Daughters of Isis - Joyce Tyldesley

by Daughters of Isis- Women of Ancient Egypt (epub)

  8

  Religious Life and Death

  All know the monstrous worships that defile the Egyptians.

  They adore the crocodile and the ibis gorged on snake,

  While in awe they gape before the golden image of an ape.

  …

  The leek’s taboo! Don’t chew an onion head!

  O holy people, whose gods are garden-bred,

  They spare the woolly race and won’t permit

  The throat of any goatbitch to be slit,

  Yet unrebuked, at meals of human flesh they sit.1

  The theology of ancient Egypt, with its awesome pantheon of animal-headed deities, its imposing temples and its idiosyncratic preparations for death, has fascinated observers from the end of the Dynastic period onwards. Juvenal’s largely inaccurate religious satire quoted above – far from being taboo the onion was a staple of the Egyptian diet, while there is certainly no evidence to support claims of bloodthirsty acts of priestly cannibalism – indicates how even to the peoples of the classical world the gods of Egypt were a powerful and exciting mystery, the subjects of endless superstition and rumour. Two thousand years later tourists continue to flock in vast numbers to gaze in wonder at the pyramids and there speculate on the faith which inspired such extravagant building projects, while the mystical names of Isis, her husband–brother Osiris and her son Horus, have retained their power to conjure up vivid images of ancient beliefs and dark, intriguing rituals.

  It would certainly not be possible to make any valid study of Egyptian society without giving some consideration to the religion which played an important political role within the Egyptian state, and which may be supposed to have influenced the thoughts and daily actions of her people. However, any such consideration must be taken with a suitable degree of caution. It is extremely difficult for us, looking back over a vast span of historical events, to evaluate the precise influence of past beliefs. Although we are fortunate enough to have both written and archaeological evidence for a variety of religious and superstitious rituals it must always be remembered that we are able to observe only some of the outward or material signs of inner faith. It may be very tempting to impose our own expectations and preconceptions on the Egyptians, to the extent of imagining that we might actually be able to understand how they thought and felt, but this would clearly be wrong. We only have to consider the problems of a twenty-second-century archaeologist trying to identify all aspects of Christian doctrine, based on the excavation of a few churches plus a study of the Bible, to see how difficult an attempted interpretation of past religions can be.

  The conventional phrase ‘Egyptian religion’, with its implication of one single creed enshrined in holy writings and accepted by all, is actually very misleading. Throughout the Dynastic period there were several distinct but related aspects of Egyptian spiritual life which were able to co-exist happily, each gradually evolving and developing through time while always overlapping with the others. The two extremes which may easily be both recognized and classified were the official or major tradition, represented by the formal state theology and its associated bureaucracy, and the unofficial or minor tradition which included the less respectable arts often lumped together under the headings of magic, superstition and witchcraft. Between these two distinct poles lay the respectable semi-official religions; the regional and family cults which were very important in the lives of individual households and their members but of relatively little interest to the state. There was no obvious cut-off point between any of these religious approaches, and each influenced the ordinary man and woman to a greater or lesser extent. For example, the women of Deir el-Medina, living very close to the centre of the cult of the state god Amen, participated in the annual festivals of the major tradition but officially worshipped the more local patron deities of the Theban necropolis, the deified king Amenhotep I and his mother Ahmose Nefertari together with Meretseger (‘She-Loves-Silence’), the snake goddess of the Theban mountain who was also known as the ‘Peak of the West’. Evidence recovered from their houses, however, suggests that more personal family-based cults with a heavy emphasis on the gods and spirits associated with pregnancy and childbirth were at least equally important in their lives, while belief in the awesome powers of superstition and magic was widespread.

  Fig. 42 Woman praying

  This diversity of religious approach is by no means unusual. Indeed, it is widely recognized that where there is a highly focalized official religion with an intricate theology less sophisticated grassroots cults will often develop, adapting and reinterpreting certain facets of the mainstream belief while completely disregarding others. This is particularly common where the major tradition is primarily a male-oriented religion, controlled by an élite of upper-class educated men and therefore remote from the daily life of most women. In these circumstances men are often able to satisfy their religious needs by adherence to the state theology while women, excluded from fully participating in the rituals of their official faith and often unable to fully understand the intricacies of doctrine due to a lack of religious teaching, find their spiritual fulfilment by developing the minor traditions, or ‘woman’s superstitions’, without feeling that they are in any way deviating from the demands of their major religion.

  This religious duality is still seen to a remarkable degree in present-day Egypt, where both Moslem and Christian peasant women retain a deep-rooted belief in the malignancy of certain spirits and the awesome powers of the evil eye. A village wife wishing to conceive a child, for example, is far more likely to call upon the spirits of her dead children or to obtain a spell from the local magician than to pray to Allah, and would not see this as a betrayal of her ‘official’ faith. Many modern village women feel that the ancient monuments of Egypt themselves possess magical or spiritual powers, and while walking across an archaeological site it is not unusual to find evidence for modern fertility rites – usually small heaps of recently broken pottery – associated with the ancient statues and images. Winifred Blackman observed this same phenomenon in an Egyptian village in the 1920s, where she attempted to help childless women conceive by enlisting the aid of ancient relics and modern Egyptian-style charms:

  The ritual was as follows. The women first repaired to one of the ancient decorated tomb-chapels, conducted thither by one of our servants who had the key. On entering they each stepped seven times backwards and forwards over what they supposed to be the mouth of the shaft admitting to the subterranean burial chamber. When this performance was over they returned to the undecorated tomb-chapel in which I lived. Here I produced the charms, two of which were placed on the ground at a time. Then each woman solemnly stepped over them backwards and forwards seven times. Four charms in all were used, representing the head of Isis, a mummified divinity, a scarab and a cat. When this was accomplished the lower jaw-bone of an ancient Egyptian skull was placed on the ground. The same ceremony was yet again performed, being repeated with two complete ancient Egyptian heads, one a well-preserved mummified head, the other a skull. A glass of water was then brought, into which the blue glazed charms were dropped. Each woman drank some of the water, and then picked out the charms and sucked them, and some rubbed their bodies with these magical objects, and also applied the water to their persons.

  Happily, Miss Blackman was able to report that at least two of the ladies helped in this way became pregnant soon after receiving their unorthodox treatment.

  The state religion of ancient Egypt evolved with the unification of the country and remained relatively consistent throughout the Dynastic era, although it was at all times receptive to new ideas and flexible enough to accept foreign influences. Before unification each town or village simply worshipped its own omnipotent totem who provided a rational explanation for the puzzling and often frightening natural phenomena which would otherwise have worried the whole community. Everyone understood that neighbouring areas respected different gods, and people were happy to accept the polytheistic concept o
f many deities existing simultaneously while retaining their personal loyalty to one particular being. Following unification, several specific cults started to rise to prominence and, although individual communities continued to worship their own local gods, major national deities began to emerge. In particular, the cults of Re, the sun god, and Horus, the god associated with royalty, became politically very important due to the increased patronage of the king.

  You are Amen, the Lord of the silent, who pays heed to the voice of the poor. When I call to you in my distress you come to rescue me. You give breath to me in my wretchedness and release me from my bondage.

  New Kingdom stela from Deir el-Medina

  It was not until the New Kingdom that some of the more conspicuous national gods started to take on particular specialized attributes and characteristics, a change which led directly to the development of Egyptian mythology. Meanwhile, the smaller regional cults continued to flourish under the supervision of local priestly families. Local temples and shrines were endowed with land and property by the monarch and their gods and goddesses, who were also included in the wider state pantheon, continued in their role as regional omnipotent deity. This dual role is somewhat confusing to modern observers but was perfectly acceptable to the Egyptians. For example, at Hermopolis Magna in Middle Egypt the ibis- or baboon-headed god Thoth, state god of writing and learning, was worshipped not simply because of his impressive educational skills but as the supreme deity of the region; the two distinct aspects of Thoth were certainly not felt to be mutually incompatible. The local versions of the gods and goddesses were generally far less specialized than their counterparts in the state pantheon, being more strongly associated with nature and the annual cycle of the Nile inundation which played an important part in day-to-day life.

  Throughout this time the relationship between the ordinary people and the principal gods was conducted, in theory at least, exclusively through the monarch. The king, as a god himself, was the only person able to communicate with his fellow deities, and he automatically became the chief priest of all Egyptian cults. However, as he obviously could not be physically present to serve every god in every temple, priests were appointed from upper-class families to deputize for the king and perform all the necessary rituals. The monarch would normally choose to delegate much of his routine work to these deputies but would wish to be seen officiating during the important annual festivals of the major national gods, especially the Opet festival for Amen, the state god of the Egyptian Empire, when the statues of the god, his consort Mut and their child Khonsu were taken in a lengthy procession from the Luxor temple to the nearby temple of Karnak. This ritual journey was a great public spectacle, and the banks of the Nile were lined with Egyptians eager to get a glimpse of their god.

  Fig. 43 The sky goddess Nut

  This Egyptian state religion was clearly very different to the major faiths of the present day. Not only was it polytheistic, it was also a theology without a creed, with no real moral undertones and no tradition of pastoral care. Indeed, it was generally more important as a source of continuing unity and stability throughout the country than as a means of spiritual enlightenment. Although it was generally accepted that men and women should choose to lead a good life rather than a bad one, this moral code evolved more for the convenience of society than the gratification of the gods. Virtue did not necessarily reap any heavenly reward, and only the king was required to act in a fitting and proper manner to ensure the preservation of maat throughout the land. The gods themselves showed remarkably little concern over the behaviour of the ordinary Egyptians, although when directly provoked they could retaliate with a vengeance; the New Kingdom testimony of Neferabu, a draughtsman working at Deir el-Medina who had offended Ptah by swearing a false oath, tells us how he was struck blind as a punishment for the lies which had been interpreted as a lack of proper respect for the god:

  I am a man who swore falsely by Ptah, Lord of maat, and he made me see darkness by day. I will announce his might to both those who are ignorant of him and those who know him, to both the small and the great. Beware of Ptah, Lord of maat, for he does not forgive anyone’s lapse! Refrain from using the name of Ptah falsely, for he who utters it falsely, will fall.

  Priests were appointed simply to serve the god on behalf of their king, and consequently had absolutely no interest in the spiritual or other welfare of the people. The temples of Egypt should not be regarded as the ancient equivalent of cathedrals or mosques; they were built simply to be the homes of the gods, housing the cult statues within which the deities were thought to dwell. As such they had no congregation and, indeed, were usually out of bounds to the ordinary people. Access to the back part of the temple, which can be equated with the family rooms at the rear of the private houses, was restricted to the priesthood and the king who serviced the cult by providing food, drink and clothing and burning incense; the front part, which was decorated with scenes of royal propaganda, was thrown open to the general public only on special festival days, therefore there was no Egyptian equivalent of the Friday mosque, Saturday synagogue or Sunday church service.

  The ordinary people were allowed to view the religious festivals which occurred throughout the year, although they were denied any ritual participation in these great events. The Opet festival, held at Thebes during the second month of the inundation, has already been mentioned. This ceremony, marked by a state holiday of at least eleven days, was clearly an occasion for national rejoicing; at Medinet Habu the celebrations were made extra special by the free distribution of over 11,300 loaves and 385 large jugs of beer. Later in the year the residents of Thebes enjoyed yet another public holiday as the statue of Amen made a second official journey from his Theban home, crossing the Nile to visit the mortuary temples of the past rulers of Egypt.

  The Abydos equivalent of the Opet festival was the procession of the statue of Osiris from his temple at Abydos to his tomb at the Umm el-Qaab, the traditional site of the burials of the archaic kings of Egypt. The ritual of this procession seems to have re-enacted the myth of the death and burial of the god in a dramatic form which must have been quite similar to the English medieval passion-plays, and the reconstruction of the murder was followed by the triumphal return of the resurrected god to his home. It is best known from the description left to us by the Middle Kingdom official Ikhernofret, who had been sent to Abydos in order to oversee the refurbishment of the god’s processional paraphernalia. Ikhernofret left a commemorative limestone stela at Abydos detailing both his own important activities and the highlights of the religious drama:

  I conducted the Great Procession, following in the god’s steps. I made the god’s boat sail, with Thoth at the helm… Decked in his beautiful regalia, he proceeded to the domain of Peqer… I followed the god to his house.

  At Edfu the annual festival included a drama commemorating the victory of Horus over Seth, his justification before the tribunal of the gods, and the dismemberment of his former adversary. By re-performing these events, their beneficial effect was reinforced and the king used the play as a means of deflecting some of Horus’s triumph on to himself, ensuring a continuing prosperous reign. Not all the annual state festivals were so solemn, however; the Late Period celebration of the cat-headed goddess Bast held at the Delta town of Bubastis was clearly a more cheerful occasion. Herodotus has described how bands of excited pilgrims travelled by boat to the city, passing the journey by drinking, singing, more drinking, clapping, drinking again and playing musical instruments. Whenever they approached a town they steered their tipsy cargo towards the river bank and:

  … while some of the women continue to play and sing others call out to the females of the place and hurl abuse at them, while a certain number dance, and some even stand up and expose their private parts. After proceeding in this fashion all along the river course they reach Bubastis, where they celebrate the feast with abundant sacrifices. More grape wine is consumed at this festival than in all the rest of the year.


  The gods and goddesses of the New Kingdom pantheon were perceived as behaving in a remarkably human fashion, falling in love, marrying, quarrelling and indeed displaying many of the foibles and failings of their mortal counterparts. The goddesses therefore reflect, to a limited extent, the role of women within the community, providing us with one of our few opportunities to examine the behaviour of females – albeit mythological – outside the home environment. Within the pantheon there developed a natural hierarchy, and included among the more important of the gods were some impressively powerful goddesses. There was, however, no goddess as powerful as the most mighty of the gods, Osiris, Re and Amen, and initially no specific ‘earth mother’ particularly associated with the mysteries of fertility and creation. Although all the goddesses had originated as local deities capable of independent thought and action, in their state-goddess personae they followed Egyptian convention by marrying neighbouring gods of roughly equal stature and assuming the more passive woman’s role within the marriage. Typically, they bore a male child, thereby becoming associated with the approved feminine traits of fertility, motherhood and domesticity.