Through the Eras

Religionor with winged sun disks or vultures, all elements belongingto the sky. The sanctuary containing the god’simage was thought of as both the akhet, the place fromwhich the sun god appeared, and as the sky. The priestopening the shrine each morning was said to “open thedoors of heaven.” The steadily rising floor had the effectof rendering the sanctuary the highest point within thetemple. As such, it represented the primeval hill, the firstland to emerge from the waters of Nun on which creationbegan.SOURCESStephen Quirke, ed., The Temple in Ancient Egypt (London:British Museum Press, 1997).Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Temples of AncientEgypt (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2000).SEE ALSO Architecture: Earliest Temples and Tombs;Architecture: New Kingdom TemplesTEMPLE RITUALENSURING PROSPERITY. Fortunately for the modernscholar, the Egyptians decorated the walls and ceilingsof their temples with scenes and texts relating to theactivities which went on in the temples. A few papyri relatingto the temple rituals have also survived, and byputting the two together, scholars have been able to drawa fairly detailed picture of the rituals that went on withinthe temple. These rituals fall into two main categories:those which were intended to satisfy the god’s needs,conducted on a daily basis; and those representing thegod’s function, either cosmic or political. These were thefestivals celebrated during particular times of the year.The Egyptians believed that the well-being of Egypt wasdependent on their continued performance of temple rituals.The Papyrus Jumilhac states that “if the gifts arepoor on its [the sanctuary’s] tables, then the same thingwill happen in the entire country; life will be poor forthe living. If the gifts are multiplied in this place, thenabundance will happen throughout the entire country,and every belly will be filled with grain.”CARING FOR THE GOD. The focus of the daily templeritual was the care and feeding of the god, mediatedthrough the divine image in the naos. This ritual tookessentially the same form in every temple in Egypt. Itderived 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 incorporatedinto the ritual, and it also came to symbolize therestoration and revivification of the dismembered bodyof Osiris. For the purposes of the ritual, the cult-statuewas identified as both Re and Osiris. Modern informationregarding the sequence of events of this ritual comesfrom two main sources: temple reliefs that show the kingperforming the various rituals of the ceremony, and papyrithat list the rituals and the hymns which accompanythem. Analysis of these various sources has allowedscholars to reconstruct the likely sequence of events ofthis ritual. Since all of the sources are not in agreementas to the order of events, scholarly reconstructions differ,depending on which source is taken as a guide.COLORED CLOTHS. Before dawn, two priests filledcontainers with water from the sacred well of the templeand replenished all the libation vessels of the temple.Priests were busy in the temple kitchens preparing offeringsfor the gods. The main officiating priest went to“the house of the morning” where he was ceremoniallypurified, dressed, given a light meal, and prepared toconduct the morning ceremony. The priest approachedthe shrine containing the god’s image, and as the sunrose the bolt was drawn back and the door opened. Sinceonly the king was able to confront the god, the officiatingpriest declared that “it is the king who has sent meto see the god.” Once he had opened the doors to theshrine, the priest prostrated himself before the image.The next step was a ritual purification of the chapel withwater and incense in preparation for removing the imagefrom its shrine. At this point, the priest presented asmall figure of the goddess Maat to the statue, whichsymbolized the proper order established for the world atcreation. The image was then removed from its shrine,and the clothing and ointment that had been placed onthe image the previous day were removed. Priests thenplaced the deity’s image on a pile of clean sand and purifiedthe shrine with water and incense. Next, a priestapplied green and black eye paint to the image andanointed it with several oils. A priest dressed the god infour colored cloths: white, green, blue, and red. Thewhite and red cloths protected the god from his enemies,the blue hid his face, and the green ensured his health.The priest then presented the god with various objectssuch as his crowns, scepter, crook, flail, and collar. Nexthe anointed the god’s face, scattered sand around thechapel, and replaced the cult image in the shrine andbolted and sealed the door. Finally the priest performedthe final purifications and exited the sanctuary dragginga broom behind him to obliterate his footprints.BREAKFAST. At some point during the morning ritual,the offering ritual took place. The purpose of thisritual was to provide the god with his “breakfast.” Somereconstructions of the ritual have it occurring before the230 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)