Chapter 9
Worshipping like an Egyptian: Religion
In This Chapter
Getting to know the deities
Worshipping the gods in temples and at home
Guarding against evil and cursing enemies
Exalting the deceased
When looking at Egyptian religion, simply knowing where to begin can be difficult. With more than 700 different known gods, the ancient Egyptian population may seem very pious.
This chapter examines the many gods that the king and the priests – as well as everyday Egyptians – worshipped. I explore some of the most notable rituals and practices, including the popular practice of worshipping deceased humans.
Surveying the Pantheon of Egyptian Gods
The Egyptians were a very organised people, in religion as well as in almost everything else. Historians can divide Egyptian religious practice into two forms:
State religion was closely connected with the king and his divinity. This religious practice was virtually inaccessible to most people. The state gods were worshipped in the large temples that dot Egypt, such as Karnak, Luxor, Abu Simbel, and Abydos. These temples were closed to the public; only the king and the priests were allowed to enter and worship.
Household religion developed as a response to the exclusive state religion. Household religion involved a different set of gods. The people (without priests) worshipped these gods in their home (rather than in the temples).
Explaining all those unusual forms
Both state and household religion involved gods of somewhat bizarre form – represented as humans with animal heads, as animals, or as humans with inanimate objects for heads.
Hathor was a woman with a cow’s head, which represents the mothering, nurturing nature of a cow.
Sekhmet was a woman with a lioness’s head, which represents the aggressive nature of a lioness.
Selket was a woman with a scorpion body and human head, which represents that she is the protector against scorpion and spider bites.
Shifting roles and shapes
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The sun god Ra, for example, is presented in four different ways, depending on the time of day:
Khepri is the scarab beetle (or beetle-headed human) that represents the sun at dawn.
Aten is the sun disc that represents the light that shines from the sun at noon.
Re-Horakhti is a falcon-headed human with a sun-disc headdress that represents the sun on the horizon at dawn and sunset.
Flesh is a ram-headed human that represents the sun at sunset.
Basking in the sun’s rays
In a country as hot as Egypt, the sun was a particularly powerful force in people’s lives. As such, the solar cult (worship of deities associated with the solar cycle) was particularly prominent from the Old Kingdom to the Roman period (see Chapters 3, 4, and 6 for more on these various eras).
However, rather than keeping matters simple, the Egyptians named and worshipped many different aspects of the sun god, depending on the time of day and the area where the sun god was worshipped. See the section ‘Shifting roles and shapes’ for more information.
Additionally, the solar gods were closely connected with the creation of the earth – the sun was the first thing to appear on the mound of creation at the start of time. This means that all solar deities are also creator gods. And as creator deities, they were also closely connected with the funerary cult and the rebirth of the deceased.
Many of the other deities wanted to get in on the solar action in order to increase their wealth and power (although in reality the power was probably coveted by the king or the priests rather than the deities themselves!). Many deities solarised their name by adding Ra to it (for example Amun-Ra). Even the kings wanted to be associated with the sun god and included ‘son of Ra’ in their kingly titles, showing their divine origins.
Making room for more
To add another dimension to this assortment of gods, the Egyptians were keen to mix and match their gods and make new ones. This goes some way towards explaining why the ancient Egyptians had so many gods.
For example, many gods possessed more than one characteristic and were therefore best represented by two different deities:
Amun-Min was the combination of a creator god (Amun) and a god of fertility (Min).
Amun-Ra was the combination of a creator god (Amun) and the solar god (Ra).
Some foreign deities were introduced and combined with an Egyptian god to make them more acceptable to the Egyptian population:
Seth (the Egyptian god of chaos) combined with Baal (Canaanite lightning god).
Hathor (Egyptian mother goddess) combined with Anat (Syrian martial goddess).
Osiris (Egyptian god of the dead) combined with Dionysus (Greek fertility god).
Isis (Egyptian mother goddess) combined with Aphrodite (Greek goddess of love).
Imhotep (Egyptian god of medicine) combined with Asklepios (Greek god of medicine).
Deceit, murder – and forestry
One important Egyptian religious myth is that of Osiris and Seth. It serves as the basis for many of the funerary beliefs of the ancients, as well as explaining the divinity of the king.
Long ago, Osiris ruled Egypt. He was considered an ideal ruler, showing the people how to farm, worship the gods, and obey laws. His brother Seth was jealous and wanted the throne for himself. Seth devised a cunning plan to rid the world of Osiris and snatch the throne. First, he gathered all of Osiris’s bodily measurements – height, width, inside leg, hair length, even toenail length. Seth then built a beautiful chest that fitted these measurements exactly.
Seth presented this chest at a banquet to which Osiris was invited and announced that whoever could fit into the chest could keep it. In true Cinderella style, everyone at the banquet tried to squeeze into the chest. Some were too fat, others too tall; some had hair that was too long or too thick. (And I’m sure someone had grotesquely long toenails!) Osiris, of course, fitted perfectly. But before he could gloat about his good fortune, Seth slammed on the lid, nailed it shut, and flung the box into the Nile, drowning the king.
When Osiris’s wife Isis heard of Seth’s exploits, she went in search of the chest in order to give her husband a decent burial. Her search took her all the way to Byblos (located somewhere in present-day Lebanon), where she learnt that the chest had grown into a tree that had been cut down and carved into a pillar in the palace of the king. After some time she managed to persuade the queen to let her take the pillar back to Egypt. When Isis arrived in Egypt, she lay down for a short nap. While she slept, Seth passed by, recognised the chest, removed the body of Osiris, and chopped it into 14 pieces, which he then scattered around Egypt. (Isis was clearly a very heavy sleeper.)
When Isis awoke, along with her sister Nephthys she initiated a search for Osiris’s body parts. The duo were able to locate 13 of the pieces. The final part – Osiris’s penis – was never found. Seth had thrown it into the Nile, where a fish promptly ate it.
Isis, however, proved herself a creative lass. After reassembling the collected body parts, she made a new, fully functioning 14th part from clay. She then transformed herself into a kite and flew over the body of Osiris. The breeze from her flapping wings gave him the breath of life, reviving him – just long enough for Isis to become impregnated with Horus. Osiris then died and was banished to the afterlife. Isis was left to raise Horus alone in the Egyptian marshes and to protect him from Seth until he was old enough to take over his father’s throne.
Meeting the Egyptian State Gods
While the Egyptians worshipped more than 700 gods over the course of ancient history, several emerged as the most prevalent. This section looks at the notable figures in the state religion – primarily the king. Ordinary people worshipped a completely different set of deities at home (see the later section ‘Worshipping at home: Household gods’).
Identifying the main characters
Despite the large numbers of gods in the pantheon, a few stand out as the most important. The following gods were worshipped nationally, both as part of the state and household religions.
Osiris, the god of the underworld. When the king died, he turned into Osiris so that he could continue to rule in the afterlife. In art, Osiris is represented as mummiform (wrapped like a mummy), holding the crook and flail to show his ongoing role as a king.
Horus (the son of Osiris and Isis), the god of order. The king was believed to be an incarnation of the god Horus on earth. Horus is represented as a human with a hawk head.
Seth (the brother of Osiris), the god of chaos. Seth was feared by most Egyptians because of his chaotic nature, although some kings adopted him as their personal god (Sety I and II, Ramses II and III). Seth is represented as a human with a strange head and a curved nose and long, erect, square-topped ears.
The three most important goddesses are
Isis (the sister and wife of Osiris, the mother of Horus), a general mother goddess. Isis is presented as a beautiful woman, sometimes with wings in place of arms. She is also shown in the form of a kite to represent her role of providing the breath of life to the deceased. (See the sidebar ‘Deceit, murder – and forestry’ for more details.) She is shown with a throne sign on top of her head.
Nephthys (the sister of Isis and Osiris), a goddess closely associated with rebirth. Nephthys aided Isis in the resurrection of Osiris and (by association) the deceased king. She is shown as a woman with wings for arms or as a kite to show similar characteristics to Isis. Nephthys is clearly identified by a semi-circle above a rectangle on top of her head, the hieroglyphs for her name.
Hathor (the daughter of the sun god Ra), a mother goddess, and deity of sex, love, beauty, fertility, and death. Hathor is closely connected with the afterlife and the provision of food for the nourishment of the deceased. She is represented as a woman with a cow’s head, a human with cow’s ears and a cow-horn head-dress, or simply as a cow.
All these deities are interconnected in the same mythological stories, notably the myth of Isis and Osiris and the contending of Horus and Seth. These myths explain not only the role of the king but also the laws of royal succession.
Upholding truth, justice, and the Egyptian way: Maat
Maat is normally shown in human form with an ostrich feather on her head – or she is represented solely as a feather, the hieroglyphic sign for truth.
For the ancient Egyptians, the concept of Maat was present in everything – particularly in the law courts, which were overseen by judges called priests of Maat. Prayers were no doubt recited to Maat before court was in session, and a symbol of the goddess was likely in the courtroom. Judges probably addressed Maat on cases that were particularly tricky.
The weighing-of-the-heart ritual was carried out in front of Osiris, who had the final say as to who was reborn and who wasn’t. Thoth, the ibis-headed god of scribes, recorded the outcome of the weighing of the heart. Fortunately, in the numerous surviving representations of this ritual, no one is ever unsuccessful.
Sibling rivalry: The contending of Horus and Seth
The contending of Horus and Seth is an ancient Egyptian myth that tells of a tribunal lasting for more than 80 years. During the trial, Seth tried to prove his right to the throne over Horus (see the sidebar ‘Deceit, murder – and forestry’ for details).
Horus was the son of Osiris, so the throne should rightfully have passed to him, a fact of which Seth was very much aware. The tribunal was overseen by eight divinities, including Isis and Re-Horakhty, who had tried to give the throne to Horus many times. Because Seth had never accepted their decisions, they proposed that Horus and Seth settle the argument once and for all with a series of death-defying challenges. The winner of these would be crowned the king.
Seth first suggested that he and Horus turn into hippos and submerge themselves under water for a period of three months; the one to survive wins the crown. Isis ended this task by throwing a copper harpoon into the water for fear her son Horus would die. She speared Horus and then Seth, resulting in them both emerging somewhat short of the three months. When she released them both from her spear, Horus was furious that she had freed Seth and cut off Isis’s head. A somewhat extreme reaction – and certainly no way to treat your mum!
When Re-Horakhty learnt of Horus’s action, he demanded that Horus be punished. Seth magnanimously offered to do it. What a hero! Seth found Horus asleep (decapitation is tiring work) under a tree and promptly plucked out both of Horus’s eyes and buried them. The eyes turned into two bulbs, which grew into lotus flowers and illuminated the earth. This is mythology – go with me on this.
Seth then returned to Re-Horakhty and told him that he had not been able to locate Horus. Hathor, however, discovered Horus and healed his eyes by milking a gazelle into the sockets. She then reported Horus’s injuries to Re-Horakhty, who in turn demanded that Horus and Seth stop their arguing.
After many further incidents, Horus decided to take the upper hand and offered to settle the argument with a race in stone ships; the winner gets the crown. This time, however, Horus planned to cheat. He built a boat of pine and covered it with gypsum to give the appearance of stone. Seeing Horus’s boat floating in the water and believing that it was stone, Seth sliced off the top of a mountain to create his own racing ship. After the race began, Seth’s boat obviously sank and rendered him the loser. Not happy at losing, he transformed himself into a hippo and attacked Horus’s ship. Horus was about to throw a copper barb at Seth, but the tribunal gods stopped him.
Horus, his feathers ruffled, gathered up his harpoons and complained that he had been in the tribunal for 80 years, constantly winning battles against Seth, only to have the tribunal’s decision ignored.
Eventually the deities came to the conclusion that the throne of Egypt should be given to Horus. However, although Horus was given the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, many records attempt to maintain a sense of balance: Horus is often depicted ruling Upper Egypt and Seth ruling Lower Egypt. So everyone’s a winner!
Worshipping at home: Household gods
The weighing-of-the-heart ritual (see the section ‘Upholding truth, justice – and the Egyptian way: Maat’, earlier in this chapter, for more information) was used primarily by non-royal individuals.
In fact, regular Egyptians worshipped a number of state deities in the home, using the same methods as in the temples – daily feeding, washing, and anointing of the statues kept in household shrines.
The following sections explore some of the more common gods and associated rituals for regular, everyday Egyptians.
The sublime cow: Hathor
Hathor was worshipped in the home as a goddess of love, marriage, and childbirth. She held spectacular titles such as ‘lady of the vulva’ and ‘lady of drunkenness’.
She was responsible primarily for fertility, conception, and sexual love. At special shrines near the state temples, ordinary people left many offerings to Hathor in the form of necklaces, beads, and stone, clay, or wooden phalli, asking for fertility or thanking her for providing children.
Hathor was also worshipped as the
Goddess of the western mountain. In this role, represented in tombs as a cow emerging from the marshes, Hathor protected the cemeteries situated on the west bank of the Nile.
Lady of the sycamore. In this funerary role, Hathor provided sustenance for the deceased in the afterlife in the form of sycamore figs. She is represented as a woman emerging from a tree or as a woman with a tree on top of her head.
The craftsman: Ptah
At the village of Deir el Medina, which housed the craftsmen who built the Valley of the Kings, the creator god Ptah was worshipped as the patron deity of craftsmen.
The workmen appealed to Ptah for work-related ailments – the most common one being blindness caused by the dark, cramped, and dusty work conditions. Many inscriptions ask him to lift this affliction, which the workmen believed was caused by some blasphemous act on their behalf, rather than their working environment.
Ptah is depicted in mummiform guise, wearing a close-fitting cap rather like a swimming hat. In his hands he holds three staffs, representing stability, power, and eternal life, all of which he bestowed on his worshippers.
The happy dwarf: Bes
A number of deities were purely part of the household pantheon. Most of them are not the most attractive deities, but appealed more to the lives of ordinary folk. One of the most commonly worshipped was Bes, the god of love, marriage, fertility, and partying. He was also the protector of children and women through his noisy use of singing, music, and dance, which frightened snakes, scorpions, and all other forces of evil. If only all noisy people were as useful.
Bes is one of the only gods depicted face on, rather than in profile, which makes him really stand out from the crowd. He had a lion’s head and tail, combined with the body of a dwarf with bowed legs and his feet turned outwards. His arms are often bent at the elbows, placed on his hips, or holding a musical instrument or knife. A rather odd-looking character.
Bes was often invoked during childbirth to protect the woman and newborn child, as well as to ensure a simple and safe birth. Images of Bes were placed on furniture (beds in particular), headrests, pottery vessels, eye make-up pots, and mirrors – all items that were closely associated with sexuality and fertility.
The grumpy hippo: Taweret
Another deity connected with fertility and childbirth is the pregnant hippo goddess Taweret, who is shown standing upright on her hind legs with pendulous human breasts, an abdomen swollen with pregnancy, and a mane formed from a crocodile’s tail. So a real looker!
Taweret was an aggressive protector of women in childbirth and is depicted on similar objects as Bes, including head rests and cosmetic items. She also had a role in the afterlife and is depicted on various copies of the Book of the Dead.
The silent one: Meretseger
Some household deities were worshipped in particular regions, as is the case with Meretseger, who was worshipped primarily at Deir el Medina. She is represented as a cobra or as a woman with a cobra for a head, the hood open and ready to strike. She protected the inhabitants of the village from bites from cobras, scorpions, and spiders.
Worshipping the Gods
Worship of each of the hundreds of ancient Egyptian gods – regardless of geography or function – was the same throughout the temples of Egypt. Worship in the home was similar except that rituals were carried out by the family rather than priests. The statue of the god was placed within a sanctuary in the rear of the temple, and the priest entered this sanctuary twice a day (at dawn and at dusk) to carry out the rituals:
At dawn, the priest removed the statue from the shrine, washed it, anointed it with perfumes and ointments, and dressed it in a fresh linen shawl. The deity was then offered food and drink, which were placed at his or her feet. After the deity had taken spiritual nourishment from the food, it was distributed among the priests within the temple.
At dusk, the same rituals were repeated and the statue was put to bed. The statue was washed, anointed with perfumes and ointments, offered food and drink, again which was placed at his or her feet. This was removed after the deity had taken spiritual nourishment from it. Then the statue was placed inside the shrine until the morning, when the rituals started again.
Throughout these rituals, the priest recited prayers and incantations, which varied in nature depending on the deity and his or her role.
Appreciating sacred geography
Most of the state deities also had specific locations that served as their main cult centres (refer to the Cheat Sheet map). These sites were specifically revered:
Ra’s main cult centre was at Heliopolis. Excavations indicate that his temple was bigger than the temple at Karnak, but sadly this is currently not open to the public.
Amun’s main cult centre was at Karnak, although he was worshipped nationally. This is the largest temple complex in the world and is a must on a trip to Luxor.
Osiris’s main cult centre was at Abydos, which you can still visit.
Isis’s main cult centre was Philae, a common stop-off for tourists.
Horus had three main cult centres; the first two are still standing and worth a visit:
• Edfu, where he was worshipped in the image of a winged disc.
• Kom Ombo, where he was worshipped as the son of Re.
• Heliopolis, where he was worshipped as Re-Harakhti.
Hathor’s main cult centre was at Denderah, and you can still visit it.
Seth’s cult centres were based in the Delta region at Avaris and Qantir. These sites are not open to the public.
Participating in festivals
Festivals were an important part of worship for both state and household religion. Historical records show many festivals each month, with the most prominent ones being
Beautiful Festival of the Valley
in Thebes. Families visited their dead relatives in their tomb chapels to feast with them. The statue of Amun was carried in a long procession from Karnak to all of the mortuary temples on the west bank of the Nile.
Festival of Sokar-Osiris. This festival was celebrated at night as a mortuary/lunar festival. People wore onions around their necks and brought offerings to the god and the deceased. The relevance of the onions is anyone’s guess, but no doubt the area had a particularly pungent smell for a while afterwards.
Opet Festival at Thebes. A statue of Amun was carried in procession along the sphinx avenue from Karnak temple to Luxor temple. The statue stayed at Luxor temple for a number of days before returning to Karnak temple.
Festival of Drunkenness at Deir el Medina. This festival was in honour of Hathor and, as the name suggests, involved five days of drinking.
The preceding and loads of other festivals enabled everyone to have time off work to watch the processions through the streets – as well as enjoy extra food rations and lashings and lashings of beer!
Protecting the living
All Egyptians – both royal or non-royal – believed in the power of amulets to protect and strengthen their wearers, whether living or deceased.
An amulet is a figure made of any kind of material that can be attached to a necklace, bracelet, or ring. Hundreds of different types of amulets existed. Many featured images of specific deities; each provided specific protection from an individual god or goddess. Amulets were worn on necklaces and bracelets, alone or in conjunction with others, rather like a modern charm bracelet.
Other amulets represented aspects of mythology as well as hieroglyphic signs and included:
The ankh: The sign for eternal life.
Scarabs: Beetle-like creatures associated with the sun god that gave hope of new life and resurrection.
Eye of Horus: A human eye with brow and markings below. The right eye was associated with the sun; the left eye with the moon. For the living, the Eye of Horus provided protection against all malicious spiritual or physical forces. Both eyes are frequently found on mummies because they have the power to resurrect.
Hedgehogs: Worn for fertility and rebirth – due to the animal’s reappearance after hibernation.
A leg: A leg forms part of the hieroglyphic writing for ‘health’ and bestowed health on the wearer.
Two fingers: Typically the index and middle fingers. Only found on mummies. Represents the fingers of the embalmers, ensuring that mummification took place as well as to provide extra protection for the vulnerable parts of the body.
Flies: Worn for fertility and protection from persistent insects. Gold examples were a military honour, awarded by the king.
Frogs: Mostly worn by women to absorb the fecundity of the frog.
A carpenter’s set-square and plumb-line. These symbols bestowed the wearer with eternal righteousness and stability.
Amulets worn by the living were also a means of showing wealth – the richer the material, the wealthier the wearer. Most were made of faience (a glass-like material), although some were made of semi-precious stones like carnelian, amethyst, and onyx.
Doing the voodoo that you do
The Egyptians may sound like a peaceful lot, but in fact some of their religious practices were flat-out vengeful.
Specifically, they believed in the power of clay or wax figures to bring destruction to their enemies – rather like the well-known practice of using voodoo dolls.
These ancient Egyptian figures came in two types:
Execration figures were used to destroy the political enemies of Egypt and therefore only used by the king. Each figure represented a bound captive. On the captive’s torso were lists of the traditional enemies of Egypt (Nubians, Asiatics, Libyans, Syrians). These figures were ritually broken and buried, representing the destruction of the listed enemies.
Curse figures were made and used by private individuals as a way to immobilise another individual. Something horrible was typically done to the figure – burning or sticking nails in it. In order to make these figures more effective, a strand of the cursed individual’s hair or a nail was moulded into the effigy. Curse figures were made of simple materials such as clay or wax. Presumably people could make their own without the need for a third party.
Consulting oracles
In addition to interacting with the goddess Maat (see the section ‘Upholding truth, justice, and the Egyptian way: Maat’, earlier in this chapter), the Egyptians sought answers to legal issues and arguments in the form of oracles. Poor and rich alike used oracles to settle any number of disagreements, including personal issues.
People either addressed oracles within a temple or when the statue of the god was on procession through the streets. People had two ways of asking for help. They could:
Place a written message at the temple before the divine statue. This would be handed to a priest who would place it before the god. The god answered the message by the use of yes/no tablets (a number of which have been found). This answer was then interpreted by the priests.
Address the statue through the priests who carried the sacred bark (boat containing the statue) during a procession. People would shout out their questions, and the statue answered by varying the pressure on the shoulders of the priests who held the bark. The way the priests knelt or bowed meant different things to the people.
Dreaming of deities
Although Egyptians appealed directly to the gods via oracles, the gods also appeared to people in dreams that dream priests then interpreted. These priests told individuals what they needed to do to have their prayers answered. Interpretations normally involved some contribution to the temple and were a lucrative business for the priests. (Call me cynical, but some of these divine messages may not have been genuine – and with enough greasing of palms, the interpretation could be anything that was required.)
Worshipping Humans
One of the most prominent forms of worship in the villages was the ancestor cult, in which villagers revered deceased members of the family, going back two or three generations. Living Egyptians appealed to the ancestors for help with everyday problems.
Pocket-sized ancestors
Revered ancestors were included in religious festivals and processions through the use of ancestral busts. These were small (maximum 30 centimetres) portable figures of stone or wood representing a generic figure. The busts included the head and shoulders and sometimes wore large wigs. The busts rarely featured inscriptions, but historians believe that they represented male members of a family.
Egyptians placed these busts in their household shrines (see the ‘Worshipping at home: Household gods’ section above) and asked the departed for assistance. Small stelae (maximum 25 centimetres) sat alongside the ancestral busts in the household shrines. These stelae were inscribed with images of the ancestors as well as an image of the dedicator of the stela. Many have short prayers carved on them and invoke the aid of the deceased.
During the annual Beautiful Festival of the Valley (see the section ‘Participating in festivals’, earlier in this chapter), the statue of Amun was carried from Karnak in procession to the necropolis on the west bank of the Nile. Many Deir el Medina residents joined the procession with their ancestor busts. This procession ended at the tomb of the deceased, where a commemorative feast took place in which the deceased was believed to participate.
Deifying humans
The traditional household gods, concerned with fertility, childbirth, and danger from the bites of reptiles, insects, and arachnids, were not enough for the average Egyptian, who also worshipped humans, who were raised to the position of deities. This was not the same as the ancestor cult, because deified humans were often those who were revered and well-known in life. Deified humans were worshipped more widely than revered ancestors in the ancestor cult, which was limited to the immediate family.
Some deified humans were worshipped by the ordinary people and others by the kings. Deified humans were addressed for many reasons, including fertility and moral guidance.
Some notable deified humans who were worshipped by significant numbers in different regions of Egypt included
Imhotep, the architect who built the step pyramid at Saqqara (see Chapter 13), was deified as a god of medicine, even though he was not a physician in life.
Senwosret III was worshipped at the town of Kahun (see Chapter 2 for more details), because he was responsible for founding the city for the workmen who built his pyramid at el-Lahun.
Amenhotep I was revered by the people at Deir el Medina as the founder of their village.
Amenhotep, son of Hapu, was the vizier during the reign of Amenhotep III and was worshipped as a sage. He was the patron god of physicians and healing and was believed to aid with conception.
Horemheb was revered by Ramses II, who set up a shrine in Horemheb’s non-royal tomb at Saqqara. This worship was due to the break that Horemheb gave the family of Ramses II by choosing his grandfather to be king on his death.
People made offerings to the statues of deified humans, as well as reciting prayers and incantations to them.
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Letters to the dead
Pottery vessels in many Egyptian tombs have a letter written on the inside. These letters to the dead were written by the remaining family and asked for help in various matters.
Families wrote the letters on a bowl, which was then filled with a tasty snack, so when the deceased ate the snack and saw the letter, they had to do what was requested because they had already accepted the bribe. Cunning, eh?
One letter of this type, written on papyrus, is particularly interesting:
To the able spirit Ankhiry. What evil have I done to you that I should land in this wretched state in which I am? What have I done to you? What you have done is to lay your hands on me, although I have done you no wrong. What have I done to you since I lived with you as your husband, until that day [of your death], that I must hide it? What is there now? What you have attained is that I must bring forward this accusation against you. What have I done to you? I will lodge a complaint against you with the Ennead in the West [the divine law-court in the hereafter], and one shall judge between you and me on account of this letter . . .
What have I done to you? I made you my wife when I was a young man. I was with you when I held all kinds of offices. I stayed with you, I did not send you away . . . ‘She has always been with me’ I thought . . . And see, now you do not even comfort me. I will be judged with you, and one shall discern truth from falsehood.
Look, when I was training the officers of the army of Pharaoh and his chariotry, I let them lie on their bellies before you. I never hid anything from you in all your life. I never let you suffer, but I always behaved to you as a gentleman. You never found that I was rude to you, as when a peasant enters someone else’s house. I never behaved so that a man could rebuke me for anything I did to you . . .
I am sending this letter to let you know what you are doing. When you began to suffer from the disease you had, I let a head physician come and he treated you and did everything you asked him to do. When I followed Pharaoh, travelling to the south and this condition came to you, I spent no less than eight months without eating and drinking as a man should do. And as soon as I reached Memphis, I asked from Pharaoh leave and went to the place that you were, and I cried intensely, together with my people, before the eyes of my entire neighbourhood. I donated fine linen for wrapping you up, I let many clothes be made, and omitted nothing good to be done for you. And see, I passed three years until now living alone, without entering any house, although it is not fair that someone like me should be made to do so. But I did it for you, you who does not discern good from bad. One shall judge between you and me. And then: the sisters in the house, I have not entered any one of them.
The last line seems to have been written as an afterthought because it does not flow with the rest of the letter – but it is in fact the crux of the letter. The author is suffering from grief combined with guilt, which he believes is caused by his wife, whereas it is probably due to his activities with the women in the house! He obviously feels that his first wife does not approve and is punishing him.