Lost Voices of the Nile: Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt

by Charlotte Booth

  Although the city of Tell el-Amarna was founded in order to worship the Aten and no other deity, there is little evidence this worship was carried out within the houses of many of the citizens, as statues and stelae dedicated to the traditional gods have been discovered, indicating many people were simply paying lip service to Akhenaten’s new god. In one house in the workman village at Tell el-Amarna there was an image of four dancing Bes figures, all with different arm and head positions,11 moving towards a figure of Taweret. In a house in the main city at Tell el-Amarna a cupboard underneath an altar also produced a stela of a woman and child worshipping a figure of Taweret,12 and in another house there was a large wall mural showing four figures of Bes dancing, although whether they were dancing in front of another figure is not clear.13 Bes and Taweret were still clearly worshipped in the homes at Tell el-Amarna despite Akhenaten’s ban on any gods but himself and the Aten.

  It is difficult for people today to understand how much of an upheaval this religious revolution would have been for the ordinary people of Egypt. The population of Egypt were essentially told that everything they had believed since childhood was wrong and they were to stop believing in the gods and only worship the royal family, whom most of the population never saw. It was doomed to failure from the outset. People continued to worship the gods they had always worshipped, which comprised a rich pantheon of household gods that they appealed to in times of trouble and who were a major part of their daily lives.

  As the main temples throughout Egypt were not open for worship to the public, only being accessible to the king, priests and invited officials, everybody worshipped their gods within their own homes. However, should they know someone with access to the temple they appealed to that person to approach the god on their behalf.

  When I was looking for you (the god) to tell you some affairs of mine, you happened to be concealed in your holy of holies and there was nobody having access to it to send it to you. Now as I was waiting to encounter Hori ... and he said to me ‘I have access’ so I am sending him to you. See you must discard seclusion today and come out in procession in order that you may decide upon the issue involving seven kilts belonging to the temple of Horemheb and also those two kilts belonging to the necropolis scribe ... now as for one who is the same position as you, being in the place of seclusion and concealed, he sends forth pronouncements, but you haven’t communicated anything to me at all.14

  It seems that this man’s reason for wanting access to the god was to approach him as an oracle in order to settle a dispute about some stolen kilts.

  Another person was unable to visit the temple due to illness even though he had been invited, so therefore appealed to someone else to go on his behalf:

  Please call upon Amun to bring me back, for I have been ill since I arrived north and am not in my normal state. Don’t set your minds to anything else. As soon as my letter reaches you, you shall go to the forecourt of Amun of the Thrones of the Two Lands, taking all the little children with you and coax him and tell him to keep me safe.15

  While state temples were generally off limits to the majority of people, the community at Deir el-Medina solved the problem by building small shrines dedicated to state gods in the village. For example, in the eighteenth dynasty to the north of the village a small temple was built to the god Amun; while maintained and built by the villagers themselves, during the reign of Ramses II the king actually made improvements to it. There were smaller shrines dedicated to the gods Ptah, Hathor, Thoth, Khnum, Seshat, Taweret and Meretseger, some in the northern part of the village and others on the path over the cliffs leading to the Valley of the Kings. Also within the village was a terraced temple dedicated to the deified founder of the village Amenhotep I and his wife Ahmose-Nefertari. This temple housed the oracle of Amenhotep I and the villagers approached this in order to settle disputes, solve problems and ask for the god’s help.

  While those on the east bank could appeal to the main temples (should they have access) to settle disputes and to cure illnesses, and those in Deir el-Medina constructed their own temples that were open only to them, generally state gods were not approached for the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Household gods reflected personal concerns, and many were associated with fertility, pregnancy and childbirth, or with a particular locale, whether it be a nome (region) or a city. Like state gods, household gods often had their own associated myths, regalia, practices and taboos.

  Household religion catered directly for the concerns of the householder, and one of the most common concerns was childbirth. Childbirth was one of the most dangerous times in a woman’s life; approximately 1.5 per cent of mothers died16 and infant mortality was as high as 50 per cent, so divine intervention at this time was essential. One of the most common childbirth gods was Bes. From the eighteenth dynasty he was shown as an achondroplastic dwarf with a lion’s head and tail and was depicted facing forward with bowed legs, feet turned outwards, arms bent at the elbows and his hands placed on his hips. His lion face is sometimes thought to be a mask; a cartonnage mask was discovered at El-Lahun together with items used in childbirth, and a similar mask of moulded clay was also discovered at Deir el-Medina. They are thought to have belonged to a midwife, doctor or dancer.

  Bes’s lion’s tail is sometimes replaced with a cape of lion skin and after the New Kingdom he often wore a panther skin, with the head and claws across the breast, instead of the traditional lion skin. In the eighteenth dynasty he was often shown with wings, especially on the apotropaic or protective wands (see chapter four) used in childbirth rituals in order to prevent evil spirits from harming the mother and newborn child. On these wands he is often shown holding a knife in order to represent his aggressive nature when scaring off demons. He is sometimes shown carrying the sa symbol of protection, a knife, or two snakes and a gazelle, indicating he defeated evil.17

  Bes had many roles; he was the god of love, marriage, jollification, the guardian of Horus-the-child and consequently the protector of all children, and was therefore evoked during childbirth. ‘[The spell was] to be said four times over a dwarf of clay [a Bes amulet], [and] placed on the crown of the head of a woman who is giving birth under suffering.’18 Through the process of singing, dancing and music he chased away snakes, scorpions and all forces of evil or malevolent spirits. His role as a musician and dancer connects him to Hathor, as the dance was sacred to her. In the Middle Kingdom he was given the title The Fighting Deity and was shown holding a knife, which focused on his violent nature. This was later reinforced in the Roman Period, when he was represented in Roman military costume as a war god.19

  Throughout the pharaonic period there were no temples dedicated to Bes, but in the Ptolemaic Period at Saqqara there was a small Bes shrine. This comprised a few rooms next to a large enclosure wall surrounding another temple (which is now destroyed). The walls were a combination of mud-brick and limestone fragments and large-scale figures of Bes (1-1.5 metres) had been modelled from clay and painted. Next to these figures were others of smaller, nude ladies. There were also large platforms which could have been used for sleeping, indicating that dream therapy was practiced here.20 This was when the devotees slept at the temple and the god sent them dreams which, once interpreted, helped with their problems. Excavations uncovered numerous limestone votive statues of Bes, some with a large penis indicating fertility was a major focus of this cult. The cult developed further in the Roman Period; the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus records an oracle of Bes was situated in Upper Egypt.

  Although Bes has this deep-rooted connection with childbirth and fertility he is rarely shown with a wife or consort, as most other deities are; however, in later periods a female counterpart, Beset, was introduced. She is shown as full-size with a lion’s head and is often holding a snake to show her protective nature. She was an Asiatic deity who had been adopted into the Egyptian pantheon.

  Bes was closely associated with the goddess Taweret and they were often represented on the same
objects, which included furniture, headrests, pottery vessels, kohl tubes, cosmetic spoons and mirrors. Taweret was a pregnant hippopotamus, normally shown standing on her hind legs with pendulous breasts and a protruding stomach. Her breasts emphasised her role of a nursing mother, and were in no way considered erotic. She bore the head of a hippopotamus, the four limbs and paws of a lion and a mane in the form of a crocodile’s tail. She was also evoked during childbirth to scare away harmful demons and spirits.

  As a fertility goddess, Taweret was associated with female sexuality and pregnancy and was affiliated with the goddess Hathor. Hence, she is sometimes shown wearing the cow-horn and sun-disc headdress common to Hathor. She was given the title ‘She Who Removes the Birth Waters’,21 making her connection with childbirth clear. Like Bes, Taweret also carried the sa sign of protection, an ankh, a knife or a torch, the flame of which repelled evil spirits. In the funerary cult, Taweret was the ‘Lady of Magical Protection’, who guided the dead into the afterlife.

  Childbirth deities were often associated with death and rebirth as the process was believed to be the same; one is the birth into life and the other is the rebirth into the afterlife. Hathor, for example, protected the western mountains leading to the necropolis, consequently protecting the deceased at the start of their journey. Therefore any female deities equated with her often held a similar role.

  Amulets and their moulds of both Bes and Taweret have been discovered at numerous sites, including Naukratis and even Tell el-Amarna. Larger amulets were worn singly, whereas smaller ones were incorporated into necklaces or bracelets. They were worn during pregnancy and labour, and may have been hung around the necks of newly born infants as well as older children.22 Amulets of Bes and Taweret were sometimes given as votive offerings to Hathor at her shrines.

  At Deir el-Medina a particularly important god for the workmen was Ptah, the patron of artists, stonemasons and craftsmen. As a state god Ptah’s role was that of Divine Creator, creating the world as a craftsman works. He is often depicted in a divine triad with Sekhmet and their child Nefertum. As a personal god he protected the creative industries, but he was also thought to cause blindness to those who did not uphold the laws of Maat. This was an ailment that frequently affected the workmen in the Valley of the Kings, as they worked in dark, dusty and confined spaces. Therefore there are numerous appeals to Ptah to remove the affliction of blindness which they believed was caused by offending him in some way, either through impiety or blasphemy.23 The stela of the workman Neferabut from Deir el-Medina was dedicated to Ptah and describes such a curse: ‘I am a man who swore falsely by Ptah, Lord of Maat; he made me see darkness by day … He caused me to be like the dogs of the street, I being in his hand. He made men and gods observe me, I being as a man who has sinned against his lord.’24

  Many people dedicated ‘ear stelae’ to Ptah, so called because these stelae were inscribed with between 1 and 376 images of ears. A god was thought to have multiple ears and eyes and the stelae appealed to all of them. Some examples have an inscription dedicated to ‘He Who Hears Prayers’ and the idea was that these stelae were a conduit for voicing prayers directly into the ear of the god. The god is emphasised as the focus, as the deity is named far more often than the donor: ‘I am calling you, Mut, Lady of Heaven, that you may hear my petitions.’25 As with many personal religious items they varied in material and craftsmanship, and there are wooden or stone examples. Although primarily dedicated to Ptah, some are also inscribed with images or inscriptions to Hathor, Amun, Mut, Thoth or Sekhmet and have been found at Deir el-Medina, Thebes, Giza and Memphis.

  These stelae were erected at a Chapel of the Hearing Ear, which was situated outside the temple proper as ordinary people were unable to enter the temple. At Karnak temple – on the eastern side there were several of these chapels – the remains of one still standing is dominated by a large calcite statue of Thutmosis III and Amun.26 It is referred to in a building inscription of Thutmosis III as a ‘proper place of hearing for Amun-Ra’ and there were wab priests and doorkeepers associated with this structure.27 The concept of ear stelae and hearing chapels was popular from the Middle Kingdom to the Roman Period.28 Inscriptions describing Ptah of the Hearing Ear have been discovered in Deir el-Medina, Thebes and Memphis. One devotee, the sculptor Ptahmose, asked that after his death he would be allowed to dwell in the temple of Ptah, indicating prayers were not always in anticipation of something in this life.

  Another deity worshipped primarily at Deir el-Medina was Meretseger, a cobra goddess. The Valley of the Kings lies in the shadow of a natural, pyramid-shaped hill known as the ‘Lady of the Peak’ who was personified in the form of the snake goddess Meretseger. She was known as ‘She who Loves Silence’ and was worshipped over the whole of the Theban necropolis, although primarily at Deir el-Medina.29 The workmen at Deir el-Medina set three-dimensional images of cobras at their doorways, and in the lower- or middle-class houses at Memphis they fashioned cobras from clay with offering bowls. In this manner the goddess protected the house.30 She caused those who incurred her wrath to be bitten by a snake or afflicted with blindness and there are numerous inscriptions to her from the workmen in relation to this. One workman, Neferabut, laments,

  [I am] an ignorant and witless man … I knew not good or evil … when I did a deed of transgression against the Peak, she punished me, and I was in her hand by night as well as day … I called out to the wind, but it did not come to me … but when I called to my mistress, I found her coming to me with sweet breezes. She showed mercy unto me, after she had let me see her hand. She turned about to me in mercy.31

  It was believed the truly repentant would be cured of their snake bite and would regain their sight. Neferabut clearly was uncertain as to which deity he had wronged, hence the stela was dedicated to both Ptah and Meretseger.

  Another state deity worshipped as a household goddess was Hathor. In the home she was a goddess of sexuality and motherhood and protector during childbirth. In chapter 148 of the Book of the Dead she took the form of the Seven Hathors who pronounced the fate of the newborn baby.32 The incantation addresses the cow-goddess directly: ‘May you grant bread and beer, offerings and provisions which are beneficial to my spirit, may you grant me life, prosperity, health, joy and long duration on earth.’33

  Hathor’s connection with childbirth is reflected in her title Lady of the Vulva and her shrines were often approached by childless couples desperate to conceive, who left votive offerings of clay or wooden penises, necklaces, beads or three-dimensional female figurines. Hathor was connected with all aspects of female lives, but personified male as well as female sexuality. At Deir el-Medina domestic items, shrines, votive stelae, tomb paintings and amulets34 were dedicated to Hathor by both men and women, although most of the votive cloths from Deir el Bahri name women and depict family scenes, indicating they were dedicated by women. The men making offerings were probably appealing for help and protection during the fertile aspects of their lives, as well as a cure for male sexual problems, including impotence or infertility. Ramose, a scribe at Deir el-Medina born in approximately 1413 BCE (see chapter one), sought a cure for such a problem.35 He and his wife, Mutemwia, were childless and had petitioned various deities for children but to no avail. He dedicated stelae and statues to different gods, including Qudshu, the Asiatic goddess of love; Reshef, the Asiatic thunder-god; Taweret, the hippopotamus goddess of childbirth; Min, the fertility god; and Shed, the saviour and helper of mankind. He also dedicated numerous statues and a stone phallus to Hathor, the latter bearing an inscription that reads, ‘O Hathor, remember the man at his burial. Grant a duration in your house as a rewarded one to the scribe Ramose. O Golden One, who loves when you desired the praised one, you desired one, cause me to receive a compensation of your house as a rewarded one.’36 This was a plea by Ramose for fertility, and was perhaps a final act of a desperate couple. However, the couple still did not conceive and they were forced to adopt, as was traditional (see chapter f
our).

  In the villages Hathor was worshipped as the ‘Lady of Drunkenness’, as it was believed that through drinking alcohol it was possible to experience the goddess and converse with her. Conversing with the goddess was made easier at the Temple of Mut at Karnak, which in the New Kingdom had a Porch of Drunkenness associated with Hatshepsut. Worshippers got drunk, slept here and were woken by drummers in order to commune with the goddess Mut.37

  The Festival of Drunkenness enabled the villagers of Deir el-Medina to get drunk in the hope of communicating directly with the goddess Hathor. This festival was dedicated to Hathor in her form of Sekhmet, as a means of ensuring her return. On the Ptolemaic gateway to the Temple of Mut at Karnak, it is described that the beer drunk at this festival was red in order to look like blood, and makes reference to the myth of the ‘Destruction of Mankind’, where Sekhmet gorged on the blood of mankind.38 All festivals dedicated to Hathor involved playing instruments, especially the sistra, singing and dancing. Moreover, most festivals at Deir el-Medina dedicated to the goddess also involved alcohol and drunkenness, which no doubt also led to singing and dancing. Some festivals also had a sexual nature; one included the transportation in procession of a large phallus, and another was called the Festival of Opening of the Bosoms of the Women, which may very well have ended in an orgy.39

  Hathor was also worshiped in a funerary function in her form as Lady of the West or Goddess of the Western Mountain. In these roles she protected the necropolis and all those in it. She is often depicted in this form as a cow emerging from the cliffs or overshadowing the tomb. As the Lady of the Sycamore, Hathor provided nourishment for the deceased in the form of a sycamore fig tree. She is depicted in this form in both royal and non-royal tombs, sometimes emerging from the tree as a woman bearing a tray of food or pouring water into the tomb owner’s hands, demonstrating her role in the continuance of the afterlife. Sometimes, as in the tomb of Thutmosis III, Hathor is shown as a tree with a breast nursing the king, showing her status as mother goddess and nurturer of the king.