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From: cjdb@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Charles Blair)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: The Saturn Myth:  Ra
Message-ID: <1097@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 5-Sep-85 12:24:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: sphinx.1097
Posted: Thu Sep  5 12:24:08 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Sep-85 05:38:32 EDT
References: <385@imsvax.UUCP>
Organization: U. Chicago - Computation Center
Lines: 22


>     You've  seen  it  in  the  movies,  you've  read  it in books;  Ra
> was the great sun god of the Egyptians.  Right?  Maybe.  Let's see what
> the Egyptians  themselves had  to say,  without the interference of any
> modern interpreter standing between us and them.  Consider E. A. Wallis
> Budge and  his two  volumn "Gods  of the Egyptians", published in 1904,
> long before the world had  taken  any  particular  notice  of  the name
> Velikovsky;   Budge had  no particular  axe to grind.  His translations
> are pretty direct and accurate.

>     The following lines  are  direct  quotes  from  "The  Gods  of the
> Egyptians", Vol I, pages 339-348: [translation follows]

The problem here is twofold. First, in quoting a translation, one is
not seeing what "the Egyptians themselves had to say." To do that one
would have to consult the original text with a good knowledge of the
Egyptian in which the text was written. This brings me to the second
point. Egyptological studies have progressed a good deal since 1904.
Citing Budge is having, not a modern interpreter, but an "ancient"
interpreter "standing between us and them." What does a modern (say,
post-1950) translation of this text look like? Is there a commentary?
What does it say?