Byrd: "My question: are those more recent PT's (dating to, say, 800 BC or thereabouts) or are they among the oldest... and how correct is the reference to Orion? Can anyone straighten me out here? Is Mercer's rendering of "Orion" correct?"



Mercer's translation (1952), just has the ancient Egyptian word, sAH, but both Faulkner's (1969) and Allen's (2005) more recent translations have 'Orion' for sAH.


Sah (Orion) occurs in the earliest PTs dating to the end of Dyn 5 (c.2375 BC) where Sah is referred to as the 'Father of the Gods' and later, also the father of the king. Osiris had an identity of the 'One in Sah (Orion)'. Sah (Orion) gave the king the title as the greatest controlling power, so Sah in the earliest PTs, was an important deity associated with the king's afterlife.


Sah (sAH, 'Orion') is often paired with Sopdet (spdt, 'Sirius') in the PTs, and together they were associated with the AE new year that began with the heliacal rising of Sirus. In the PTs from late Dyn 6, Sah and Sopdet are also the brother and sister of the Sun (ra) - the Sun sitting between them for eternity.

CT