“semitisches pantheon”. eine “männliche tyche” - MOSAIKjournal.com

292| ALEXANDRA MIRONOVA
ticipants of the Opet Festival entered the courtyard of the IV th
pylon through the southern pylon of the temple and then carried
the bark inside Thutmose III’s chapel.
This study brought us to conclude: 1. during the reign of
Thutmose III the return route of the Opet Festival procession was
changed: Then it entered the Karnak temple through the southern
pylon, and 2. the program of the festival stressed the pharaoh’s
ritual role in it as well as his military power, as reflected by the program
of the festival relief scenes and the orientation of a his buildings.
Apparently, these changes were connected with the first or
the second royal jubilee, i. e. to the 30 th or 33 th year of Thutmose
III: This is the time when the buildings that indicated the new
route of the procession – the alabaster chapel and the obelisks
before the VII th pylon 65 – were erected.
Speaking generally, the return journey of the Opet Festival
under Thutmose III seems to be the following. On its arrival at
Karnak the festive procession passed through the VIII th pylon 66
and entered the court of the VII th pylon, where the priests placed
the bark of Amun-Re in the alabaster chapel of Thutmose III. Afterwards
the Sed Festival ceremonies were held inside the chapel;
then the procession moved to the main temple of Amun-Re, and
entered the court of the IV th pylon with another chapel of Thutmose
III. The priests brought the god’s bark there and conducted
before it different festive rituals, also related to the Sed Festival. 67
The path of the procession had been already laid on the temple’s
main west-east axis. Reaching the VI th pylon, the festive procession
probably turned to the south, to the Chapel of Enthronement
where the ceremonies of the renewal of the king’s power
were conducted. It may seem that after this the procession had to
go to the Akhmenu temple, which contained the images of the
placed facing the processional route; judging from the relief
scenes, the Chapel was used when the procession left Karnak and
when it returned there.
65 According to the inscriptions, the obelisks were erected by
Thutmose III after his campaign in Naharin in year 33 of his reign
(Urk. IV, 586–587).
66 The VIII th pylon was erected by Hatshepsut: PORTER –
MOSS (1972) 174–178, plan XIV.
67 ARNAUDIÈS-MONTÉLIMARD (2003) 203–205.