Pyramid Texts

The cobra that came from the earth has fallen, the fire that came from Nu has fallen. Fall down, crawl away!

On your face, you on his coil! Go down on your vertebra, you in his undergrowth! Go back for me, you who jubilate with her two faces!

Cobra, to the sky! Horus’s centipede, to the earth! The cowherd, Horus, is stepping. Unis has stepped on Horus’s glidepath only unconsciously, Unis not knowing better. On your face, you in his undergrowth! Be dragged away, you in his cavern! Horus’s oven that is all over the earth, O let the monster be off!

The bull has fallen to the sdh-snake, the sdh-snake has fallen to the bull: fall down, crawl away!

The hand of Unis that comes on you, accursed snake—the one that comes on you is that of Mafdet at the fore of the Enclosure of Life, striking you on your face and scratching you on your eyes, so that you fall in your excrement and crawl in your urine. Fall down, lie down, crawl away, that your mother Nut may see you!

The Sun will appear, with his effective uraeus atop him, against this snake that comes from the earth. You under Unis’s fingers, he shall cut off your head with this knife, which is the hand of her who has Mafdet’s face; he shall drag out those which are in your mouth and milk your poison with those four strings that trail behind Osiris’s sandals. Monster, lie down! Bull, crawl away!

Cobra, to the sky! Horus’s centipede, to the earth!⁠a Horus’s sandal is treading on the enclosure’s lord, the cavern’s bull. Shunned snake, I cannot be shunned: Unis’s sycamore is his sycamore, Unis’s environs are his environs. Anyone Unis finds in his way he will devour.

Where is Horus, who escaped from the shunned snake? Behold Teti: Teti is Horus, who escaped from the shunned snake and ran. He the snake shall be given no messenger; his child has been taken from him. The snake “Penis-Catch,” Horus has clubbed his mouth with his foot.

On your face, you in his cave! Drag yourself off, you god in it, before Teti! Teti is the Great Lass: he who sees Teti will not live; he on whom the face of Teti falls, his head cannot be tied back on. Severed snake, crawl away! You in the undergrowth, turn yourself over!

Teti is clean, his ka is clean. “Are you Horus?” asks the snake. On your face! Be overturned! “Are you Seth?” On your face! Be dragged off! This foot of Teti that he puts on you is the foot of Mafdet; this hand of Teti that he lays on you is the hand of Mafdet in the midst of the House of Life. When Teti strikes you on your face, your venom will go and it will fetch the blood of your jaw instead. Severed snake, lie down! Plait-snake, crawl away!