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Royal Cults of the Kings of Ancient Egypt
23:45 Dec 24 2010
Times Read: 509
Ancient Egyptian cults can be divided into several categories, including Divine Cults, which worshipped actual existing gods, Royal Cults for the worship of the king, Private Cults, animal cults and what might be referred to as other Funerary Cults for the worship of deceased private individuals. Of these, perhaps the second most important, after Divine Cults, were the Royal Cults.
The cult of the king was one of the most prominent features of ancient Egyptian religion. The Egyptian ruler, because of his status as a ntr, or god, received both a cult during his life and after his death. He (or she) acquired and maintained his divinity as a result of specific kingship rituals, of which, the coronation was clearly the most important. In this ceremony, the king was transformed into a god by means of his union with the royal ka, or soul. All previous kings of Egypt had possessed the royal ka, and at his or her coronation, the king became divine as "one with the royal ka when his human form was overtaken by his immortal element, which flows through his whole being and dwells in it".
As a god, the King became the son of Re, the sun god, and he was a manifestation of Horus, the falcon god, as well as the son of Osiris. Also, from the Middle Kingdom, there was increasing emphasis placed on his relationship with Amun-Re, and he was described as the son of Amun, the king of the gods.
Thus, the king became an intermediary between mankind and the divine, responsible for sustaining the balance of the universe through maintaining ma'at, or divine order. Upon his death, the ancient Egyptians believed that he became fully divine and assimilated with Osiris and Re.
The kings status as a god depended on his or her union with the royal ka, and therefore various rituals were intended to reinforce this relationship during the king's reign. An obvious example was the Opet festival that was held each year at the temple of Amun-Re at Karnak during the fourth month of the inundation. There, the king had his union with the royal ka renewed and therefore his right to rule reconfirmed. After (almost always) thirty years, the king also celebrated his first sed-festival, which served to reconfirm his relationship to the royal ka as well as to restore his vitality.
The practice of the king receiving a royal cult during his lifetime became especially prominent during the New Kingdom, beginning with the reign of Amenhotep III. This cult followed very closely the pattern of the daily temple rituals of other gods, and kings erected for themselves statues, sometimes colossal, so that offerings could be received. There are depictions of the king making offerings to his deified self. These statue represented the royal ka of the living king, and when he or she worships their own statue, they are actually worshipping the concept of deified kingship as represented in the royal ka, which the king embodies.
Cults associated with the living pharaoh were more significant during certain periods, and may have been linked with various political, economic and religious trends. For example, this type of cult may have been emphasized during periods of coregency. Evidence suggests that, during the Middle and New Kingdoms, some successors could have been coronated prior to the death of the elder king. In these cases, the elder ruler may have been projected into a fully divine role, perhaps conceptualized as a living Osiris.
However, clearly the most important development in the cult of the living king occurred during the New Kingdom, focusing on his or her divine birth. The key here is that the pharaoh was engendered not by the seed of his actual paternal father, but rather by that of Amun himself. Cults focused on the divinity of the ruling monarch could have been linked to a need to legitimize the king's claim to the throne by rulers such as Hatshepsut, the Early 18th Dynasty female ruler.
Yet, the expanded role of the cult of the living pharaoh persisted through the New Kingdom. It's strength perhaps may be seen as a means of contributing to royal power and legitimacy over an increasingly complex governmental and religious system. The cult of the living king probably had it's greatest emphasis during the Amarna period, when Akhenaten focused the state religion on the supreme power of the sun disk known as Aten. His religious program emphasized the indispensable role of the king as the sole intermediary between mankind and the life giving force of the sun disk. Direct worship of the Aten was actually limited to Akhenaten himself, while the king and his royal family were intended to be the object of worship by the population at large. There have been unearthed offering stelae depicting the royal family belonging to private households, and such veneration of the king within domestic spheres represents an emphasis on kingly divinity not seen in other periods. However, after the Amarna period, royal cult buildings continued to be erected, such as that of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel, that presented the royal cult as an inseparable part of the divine order.
The Temple of Luxor may be seen as the greatest surviving monument relating to the divine, living king. Though the building was begun during the Middle Kingdom, it underwent major additions and restorations during the reign of Amenhotep III and later during the Ramessid period. This building can best be understood as a cult place of the living king and his divine association with the Theban triad. It was the focal point of the great Opet festival, when the image of Amun journeyed from his sanctuary at Karnak and the living king celebrated his divine origins.
Of course, the worship of the divine king continued after his or her death, and from the very beginning of Egyptian history, the royal burials included a place where the dead ruler's spirit could receive offerings of food and drink. Early evidence for the development of the royal funerary cult occurs in the mortuary structures built by the Early Dynastic kings at Abydos. The burial places of the 1st and 2nd Dynasty kings have associated "valley enclosures" and there is evidence for long term presentation of offerings in a few of these.
The famous Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara is the first known fully articulated funerary monument. It includes various architectural elements that were designed to perpetuate the role of the king in the afterlife, including symbolic components of the royal palace, both above ground as well as below the pyramid where the king could rule for eternity. An integrated element of this architecture was a full offering cult, which was housed in a mortuary temple positioned on the north side of the pyramid.
As early as the 4th Dynasty, kings erected for themselves a mortuary temple complex situated on the east side of their larger pyramids for their funerary cult. The colossal size and investment that went into these pyramid complexes of the 4th Dynasty attests to the central importance of the pharaoh and his cult during this period of very early Egyptian history. In fact, considering the resources that went into these structures, much of the central government during the Old Kingdom must have been focused on the construction of these funerary complexes, and so the royal cult became a driving force in the political and economic of the Old Kingdom state.
Royal pyramid complexes from the 4th, 5th and 6th dynasties typically had two main cult buildings, including the mortuary temple on the pyramid's east side, and a valley temple at the edge of the Nile River floodplain. Like normal divine cults, the mortuary temples were manned by rotating teams of priests in order to receive offerings and carry on the cult rituals. The valley temple, on the other hand, was adorned with scenes and statuary expressing the king's association with a wide variety of deities. Specifically, the valley temples seems to have been a structure used particularly to link the royal cult with other temples through periodic festivals and processions.
Beginning with the pyramid of King Userkaf, the first king of Egypt's 5th Dynasty, there was a false door in the mortuary temple that became the focal point for offerings to the king's spirit. However, beginning with the pyramid of Unas, the last ruler of the 5th Dynasty, a major source of information on royal funerary cults is the Pyramid Texts, where were inscribed on the walls of the burial chambers. These texts provide a complex series of magical spells and religious statements intended to aid the king during the afterlife. They record embalming and burial rituals, as well as written versions of he offering formulae and of the offering ritual itself.
During the Middle Kingdom, the construction of pyramid complexes continued, but there were some basic theological shifts. For example, the first royal mortuary complex build during the eleventh dynasty, belonging to Montuhotep, represents a departure from the complexes of the Old Kingdom in its emphasis on venerating the newly important state god of Thebes, Amun-Re. Now, the king's legitimacy is provided through his or her association with that deity. Hence, the complex of Montuhotep focuses on the Thebian triad, consisting of Amun, Mut and Khonsu, but integrates a cult statue for the king.
The association between the the deified king and other gods was emphasized during this period, and later with the ritual known as the "Beautiful Festival of the Valley", which was held annually. During this ceremony, the image (statue) of Amun was carried on his sacred bark to the west where he visited the king's funerary temple.
Later, during the Middle Kingdom, there were at times efforts to return to Old Kingdom cult practices, but there were nevertheless significant changes in conceptions of kingship that effectively restructured ideas on the nature of the king's role. Changes reflected in the design and decoration of royal cult buildings of the later Middle Kingdom and afterwards emphasis the veneration of the gods, with the king's cult appended and legitimized through his association with important gods. By late in the 12th Dynasty, the term "mansion of millions of years" appears in some records referencing the funerary temple of Amenemhet III at Hawara. This term can be understood to apply to royal cult complexes where the king's cult was important, but nevertheless subordinate to the cult of major deities.
This late 12th Dynasty practice ushered in the New Kingdom, when the mansion of millions of years became the standard type of royal cult building. They were built on the West bank of the Nile at Thebes, and the best remaining examples are the Ramesseum of Ramesses II of the 19th Dynasty and Medinet Habu built by Ramesses III. who ruled during the 20th Dynasty. These temple complexes were built some distance from the actual tombs of these rulers, who were buried further in on the West Bank in the Valley of the Kings.
Now, rather being independent, these temples were considered a part of the domain of Amun and so were connected administratively with the great temple of Amun at Karnak. They were surrounded by various precincts that included storerooms and housing for priests and officials who ran the economic foundations that sustained their cults.
These complexes, usually referred to as mortuary temples, were actually built and dedicated to Amun-Re. The cult of the king was mediated by his or her divine association with that deity. The "Beautiful Festival of the Valley" survived the Middle Kingdom and continued as one of the most important ritual links during the New Kingdom between the royal funerary temples and the temple of Amun at Karnak.
However, there were mansions of millions of years built elsewhere. One important example is that of Seti I at Abydos, where the royal cult was linked to one of Egypt's other principal gods, Osiris. The ancient Egyptians believed that Osiris was a deceased king of Egypt who was reborn to rule in the netherworld. Thus, Seti I's temple was also a monument dedicated to the institution of kingship itself as embodied in Osiris.
Seti I's temple also illustrates another type of cult, which venerates the royal ancestors through cult activity mandated by the living king. Known as the Cult of the Royal Ancestors to modern Egyptologists, this type of worship is known from as early as the Old and Middle Kingdoms, but became particularly visible during the New Kingdom. This type of cult activity could be established through patronage of existing temples, such as at Karnak, or the dedications of Senusret III within the mortuary temple of Montuhotep. However, it could also be articulated within a newly founded building such as that of Seti I at Abydos.
There was also a place for the royal cult within the temples of more normal gods.Kings from the earliest dynasties expressed their association with the gods by dedicating statuary and other religious objects, and in many of the large state temples, the cults of the gods and king became well linked. We find in the temples such as those of Horus at Heirakonpolis and Montu at Medamud considerable remains of royal dedicatory material, and there is no doubt that such temples also maintained a substantial royal cult.
Those in such divine state temples, the king's cult may have been represented by his statue that received a portion of the daily offerings, in other instances and particularly in large state temples, entire ancillary buildings were built to link the royal cult with the divine god's cult.There are often referred to as ka-chapels, and can be found in such locations as Bubastis, Dendera, Heirakonpolis, Abydos and Tell el-Dab'a.
Other structures within the gods' temples were intended to emphasize overtly the king's connection with the divine. A fine example of these structures is the birth houses known as mammisi, which are decorated with scenes of the divine birth of the pharaoh and can be found at locations such as the Temple of Hathor at Dendera.
On a popular level, the king might receive a cult following in a more spontaneous fashion outside the framework of mortuary and normal state temples. In this regard, the royal cult displays many of the characteristics found in the worship of local gods. A good example of such a cult is that of Amenhotep I at the community of the royal tomb builders at Deir el-Medina. From the 18th through the 20th dynasty, Amenhotep I was venerated for his role in establishing the workers village, where he became the patron deity. There, his cult was celebrated at a popular level during periodic festivals and processions. There were similar royal cults found at other locals, such as the Sinai, where during the Middle Kingdom, Egyptian miners carried out a cult for Sneferu. In the Second Cataract (rapids) region well south of modern Aswan, Senusret III was also venerated as a local god.
Just as in the case of divine cults, the most important element of royal cult ritual was the daily offering. Basically, this entailed interaction between priests and the statue of the king which allowed it to be a suitable abode for the ka of the king. There are elements of the offering cult present as early as the Pyramid Texts. However, the daily rituals are best documented in the 19th Dynasty temple of Seti I at Abydos, and in the Ptolemaic period temple of Horus at Edfu. The daily routine involved a series of ritual acts accompanied by magical spells and offering formulae uttered by the priests, and included the statue's awakening, cleansing, anointing and dressing. Some parts of the the more involved morning ritual would be repeated several more times during the day, and in large royal cult temples, it was enacted for multiple images (statues) and subsidiary cults within the temple. Of course, as explained earlier, there were also periodic festivals and processions in which a royal cult statue was taken to nearby gods' temples, providing for interaction between the surrounding community and the royal cult.
Animal Cults of Ancient Egypt
23:35 Dec 24 2010
Times Read: 510
During the classical age, there was no other aspect of Egyptian religion that elicited more derision from writers than the aspect of Egyptian animal worship. Among the various cults established by the ancient Egyptians, it seems to many even today to be one of the most strange and mysterious. There is evidence of animal cults that dates back to at least the fourth millennium BC in Egypt, including predynastic ritual burials of animals such as gazelles, dogs, cattle, monkey and rams at sights such as Badari, Naqada, Maadi and Heliopolis. Erik Hornung notes that "the care with which these animals were buried and provided with grave goods is evidence for a cult of sacred animals".
There is really no evidence of very early animal cults during Egypt's neolithic period, but by the last centuries of prehistory, there can be scarcely any doubt that the Egyptians worshipped divine powers in animal form. While the earliest evidence of the cult surrounding the Apis bull dates to the reign of King Aha of the 1st Dynasty, various animal cults received considerable emphasis beginning with the twenty-sixth dynasty, perhaps as a part of a resurgence of Egyptian nationalism.
In reality, animals were rarely if ever worshipped as gods in ancient Egypt, but were instead thought of as manifestations of the gods. Like cult statues, they were actually one vehicle through which the gods could make their will manifest, and through which the faithful could demonstrate their devotion to the gods. Therefore, individual animals were cot considered gods, but the god could take up his abode in them and they become become an image of the god and a vessel for him.
In fact, the keeping of sacred animals seems a very logical extension of early many cult statues. Horus, for example, was frequently depicted in statuary and on temple walls in his manifestation as a fully formed falcon, so it is understandable that the ancient Egyptians might also venerate the living, breathing animal.
We may categorize three different types of sacred animals that were honored by the ancient Egyptians. The temple animals, one type, functioned very similarly to the cult statues in temples. These animals lived in or near a temple and were distinguished by special markings. The Apis bull of Memphis, for example, had to be a black bull with a white triangle on its forehead, a crescent moon on its chest and another on its flanks, as well as having black and white in its tail. It was though to be the ka manifestation of Ptah, and like cult statues, these animals could visit other deities in their temples as well as give oracles. At certain times of the day, the bull would be released into a courtyard where worshippers would gather to see him and receive oracles. Oracles were questions that had either a yes or no answer, and this answer was received when the bull entered into one of two stables. Upon the death of the Apis bull, it was elaborately embalmed and there was a time of general mourning. It was then buried in an enormous stone sarcophagus in the Serapeum at Saqqara, after which a search would be made for its replacement.
There were a number of other bulls that were worshipped in this manner, including the Mnevis bull at Heliopolis, which was the manifestation of Atum-Re and the Buchis bull at Hermonthis, which represented Montu and was particularly important during the reign of Nectanebo II. Other animals included the ram of Mendes, which was considered the manifestation of Osiris-Re, and the ram of Elephantine which was associated with Khnum.
A second class of sacred animals were those kept in large numbers near a temple. In animal cults, we encounter the ability of Egyptian gods to extend their existence almost endlessly so that they could be manifest not just in one ibis or crocodile, but in all ibises or all crocodiles. At Saqqara, for example, there was an extensive complex of buildings dedicated to the priestly care of large flocks of ibises, considered to be the manifestation of Thoth, and of falcons, who represented Horus. These flocks provided the enormous number of animal burials found in Egypt, which included literally millions of mummified animals in necropolises throughout the country. Besides the ibis necropolis at Saqqara, there are necropolises for cats at Bubastis, rams at Elephantine, crocodiles, snakes, falcons and ibises at Kom Ombo and ibises and falcons at Abydos.
The burial of sacred animals were frequently paid for by pilgrims during visits to the temples at festivals or when seeking divine blessings, and this must have created a considerable priestly industry for animal mummification. The mummified animal corpse served as a votive offering for the god, and the devotee obviously expected to earn the goodwill of the deity by providing for the burial of one of its sacred animals. For example, one inscription preserved on a jar containing an ibis mummy is a prayer asking Thoth to be benevolent toward the woman who had embalmed his sacred animal. One wonders whether these animals were kept for this specific reason, and to profit the temple, for while only one temple animal was kept at any one time, which received a cult, this second class of sacred animal was kept in large numbers and really received no cult. Obviously the burial of the temple animals was also much more elaborate.
A third type of sacred animal were those kept in private homes as representative of the gods. They included snakes, cats, dogs and other animals, which were kept in cages and buried upon their death. This practice is analogous to the construction of household shrines to allow for domestic worship. However, one must wonder how Egyptologists distinguish between animals kept in private homes for spiritual reasons, and those that were simply kept as pets.
Overview of Ancient Cults in Egypt
23:31 Dec 24 2010
Times Read: 511
Unlike our modern religions, ancient Egyptian religion was not based on a set of theological principles, nor did it really depend on the content of canonical writings. Rather, it evolved around how people interacted with their gods, and these actions are termed by Egyptologists as "cult", which is roughly synonymous with "ritual". In the ancient Egyptian language, there is no specific word for "ritual". They variously referred to these interactions with the gods as irt ht (doing things), irw (things done) or nt (regular procedures).
Cults were focused on ntr, which since the Ptolemaic (Greek) period has been translated as god. However, the ancient Egyptians applied this term to people and things which we today would hesitate to call gods. In fact, Dimitri Meeks has recently suggested that the common feature of all entities called ntr by the ancient Egyptians is that they were the beneficiaries of ritual. However, we might better define these entities by separating them into several classes.
First of all, there were of course beings who originally existed as gods. Rituals served to preserve their existence as gods through providing them with sustenance and other benefits. The second class were entities that became ntr through ritual. This general category can be further divided between those who became ntr during their lifetimes, and those who became ntr after death. Examples of the first type include the king and special animals who were thought to be manifestations of the gods. Examples of those who became ntr after death include various common people who became deified, the most famous of which was probably Imhotep, and mummified animals.
In order to conduct the cult of the gods, the Egyptians constructed religious facilities that remain some of the most elaborate structures ever built. These temples were called by the ancient Egyptians, hwt-ntr, meaning "the house of the god". These temples actually usually served several gods, and in order to sustain these cult activities, considerable resources, such as extensive networks of land, livestock and personnel were required. These necessary resources that were required to support the activities of a temple were referred to as r-pr, meaning "temple estate".
Most temples prior to the New Kingdom appear to have not survived. Scholars sometimes attribute this to their construction using perishable materials, which is probably true of the earliest of these structures. However, it is also likely that materials from well built temples of, for example the Middle Kingdom, may have often been reused in later building projects. Nevertheless, beginning with the New Kingdom and continuing through the Greco-Roman periods, the Egyptians built enormous stone temples that provide us with our primary source of information on cult activity.
We know that important Egyptian temples employed a large number of priests and servants who performed a wide variety of tasks. Theoretically, only the king, who was the only living person in Egypt considered to have the status of ntr, could officiate in the cult before the gods. It was he who was considered to be the high priest of all the gods and goddesses of Egypt, and on who's shoulder's fell the responsibility for their contentment. However, in reality the king delegated to the various priesthoods who served the gods the responsibility of their welfare. Though many major priestly appointments were made by the king himself, others could be made by local officials, and at various times during Egyptian history, priestly offices could be inherited.
Priests were usually divided into four groups that were called "gangs of the service", to which the Greeks gave the name, phyles. Each group served one lunar month in rotation, so that during the year each one served for three months with three months off between months of service. This actually allowed some priests to hold priesthoods in several temples. In the mature ancient Egyptian cult, there were two main classes of priests. Those of the highest class were called hm-ntr, meaning "god's servant". They functioned in the presences of the god's statue, and the Greeks translated hm-ntr as "prophet", because it was these priests who interpreted the oracles of the gods. The chief priests of a temple were designated by ordinal numbers and so the high priest of a temple was called hm-ntr tpy, or "first prophet". In some temple cults, the high priest received special titles. For example, the high priest of Ptah was called "he who is great at directing the crafts, while the high priest of Re was "he who is great at seeing. The high priest of Thoth was "the arbitrator between the two" and that of Khnum was "the modeler of limbs".
The lower class of priests were called the "pure ones". They served such functions such as carrying the god's bark, pouring water for libations during temple services, as overseers of craftsmen, artisans or scribes, or as craftsmen themselves, producing sacred objects for the cult. There was also a third class of priest known as it-ntr, or "god's father". It has been suggested that these priests were senior members of the lower class priesthood who had perhaps reached the level of prophet, but who were not yet formally inducted into that office. At least one of their functions seems to have been to walk in front of the god's image in processions and sprinkle water to purify the path.
Some priests were also specialists. For example, the hry-hb who "he who carries the festival roll", and it was his responsibility for reading the hymns and spells which accompanied many rituals. The "scribe of the house of life" was given the duty of copying the papyri used in temple and funerary rituals.
During the Old Kingdom, women could hold the office of priestess (hmt-ntr) of Hathor or Neith. However, they rarely served as priestess in the cult of a male god. Before the New Kingdom, the office of priest was not considered a full-time position, but with the later introduction of the professional priest, women could no longer hold priestly titles. Mainly, they served as musicians, singers and dancers of the cult. Later, however, they could hold a vary prestigious title at Thebes, known as the Divine Adoratress, which was a prominent position indeed.
The continued existence and prosperity of Egypt was considered to depend on the successful performance of cult activities, carried out by the priesthood in the temple. At the very point of creation, the ancient Egyptians believed that there was a small space of order that appeared in the midst of chaos. Only within the space of this order was life possible, and in order to keep chaos from engulfing the created world, it was necessary to perform the cult of the gods. These cult activities primarily consisted of rituals that were conducted on a daily basis, and those carried out periodically during specific festivals.
The focus of all the cult activity was usually a statue of the god known as an "image". These were usually small objects, averaging about 50 centimeters (22 inches) in height, that resided in a naos or bark shrine in the chapel of the temple's inner sanctuary. Made of wood, stone, or sometimes precious metals, since most temples housed more than god, they also contained more than one cult statue. However, these statues were usually produced with only the most permanent or symbolically significant materials. The skin of the gods was considered to be pure gold, so divine images were often gilded or made entirely with this precious metal. The hair of the gods was said to be like lapis lazuli, so this was the semi precious stone that was often inset into statues of deities to signify their hair and eyebrows.
Like the mummies of the deceased, once these statues were completed by the craftsmen, they underwent a ritual called the "Opening of the Mouth", which transformed the statue, allowing it to be used by the god to manifest itself and in which the divine ka and ba could take up residence. However, it should be noted that the statue itself was not the subject of worship. They were simply one means by which the gods could receive worship.
At any particular point in time, the daily temple ritual took essentially the same form in every temple in Egypt. This ritual evolved from that for the sun god Re at Heliopolis, which evolved around the rebirth of the sun each morning. Elements of the Osirian belief were later incorporated into this daily ritual, symbolizing the restoration and revivification of the dismembered body of Osiris. For the purpose of the ritual, the cult-statue became to be identified as both Re and Osiris.
Our understanding of these rituals comes basically from two main sources, which include the temple reliefs that depict the king performing the various tasks of the ceremony, and papyri that list the rituals and the hymns which accompany them. Though these sources have allowed scholars to reconstruct the various events of the daily ritual, they do not provide the sequence of activities.
However, we might suppose that before dawn, two priests may have been responsible for filling containers with water from the sacred well of the temple and replenishing all of the libation vessels. In the kitchens, priests would have been busy preparing offerings for the gods. The main officiating priest, a hm-ntr, would then go to the "house of the morning" where he would be ceremonially purified, dressed, given a light meal, and prepare to conduct the morning ceremony.
As the sun rose, the bolt was drawn back and the door opened to the shrine that contained the god's image. Since only the king was considered to be able to confront the god, as the officiating priest approached the statue, he would declare that "it is the king who has sent me to see the god". Now the priest prostrated himself before the image, and the chapel was ritually purified with water and incense before a small figure of the goddess Ma'at was presented to the god, symbolizing the proper order established for the world at creation.
Next, the image of the god was probably removed from its shrine, and the clothing and ointment provided the statue the previous day were removed. We believe that the statue was placed on a pile of clean sand and the shrine was then purified with water and incense. The image of the god would then be adorned with green and black eye paint, as well as anointed with several oils. The statue was then dressed in clothes that were colored white, green, blue and red. The white and red cloths would protect the god from his enemies, while the blue hid his face and the green ensured his health. The god's image was then presented with his regalia, such as crowns, scepter, crook, flail and wsh-collar.
Finally, the face of the statue would be anointed, sand scattered around the chapel and the statue replaced in its shrine, before the door was once more bolted and sealed. As the priest performed the final purifications and left the sanctuary, he would drag behind him a broom in order to obliterate his own footsteps.
Though at what point it took place is unclear, at some time during the morning ritual, the offering would take place. This provided the god with his "breakfast, and may have occurred before the final purification of the chapel in preparation for placing the statue in the shrine. Other scholars believe it may have taken place before the undressing and dressing of the statue. Though an enormous meal consisting of meat, bread, cakes, beer, milk, honey, vegetables and fruit was prepared for this purpose, only a small, symbolic portion of it was actually placed before the statue. There was an offering formula listing the various items that was recited by the priest, and incense was burned and libations made in order to purify and sanctify the offerings. Of course, the god did not actually consume the offerings, but rather took from them their essence, so they could be shared with the other deities of the temple.
In fact, the offerings were also used in the ritual of the royal ancestors, where they were provided to the king's royal predecessors, often depicted in the form of a list of their names. Next, the offerings were finally provided to the statues of other individuals found in the temple, before ultimately becoming the property of the priests. The priests received a share of the offerings based on their rank, and this was one manner in which the priests were compensated for their service.
Though the morning ritual was the primary ceremony of the day, there were also less elaborate ceremonies that took place at noon and in the evening. However, during these services, the doors of the god's chapel were not opened. They consisted mainly of pouring water libations and burning incense before the shrines of the gods.
There were other rituals that were performed throughout the night and day, consisting mostly of apotropaic dramatic rituals meant to repel threats against the gods. Frequently, these threats originated in the form of Seth, the murderer of Osiris, or Apophis, the serpent who tried to stop the daily voyage of Re thereby bringing an end to creation. On Re's behalf, hymns were sung during the twelve hours of the day and the twelve hours of the night to protect Re on his journey. Images of these enemies were created from wax or clay and then destroyed, thereby bringing about the enemies destruction through magic.
There were also a number of festivals (hbw) that were celebrated throughout the year, though their nature could vary considerably over Egyptian history. Workers, as evidenced by records at Deir el-Medina, were given days off for festivals. During the reign of Tuthmosis III, we know that in the temple of Amun-Re at Karnak, some fifty-four festivals were held, and at Ramesses III's temple at Medinet Habu, sixty festival days were celebrated. Some of these festivals were small, but others could last as many as twenty-seven days and require large expenditures of food and beverages for participants. Records recording one festival related to Sokar record that 3,694 loaves of bread, 410 cakes and 905 jars of beer were distributed.
Some of the more important of these festivals include the celebrations for New Year's Day, the festival of Osiris at Abydos, during which the "mysteries" of this god were celebrated, the festival of Hathor, when her statue was bought before the royal cult complex and the festival of the Coronation of the Sacred Falcon of Edfu. There was also the Beautiful Festival of the Valley during which the statue of Amun-Re was taken from Karnak to the temple at Deir el-Bahri, as well as other royal cult complexes on the west bank of the Nile River (particularly that of the reigning king). This was also a celebration for the people, who would visit the tombs of their relatives and observe an all-night vigil where they shared a feat with their deceased relatives.
During the festivals, the focus remained on the statue image of the god, but the statue would now be housed in bark shrines. The Egyptian gods always traveled in boats. Sometimes the boat was real, when the god traveled on water, but at other times the bark was a symbolic boat carried over land on the shoulders of priests. During these festivals, the journey could be as short as a procession through the temple, or the god could leave the temple to visit another deity some distance away. The bark shrine was carried along processional avenues which were often lined with sphinxes. Along the way, essentially open-ended buildings were placed as stations on which the priests could rest the bark. At these points, the priests would perform fumigations and provide libations and hymns to the god's image.
These festivals and processions provided the general population with access to the gods, which was otherwise not available, since the farthest most people were admitted into the temples was the open forecourt. Though most scholars believe that the bark shrine was closed during these processions, hiding the image from the onlookers, Dirk van der Plass argued that numerous texts describe the desire of people so see the image of the god, and therefore believes that the shrine was left open. The ancient Egyptians believed that individuals could be healed of various illness by beholding the god's image.
People could also approach the gods during festivals in order to seek an oracle, though the first clear evidence for oracles only occurs as early as the New Kingdom. However, John Baines has suggested that evidence for the existence of oracles may exist as early as the First Intermediate Period, and that even earlier examples may exist. This practice consisted of placing questions with simple yes or no answers written out on small flakes of limestone or ostraca before the gods. These were often questions regarding relatively everyday matters. The movement of the bark-shrine carried on the shoulders of the priests indicated affirmative, if moved forward, nor negative if the priests moved the shrine back.
It should be noted that not all cult worship took place in the normal temple environment. Though during the New Kingdom a type of public chapel, known as a "Chapel of the Hearing Ear" was sometimes built into the rear of regular temples for the general public, there also came to exist, particularly during the New Kingdom, sites at Amarna and Deir el-Medina that evidence public chapels which would have contained either a small cult statue, or more commonly a stela with an image of the god. Areas in some private homes were even set aside for worship. At Amarna, upper-class homes had domestic shrines containing statues of Akhenaten and his family, or stelae showing the royal family venerating the Aten (sun disk). Also, many of the houses at Deir el-Medina contained household shrines consisting of a wall niche which could be equipped with an offering table or libation trough. Such areas might be found in any room, including the kitchen. Popular gods for such shrines included Mertseger, Renenutet, Sobek, Amun, Taweret and Hathor, though deceased relatives were frequently worshipped as the "able spirit of Re".
Small, public chapels were usually served by lay priests, but we have little information about the cult practices in these, or in home shrines. Doubtless, offerings of food, libations and incense were made, but what other forms of rituals took place is unknown. These shrines served as places where people could make specific requests of their gods in prayer.
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