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Care of the Gods

Creating Bodies of the Gods

Cult images of the gods were produced from only the most permanent or symbolically
significant materials, and the production of a divine statue was considered as an act of
creation accomplished by human craftsmen with the help of the gods themselves. There
was thus something of the supernatural about the divine image even from its entail
design and fashioning at the craftsmen’s hands.

Mythologically, the skin of the gods was said to be of pure gold so divine images were
often gilded or made entirely with the precious metal. Their hair was said to be like lapis
lazuli so this semi-precious stone were often inset into statues of deities to signify their
hair and eyebrows. Symbolic connections were also made with the deity by means of
the materials used in its image. Lunar deities, for example, often were being inset with
silver, which signified the moon.

The connection between the image and the deity was made through the rite of the
‘opening of the mouth’. This ritual symbolically removed all traces of human origin from
the image and instilled it with the emanation of the deity. At this point the image was
believed to become the invisible deity’s visible body on earth.

Images of the Gods

Although they were not considered to be the gods themselves, statues of gods and
goddesses were believed to house the spirits or manifestations of the deities, and
because of this they were treated as they were alive. Divine images were taken from
their shrines each day and washed, dressed in clean clothes, adorned with precious
ornaments and censed. They were given offerings of food and drink usually wine, milk
or water and then returned to their shrines. The distinction between the medium of the
statue and the separate identity of the deity is clear in textual sources.

The divine image was not only treated reverentially but was also the recipient of
considerable gifts. For example, Amenhotep son of Hapu, chief steward of
Amenhotep III, records that he donated 1000 animals to a statue of the king. Royal gifts
to the gods were even more prodigious and were often recorded in representation of
the king presenting his gifts before the image of the deity to whom they were made.

On festival days or other special occasions the images of the gods were often placed in
portable barques which were carried upon the shoulders of the priests and taken in
procession to significant sites. These were often the temples of other deities, or their
own temples.

Festival, rituals, and Mysteries

Festivals

Festival calendars or lists of rituals activities were inscribed on walls and doorways of
temples and often included the offerings to be made not only in the regular daily service
but also in all particular high days celebrated in the temple’s cult.

Renewal is important in these festivals as their purpose was directed to the same kind of
rejuvenation or rebirth achieved each day in the solar cycle. Thus one of the ritual
performed on the New Year’s Day (also called the birth of Re) which is most fully
recorded in Ptolemaic times involved carrying the statue of the deities up to the temple
roof. Here the god or goddess could see and be united with the rising sun in a moment
of shared rebirth. Many of the same rituals and religious performance were enacted on
a number of key festivals such as those of the first day of the first month (New Year) and
the first day of the fifth month (celebrating the birth of Osiris). Some festivals had their
own meanings but renewal or rebirth was a predominant theme in a great number of
them.

Rituals

The power of the gods was also tapped and order maintained by means of rituals
utilized on unscheduled special occasions. This could be the kind of ritual employed in
the ‘opening of the mouth’ ceremony in order to animate a temple statue or it could be
one with much wider application. The goddess Sekhmet for example was regarded as
potential bringer of plague and disease who sometimes had to be propitiated and her
priests were often skilled in medicine. Placation could be accomplished through large-
scale magico-religious rituals performed in the temples as well as through more focused
rituals directed at individual sufferers. Thus rituals for the care of humanity also served
to care for the gods.

Mysteries

Many aspects of daily service, festival and special rituals were described by Egyptians as
‘mysteries’ (Egyptian shetau). In fact, by virtue of its supernatural basis, any ritual might
be said to be mystery. Any part of a ritual which was conducted privately beyond the
view of the people was given this name because it was hidden and part of the secret
knowledge of the priests and others who were skilled in its performance. A general
atmosphere of secrecy was developed by priesthoods as time progressed but in reality
the same priests sometimes performed similar rituals such as the ‘Opening of the
mouth’ in both hidden and open settings, and the boundaries between formal temple
ceremonies and private ritual were probably blurred to some degree.

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