mentioned by name at 260.02, "tomtittot". This book takes its title from the children's fable of "Tom Tit Tot" or "Rumplestiltskin", in which the name of the major character contains his magical power or strength: through naming him, one controls him. This is a concept traced back through various cultures and epochs to the ancient Egyptians' perception of words of power. Just as the ancient gods, such as the Forty-Two Assessors, and later such mysterious folk-figures as Tom Tit Tot place their power in their names, so too do the girls employ their own name-riddle as a ren, a name of power. The old rituals are shown at work in today's childrens games; unable to master the secret of the girl-assessors' ren, Glugg is "Thrust from the light, apophotorejected" (251.06). This reinforces the ancient dynamic within the child's play, for Glugg is rejected as was Apophis or Set, hostile and unworthy. When the girls turn to Chuff (Shaun), however, the favored brother, they praise him with a hymn which is, in part, a parody of the Negative Confession itself.

Entering the Hall of Truth, the deceased would first confess to his judges the Assessors, then exclaim, "I am pure. I am pure. I am pure. I am pure. My purity is the purity of that great Bennu . . . (BD, p. 362). In FW, the girls in their hymn affirm, "You are pure. You are pure. You are in your puerity" (237.24). They then rouse Chuff as Osiris is roused by his sisters in the "Book of Breathings" (see above, "Les Pleureuses"). He is blessed, those cosmetic deities "Enel Rah" (237.28) and "Aruc-Ituc" (237.29) are invoked to brighten his face. Poor Glugg's fate is different, for the girl-Assessors condemn him. Stumped by their "punns and reedles" (239.35) he is driven away. The girls are circling their elect, and they scoff: "Yet the ring gayd rorosily with a drat for a brat you" (239.36). Realizing that, though they are children playing games, the girls' actions reflect the ancient pattern of the Assessors or judges, gives their "gayed" circle an ominous ring, for, according to Wilkinson (II, 100), gayd is Middle Egyptian for "a noose". A less esoteric rephrasing is found at 226.20. Stumped by the girls' riddle, "Glugg's got to swing". He will certainly survive however, for this is after all a children's riddling game: the pattern is not repeated in the Hall of Truth, but "Every evening at lighting up o'clock sharp and until further notice in Feenichts Playhouse" (219.01).

Returning to the ancient Egyptian ritual, after having confronted the Assessors, the deceased would have his heart (or conscience) weighed on a scale, balanced against the Feather of Truth. Though this ceremony is a very important one (BD, pp. 21–34), I have been unable to find extended specific reference to it in FW. The Gracehoper is at one point referred to as "featherweighed" (417.34), but the trial itself seems to blend with the other important trials in FW, such as that which begins on 85.23 (see "Trial of Osiris", above). After the trial, the dead person would then be led before the god Osiris, usually by Horus himself, who was, according to Budge, believed to act as a mediator between the Judge of the Dead and the deceased (Gods, I, 490). This is suggested at 455.05, "It's the fulldress Toussaints' wakeswalks experdition after a bail motion from the chamber of horrus". After the "bail motion" from Horus, which can be seen in the frontispiece to the Kegan Paul edition of The Book of the Dead, the deceased would begin the expedition forward into day, ready for pert, Middle Egyptian for "to come forth".



3. THE PATH INTO DAY


Coming Forth into Light

"my coming forth of darkness" (493.34)

The final aim of the Book of the Dead was to enable the dead to move through the labyrinth of darkness into the light of immortal life. This is indicated by the ancient Egyptian title, transcribed by Budge as the "Chapters of PERT EM HRU", the "Chapters of Coming Forth by Day". Mr. Atherton has noted (Books, p. 193) that there is an undistorted reference to a "coming forth" (paraphrasing BD, ch. xxxb) "My heart, my mother! My heart, my coming forth of darkness!" (493.34).

The theological concept of coming forth by, or into, light allies resurrection to the dawn of each new day. The theme of resurrection is important to FW, and in Joyce's book, as Mr. Atherton has observed, it is related to the dawn: "Perhaps it is because of this connection between resurrection and dawn in the Wake that the theme of resurrection is more often combined with allusions to The Book of the Dead than with the gospels" (Books, p. 183). The strong bond between rebirth, the dawn and Egyptian theology which is found in FW is well illustrated by a passage taken from 593.23, "Pu Nuseht, lord of risings in the yonderworld of Ntamplin, tohp triumphant, speaketh". Mr. Atherton has observed that "Pu Nuseht" is "the sun up" written backward, in a parody of Middle Egyptian, and also that "triumphant" is Budge's word for a person who has overcome the power of death (Books, p. 193). This joint presentation of the rising sun and the reborn dead is strengthened considerably by the fact that this is one of the places where Joyce is certainly using the Middle Egyptian language: PU NESU means "it is the king" who, like the sun at dawn is ascending, triumphant.22



Images of Ascending

"Groucious me and scarab my sahul!"(415.25)

It does not seem to have been realized to what an extent natural and animal imagery is used in FW to express concepts important to the text. A concentrated study of "ascending" or "going forth" through darkness to dawn which, as we have just seen is a significant expression of the resurrection motif, reveals that Joyce seems to have followed the example of the ancient Egyptians in formulating a sort of animal or "zoo" code ("Zoo koud", 244.17) in which ideas may be expressed through their relationship to the basic physical movements of animals. This involves an etymological punning that may, in the case of the Egyptians, have arisen through the pictorial nature of hieroglyphic writing. There is, for example, the figure of a hare (un or unn) in a name of Osiris, Unnefer. Later scribes reasoned that there must be an etymological (rather than phonetic) reason for the hare: he must be there because Osiris, like a hare, "sprang up" after his death. In a similar fashion, grasshoppers or pheasants could also be seen as expressing an action of religious significance.

The most complete treatment of these etymological puns is written by Renouf,23 who is especially interested in the image of the hare as a magic beast, which he traces back to India, as well as ancient Egypt. This idea is suggested with "runnind hare" (285.04) which contains Unn, "ind" and a running hare. The "un or unn" morpheme is often found in FW distorting words that are in a context of resurrection, beginning on the first page, when it is an "unquiring one" (3.21) who gathers the pieces of the fallen god. The world of FW is a "funnaminal world" (244.13). It is a world of phenomena, including funny animals, such as the springing hare, Unn and also including Arnen-Ra, the sun, who, like the hare, is seen to rise: as is the graphically phallic god Min, also a part of the "funnaminal world".

Renouf explains that the gallinaceous family of birds, such as the grouse, which also "spring forth" from cover was considered, like the hare, to embody a theological concept. Joyce's use of this pun helps explain a puzzling name found at 449.27, "Saint Grouseus". In his excellent article, ". . . A Sentence in Progress", David Hayman shows that, in an earlier draft, "the bark of Saint Grouseus" was instead "the bark of the day" (Hayman, p. 148). Although Mr. Hayman identified the "grouse" in the odd saint's name, and affirms that the earlier "bark of the day" is certainly the bark of the sun, he cannot adequately explain the relationship. Especially in conjunction with the Egyptian bark of the sun, the grouse pun makes the connection clear, and it also explains why the Ondt exclaims "Groucious me and scarab my sahul" (415.25), as both the grouse and the scarab are symbols of rebirth and immortality. The Gracehoper is certainly not to be outdone by his opponent, for he has been singing "to the ra, the ra, the ra" (415.11). This is because the grasshopper is also an embodiment of "springing forth": the dead "arrive in heaven like the grasshopper of Ra" (Gods, II, 379). With "Grausssssss! Opr!" (417.01), the springing grouse and grasshopper are found in the same image.

In Egypt, the dung beetle or scarab can be seen ascending to the heavens in huge swarms at noon, when the sun is at its highest. This, and his habit of slowly pushing balls of dung backwards to the nest ("when he beetles backward ain't I fly?" (248.18) makes the beetle an ideal type of the solar god, slowly pushing the flaming ball of the sun across the sky. Young beetles seem to spring directly from the dung-balls, which reinforces the image of the scarab as the god who recreates himself (Gods, II, 379–382). The great powers ascribed to the beetle explains why many Egyptians, such as the scribe Ani, were buried wearing a gold ring, with mounted scarab, intended to give "the protection and strength of the sun god" (Mummy, p. 343). It is probably a scarab ring that HCE is wearing when, coming forth from the pub he is described as having "lightning bug aflash from afinger" (246.08). He is also wearing a remarkable "thundercloud periwig" (246.07) which adds to the ancient Egyptian atmosphere, for in his edition of The Book of the Dead (Life Work, IV, 86), Renouf notes that such a wig would be worn by the Egyptian gods. It is, Renouf explains, "one of the mythical forms of representing the light cloud at sunrise or sunset, in which the deity is pileatus". In FW, the cloud is not so light, for the father calls his children home in a thunderous voice, hence his wig is more like a "thundercloud".24

The "Housefather" (246.06) is dressed as an ancient Egyptian at this point because in emerging from the pub — his "house" — he follows the pattern of the rising dead, opening his mouth and coming forth: "my souls and by jings, should he work his jaw to give down the banks and hark from the tomb!" (246.08). The central image is that of the scarab, "aflash from afinger". The compounds "aflash" and "afinger" considerably strengthen the scarabaic overtones, for Af is the name of the night sun, who rises in the morning sky in the form of Khepera, the scarab god of creation (Gods, I, 257).

Although the scarab is primarily a solar god, we have seen how close the image of the rising sun is to that of the reborn Osiris. The scarab was also an Osirian symbol of resurrection, a "dead body from which a spiritual and glorified body is about to burst forth" (BD, p. 4 n.2). Thus, a phrase such as 100.01, "beetly dead whether by land whither by water" (also mentioned above, p. 32) will almost always, in FW, signal an affirmation of life after death. In the present example, though the god is drowned ("He lay under leagues of it in deep Bartholoman's Deep", 100.03), he will rise again, "beetly" as a dung beetle, shining as the sun god, Aten, shines: "Achdung! Pozor! Attenshune!" (100.05).

Mr. Atherton relates that sections of The Book of the Dead were engraved upon numberless scarabs (Books, p. 192). Joyce seems to draw on this to give us an amusing image of the beetles coming to life under the creating hands of the artist or scribe at the "deleteful hour of dungflies dawning" (118.32). This image also relates the artist to Khopri or Khepri, the scarab god himself. As Clive Hart affirms, the scarab god as creator is, in FW "clearly Shem, the 'dirty little blacking beetle' (171.30) who 'beetles backwards' (248.18) and from whose corrupting body all artistic life flows . . ." (AWN, Feb. 1967, p. 14).

Joyce's development of his scarab images may well be based on a personal knowledge of their impressiveness when rendered in stone, for we know that he was greatly impressed by the Egyptian statuary in the British Museum (Power, Conversations with James Joyce, p. 48). Present in the central saloon when Joyce visited,25 and still there today, as anyone who has seen it will remember, is an enormous green-black granite scarab beetle, which probably contributes to the image conjured by such phrases as "not a leetle beetle" (417.03) and "quite a big bug" (596.27).

The Bennu bird or phoenix is also a symbol of ascension in FW, as evidenced by 473.17, "Shoot up on that, bright Bennu bird!" The relationship of the bird's name, "phoenix" to Dublin's Phoenix Park has been fully treated by Mr. Atherton (Books, pp. 195–196). As he explains, the etymology of the name is summarized at 135.15, "a well of Artesia into a bird of Arabia", i.e., the Irish for a well of clear water, funuishque, is anglicised into "phoenix". Joyce himself seems to go further, changing a tobacco of Turkey into a fiery Bennu bird with "lov'd latakia, the benuvolent" (450.10).

The Bennu or phoenix seems to rise directly out of a "finish" in the word "phoenish" as it is found at 4.15: "Phall if you but will, rise you must: and none so soon either shall the pharce for the nunce come to a setdown secular phoenish". We have mentioned this phrase, and the end of Set suggested by "setdown". The link between Osiris and the rising phoenix is strong, for the bird rose out of the heart of the god, and their sanctuary was the same. We have seen that the "rise" of Osiris is expressed in elementarily physical terms in the myth, and perhaps even more so in FW. As Nathan Halper writes, "Phall instead of fall suggests a phallic meaning. The phallus that has fallen will rise".26 Thus, the image of the fiery bird is extended to embody the image of affirmative sexuality so important to the myth of Osiris. As we have seen above (p. 32), it was possible for Joyce to take advantage of a linguistic coincidence in developing this united image, for the name of the ancient Egyptian bird of resurrection, Bennu, is transcribed similarly to that of an ancient Egyptian god of erection, the phallic Benni (Budge, Dictionary, p. 217). In such phrases as "Bene! But, by thunder and turf, it's not alover yet" (294.26), the conjunction of Bennu/Benni and "not all over" — "a lover" is clear.

It is extremely difficult to separate the individual aspects of resurrection one from the other in FW, even if one remains within a single area, such as the use of ancient Egyptian material. We have seen that the phoenix is linked to the geography of Ireland, to Osiris, and to a minor phallic god. At 55.27, "abound the gigantig's lifetree. Our fireleaved loverlucky blomsterbohm, phoenix in our woodlessness" leads to the observation that the phoenix was said to come into being out of a fire burning on the top of the holy Persea tree in Heliopolis (Gods, II, 371). The burning tree is suggested here by the positioning of the phoenix and the fiery leaves of the life tree. The "gigantig's lifetree" is not only suggestive of a tree, but also of a gigantic ship's mast or tree, which is linked to the flaming phoenix at 504.23, "bird flamingans sweenyswinging fuglewards on the tipmast". Many of these flaming resurrection images, most of them phallic, seem to culminate (and in this limited treatment must terminate) with the towering exclamation, "Holy Saint Eiffel, the very phoenix" (88.23).

The children's games take place in the hall of the phoenix, "Feenichts Playhouse" (219.02). The entrance fee is, if one is resurrected as a god, a scarab: "Entrancings: gads, a scrab" (219.03). The performances here are related to perfume: "perfumance" (219.05). This is because the Bennu or phoenix comes from the land of Punt, of spice and perfume: the land of the Puns.



The Bark of the Sun

"Tutty his tour in his Nowhare's Yarcht" (335.29)

The world of FW is a watery world, always affected by the presence of the water, and the sea. Thus, various vessels play a large part in the action, with varying degrees of significance. Joyce's use of boats and sailing imagery often seems to reflect his use of the ancient idea of death as a voyage into anotha existence. For the ancient Egyptian, with his articulated visions of the sun's voyage and the journey of Osiris, death was a sailing into port, a voyage from darkness into light. In FW many of the ancient barks are named, and involved in accumulated juxtapositions until they maintain a powerful significance as symbols of renewal and affirmation.

Since the opening of his tomb in 1922, Tutankhamen has held his position as the most well-known of ancient Egyptian monarchs. As we have seen (Part II, n. 6), his name is found in FW on at least eleven different occasions. His funeral bark is found at 335.29: "Tutty his tour in his Nowhare's yarcht". This boat was intended to carry "Tutty" across the arch of the sky to the Elysian Fields, Amenti: the "yarcht" is thus an arch-yacht. "Nowhare's" suggests that, discovered, the yacht is now, here. As far as its religious significance, it is "no where". Also, it is a now-hare yacht, according to the etymological pun: the yacht, and "Tutty" within, shall soar up to heaven like the hare. This reinforces the suggestion of Res in "Nowhare's", for Res in a punning title of Osiris rising, meaning "The Riser" (Osiris, I, 46). We have examined the concept of resurrection as a literary accomplishment in FW, beginning with the gathering of the god into "quires" of the "unquiring one" (3.21) above, p. 37. Tutankhamen's "tour in" his yacht suggests that he travels through, or according to the plan of, the Papyrus of Turin, which includes the first recension of The Book of the Dead to be translated into English.27

Another fairly conventional reference to a solar bark is found at 29.20, "we live in our paroqial fermament one tide on another, with a bumrush in a hull of a wherry". Paroh is The Hebrew root of "Pharaoh" according to the EB ("Pharaoh", vol. XXI, 346). His heavenly domains were a parochial affair, merely a more pleasant reproduction of his wordly kingdom. The classic sort of bark (here a "wherry") would be made of papyrus reeds or rushes. We have seen that Joyce uses the Egyptian concept of the wig as a cloud in giving HCE a "thundercloud periwig" (246.07: see p. 82 above). This is the Joycean development of the pharaonic heaven, for "paroqial" has a distinct suggestion of "peruke": the Egyptian significances we study are in HCE's wig, under his hat: "growing hoarish under his turban" (29.27).

The barks merge with a number of other items in FW, in a general verbal movement towards a single massive image, as at 4.34: "his roundhead staple of other days to rise in undress maisonry upstanded (joygrantit!), a waalworth of a skyerscape of most eyeful hoyth entowerly". This is rich, and joyous. In our present analysis we note that, among the images of lifting, raising, or erecting staples and masonry several solar barks have also been inserted: "joygrantit" contains the Antit boat of the sun (Dictionary, p. 128). It is followed by "waalworth", with the Uaa boat of the dawn (Papyrus of Ani, p. 5). The following "eyeful hoyth" suggests the "hoyth" or height of a solar hoy or sloop which was powered by the eye of the sun (Mummy, p. 465). Of course, "eyeful" suggests most immediately the Eiffel Tower, which, as we have seen, is related to the phoenix at 88.24. The resurrective imagery is rising and phallic here: Mr. Slomczynski informs me that huy or chuy in the Slavic languages means "penis".

The tie between sexuality, "going to bed" and the resurrective rise in the solar boat is accomplished more simply with another reference to Tutankhamen ("Nema Knatut") at 395.22: "before going to boat with the verges of the chaptel of the opering of the month of Nema Knatut, so pass the poghue for grace sake". The word "chaptel" is a chapel, and a tell, Arabic for "mound" and used to describe such a site as might contain the chapel and boat today. Also suggested by "chaptel of the opering of the month" is the "Chapter of the Opening of the Mouth" through which Tutankhamen would be freed to rise, utter words of power and ascend to the Otherworld. The line continues, "so pass the poghue": the Opening of the Mouth is accomplished by a "pogue", a Gaelic kiss.28



The Otherworld

"dimbelowstard departarnenty" (607.26)

As Mr. Atherton has explained (Books, p. 194), Amenti is a general term meaning "The Land of the Dead" or "The West". This transcription is found in undistorted form in FW: "Amenti" (62.26). Budge uses several transcriptions, such as "Amenta" (BD, p. 141) which is found at 613.18, "Amenta".

In FW, Amenti is found "beside the Liffey that's in heaven!" (26.08). The first signal that this is the case is to be found on the first page, as the river runs, taking the reader into Dublin Bay. At 3.15 we encounter the first of the viconian Thunderwords that Joyce, following Vico's cyclical theory of history, presents as "the voice of God's wrath which terminates the old aeon and starts the cycle of history anew" (Skeleton Key, p. 34). This first Thunderword, embodying God's wrath, begins with "baba . . . " which Mr. Atherton suggests (in a personal communication) may refer to the god Baba, whom the dead fear as an awesome figure of divine judgement: "Deliver me from Baba who lives upon the entrails of the mighty ones upon the day of the great judgement" (BD, ch. cxxv, p. 372). Baba or Beba is "he who watcheth the Bight of Amentet" so it is especially appropriate that in FW he is found at "bend of bay" (3.01).

This is a "dimbelowstard departarnenty" (607.26), an Amenti below the heavens. It is even below the stairs, which combines the image of the stairs of the sun, used to ascend from the depths (Müller, Myths, p. 35), and the stairs used by the publican in his "hothehill" (607.27). The dawn shines green on this Irish Amenti, green of Ireland and of Egypt too: because of unusual atmospheric conditions, the ancient Egyptian dawn could shine bright green, the color of rebirth29 as it does here: "Dayagreening" (607.24).

The Otherworld was divided up into various sections, as Mr. Atherton has explained in "Shaun A" (Conceptual Guide to Finnegans Wake, p. 164). Most important was the Field of Hetep, the Seket Hetep, which is suggested several times in FW, as at 454.35: "Seekit headup!" Another important division of Amenti was the Seket Aru, which Mr. Hart has located, along with the Ant Boat of the sun, at 418.05, "capsizer of his ant boat, seketh rede" which includes the "seketh" or Seket, Field, and the Reeds, "rede".

The pages of FW are, as I have attempted to show, permeated with references to the culture and theology of Egypt. Joyce made use of an astonishing number of items, drawn from a variety of sources as he integrated the ancient Egyptian material along with all other areas of significance into the structure of FW. Relying largely on a small number of sources and drawing varied pieces of information from others, he was able to amass a large and flexible vocabulary. We find a small illustration of this in his use of "alu", which is the way "aru", as in Seket Aru, is occasionally transcribed. This is the way it is spelled by the scholar A. H. Sayce, in Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia (1903). He uses the transcription when he writes that, in The Pyramid Texts, the blessed dead are carried off to the Fields of Alu "on the wings of Thoth" (p. 37, n. 1). This image of flying to Alu as presented by Sayce seems to have been taken by Joyce for use in his creation of Amenti on the Liffey. We find that, as the children find their way home after play, the town is a "Distorted mirage, aloofliest of the plain" (265.29).

Through such phrases, Joyce's vision of Dublin, the city he knew best, city of his youth, is expanded to include all cities. The confused nightmare of history which entraps the mute living becomes one with the labyrinthine darkness through which we must travel before emerging into light. Although a distance is achieved by figuring the composed scene as a "mirage" (265.29) or a faded "fadograph of a yestern scene" (7.15), a rumor overheard "jesterday" (570.09), this very immaterial approach adds to the cumulatively positive effect upon the reader who is aware of Joyce's use of ancient Egypt, of the constant voyage of the sun. There will be a rise after fall, a phoenix rise after the hostility of Set puts an end to the god-king: "Phall if you but will, rise you must: and none so soon either shall the pharce for the nunce come to a setdown secular phoenish" (4.15).






Conclusion

"his heart, soul and spirit turn to pharaoph times" (129.35)

In the preceding pages we have examined a single area of Finnegans Wake: Joyce's use of the Osirian theology of ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians believed, as we have seen, in the efficacy of the written word, and in the great magic of a name or text. And like Shakespeare, the Egyptian scribe seems not to have been able to avoid a pun. This approach to language certainly must have appealed to an artist such as Joyce, totally dedicated to his art. Our examination of the text has shown, however, that as important for Joyce's construction of Finnegans Wake is the basic simplicity of the theology of the ancient Egyptians, in its most important details. As it is presented in those accounts to which Joyce had access, the religious concepts of the Egyptians are expressed in elementary, natural images. We have seen, in Joyce's use of the Osiris cycle, representative examples of most of the emotions which operate within a family group: love, fear, rivalry, the revivifying or destructive power of sexuality. Each of these forces is embodied in a few individuals, easily abstracted from their mythic situations and used to develop character and design in scenes taking place in the Chapelizod pub.

The symbols of the gods are also basic, and easily manipulated: a serpent, a pillar of wood. Even the names of characters and their emblems: references to the tet, or to the god Set, are simply convertible into a variety of linguistic situations. As we have seen, for example, it was possible for Joyce to take advantage of the similarity linking the Gaelic word for the female pudenda, toth or toth-ball, and the Egyptian god of writers, Thoth, and develop the image of the arousing goddess become muse, female sexuality the magical force motivating creation. On the other hand, the majestically sorrowful image of the mourning Isis has been transformed into that of a broody hen, patiently scratching her way through a heap of rubbish and potshards. Shaun, ensconced in a barrel follows the pattern of divine Osiris, a stout fellow, for export across the waters.

As anyone who has read, or attempted to read Finnegans Wake knows, it is not possible to isolate any single area of the book from any other, and in my dissertation I have presented illustrative examples of how Joyce merged his Egyptian material with other, seemingly unreconcilable images, such as the blend accomplished between the Assessors of the Negative Confession and the riddling rainbow girls. There are of course areas of more easily perceived conjunction, such as the pyramids of the old world and new, or the variety of heroes who have gone across the seas, and have been mourned by their women.

Our examination has also shown that there are many instances in Finnegans Wake where the Egyptian images, or parodies or paraphrases of Osirian texts, are the most outstanding in a particular context; Joyce mentions many Egyptian texts by name, or cites them. It should be clear that the ancient Egyptian material is some of the most important in the book. Drawing on the expressed beliefs of Ancient Egypt, Joyce was able to use and creatively develop extremely powerful signatures of resurrection. As the dung beetle rises at noon, as the very sun rises and sails across the sky daily, so man himself, roused and guided as was the reborn Osiris, comes forth from the mute paralysis of night, into the sunlight of dawn: "Irise, Osirises! Be thy mouth given unto thee!" (493.28).

A knowledge of the most significant Egyptian material is important for a critical appreciation of Finnegans Wake: indeed, it is fundamental. In a sense, this is literally so, for Finnegan falls from his brick-layer's ladder and, tumbling through a variety of cultures in a variety of forms arrives at a sort of cultural foundation, landing in an ancient Egyptian tomb. He and the other characters in Finnegans Wake are, much of the time, participants in one of the earliest and most complete expressions of both the family and the resurrective dynamic, the ancient Egyptian cycle of Osiris. If this dissertation has been successful in demonstrating some of the ways in which this is true, its aim has been accomplished.



Bibliography I

The editions of Joyce's texts used, and those critical books and articles dealing with Joyce's work that are referred to in the dissertation.

Atherton, James S. "Lewis Carroll and Finnegans Wake". English Studies, XXXIII, 1 (February, 1952), 1–15.

—— The Books at the Wake: a study of literary allusions in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. 1964; "expanded and corrected edition", Mamaroneck, New York: Paul P. Appel, 1974. Cited as Books.

—— "Shaun A/Book III, chapter i". A Conceptual Guide to Finnegans Wake. Ed. Michael H. Begnal and Fritz Senn. London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1974, pp. 149–172.

Bengal, Michael H. and Senn, Fritz, eds. A Conceptual Guide to Finnegans Wake. London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1974.

Budgen, Frank. "James Joyce". Horizon (February, 1941); rpt. in James Joyce: Two Decades of Criticism. Ed. Seon Givens. 1948; "augmented edition", New York: Vanguard Press, 1963, pp. 343–367.

—— "Joyce's Chapters of Going Forth by Day". Horizon (September, 1941); rpt. in James Joyce: Two Decades of Criticism. Ed. Seon Givens. 1948; "augmented edition", New York: Vanguard Press, 1963, pp. 343–367.

Campbell, Joseph. "Finnegan the Wake". Chimera (Spring, 1946); rpt. in James Joyce: Two Decades of Criticism. Ed. Seon Givens. 1948; "augmented edition", New York: Vanguard Press, 1963, pp. 368–389.

Campbell, Joseph and Robinson, Henry Morton. A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. London: Faber and Faber, 1947. Cited as Skeleton Key.

Cixous, Hélène. The Exile of James Joyce. Trans. Sally A. J. Purcell. New York: David Lewis, 1972.

Eckley, Grace. "Looking Forward to a Brightening Day/Book IV, chapter i". A Conceptual Guide to Finnegans Wake. Ed. Michael H. Begnal and Fritz Senn. London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1974, pp. 211–236.

Ellmann, Richard. James Joyce. New York: Oxford University Press, 1959; rpt. Galaxy Books, 1965. Cited as Ellmann.

Givens, Seon, ed. James Joyce: Two Decades of Criticism. 1948; "augmented edition", New York: Vanguard Press, 1963. Cited as Givens.

Glasheen, Adaline. "Notes". A Wake Newslitter, no. 15 (April, 1963), 3.

—— "The Opening Paragraphs". A Wake Newslitter, II, 2 (April, 1965), 3–8.

—— A Second Census of Finnegans Wake: an index of the characters and their roles. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1963. Cited as Second Census.

Halper, Nathan. "Two Notes on Page 4". A Wake Newslitter, XII, 2 (April, 1973), 29–30.

Hart, Clive. Structure and Motif in Finnegans Wake. London: Faber and Faber, 1962.

—— "A Good Smetterling of His Entymology". A Wake Newslitter, IV, 1 (February, 1967), 14–24.

—— A Concordance to Finnegans Wake. 1963; "corrected edition", Mamaroneck, New York: Paul P. Appel, 1974.

Hayman, David. "From Finnegans Wake: A Sentence in Progress". PMLA, LXXIII (March, 1958), 136–154.

—— ed. A First Draft Version of Finnegans Wake. London: Faber and Faber, 1963.

Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. 1916; "The definitive text, corrected from the Dublin holograph by Chester G. Anderson and edited by Richard Ellmann", New York: Viking Press, 1964; "Compass Book issued simultaneously".

—— Ulysses. 1922; 1934; "corrected and reset", New York: Modern Library, 1964.

—— Finnegans Wake. 1939; Fourth Edition, "the first to be amended in accordance with the manuscript corrections compiled by Joyce himself, London: Faber and Faber, 1975.

—— "Ireland, Island of Saints and Sages". Lecture delivered in Trieste (April, 1907). Trans. from the Italian. The Critical Writings of James Joyce. Ed. Ellsworth Mason and Richard Ellmann. New York, Viking Press, 1959; rpt. Compass Book, 1964, pp. 153–174.

—— Letters of James Joyce, I. Ed. Stuart Gilbert. London: Faber and Faber, 1957. Cited as Letters.

Levin, Harry. James Joyce: a critical introduction. 1941; "revised and augmented edition", Norfolk, Connecticut: New Directions, 1961.

Litz, Walton. The Art of James Joyce: method and design in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. 1961; "with corrections and addenda", London: Galaxy Book, 1964.

McHugh, Roland. "Recipis for the Price of the Coffin/Book I, chapters ii-?". A Conceptual Guide to Finnegans Wake. Ed. Michael H. Begnal and Fritz Senn. London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1974, pp. 18–32.

Magalaner, Marvin and Kain, Richard M. Joyce: The Man, The Work, The Reputation. New York: University Press, 1956; rpt. Collier Books, 1962.

O Hehir, Brendan. A Gaelic Lexicon for Finnegans Wake. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.

Power, Arthur. Conversations with James Joyce. Ed. Clive Hart. London: Millington,1974.

Skrabanek, Petr. "0 Quanta Virtus Est Intersecationibus Circulorum". A Wake Newslitter, X, 6 (December, 1973), 86–87.

Solomon, Margaret. "The Porters: A Square Performance of Three Tiers in the Round/Book III, chapter iv". A Conceptual Guide to Finnegans Wake. Ed. Michael H. Begnal and Fritz Senn. London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1974, pp. 201–210.

Tindall, William York. James Joyce: his way of interpreting the modern world. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1950; rpt. London: Evergreen Books, 1960.

Troy, Mark L. "will you whoop for my deading is a? (24.14)". A Wake Newslitter, XII, 5 (October, 1975), 92.

—— "Pharaoph Times: Some Ancient Egyptian Themes Initiated on the First Page of Finnegans Wake". Studia Neophilologica, XLVII, 2 (1975), 353–373.



Bibliography II

Sources on ancient Egypt, with the numbers of the pages on which they are referred to in the dissertation following each entry in italic type.

Adams, W. Marsham. The House of the Hidden Places: a clue to the creed of early Egypt, from Egyptian sources. London: John Murray, 1895. 63; 63, n. 5.

—— The Book of the Master: or, the Egyptian doctrine of the Light born of the Virgin Mother. London: John Murray, 1898. 63, n. 5.

Baikie, James. A Century of Excavation in the Land of the Pharaohs. London: Religious Tract Society, 1924. 19.

Bayley, Harold. The Lost Language of Symbolism: an inquiry into the origin of certain letters, words, names, fairy-tales, folk-lore and mythologies. London: Williams and Norgate, 1912. 45.

Blackman, Aylward M. "The Rite of Opening the Mouth in Ancient Egypt and Babylonia". Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, X (1924), 47–59. 76, n. 18.

Boylan, Patrick. Thoth: The Hermes of Egypt. London: Oxford University Press, 1922. Cited as Boylan. 34; 55; 57.

Breasted, James Henry. A History of Egypt: from the earliest times to the Persian conquest. 1905; "fully revised", New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909; rpt. Bantam Classic, 1964. 20.

—— Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt: lectures delivered on the Morse Foundation at Union Theological Seminary. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912; rpt. Harper Torchbook, 1959. Cited as DRT. 20; 22; 38; 39; 42; 43; 46; 61; 63; 67; 68; 73; 76; 85.

Budge, E.A. Wallis. Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection. 2 vols. London: Medici Society, 1891. Cited as Osiris. 14; 21; 35; 37; 39; 42; 43; 44; 85.

—— The Nile: notes for travellers in Egypt. 1890; third edition, London: T. Cook, 1893. 64.

—— ed. The Book of The Dead. Facsimile of the Papyrus of Ani in the British Museum. 1890 (ed. Renout); London: British Museum, 1894. 14, n. 3.

—— ed. and trans. The Book of the Dead. The Papyrus of Ani, The Egyptian Text with Interlinear Transliteration and Translation. London: British Museum, 1895. 21; 39; n. 10; 85.

—— ed. and trans. The Book of the Dead. Facsimiles of the Papyri of Hunefer, Anhai, Kerasher and Netchemet. London: British Museum, 1899. 14, n. 3.

—— The Gods of the Egyptians: or, studies in Egyptian mythology. 2 vols. London: Methuen, 1904. Cited as Gods. 14; 16; 21; 29; 30; 34; 35; 36; 36, n. 8; 37; 39; 40; 43; 43, n. 17; 44; 48; 51; 51, n. 30; 54; 57; 58; 62; 70; 71; 74; 77; 79; 82; 84.

—— The Egyptian Sudan. 2 vols. London: Kegan Paul, 1907. 62.

—— ed. and trans. The Book of the Dead, An English Translation of the Chapters, Hymns, etc. of the Theban Recension, with Introduction, Notes, etc. 3 vols. 1899; "Second Edition revised and enlarged", London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1909; rpt. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974. Cited as BD. 14; 15; 21; 22; 31, n. 5; 35; 38; 45; 46; 46, n. 27; 47, n. 28; 49; 50; 52; 55; 57; 65; 66; 68; 71; 72; 73; 73, n. 14; 74; 75; 76; 77; 77, n.18; 78, n. 20; 79; 80; 82; 86.

—— A Guide to the Egyptian Collections in the British Museum. London: British Museum, 1909. 83.

—— ed. and trans. The Book of Opening the Mouth. 2 vols. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1909. 75.

—— ed. and trans. Facsimiles of Egyptian Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum. Series I. London: British Museum, 1910. Cited as Facsimiles of Papyri. 42.

—— introduction. The Book of the Dead, The Greenfield Papyrus in the British Museum. The funerary papyrus of Princess Nesitanebtashru. London: British Museum, 1912. 66.

—— An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary. London: John Murray, 1920. Cited as Dictionary. 32; 84.

—— The Mummy: a handbook of Egyptian funerary archaeology. 1893; "revised and greatly expanded", Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1925. Cited as Mummy. 62; 64; 65; 66; 68; 82; 85.

Bunsen, Christian Carl Josias von. Egypt's Place in Universal History V. Trans. Charles H. Cottrell. "With notes and additions" by Samuel Birch. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longman, 1867. 85.

Carter, Howard and Mace, Arthur C. The Tomb of Tutankhamen: discovered by the late Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter. 3 vols. London: Cassel, 1923–33. 36; 68, n. 12; 70.

Clodd, Edward. Tom Tit Tot: an essay on savage philosophy in folklore. London: Duckworth, 1898. 76, n. 19; 78.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, eleventh edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910. Cited as EB. The following articles have been cited in the dissertation:
Cana, Frank R. "Nile". EB, XIX, 692–699. 47.
Griffith, F. Ll. "Busiris". EB, IV, 873–874. 40, n. 13.
Griffith, F. Ll. "Egypt: II, Ancient Egypt". EB, IX, 39–80. 18, n. 9; 74.
Griffith, F. Ll. "Pharaoh". EB, XXI, 346. 85.
Griffith, F. Ll. "Thebes". EB, XXVI, 739–741. 44.
Petrie, William Matthew Flinders. "Pyramid". EB, XXII, 683–685. 62.

Faulkner, Raymond 0. A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962. 40, n. 13; 49, n. 29.

Griffiths, J. Gwyn. The Conflict of Horus and Seth. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1960. 23, n. 16.

—— The Origins of Osiris. Munchner Agyptologische Studien: 9. Berlin: Bruno Hessling, 1966. 23, n. 16.

Herodotus. The Histories. Trans. Aubrey de Selincourt. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1954. 67, n. 10.

Horrack, Philipe-Jacques de. "The Book of Respirations". Ouvres Diverses, Bibliotheque Egyptologique, tome XVII. Ed. G. Maspero. Paris: Ernest Le Roux, 1907. 45; 45, n. 21.

—— "The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys". Ouvres Diverses, Bibliotheque Egyptologique, tome XVII. Ed. G. Maspero. Paris: Ernest Le Roux, 1907. 45; 45, n. 22.

Mead, George Herbert Shaw. Thrice-Greatest Hermes: studies in Hellenistic theosophy and gnosis. By a translation of the extant sermons and fragments of trismegistic literature. With prolegomena, commentary and notes. 3 vols. London: Theosophical Publishing Company, 1906. 56; 63, n. 5.

Moret, Alexandre. Rois et Dieux D'Egypte. Paris: Librairie Armand Colin, 1911. 20; 33; 68; 70.

—— Mystères Egyptiens. 1889; revised and enlarged, Paris: Librairie Armand Colin, 1913. 75.

Müller, W. Max. Egyptian. The Mythology of All Races, XII. Boston: Marshall Jones, 1918, 1–246. Cited as Müller, Myths. 39, n. 10; 40; 43; 46; 50; 51; 54; 76; 86.

Pierret, Paul, ed. and trans. Le Livre des Morts des Anciens Egyptiens: traduction complet . . . accompagnée de notes. Bibliotheque Orientale Elzevirienne, tome XXXIII. Paris: Ernest Le Roux, 1882. 46, n. 26.

Renouf, Peter Le Page, ed. The Book of the Dead. Facsimile of the Papyrus of Ani in the British Museum. London: British Museum, 1890. 14, n. 3.

—— The Hibbert Lectures, 1897: lectures of the origin and growth of religion as illustrated by the religion of ancient Egypt. 1880; second edition, London: Williams and Norgate, 1897. 87, n. 29.

—— "The Myth of Osiris Unnefer". Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, IX (1893), 281–294; rpt. The Life Work of Peter Le Page Renouf, II. Ed. Eduard Naville and W. Henry Rylands. Paris: Ernest Le Roux, 1903, 401–416. 19; 39, n. 12; 81; 81, n. 23.

—— ed. and trans. The Book of the Dead: a translation with commentary on the second and following chapters. Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, XIV-XIX (1892–1897); rpt. The Life Work of Peter Le Page Renouf, IV. Completed by E. Naville. Paris: Ernest Le Roux, 1907. 19, n. 3; 82.

—— The Life Work of Peter Le Page Renouf. First series, Aegyptological and Philological Essays. 4 vols. Ed. Eduard Naville and W. Henry Rylands. Paris: Ernest Le Roux, 1902–1907. Cited as Renouf, Life Work. (For citations, see the above two entries).

Sayce, A. W. The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylon. The Gifford Lectures on the Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian Concept of the Divine. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1903. 87.

Wilkinson, John Gardner. The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians. 3 vols. 1837; "New edition, revised and corrected by Samuel Birch", London: John Murray, 1878. 19; 19, n. 12; 37; 56; 67; 79.

Wilson, John A. Signs & Wonders Upon Pharaoh: a history of American Egyptology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964. 19; 19, n. 11; 21.

Young, Thomas. "Egypt". Encyclopaedia Britannica, Supplement to Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Editions, IV. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, 1824. 18, n. 9.



Line Index

A chronological index to the lines from Finnegans Wake cited in the dissertation. In italic type are the numbers of the pages in the dissertation where reference is made to the particular line.

Book I, section i (3–29)

3.01 riverrun, past Eve and Adam's 64.

3.01 from swerve of shore to bend of bay 86.

3.04 passencore 41, n. 15.

3.05 Armorica 41, n. 15.

3.06 isthmus 41, n. 15.

3.06 penisolate 41, n. 15.

3.06 nor had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time 41.

3.09 bellowsed 41, n. 15.

3.10 after 41, n. 15.

3.11 but tended 41, n. 15.

3.12 sosie sesthers 45; 78.

3.12 nathandjoe 41, n. 15.

3.13 regginbrow 41, n. 15.

3.13 aquaface 41, n. 15.

3.15 The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!) 86.

3.20; 3.21 the humptyhillhead of humself promptly sends an unquiring one well to the west in quest of his tumptytumtoes 37; 45; 47; 81; 85.

4.14 But waz iz? Iseut? 46. n. 25.

4.15; 4.17 Phall if you but will, rise you must: and none so soon either shall the pharce for the nunce come to a setdown secular phoenish. 31; 54; 68; 83; 83, n. 26; 87.

4.34 his roundhead staple of other days to rise in undress maisonry upstanded (joygrantit!), a waalworth of a skyerscape of most eyeful hoyth entowerly 85.

5.16 that shebby choruysh of unkalified muzzlenimiissilehims that would blackguardise the whitestone ever hurtleturtled out of heaven 53.

5.22; 5.23; 5.25 Otherways wesways like that provost scoffing bedoueen the jebel and the jpsyian sea. Cropherb the crunchbracken shall decide. Then we'll know if the feast is a flyday. She has a gift of seek on site 44.

6.09; 6.10 Dimb! He stottered from the latter. Damb! he was dud. Dumb! Mastabatoom, mastabadtomm 38; 61; 70.

6.23; 6.24 Sharpen his pillowscone, tap up his bier! 51; 64.

6.32 well, see peegee ought he ought, platterplate 33.

6.36; 7.02 wail him rockbound (hoahoahoah !) in swim swam swum and all the livvylong night, the delldale dalppling night, the night of bluerybells, 46.

7.08 Grampupus is fallen down but grinny sprids the boord 70.

7.15 Only a fadograph of a yestern scene. 33, 87.

7.29 The cranic head on him, caster of his reasons 55.

7.35 ombushes 54.

11.09 a parody's bird, a peri potmother 42.

11.25 pleures of bells 46.

13.30 the leaves of the living in the boke of the deeds. 72.

14.02 she ran for to sothisfeige her cowrieosity 42.

20.10 For that (the rapt one warns) is what papyr is meed of, made of, hides and hints and misses in prints. 72.

24.14 will you whoop for my deading is a? Wake? Usqueadbaugham! 63.

24.16 Now be aisy, good Mr. innimore, sir. And take your laysure like a god on pension and don't be walking abroad. Sure you'd only lose yourself in Healiopolis now 29.

25.02 shabbty little imagettes 29; 66.

25.11; 25.13 The menhere's always talking of you sitting around on the pig's cheeks under the sacred rooftree, over the bowls of memory where every hollow holds a hallow 32; 39.

26.08 your hair grows wheater beside the Liffey that's in Heaven! 67; 70; 86.

26.09 Hep, hep, hurrah there! Hero! Seven times thereto we salute you! The whole bag of kits, falconplumes and jackboots incloted, is where you flung them that time. Your heart is in the system of the Shewolf and your crested head is in the tropic of Copricapron. Your feet are in the cloister of Virgo. Your olala is in the region of sahuls. 30.

26.17; 26.18 The headboddylwatcher of the chempel of Isid, Totumcalmum, saith: I know thee, metherjar, I know thee, salvation boat 29; 63; 68, n. 12; 77.

27.22; 27.23 Aisy now, you decent man, with your knees and lie quiet and repose your honour's lordship! Hold him here, Ezekiel Irons, and may God strengthen you! 29; 30.

27.29 O sleepy! So be yet! 30.

29.20 came at this timecoloured place where we live in our paroqial fermament one tide on another, with a bumrush in a hull of a wherry 85.

29.27; 29.28 growing hoarish under his turban and changing cane sugar into sethulose starch (Tuttut's cess to him!) 29; 63, n. 6; 68; 85.

Book I, section ii (30–47)

39.14 the renns 70.

Book I, section iii (48–74)

55.07; 55.08 on the bunk of our breadwinning lies the cropse of our seedfather 68; 69; 70.

55.27 abound the gigantig's lifetree, our flreleaved loverlucky blomsterbohm, phoenix in our woodlessness 84.

56.34 Tal the tern of the tumulum 61.

60.19 Sankya Moondy played his mango tricks under the mysttetry 34.

61.13 Meagher, a naval rating, seated on one of the granite cromlech setts 40.

61.22 I lay my two fingerbuttons, fiancee Meagher, (he speaks!) 75.

62.21 first pharoah, Humpheres Cheops Exarchas 63.

62.24; 62.25 We seem to us (the real Us!) to be reading our Amenti in the sixth sealed chapter of the going forth by black 65; 86.

66.24; 66.25 pokes her beak into the matter with Owen K. after her, to see whawa smutter after 43; 43, n. 17.

66.28 The coffin, a triumph of the illusionist's art 30.

Book I, section iv (75–103)

75.07 the watchful treachers at his wake 51.

76.33 This wastohavebeen underground heaven

77.03 fIrst in the west 38.

77.09 shieldplated gunwale 30.

77.10 conning tower 30.

77.28 But t'house and allaboardshoops! 64.

85.23 Festy King 35.

85.31; 85.32 the prisoner, soaked in methylated, appeared in dry dock, appatently ambrosiaurealised 35.

86.08 impersonating a climbing boy 35.

86.09 rubbed some pixes of any luvial peatsmoor o'er his face 35.

87.32 Ay! Exhibit his relics! Bu! 36.

88.23; 88.24 Holy Saint Eiffel, the very phoenix! 36; 84; 85.

88.35 But, of course, he could call himself Tern, too, if he had time to? You butt he could anytom 36; 36, n. 8; 38.

89.20 the expiry of the goat's sire 37.

90.01 son-yet-sun 63.

93.12 the twofromthirty advocatesses within echo 78.

95.27 the fourbottle men 37; 67.

98.26 words of power 76; 76, n. 19.

100.01 beetly dead whether by land whither by water 32; 82.

100.03 He lay under leagues of it in deep Bartholoman's Deep 82.

100.05 Achdung! Pozor! Attenshune! 83.

100.15 the infallible spike of smoke's justiff 62.

100.19 beaconsfarafield innerhalf the zuggurat 62.

102.01 she who shuttered him after his fall and waked him widowt sparing and gave him keen and made him able 47.

102.22 The bane of Tut 63.

Book I, section v (104–25)

105.23; 105.24 Of the Two Ways of Opening the Mouth, I have not Stopped Water Where It Should Flow and I Know the Twentynine Names of Attraente 77.

105.28 How to Pull a Good Horuscoup even when Oldsire is Dead to the World 48.

114.18 louds of latters slettering down 38.

118.32 this deleteful hour of dungflies dawning 83.

123.34 this new book of Morses responded most remarkably to the silent query of our world's oldest light 20.

Book I, section vi (126–68)

129.35 his heart, soul and spirit turn to pharaoph times 88.

131.17 god at the top of the staircase 38.

134.09 reeled the titleroll opposite a brace of girdles in Silver on the Screen but was sequenced from the set as Crookback by the even more titulars, Rick, Dave and Barry 53.

135.15 well of Artesia into a bird of Arabia 83.

135.22 O sorrow the sail and woe the rudder that were set for Mairie Quai! 40.

135.22 little white horse 48.

144.06 hiss blackleaded chest 51.

156.05 the mummy scrips 72.

159.24 my own naturalborn rations which are even in excise of my vaultybrain insure me that I am a mouth's more deserving case by genius 62, n. 2.

166.34 A cleopatrician 62, n. 2.

Book I, section vii (169–95)

171.30 this dirty little blacking beetle 83.

179.26 his usylessly unreadable Blue Book of Eccles, edition de tenebres, 65.

181.04 Pioupioureich 74.

183.13 alphybettyformed verbage 74.

183.14 imeffible tries at speech unasyllabled 74.

194.16 shimmering like the horescens, astroglodynamonologos, the child of Niltit's father 50.

194.26 two belles that make the one appeal 45.

Book I, section viii (196–216)

198.01 ijypt 18, n. 9.

198.24 an osiery chair 42.

198.33 the great tribune's barrow all darnels occumule, sittang sarnbre on his sett, drarnmen and drommen 40.

211.28 an oakanknee for Conditor Sawyer 41, n. 15.

Book II, section i (219–59)

219.01; 219.02 Every evening at lighting up o'clock sharp and until further notice in Feenichts Playhouse 79; 84.

219.03 Entrancings: gads, a scrab 84.

219.05 Newly billed for each wickeday perfumance 84.

219.10 their Elderships the Oldens from the four coroners 68.

219.15 after humpteen dumpteen revivals. Before all the King's Hoarsers with all the Queen's Mum 47.

226.20 Glugg's got to swing 79.

229.36 his innersense and the grusomehed's yoeureeke 55.

237.24 You are pure. You are pure. You are in your puerity 78.

237.27; 237.28; 237.29 Your head has been touched by the god Enel-Rah and your face has been brightened by the Goddess Aruc-Ituc 44; 79.

237.34 The Great Cackler comes again 47, n. 28.

239.10 Behose our handmades for the lured! 47.

239.35 punns and reedles 79.

239.36 the ring gayed rund rorosily with a drat for a brat 79.

240.04 late in his crave, ay he, laid in his grave 34.

240.05 But low, boys low, he rises, shrivering, with his spittyful eyes and his whoozebecome woice. Ephtah! 76.

242.18 Old grand tuttut 63.

243.04 Ani Mama 19, n. 12.

244.13 our funnaminal world 81.

244.17 Zoo koud! 81.

246.06 Housefather calls enthreateningly 82.

246.07 In thundercloud periwig 82; 85.

246.08 lightning bug aflash from afinger 82.

246.08 My souls and by jings, should he work his jaw to give down the banks and hark from the tomb! 82.

248.18 when he beetles backwards, ain't I fly? 82; 83.

251.06 Thrust from the light, apophotorejected 51; 78.

252.15–16 crown pretenders. . . . uruseye 52.

254.16 A and aa ab ad abu abiad. A babbel men dub gulch of tears 46.

258.11 Immi ammi Semmi. And shall not Babel be with Lebab? And he war. And he shall open his mouth and answer 75.

258.31 the book of the opening of the mind to light 72.

Book II, section ii (260–308)

260.02 tomtittot 78.

263.21 The tasks above are as the flasks below, saith the emerald canticle of Hermes 55.

265:28; 265.29 Distorted mirage, aloofliest of the plain 87.

285.04 runnind hare 81.

286.30 tell it to oui, do, Sem! 75.

291.04 Tut's fut 63.

294.22 cropulence 70.

294.26 Bene! But, thunder and turf, it's not alover yet! 84.

295.08 Tate and Comyng 63, n. 6.

302.27 Two dies of one raffiement. Eche bennyache. Outstamp and distribute him at the expanse of his society. To be continued. Anon. 32.

Book II, section iii (309–383)

309.02; 309.03 aback in the doom of the balk of the deaf 31; 73.

309.08 the scheme is like your rumba round me garden 31.

311.12–13 (1 have not mislaid the key of Efas-Taem) . . . (I have not left temptation in the path of the sweeper of the threshold) 61; 77.

314.24; 314.25 ringround as worldwise eve her sins (pip, pip, pip) willpip futurepip feature apip footloose pastcast with spareshins 52.

319.20–21 — And be the coop of his gobbos, Reacher the Thaurd, . . . apopo of his buckseaseilers, but where's Horace's courtin troopsers? 48. ahorace, . . . elderman adaptive 49. a roaryboaryellas 49.

325.13

327.32

328.32; 328.34 the night of the making to stand up the double tet of the oversear of the seize who cometh from the mighty deep and on the night of making Horuse to crihumph over his enemy 49; 73.

335.29 Tutty his tour in his Nowhare's yarcht 63, n. 6; 85.

339.12 his treecoloured camiflag 31.

339.33 El Monte de Zuma 62.

341.09 balacleivka 70.

345.12 pepeace or anysing a soul 74.

345.19 words of silent power 76.

350.24 when th'osirian cumb dumb like the whalf on the fiord 30.

357.07 (did he have but Hugh de Brassey's beardslie his wear mine of ancient guised) 65.

357.20 And whilst (when I doot my sliding panel and I hear cawcaw) I have been idylly turmbing over the loose Iooves leaflefts jaggled casuallty on the lamatory, as is my this is 64.

358.24 Loud lauds to his luck hump and be jetties on jonahs! 49.

367.10 Tutty Comyn! 63, n. 6

Book II, section iv (383–99)

385.04 Twotongue Common 63, n. 6

388.29 howldmoutherhibbert lectures 87, n. 29

395.22; 395.23 before going to boat with the verges of the chaptel of the opering of the month of Nema Knatut, so pass the poghue for grace sake. Amen. 63, n. 6; 86.

Book III, section i (403–28)

410.12 my multiple Mes 66.

410.33 being too soft for work proper 66.

410.35 my answerers, Top, Sid and Hucky 66.

410.36 the thieves' rescension 66; 72.

411.11 Amen, ptah! His hungry will be done! 75.

414.35 funny funereels 31.

415.01 oldbuoyant, inscythe his elytrical wormcasket 31.

415.11 to the ra, the ra, the ra, the ra 81.

415.21 O'Cronione lags acrumbling in his sands but his sunsunsuns still tumble on 63.

415.23 Book of Breathings 45.

415.25 Grouscious me and scarab my sahul! 71; 81.

415.31 Ba's 71.

415.32 ablong as there's a khul on a khat 71.

415.35; 415.36 As broad as Beppy's realm shall flourish my reign shall flourish! 73; 74; 74, n. 15.

417.01 Grausssssss! Opr! 82.

417.03 not a leetle beetle 83.

417.34 featherweighed 79.

418.05 capsizer of his ant boat, sekketh rede 87.

419.23 letter potent to play the sem backwards 75.

422.15 his prince of the apauper's pride, blundering all over the two worlds! 51.

422.16 a mosselman's present! 54.

425.20 my trifolium librotto, the authordux Book of Lief, would, if given to daylight, (1 hold a most incredible faith about it) far exceed what that bogus bolshy of a shame, my soamheis brother, Gaoy F ecks, is conversant with in audible black and prink 72.

426.03 who would endeavour to set ever annyma roner moother of mine on fIre. 48.

426.07 he virtually broke down on the mooherhead 48.

Book III, section ii (429–73)

435.23 Keep air1y bores and the worm is yores 49.

437.19 (Oop, I never open momouth but I pack mefood in it) 75.

449.27 the bark of Saint Grouseus 81.

449.28 hoerrisings 50.

450.10 lov'd latakia, the benuvolent 83.

452.06 sotisfiction 56.

452.09 besated upon my tripos, and just thinking like thauthor how long I'd like myself to be continued at Hothelizod 56.

452.18 through all the annals of our -as you so often term her -efferfreshpainted livy, in beautific repose, upon the silence of the dead, from pharoph the nextfirst down to ramescheckles the last bust thing 56.

452.21 The Vico road goes round and round to meet where terms begin 56.

454.30 in the suburrs of the heavenly gardens, once we shall have passed, after surceases, all serene through neck and necklike Derby and June to our snug eternal retribution's reward 65.

454.34; 454.35 Sacred ease there! . . . To it, to it! Seekit headup! 56; 65; 87.

455.05; 455.06 It's the fulldress Toussaint's wakeswalks expedition after a bail motion from the chamber of horrus 79.

455.07 like it and lump it, but give it a name 77.

457.20 Look for me always at my west 37.

462.05 A stiff one for Staffetta mullified with creams of hourmony, the coupe that's chill for jackless jill 48.

470.07 piopadey boy 74.

470.13–20 dosiriously it psalmodied. Guesturn's lothlied answring tomaronite's wail. Oasis, cedarous esaltarshoming Leafboughnoon ! Oisis, coolpressus onmountof Sighing ! Oasis, palmost easltarshoming Gladdays! Oisis, phantastichal roseway anjerichol! Oasis, newleavos spaciosing encampness! Oisis, plantainous dewstuckacqmirage playtennis! 46.

471.36 export stout fellow 31.

472.20 victorihoarse 49.

473.17 Shoot up on that, bright Bennu bird! 83.

Book III, section iii (474–554)

480.09 the midnight middy 31; 40.

482.05 — White eyeluscious and muddyhorsebroth! Pig Pursyriley! But where do we get off, chiseller? 76.

482.33 book of kills 72.

486.14 the lord of Tuttu 37, n. 9.

486.21 this serpe with ramshead 76, n. 18

490.27 a redtettetterday morning 73.

491.31 He was resting between horrockses' sheets 45.

492.08 And Annie Delittle, his daintree diva, in deltic dwilights, singing him henpecked rusish through the bars? 43.

493.23 the massstab 61.

493.28 Irise, Osirises! Be thy mouth given unto thee! 14; 28; 39; 61; 89.

493.30 On the vignetto is a ragingoos. The overseer of the house of the oversire of the seas, Nu-Men, triumphant, sayeth: Fly as the hawk, cry as the corncrake, Ani Latch of the postern is thy name; shout! 73.

493.34 — My heart, my mother! My heart, my coming forth of darkness! 80.

494.03 flabberghosted farmament 65.

494.10 Satarn's serpent ring system 52.

494.15 — Apep and Uachet! Holy snakes 52.

498.30 erica's clustered on his hayir 31.

498.36 healed cured and embalsemate, pending a rouseruction of his bogey 32; 67.

499.10 Ser Oh Ser! See ah See! Hamovs! Hemoves! 39.

503.36 clad in its wood, burqued by its bark 31.

504.23 bird flamingans sweeny swinging fuglewards on the tipmast 84.

511.30 a budge of klees 14.

512.34 Toot and Come-Inn 63, n. 6

530.34 He's cookinghagar that rost her prayer to him upon the top of the stairs 38.

551.21 the meed, shall, in their second adams, all be made alive 63.

551.30 was I not rosetted on two stellas of little egypt? had not I rock cut readers, hieros, gregos and democriticos? 18, n. 9.

553.10 chopes pyrarnidous 62.

Book III, section iv (555–90)

559.35 old mother Mesopotomac 43, n. 18.

561.02 rooms on the upstairs, at forkflank and at knifekanter. Whom in the wood are they for? Why, for little Porter babes, to be saved! 70.

561.25 behold, she had instantt with her handmade as to graps the myth inmid the air. 48.

566.29 That crag! Those hullocks! O Sire! 34; 35.

566.34; 566.35; 566.36 so a stark pointing pole. Lord of ladders, what for lungitube! Can you read the verst legend hereon? I am hather of the missed. Areed! 34; 35; 38; 66.

566.36 To the dunleary obelisk via the rock vhat myles knox furlongs; to the general's postoffice how sands of patience; to the Wellington memorial half a league wrongwards; to Sara's bridge good hunter and nine to meet her: to the point, one yeoman's yard. 66; 66, n. 9.

567.05 a setting up? 34.

567.06 (O my big, O my bog, O my bigbagbone!) 35.

567.09 tet-at-tet 35.

567.10 effigy of standard royal 35.

567.10 roofstaff 35.

570.06 a snow of dawnflakes, at darkfall for Grace's Mamnesty and our fancy ladies, a1l assombred. Some wholetime in hot town tonight! You do not have heard? It stays in book of that which is 57.

570.09; 570.12 Well but remind to think, you where yestoday Ys Morganas war and that it is always tomorrow in toth's tother's place. Amen. 57; 87.

570.28; 570.29 Here we shall do a far walk (0 pity) anygo khaibits till the number one of sairey's place. Is, is. 57; 70.

570.35 It is Stealer of the Heart! 88

571.02 Seekhem seckhem! 70.

578.11 Mr. O'Sorgmann 41.

578.13 He's the dibble's own doges for doublin existents! 41.

580.17 her tour d'adieu 43.

587.32 our grainpopaw 70.

588.24 Izzy's busy down the dell! 43; 46.

Book IV (593–628)

593.23 Pu Nuseht, lord of risings in the yonderworld of Ntamplin, to hp triumphant, speaketh. 80; 80, n. 22.

594.08 Heliotropolis 80, n. 22.

595.05 dotter 78.

595.07 Geoglyphy's twentynine ways to say goodbett 77; 78.

595.21 Sure it's not revieng your? Amslu! 50.

595.30 Conk a dook he'll doo. Svap. 50.

596.27 quite a big bug 83.

604.07 How swathed thereanswer alcove makes theirinn! Besoakers loiter on. And primilibatory solicates of limon sodias will be absorbable 67.

607.24 Dayagreening 87.

607.26 dimbelowstard departamenty 86.

607.27 hothehill 86.

608.21 Sawyest? Nodt? 43.

608.32 the Phoenican wakes 43.

609.35 An I would uscertain in druidful scatterings one piece tall chap he stand one piece same place? 40.

613.18 Amenta 86

620.31 I'll wait. And I'll wait. And then if all goes. What will be is. Is is 42.

621.03 the book of the depth is 72.

624.08 The Gowans, ser, for Medem, me. With acute bubel runtoer for to pippup and gopeep where the sterres be 62.

625.02 beardwig 65.

625.04 Pharaops you'll play you're the king of Aeships 65.



Notes

Front Matter Notes

1 "O Quanta Virtus Est Intersecationibus Circulorum", AWN, X, 6 (Dec. 1973), p. 86.

2 "Joyce seemed very interested in the religious aspects of Tutankhamen's tomb, which we discussed shortly after its discovery on 26 November 1922" (Power, Conversations with James Joyce, ed. Clive Hart, London (1974) p. 48).
There are a number of references to ancient Egypt in Joyce's earlier work, especially Ulysses. A well-known example is the image of the Egyptian high-priest in the related account of John F. Taylor's speech (Ulysses, p. 142). However, an extended study of textual contexts is necessary to determine whether these references are merely a part of the background material, or show a more extensive early interest in ancient Egypt, and this falls outside the range of the dissertation. An exception is the use of Thoth, god of writers: see below "Thoth, toth and the power of creation".

3 Until more certain evidence is produced, we cannot be sure which of several "huge illustrated" editions Joyce is referring to here, for a number of them were published around the turn of the century. The problem is illustrated by Mr. Atherton's assertion that it was the facsimile of the Papyrus Ani, edited by Wallis Budge, "published by the British Museum in 1890" (Books, p. 192). That confuses the 1890 edition, edited with an introduction by Renouf, and the 1894 edition of the same papyrus, by Budge. Yet another facsimile which Joyce may have meant is the huge facsimile of the Papyrus Hunefer, from which the frontispiece to this dissertation has been taken. It was published in 1899 by the British Museum.

4 Frank Budgen, "James Joyce", Horizon, 1941, rpt. Givens, p. 26.

5 Mr. Atherton's treatment is an advance over Joseph Campbell's enthusiastic early survey of the BD, found in "Finnegan the Wake", Chimera, 1946, rpt. Givens, pp. 376–389.

6 A more recent article is: Mark L. Troy, "Pharaoph Times . . .", Studia Neophilologica, XLVII, 2 (1975), 353–373. The main purpose of this essay was to demonstrate the pervasiveness of the ancient Egyptian material in FW, using the first page as a basis for further examination. Thus, much of it has been integrated into this dissertation.

7 Ellmann (p. 712) cites Nora Joyce on her husband's research habits: "If God Almighty came down to earth, you'd have a job for him".

8 "'Whenever I walked through the British Museum,'he told me,'I was always impressed by the Assyrian and Egyptian monuments . . . The Assyrians and Egyptians understood better than we do the mystery of animal life, a mystery which Christianity has almost ignored . . . since the advent of Christianity we seem to have lost our sense of proportion, for too great stress is laid on man . . .'" (Power, Conversations with James Joyce, p. 48).

9 The Rosetta Stone is found at 551.30: "was I not rosetted on two stellas of little Egypt? had not I rockcut readers, hieros, gregos and democritos?" The inscription was cut in hieroglyphics ("hieros") Greek ("gregos") and demotic Egyptian ("democritos"). The first published attempt to decipher the stone was in the article "Egypt" written by Thomas Young for the 1824 edition of the EB (IV, 38–73) who initialled the article "IJ.", which may explain why Joyce spelled Egypt "ijypt" (198.01).

10 One indication of public interest is that the article "Egypt" in the EB is more than a hundred pages in length (IX, 21–130). In comparison, "Ireland" is forty pages long (XIV, 742–789). The learned F. L. Griffith contributed more than forty-five shorter articles on ancient Egypt.

11 This according to John A. Wilson, Signs & Wonders Upon Pharaoh (1964), p. 31. Wilson's book is an excellent "inside" introduction to the history of Egyptology. James Baikie, in A Century of Excavation in the Land of the Pharaohs (1924), gives an interesting anecdotal account of digs until that date.

12 Such a name is Ani. This is the scribe responsible for the famous Papyrus of Ani, yet, as Mrs. Glasheen writes, "in every case he doubles with Anna Livia" ("Ani", Second Census, p. 9). According to Wilkinson (III, 232, n. 2) Ani is the name of a mother goddess, "divine mother of Horus her son", hence a type of Isis, and Hathor: she is "Ani Mama" (243.04).

13 The "Biography" section which introduces Renouf's translation of The Book of the Dead (The Life Work, IV) relates that Renouf was an acquaintance of Cardinal Newman. It contains an interesting account of the machinations behind the setting up of the Catholic University, and the general intellectual atmosphere of the times.

14 "Shaun A", A Conceptual Guide to Finnegans Wake, p. 157.

15 A. Walton Litz, The Art of James Joyce (1964), treats the evolution of Joyce's style from the rigorous selectivity of the earlier works to the accumulated richness of FW. Good introductory studies include: Harry Levin, James Joyce (1960); W. Y. Tindall, James Joyce (1960); M. Magalaner and R. Kain, Joyce, The Man, The Work, The Reputation (1962).

16 For the reader interested in modern, detailed studies, see: J. Gwyn Griffiths, The Origins of Osiris (1968), and his The Conflict of Horus and Set (1960).

Part I Notes

1 For a version of the ballad, see "Finnegan", Second Census, p. 83.

2 Joyce draws attention to this parallel in a letter to Fritz Vanderpyl (14 March 1940) which is cited in Ellmann, p. 742.

3 Aiken's book never did reach Joyce. As Joyce wrote to Mrs. Jolas (7 September 1940): "Osiris Jones has not yet come forth by day or by night" (Ellmann, p. 748).

4 I suggested that the Great Pyramid of Giza was present as part of "deading is a" in AWN, XII, 5 (October 1975) as part of a note on Joyce's probable use of "The Caliph Al-Maamun and the Pyramids of Egypt", in Burton's The Thousand Nights and A Night, V, 105–106.

5 Joyce would have been aware that a danced "reel" was often a part of the resurrection process as envisioned by the ancient Egyptians. See, for example, BD, p. xxxv, where Budge mentions the dancing before the god. A reference in FW to the Egyptian, Aba, and his recension of the "balk of the deaf" (309.03) is followed by a reference to a "rumba round me garden" (309.08).

6 According to David Hayman, an early draft has "tree coloured trunksers" instead of "treecoloured camiflage" (A First Draft Version of Finnegans Wake, p. 183). "Trunksers" suggests the "trunk" of Ser, his camouflage "trousers".

7 In this particular sequence, Glugg is an aspect of Shem, and Chuff is an aspect, or a role, of his twin brother Shaun. Throughout FW the entire family, Mother, Father, the twin boys and their sister, shift names and identities as the particular interaction of the particular scene demands it. The role shifts and name changes are not random, but carefully plotted out. For a survey of many of these different changes, see "Who's Who When Everybody Is Somebody Else", Second Census, pp. lx-lxvi.

8 "Tem, too if he had time to?" also suggests that he could call himself "Tem, too": Temtu is a minor god of time, of the ninth hour, who lives in a hidden circle of the Otherworld (Gods, 1, 244).

9 Osiris as the ram was known as "Lord of Tattu" a title which, as Mrs. Glasheen points out ("Isis and Osiris", Second Census, p. 123) is found at 486.14, "lord of Tuttu".

10 As it is found in several sources, such as Müller, Myths, p. 147, and throughout the Papyrus of Ani.

11 As in the Swedish "Ser ni?", "Do you see?"

12 Renouf explains this in his essay on "The Myth of Osiris Unnefer", Life Work, II, 413. I will make use of this article in the section of the dissertation entitled "Images of Ascending".

13 Raymond O. Faulkner, A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian (1962), p. 68; this is close to Griffith's "Usiri" ("Busiris", EB, IV, 874).

14 "Ireland, Isle of Saints and Sages," The Critical Writings of James Joyce, ed. Ellsworth Mason and Richard Ellmann, New York (1964), p. 156.

15 Mrs. Glasheen has located the parts of a dismembered body, belonging to "one of those gods like Bacchus or Osiris" among the words of p. 3 (AWN, II, 2 [April l965], p. 7): "In the third paragraph of FW, the giant's head sends someone "west in quest" of his lost toes . . . His other members are scattered about . . . para. 2: passencore (Lat. heart); Armorica; side, isthmus (neck); penisolate; rocks (testicles); Oconee (knee, see 211.28); bellowsed (bellows=lungs); after (Ger. der After=anus); buttended; nathandjoe; regginbrow, aquaface".

16 The information about Dublin, Ga., was provided by Joyce himself in a "key" to the first paragraphs which was part of a letter sent to Harriet Shaw Weaver, dated 15 November, 1926 (Letters, I, 247–248).

17 The snooping hen plays several Egyptian parts; for example, one of the narratives of the sun god (his symbol the ank or onk, here "Owen K.", 66.25) went into Nubia to quash a rebellion fomenting in the province of Uauat. Budge writes, "Note the pun on the name Uauat ... and the verb "to conspire, murmur" (Gods, I, 447, n. 2). Here in FW the god is preceded by the hen, who "pokes her beak into the matter with Owen K. after her to see whawa smutter after" (66.24).

18 "Mother of Pots" is not a title exclusive to the hen, but to any representative mother of great age. As Mrs. Glasheen has been kind enough to point out m a personal communication, there is a pot mother in "old mother Mesopotomac" (559.35).

19 I must thank Dr. Bramsback for reminding me of the extent of Isis' quest. This was one of many helpful comments made at a seminar held in December, 1975.

20 Prof. Sorelius points out that the significance of the search of Isis for Osiris makes relevant the suggestion of Finn igen, the Swedish imperative: "Find again", in "Finnegan".

21 P. J. de Horrack: (Oeuvres Diverses, Bibliothèque Egyptologique, 17 (1907), 99–107.

22 Like the "Book of Respirations", this is found in Bibliothèque Egyptologique, 17 (1907),

23 Joyce explained to Miss Weaver that "sosie" signifies "double" ("15 November 1926", Letters, I, 248). Sosie in French means: "double, second self". As we shall see, Issy may have more than one "double".

24 Harold Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism, London (1912), I, 172. David Hayman first suggested Joyce's use of Bayley (". . . Sentence in Progress", p. 139).

25 Müller speculates that Osiris may well have "fallen" for Isis, due to an illicit sexual attraction he felt for her (illicit in that she was his mother or daughter). In this case the "appeal" of the temptresses, which signifies both fall and rise would be within the bounds of Müller's myth of Osiris. This theory fits well with Joyce's usage in FW. Müller theorizes that the symbol of Osiris sinning with Isis was a certain cursed fish, the uz or woz (Myths, p. 125). Isis and the symbolic fish are suggested at 4.14: "Waz is? Iseut?"

26 Such as Paul Pierret's compact edition of Le Livre des Morts, Paris (1882), ch. 1, p. 5.

27 Letter to Miss Weaver, "8 August 1928" (Letters, I, 248). Joyce's wording indicates (though he does not mention it to Miss Weaver) that he is drawing on The Book of the Dead, ch. lxiv, which is, Budge writes, "remarkable", for it contains the essence of the entire Book of the Dead (BD, p. cxxxi). This chapter begins with the dead exclaiming: "I am Yesterday, and Today; and I have the power to be born a second time" (BD, p. 218).

28 For other significances of Humpty in FW, see Books, pp. 126–127, where he is shown to be, among other things, "the cosmic egg of Egyptian mythology, the egg of 'The Great Cackler' (237.34) as Joyce says, quoting from The Book of the Dead".

29 Behdet, Behdeti (pronounced "bejetty",) is the commonly accepted form (Faulkner, Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, p. 84). As Behdet is the city of Horus, so is Ombos the city of Set (see p. 54 for Ombos).

30 Budge writes that it was as a serpent that Set personified the forces of darkness (Gods, II, 245). Set's hieroglyph features the mysterious "Set animal" which may be an ass, onager, camel, wild dog, or is an imaginary totemic animal. I am not sure how he is used in FW.

31 Mr. Atherton gives no source for naming the two serpents on the uraeus crown of pharaoh "Apep and Uachet." (Books, p. 200). To my knowledge this is a Joycean development. The double-serpent uraeus crown is probably a part of 252.15–16, where the "crown pretenders" are seen to "uruseye" each other.

32 My attention has recently been drawn to the "Appendix: Thoth and the Written Word" which is found in Hélène Cixous, The Exile of James Joyce, trans. Sally A. J. Purcell, New York (1972), pp. 737–745. It is lively reading but unreliable, demonstrating clearly the need for more responsible research on the role of Thoth, Hermes, and the other gods concerned with artistic creation as they are found in FW.

33 Brendan O Hehir, A Gaelic Lexicon for Finnegans Wake, p. 299.

34 "The Porters", A Conceptual Guide to Finnegans Wake, p. 205.

35 Dr. Bramsback suggests that Joyce may well have been aware that the Old Irish word for the female pudenda and the feminine gender is toth.

Part II Notes

1 It is noteworthy how many of the references which involve this cyclic image link TM to Lewis Carroll: "as a creator — and therefore, from Joyce's axiom, a type of God" (Books, p. 132). For example, Carroll's reference to the belfry of Christ Church resembling a "meat safe" becomes, in a Book of the Dead context, "the key of Efas-Taem" (311. 12). In his "Lewis Carroll and Finnegans Wake" (English Studies, XXXIII, 3 [1952]), Mr. Atherton showed that the "key" was a transcription of the Middle Egyptian TM Sa-Ef, "Tem is his own Son". Being informed by a well-known Egyptologist that the transcription was meaningless, Mr. Atherton informs me, he withdrew the note from Books. Later, after the press of publication, he ascertained that the words did indeed mean "TM is his own Son", but the Egyptologist had decided this was nonsense. Here is a reminder that we are not studying Middle Egyptian grammar, but Joyce's use of Egyptian material in FW.

2 Built, according to legend, by Imhotep or Imouthis, a universal genius, famed for his knowledge of medicine, later deified and given many of the characteristics of Thoth (Gods, I, 522). Shaun claims to be as much a genius as the brilliant architect Imouthis ("a mouth's") at 159.24: "my own naturalborn rations which are even in excise of my vaultbrain insure me that I am a mouth's more deserving case by genius". Shaun then tells the fable of burrus and caseous and their love for Margareen, a "cleopatrician,"(166.34), which he illustrates by constructing a pyramid-shaped triangle. (Diagrams of which are found in Skeleton Key, p. 104.)

3 Joyce takes advantage of the coincidental fact that, just as HCE is troubled by three young soldiers in the park (see "Three Soldiers", Second Census, p. 253), so was Cheops (or Khufu) warned by a wise man that his line should be superseded by three sons of the sun god. Breasted relates this folk-tale in DRT, p. 15, explaining that Cheop's fourth dynasty was indeed superseded by kings calling themselves "Son of Re". In FW, the title is part of "son-yet-sun" (90.01).The three "sons of the sun god" are found replacing an old ruler at 415.21: "for O'Cronione lags acrumbling in his sands but his sunsunsuns still tumble on".

4 The juxtaposition of Giza, the waters of life and the ensuing association with Adams was brought to my attention by Mr. Atherton in a personal communication.

5 G.R.S. Mead is very enthusiastic about Adams' The House of Hidden Places, London (1895), and especially his second The Book of the Master of Hidden Places, London (1898): "If Egypt did not teach this wisdom, then we must perforce bow down before Mr. Adams as the inventor of one of the most grandiose religions of the universe" (Thrice Greatest Hermes, I, London (1906), pp. 80–81). Both Mead and Adams are joined with the "waters of life" at 551.22: "the meed shall, in their second adams, all be made alive".

6 Mr. Atherton (Books, p. 195, n. 1) has found Tutankhamen in FW on eleven different occasions: 26.18; 29.28; 102.22; 242.18; 291.04; 294.08; 335.29; 367.10; 385.04; 395.23; 512.34.

7 Mr. Slomczynski, noted for his detective work, located the "myth Isis", and was kind enough to share it, in a personal correspondence.

8 The "sixth chapter . . . by black" suggests yet another work which Joyce subsumed under the heading "Book of the Dead" for, at 179.26 we find Shem "making believe to read his usylessly unreadable Blue Book of Eccles, edition de tenebres". The edition of Ulysses Shem pretends to read is then of te'nebres, "gloom or darkness", and the sixth chapter of Ulysses, the book of the dark, is "Hades".

9 "To the dunleary obelisk . . .; to the general's postoffice . . .; to the Wellington memorial . . .; to Sara's bridge . . .; to the point" (566.36). Recently I have discovered that, perhaps because the reed has instructions engraved in "Egyptian", they seem to be given"wrongwards" (567.03). This is true in the sense that Hayman's A First Draft Version of Finnegans Wake (pp. 255–256) shows that, in an earlier draft (with no Egyptian reed present), the instructions are exactly opposite: "the point . . . Sara's Bridge . . . Wellington Memorial . . . Posting Office . . . Dunleary Obelisk".

10 Most popular accounts of the seventy-day long process derive from Herodotus, The Histories, Book II, 87.

11 See Mrs. Glasheen's remarks on the "Four", Second Census, p. 86.

12 The canopic jars of Tutankhamen have heads resembling that of the king (as shown in Carter, The Tomb of Tutankhamen, plate 10). This is probably why the "head bottle washer" blends with Tutankhamen's head-bottle at 26.17: "The headboddylwatcher of the chempel of Isid, Totumcalmum".

13 For the botanical aspect, see R. McHugh "Recipis for the Price of the Coffin", Conceptual Guide to Finnegans Wake, p. 20.

14 Nu: "the watery mass out of which all of the gods were evolved" (BD, p. 4, n. 3).

15 In Books, p. 200, Mr. Atherton explains that "Beppy" includes not only the name of the pharaoh, but also Beppi, which is the Italian diminuative for Joseph, "who is brought in here to share the name with a pharaoh he 'knew not'".

16 The Story of Dublin, p. 91. (Joyce's use of Chart noted in Books, p. 91.) Mr. Atherton drew my attention to the Peep of Day Boys in "piopady boy". Dr. Bramsback points out that the Peep of Day boys were a Protestant group, whose Catholic opposers were called the "Defenders".

17 Clive Hart, in Structure and Motif in Finnegans Wake, p. 138, comments on Dolph's "mystical power", which enables him to reveal the aspects of the mother contained in the geometric figures. It is appropriate, then, that he be in part a Sem priest, who might make the rhomboid "speak", give up its secrets.

18 The use of a chisel in the Opening of the Mouth can be seen, for example, in A. M. Blackman, "The Opening of the Mouth", Journal of Egyptian Archaelogy, 10 (1924), Fig. 5. Another important instrument was the Ur Heka "in the form of a ram-headed serpent" (BD, p. 39). Thus we find the old men stimulate speech with "this serpe with ramshead" (486.21).

19 Mr. Atherton is mistaken in his assertion that Joyce's use of the phrase "words of power" helps prove "conclusively" that he used Budge (Books, p. 194). The phrase is very common; it is even used as a chapter-title in Clodd's Tom Tit Tot, mentioned below in this section of the dissertation.

20 "Geoglyphy" also suggests geoglifico, Italian for "hieroglyphic"; Joyce might be using the Italian word to show that, as Budge relates, it was in an Italian translation of The Book of the Dead that the Opening of the Mouth was first uncovered (BD, p. civ).

21 See Mrs. Glasheen's observations on the "Twenty-nine", Second Census, p. 263, for an indication of how varied the identities of these girls may be.

22 "Pu Nuseht" is in a paragraph which is filled with references to ancient Egyptian religion. Grace Eckley, in "Looking Forward to a Brightening Day", A Conceptual Guide to Finnegans Wake, p. 213, treats many of them. She considers that the paragraph (593.20–24) "concisely parodies The Egyptian Book of the Dead, a book which assures reawakening in Heliopolis (594.8), the city of the Sun". The great compactness of "Pu Nuseht" itself demonstrates the inevitable incompleteness of any detailed analysis of FW; Mr. Slomczynski writes in a personal correspondence that "what Atherton did not see is 'Pun Useth'".

23 "The Myth of Osiris Unnefer", Life Works, II, 413. This article was first published in Transactions of the Society for Biblical Archaeology, IX (1893), 281–294.

24 That HCE may have his head up in the ancient Egyptian clouds is also treated below, p. 85.

25 And since at least 1909, when Budge mentions it in his Guide to the Egyptian Galleries, p. 261.

26 AWN, XII, 2 (April 1975), p. 30. The repeated "ph" ("phall", "pharce", "phoenish") gives another link to rising: PH is the Theban Coptic for the Middle Egyptian Re, the sun god.

27 By Samuel Birch, in Bunsen's Egypt's Place in Universal History (second edition), V, 1867.

28 The spelling of the word suggests that it is taken from the title of Dion Boucicault's play, Arrah-na-Pogue, "Arrah of the kiss", which is much used in FW. (see Books, pp. 157–161).

29 Renouf, The Hibbert Lectures, 1879, London (1897) p. xii. Mrs. Glasheen has found Robert Hibbert and the lecture series he endowed as part of "howldrnoutherhibbert lectures" (388.29). (See "Hibbert", Second Census, p. 115.)