Temple Ritual

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Temple Ritual

Ensuring Prosperity. Fortunately for the modern scholar, the Egyptians decorated the walls and ceilings of their temples with scenes and texts relating to the activities that went on in the temples. A few papyri relating to the temple rituals have also survived, and by putting the two together, scholars have been able to draw a fairly detailed picture of the rituals that went on within the temple. These rituals fall into two main categories, those that were intended to satisfy the god’s needs, conducted on a daily basis, and those representing the god’s function, either cosmic or political. These festivals were celebrated during particular times of the year. The Egyptians believed that the well-being of Egypt was dependent on their continued performance of temple rituals. The papyrus Jumilhac states that “if the gifts are poor on its [the sanctuary’s] tables, then the same thing will happen in the entire country; life will be poor for the living. If the gifts are multiplied in this place, then abundance will happen throughout the entire country, and every belly will be filled with grain.”

Caring for the God. The daily temple ritual had as its focus the care and feeding of the god, mediated through the divine image in the naos. This ritual took essentially the same form in every temple in Egypt. It derived from the ritual for the sun god Re at Heliopolis, and represented the rebirth of the sun each morning. At a later date elements of Osirian belief were incorporated into the ritual, and it also came to symbolize the restoration and revivification of the dismembered body of Osiris. For the purposes of the ritual the cult-statue was identified as both Re and Osiris. Information regarding the sequence of events of this ritual comes from two main sources: temple reliefs that show the king performing the various rituals of the ceremony, and papyri that list the rituals and the hymns that accompany them. Analysis of these various sources has allowed scholars to reconstruct the likely sequence of events of this ritual. Since all of the sources are not in agreement as to the order of events, scholarly reconstructions differ, depending on which source is taken as a guide.

Colored Cloths. Before dawn two priests would fill containers with water from the sacred well of the temple and replenish all the libation vessels of the temple. Priests would be busy in the temple kitchens preparing offerings for the gods. The main officiating priest would go to “the house of the morning” where he was ceremonially purified, dressed, given a light meal, and prepared to conduct the morning ceremony. The priest would approach the shrine containing the god’s image, and as the sun rose the bolt would be drawn back and the door opened. Since only the king was able to confront the god, the officiating priest would declare that “it is the king who has sent me to see the god.” Once the doors to the shrine had been opened, the priest would prostrate himself before the image, and a ritual purification of the chapel with water and incense would take place in preparation for removing the image from its shrine. At this point, the statue would be presented a small figure of the goddess Maat, which symbolized

the proper order established for the world at creation. The image was then removed from its shrine, and the clothing and ointment that had been placed on the image the previous day were removed. The image was then placed on a pile of clean sand and the shrine was purified with water and incense. Next, green and black eye paints were applied to the image and it was anointed with several oils. The god was dressed in four colored cloths: white, green, blue, and red. The white and red cloths protected the god from his enemies; the blue hid his face; and the green ensured his health. The god was presented with various objects such as his crowns, scepter, crook, flail, and collar. Next, the god’s face was anointed; sand was scattered around the chapel; the cult image was replaced in the shrine; and the door bolt was thrown and sealed. Finally, the priest performed the last purifications and exited the sanctuary, dragging a broom behind him to obliterate his footprints.

Breakfast . At some point during the morning ritual, the offering ritual would take place. The purpose of this ritual was to provide the god with his “breakfast.” Some reconstructions of the ritual have it occurring before the final purification of the chapel in preparation for replacing the statue in the shrine, while others have the offering ritual take place before the undressing and dressing of the statue. In this ritual the offerings that had been prepared that morning by the priests were presented to the god. Although an enormous meal consisting of meat, bread, cakes, beer, milk, honey, vegetables, and fruit, was prepared for the god, only a small part of this repast was actually placed before the statue. An offering formula listing the various items of the offering was recited by the priest, and incense was burned and libations made to purify and sanctify the offerings. Since the god did not actually consume the offerings but simply partook of their essences, they could be shared with the other deities in the temple. The offerings were also used in the ritual of the royal ancestors, in which the king made offerings to all of his predecessors in office, often depicted in the form of a list of their names. After this ritual the offerings could then be made to the statues of other individuals found in the temple, and finally they became the property of the priests, who received a share based on their rank in the priestly hierarchy. This reuse of the offerings until they were finally consumed by the priests was called the “reversion of offerings” and was one way in which the priests were compensated for their work.

Threats to Existence . This morning ritual was the main ritual of the day, but less-elaborate ceremonies were also held at noon and in the evening. During these rituals, the doors of the sanctuary housing the god’s statue were not opened. These rituals consisted primarily of pouring water libations and burning incense before the shrines of the gods. In addition to these offering rituals, certain apotropaic rituals were conducted in the temples throughout the day and night in order to repel the threats to existence, frequently thought of in terms of Seth, the murderer of Osiris, or Apophis, the serpent who tried to stop the daily voyage of Re and thereby bring an end to creation. Hymns were sung during the twelve hours of the day and night to protect Re from Apophis and keep the solar bark moving along on its voyage. Images of enemies were created from wax or clay then and destroyed, thereby bringing about their destruction through magic.

Festivals . In addition to their daily rituals, temples also celebrated festivals throughout the year. For example, during the reign of Thutmose III, the temple of Amun-Re at Karnak celebrated fifty-four festival days, and Ramesses Ill’s temple at Medinet Habu celebrated sixty festival days. Festivals could last from one to twenty-seven days, and involved large expenditures of food and drink for those participating in or observing the festival. Work records from the village of Deir el Medina indicate that workers were frequently given days off to allow them to participate in many festivals. During the festival of Sokar, 3,694 loaves of bread, 410 cakes, and 905 jars of beer were distributed. Important festivals included New Year’s Day, the festival of Osiris at Abydos, during which the “mysteries” of this god were celebrated, the festival of Hathor, during which the goddess would visit the royal cult complex, as did the god Sokar during his festival, and the Festival of the Coronation of the Sacred Falcon at Edfu. The Beautiful Festival of the Valley was an important occasion during which Amun-Re traveled from Karnak to the temple at Deir el Bahri and visited the royal cult complexes on the West Bank of the Nile, particularly that of the reigning king. This was also an occasion for people to visit the tombs of their relatives, where they observed an all-night vigil and shared a feast among themselves and their deceased relatives.

Bark Shrines . The focus of one festival was the gods in their bark shrines. Egyptian gods always traveled in boats, either in real boats when traveling by water, or in bark shrines, carried over land on the shoulders of priests. Festivals could involve the procession of the god in his boat within the temple, or the god could leave the temple to visit another deity. These shrines were carried along processional avenues, often lined with sphinxes. At intervals, small altars were built that were essentially open-ended buildings that contained a station on which the priests could rest the bark. When the porters rested, priests performed fumigations and libations and sang hymns to the god in its boat.

Access to the Gods . Such festivals and processions provided most people with their greatest access to the gods, since the furthest point where most people were admitted into the temples was the open forecourt. It is usually thought that the shrine in the bark containing the god’s image was closed during the procession, hiding the god’s image from onlookers. It has recently been suggested that the doors of the bark shrine were open during such travels, since various texts describe the desire of people to see the image of a god during a procession. It was believed that beholding the image of a god during a procession could heal an individual from illness.

Oracles . During such festival processions people seeking an oracle could approach the gods. The first clear evidence for oracles occurs in the New Kingdom (circa 1539-1075 b.c.e.). John Baines, however, has argued that evidence for the existence of oracles occurs much earlier, perhaps as early as the First Intermediate Period (circa 2130-1980 b.c.e.). During processions people could approach the god with a yes or no question, which would be written on small flakes of limestone, or on ostraca, which would be placed before the god. Surviving examples of such questions include “Is it he who has stolen this mat?”; “Shall Seti be appointed as priest?”; and “Is this calf good so that I may accept it?” The movement of the bark shrine as it was carried on the shoulders of the priests indicated the answer, forward for affirmative, backward for negative.