UCLA - Liquids in Temple Ritual

8/6/2019 UCLA - Liquids in Temple Ritual

1/9

eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing

services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic

research platform to scholars worldwide.

UCLA Encyclopedia of EgyptologyUC Los Angeles

Peer Reviewed

Title:

Liquids in Temple Ritual

Author:

Poo, Mu-Chou, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Publication Date:

09-25-2010

Publication Info:

UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLos Angeles

Permalink:

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7gh1n151

Additional Info:

Poo, Mu-chou, 2010, Liquids in Temple Ritual. In Willeke Wendrich (ed.), UCLA Encyclopedia ofEgyptology, Los Angeles. http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0025dxbr

Keywords:

milk, water, wine, beer, religion, offering, cult, Hathor, Sakhmet, Tefnut, drunkenness, color

Abstract:

In ancient Egypt the liquids most commonly used in temple rituals included wine, beer, milk, andwater. The meaning of the ritual act was intimately related to the nature of the liquid employed,as well as to whatever religious and mythological associations the liquid was known to possess.With the exception of beer, all the ritual offerings of liquids were connected in some way with theidea of rejuvenation.
http://escholarship.org/http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7gh1n151http://uc/search?creator=Poo,%20Mu-Chouhttp://escholarship.org/uc/uclahttp://escholarship.org/uc/nelc_ueehttp://escholarship.org/uc/nelc_ueehttp://escholarship.org/http://escholarship.org/http://escholarship.org/http://escholarship.org/


2/9

LIQUIDS INTEMPLE RITUAL

Mu-chou Poo

EDITORS

WILLEKEWENDRICHEditor-in-Chief

Area Editor Material CultureUniversity of California, Los Angeles

JACCO DIELEMANEditor

University of California, Los Angeles

ELIZABETH FROODEditor

University of Oxford

JOHN BAINESSenior Editorial Consultant

University of Oxford

Short Citation:Poo 2010, Liquids in Temple Ritual. UEE.

Full Citation:Poo, Mu-chou, 2010, Liquids in Temple Ritual. In Willeke Wendrich (ed.), UCLA Encyclopedia ofEgyptology, Los Angeles. http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0025dxbr

1088 Version 1, September 2010http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0025dxbr


3/9

Liquids in Temple Ritual, Poo, UEE 2010 1

LIQUIDS INTEMPLE RITUAL

Mu-chou Poo

Flssigkeiten im TempelritualLes liquides utiliss dans les rituels du temple

In ancient Egypt the liquids most commonly used in temple rituals included wine, beer, milk, andwater. The meaning of the ritual act was intimately related to the nature of the liquid employed, aswell as to whatever religious and mythological associations the liquid was known to possess. Withthe exception of beer, all the ritual offerings of liquids were connected in some way with the idea ofrejuvenation.

. .

he ritual offerings in Egyptiantemples and funerary settingsconstitute an important part of

the outward expressions of Egyptian piety. Intemple rituals in particular, according to theimages preserved on temple walls, we knowthat often, though not always, each ritual act was accompanied by a series of incantations(often inscribed on the wall beside theimages), including the title of the ritual, theritual liturgy, and the reply of the deity who was receiving the ritual performance oroffering. Although there is still someuncertainty regarding whether the templereliefs represent actual ritual acts (Poo 2007),most scholars agree that the meaning of the

rituals can be deciphered, at least partially, byexamining these texts. Although these ritualliturgies had a long-standing textual traditionthat can be traced as far back as the PyramidTexts, most of the best-preserved texts werefrom the Ptolemaic and Roman temples. Thepresent discussion, therefore, mostly utilizestexts from this period.

TOf the numerous rituals recorded on temple

walls, the offering of liquids occupied a ratherlarge proportion. Here we discuss four kindsof liquids employed in temple rituals: wine,beer, milk, and water. The meaning of anindividual ritual act was intimately related tothe nature of the liquid employed, as well asto whatever religious and mythologicalassociations the liquid was known to have.Certain deities might have some particularconnections with a particular offering, as weshall see below. Yet as far as we can tell, therecould be multiple recipients for the same kindof offering, and a particular deity couldreceive multiple offerings at different times.

WineWine was often an important item in funeraryand temple cults. From as early as the OldKingdom, wine was regularly mentioned inoffering lists as part of the funeraryestablishment (Barta 1963). In temple rituals,wine was also often offered to various deities.In the pyramid temple of Fifth Dynasty king


4/9


5/9


1552a)and on the other hand he wasshown pressing the blood of the enemies withthe winepress (Poo 1995: 151 - 152; Schott1938). It is reasonable to suspect here an

allusion to the grape juice being pressed fromthe winepress.

Moreover, offering liturgies testify that wine was regarded metaphorically as the GreenEye of Horusthat is, the power ofrejuvenation: Take to yourself winetheGreen Horus Eye. May your kabe filled with what is created for you... (Chassinat andRochemonteix: Edfou I: 258). And referenceto the contending of Horus and Seth can alsobe found in the liturgy of wine-offering:

Take to yourself the wine that was produced inKharga, O noble Falcon. Yourwedjat-eye is soundand supplied with provision; secure it for yourself fromSeth. May you be powerful by means of it . . . may you be divine by means of it more than any god(Chassinat and Rochemonteix: Edfou V: 150).

Beer

Being the most popular and affordable drinkin ancient Egypt, beer featured prominently asan offering in funerary as well as templerituals. The brewing of beer involves the

fermentation of cereals, and, as studies of beerresidues show, the brewing of beer in generalcomprises several steps. First, a batch of grainwas allowed to sprout, thereby producing anenzyme. Then another batch of grain wascooked in water to disperse the starchnaturally contained within it. The two batcheswere subsequently combined, causing sugar tobe produced, and then sieved. Finally, thesugar-rich liquid was mixed with yeast, whichfermented the sugar into alcohol (see Darby etal. 1977: 529 - 550; Samuel 1996a, 1996b).

Like the offering of wine, the beer-offering was a common ritual in Egyptian temples.However, although Hathors epithet Mistressof Drunkenness was found in beer-offeringscenes (Chassinat and Daumas: Dendara I: 102:14, 142: 8), it is somewhat surprising to learnthat, contrary to our expectations, themythological story of the Destruction ofMankind does not appear to have been

alluded to in the beer-offering liturgies. Whatwere emphasized in the offering liturgies wereconcerns regarding the correctness andmeticulousness with which the beer was

brewed:Take the sweet beer, the supply for your majesty,

which is brewed correctly. How sweet is its taste, howsweet is its smell! (Chassinat and Daumas:Dendara VII: 130).

How beautiful are these beer jars, which are brewedat the correct time, which fill your ka at the time ofyour wish. May your heart be joyful daily(Chassinatand Daumas: Dendara VI: 163: 9 - 11).

Take for yourself the wonderful beer, which the nobleone has brewed with her hands, with the beautiful

plant from Geb and myrrh from Nepy(Chassinatand Rochemonteix: Edfou I: 367: 9 - 11).

The deities emphasis on the proper brewingof beer is interesting, since the production of wine was never mentioned as having beendone by gods.

It is mentioned that music was performedduring the offering of beer: Take the beer toappease your heart...for your kaaccording toyour desire, may you drink it, may [you] behappy, as I make music before you (Junkerand Winter 1965: 271: 1 - 4). This leads us torethink whether the epithet of Hathor asMistress of Drunkenness necessarily alludesto the mythological story of the Destructionof Mankind, and not to a more general senseof intoxication and rejuvenation. After all,beer, above all other offerings, would be theobvious choice for alluding to the story ifindeed the story gave rise to Hathors epithet.

Milk

Since the function of milk is to nourish, and

its white color is associated with purity, thesignificance of the offering of milk in templerituals was also built around these allusions.Milk was often offered, for example, toHarpocrates (the child Horus), milk being aobvious source of nourishment for children:May you be filled with milk from the breastsof the hesat-cow (Junker 1958: 180); Takethe milk, which is from the breast of your


6/9


mother (Junker 1958: 185; and see, similarly, Junker and Winter 1965: 319, 385, 389). Theresult of nourishment was no doubt tostrengthen the body, as the following texts

indicate: May your limbs live by means of themilk and your bones be healthy by means ofthe white Horus Eye [milk]....The kingrejuvenates his [Osiriss] body with what hisheart desires [milk] (Junker 1913: 14).

Milk was also offered to other deities,among them Hathor and Osiris, in variousrituals (Chassinat and Daumas: Dendara VII:19, 129, 147, 158; Junker 1958: 42; Junker andWinter 1965: 65, 343; Sauneron: Esna VI: 96),especially in the Abaton-ritual, in which 365bowls of milk were brought before Osiris

daily (Junker 1913: 9). One offering liturgyreads: Oh, White [milk], which is from thebreasts of Hathor. Oh, sweet [milk], which isfrom the breasts of the mother of Min; itentered the body of Osiris, the great god andlord of Abaton (ibid.: 11). Here the whiteness of milk is clearly referenced, thusindicating milk as a liquid of purification. Thisis confirmed by such liturgical texts asoffering milk to his father and purifying [lit.overflowing] the offering of his ka, orpurifying the offering of His Majesty with

this White Eye of Horus [milk] (ibid.). Sincethe libation of water was metaphoricallyreferred to as the milk of Isis (Guglielmi1982), the reverse is also true. These generalreligious significations aside, there seem to beno further mythological or theologicalallusions that can be connected to milk.

Water

Of all the temple rituals, the ritual ofpurification was likely the one that needed tobe performed first in any program of daily

ritual. The priest, the temple grounds, andeven the libation jars needed to be purifiedbefore any ritual offerings to the deities wereperformed. The water of purification could bepresented to the deities in two ways, eitherpoured onto the ground or onto the altar orstatue as a gesture of general purification:

Spell for purifying [ ] as far as the heaven, theearth, to Harakhty, to the great Ennead, to the small

Ennead, to Upper Egypt, and to Lower Egypt.Myarms are given the water [lit. inundation], that it may purify the offering and every good thing of Tebtunis,with its Ennead, [ ] for your ka [?]. It is pure

(Osing and Rosati 1998: Papiri della SocietItaliana [PSI] inv. I 70, fr. A2, 17 - 20).

Purification with the four jars of water: take the Eyeof Horus, as it purifies your body (Chassinat andDaumas: Dendara III: 110).

Oh water, may you purge all impurity and evil fromthe daughter of the Creator, oh Nun, may you purifyher face (Chassinat and Daumas: Dendara IV:249).

Thus the water cleansed the statue of thedeity from the outside, as an ablution,

purifying the image in a direct and mundanesense.

On the other hand, water could be offeredto the deities as a drink (libation). In a papyrusfound in the Roman Period temple atTebtunis, no less than six libation rituals wereincluded in the daily temple ritual program(Osing and Rosati 1998; see also Poo 2007). The deities were urged to drink the wateroffered to them in symbolic recognition ofthe rejuvenating power of the Nile:

Offering libation. Words spoken: May this waterrejuvenate your body, may your majesty drink from thewater(Chassinat and Rochemonteix: Edfou IV:62: 13 - 63: 2).

Offering libation. Words spoken: This libation isbrought from Abydos, it came from the region of theSea of Horus. May you drink it, may you live bymeans of it, may your heart be sound by means of it,the divine water to [fill?] your altar [with] the libationthat I like(Chassinat and Rochemonteix: EdfouIV: 218: 3 - 7).

The act of drinking the water provided a

sense of purification from the inside, thusimbuing the ritual with a heightened spiritualsignificance. Moreover, allusions to theinundation were often made, as the pouring ofthe water was regarded as symbolizing thecoming of the inundation, and the libationwater was compared to Nun:


7/9


Hail to you, precious libation jar, which inundatesNun and Nut(Osing and Rosati 1998: PSI inv.I 70, fr. A1, 13 - 14).

Spell for presenting libation. Words spoken: Hail to

you, Nun in your name of Nun. Hail to you,Inundation in your name of Inundation(Osing andRosati 1998: PSI inv. I 70, fr. A1, 20 - A2, 1).

Pouring libation to the altar. Words spoken: Hailto you, the Powerful, take to yourself the libation,which begot everything living. I have come to you, thevases are inundated, the jars filled with the flood, andthe vases filled with the inundation for your Majesty(Chassinat and Daumas: Dendara II: 17: 10 -15).

Here the significance of libation is no longer

merely purification; rather, it has beenelevated to the level of cosmic rejuvenation byassociating the pouring of water with thecoming of the annual Nile flood. Thismetaphor, found in the Pyramid Texts, was ofcourse very ancient:

O King, your cool water is the great flood that issuedfrom you(PT Spell 460: 868).

You have your water, you have your flood, you have your efflux that issued from Osiris(PT Spell 676:2006; PT Spell 679: 2031).

In sum, the overwhelming ritual significanceof water was its affinity to the Nile flood: therejuvenating power of nature (Blackman1912). Whether the water was poured beforethe deities, or on the statues of the deities asan ablution, or drunk by the deities as alibation, merely expressed a variation of thesame idea.

Conclusion

The basic meaning of any offering was toincur the blessing of the deities, or deceased

ancestors, who were regarded as capable ofprotecting or aiding those who presented theoffering. In funerary settings, as we saw in theoffering lists, the Egyptians would providewhat they considered an appropriate amountand selection of offering items. Thesignificance of the offerings as sustenance forthe deceased is self-evident. However, in thetemple-ritual setting, although the primary

significance of offerings to deities remainedbasically the same as that of funeraryofferings, the subsequent elaboration of therituals and liturgies that accompanied the

offerings to deities served to exalt themeanings attached to the actual offeringitems. Thus the offering of a certain item would become a symbolic action relevant toeither the characteristics or functions of therecipient deities, or the offering item itself would become symbolic of a certainbeneficent deed or cosmic forceon a levelof importance matched by that of the deities.Even so, only occasionally do we find an itemthat is offered exclusively to a certain deity,the offering of mirrors to Hathor being anexample (Husson 1977). In most cases,however, there seems to be no one-to-onecorrespondence between the offering and therecipient god. This indicates that despiteparticular theological or mythological allusionsimplied by such offerings as wine or water,the basic underlying significance of anoffering as an object that supplies a need ofthe deity in exchange for blessings remains thesame. In the Temple of Hathor at Dendara,on the outer wall of the sanctuary, theoffering of wine was representedsymmetrically opposite representations of

beer offerings on the opposing walls,indicating a certain affinity between them,perhaps due to their alcoholic content. Theoffering of water, on the other hand, waspaired with the offering of bread and beer, which suggests that water, bread, and beerwere endowed with the power of sustenance.Moreover, the offering of wine was also inone instance paired with the dance forHathor, which implicitly suggests aconnection between wine and the ecstasy ofHathor (Leitz 2001: 8).

In conclusion, it is interesting that all theritual offerings of liquids were, each in its own way, somehow connected with the idea ofrejuvenation. Perhaps this need not besurprising, since all the offering-liquids were,in a sense, nutrients that could be used by thehuman (or divine) body, and could thus beconsidered sources of rejuvenation. In thecase of beer, the absence of specific allusions


8/9


9/9


Hornung, Erik1982 Der gyptische Mythos von der Himmelskuh: Eine tiologie des Unvollkommenen. Orbis Biblicus et

Orientalis 46. Freiburg: Academic Press; Gttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

Husson, Constance

1977 L'offrande du miroir dans les temples gyptiens de l'poque grco-romaine. Lyon: Audin.Junker, Hermann

1911 Der Auszug der Hathor-Tefnut aus Nubien. Berlin: G. Reimer.1913 Das Gtterdekret ber das Abaton. Wien: Hlder.1958 Der grosse Pylon des Tempels der Isis in Phi. Denkschriften (sterreichische Akademie der

Wissenschaften) Sonderband. Wien: Rohrer.

Junker, Hermann, and Erich Winter (eds.)1965 Das Geburtshaus des Tempels der Isis in Phil. sterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften:

Philosophisch-Historische Klasse. Wien: Herman Bhlau.

Leitz, Christian2001 Die Aussenwand des Sanktuars in Dendara: Untersuchen zur Dekorationssystematik. Mnchner

gyptologische Studien 50. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern.

Osing, Jrgen, and Gloria Rosati1998 Papiri geroglifici e ieratici da Tebtynis. 2 volumes. Florence: Istituto Papirologico.

Poo, Mu-chou1995 Wine and wine offering in the religion of ancient Egypt. Studies in Egyptology. London and New York:

Kegan Paul International.2007 Ritual texts in the Ptolemaic temples: The liturgies of libation and beer offering. In The proceedings of

the Ninth International Congress of Egyptologists, Grenoble, 6 - 12 September 2004, Orientalia LovaniensiaAnalecta 150, ed. Jean-Claude Goyon, and Christine Cardin, pp. 1527 - 1538. Leuven: Peeters.

Samuel, Delwen1996a Archeology of ancient Egyptian beer.Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists54(1), pp. 3 -

12.1996b Investigation of ancient Egyptian baking and brewing methods by correlative microscopy. Science

273, pp. 488 - 490.Sauneron, Serge

1963- Le temple d'Esna. 7 volumes (1963 - 1975). Cairo: Institut franais d'archologie orientale.

Schott, Siegfried1938 Das blutrnstige Keltergert. Zeitschrift fr gyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde74, pp. 88 - 93.1950 Altgyptische Festdaten. Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur: Abhandlungen der Geistes-

und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse 10. Mainz: Steiner.

UCLA - Liquids in Temple Ritual

Documents

Transcript of UCLA - Liquids in Temple Ritual