Through the Eras

Religionfinal purification of the chapel in preparation for replacingthe statue in the shrine, while others would havethe offering ritual take place before the undressing anddressing of the statue. In this ritual, the offerings thathad been prepared that morning by the priests were presentedto the god. Although an enormous meal was preparedfor the god consisting of meat, bread, cakes, beer,milk, honey, vegetables, and fruit, only a small part ofthis repast was actually placed before the statue. An offeringformula listing the various items of the offeringwas recited by the priest, and incense was burned andlibations made to purify and sanctify the offerings. Sincethe god did not actually consume the offerings, but simplypartook of their essence, they could be shared withthe other deities in the temple. The offerings were alsoused in the ritual of the royal ancestors, in which theking made offerings to all of his predecessors in office,often depicted in the form of a list of their names. Afterthis ritual, the offerings could then be made to thestatues of other individuals found in the temple, and finallythey became the property of the priests, who receiveda share based on their rank in the priestlyhierarchy. This reuse of the offerings until they were finallyconsumed by the priests was called the “reversionof offerings” and was one way in which the priests werecompensated for their work.THREATS TO EXISTENCE. This morning ritual wasthe main ritual of the day, but less elaborate ceremonieswere also held at noon and in the evening. During theserituals, the doors of the sanctuary housing the god’sstatue were not opened. These rituals consisted primarilyof pouring water libations and burning incense beforethe shrines of the gods. In addition to these offeringrituals, certain protective rituals were conducted in thetemples throughout the day and night in order to repelthe threats to existence, frequently thought of in termsof Seth, the murderer of Osiris, or Apophis, the serpentwho tried to stop the daily voyage of Re and therebybring an end to creation. Singers sang hymns during thetwelve hours of the day and night to protect Re fromApophis and keep the solar barque moving along on itsvoyage. Artists created images of enemies from wax orclay and then destroyed them, thereby bringing aboutthe enemies’ destruction through magic.FESTIVALS. In addition to their daily rituals, templesalso celebrated a number of festivals throughout theyear. For example, during the reign of Thuthmosis III(1479–1425 B.C.E.), the temple of Amun-Re at Karnakcelebrated 54 festival days. Ramesses III’s (r. 1187–1156B.C.E.) temple at Medinet Habu celebrated sixty festivaldays. Festivals could last from one to twenty-seven days,and involved large expenditures of food and drink forthose participating in or observing the festival. Workrecords from the village of Deir el-Medina indicate thatworkers were frequently given days off to allow them toparticipate in many festivals. During the festival of Sokar,the authorities distributed 3,694 loaves of bread, 410cakes, and 905 jars of beer. Important festivals includedNew Year’s Day; the festival of Osiris at Abydos, duringwhich the “mysteries” of this god were celebrated; thefestival of Hathor, during which the goddess would visitthe royal cult complex, as did the god Sokar during hisfestival; and the Festival of the Coronation of the SacredFalcon at Edfu. The Beautiful Festival of the Valley wasan important occasion during which Amun-Re traveledfrom Karnak to the temple at Deir el Bahri and visitedthe royal cult complexes on the west bank of the Nile,particularly that of the reigning king. This was also anoccasion for people to visit the tombs of their relatives,where they observed an all-night vigil and shared a feastamong themselves and their deceased relatives.BARQUE SHRINES. The focus of a festival was thegods in their barque (sailing vessel) shrines. Egyptiangods always traveled in boats, either in real boats whentraveling by water, or in barque shrines, carried over landon the shoulders of priests. Festivals could involve theprocession of the god in his boat within the temple, orthe god could leave the temple to visit another deity.These shrines were carried along processional avenues,often lined with sphinxes. At intervals, small altars werebuilt which were essentially open-ended buildings thatcontained a station on which the priests could rest thebarque. When the porters rested, priests performed fumigationsand libations and sang hymns to the god inits boat. Such festivals and processions provided mostpeople with their greatest access to the gods, since thefurthest most people were admitted into the temples wasthe open forecourt. Scholars have long thought that theshrine in the barque containing the god’s image wasclosed during the procession, hiding the god’s imagefrom onlookers. Recently, one scholar suggested that thedoors of the barque shrine were open during such travels,since numerous texts describe the desire of people tosee the image of a god during a procession. Egyptiansbelieved that beholding the image of a god during a processioncould heal an individual from illness.ORACLES. It was during such festival processionsthat people could approach the gods seeking an oracle.The first clear evidence for oracles occurs in the NewKingdom (1539–1075 B.C.E.). The English EgyptologistJohn Baines, however, argued that evidence for the existenceof oracles occurs much earlier, perhaps as earlyArts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.) 231