Mouth opening ritual

Mouth opening ritual in hieroglyphics
Wepet-ra Wpt-rʒ opening of the mouth
Mouth opening ritual (Papyrus Hunnefer around 1290 BC)

The mouth opening ritual (also eye opening ritual ) was an ancient Egyptian sacrifice and revival ritual that took place by means of a fixed scenic sequence of individual magical ritual acts. It was performed on statues , temples , ushabtis , scarabs and in the context of mummification and served to inspire them and to enable them to use all physical functions with godlike powers.

The revitalization ritual was already used in the early dynasty . From the Old Kingdom onwards, the kings had statues made of themselves during their lifetime, which were kept in special rooms until their death. With the onset of death, the priestly escort of Horus transferred the divine statue of the king, which was still lying, to the holy shrine to equate Osiris . After completing the seventy days of embalming and the burial immediately following, the Horus servants "opened" the mouth of the divine king statue that was now standing in order to revive it as Horus in his capacity as son of Osiris and finally to place it in the shrine in an upright position.

Training of the ritual in ancient Egypt

The ritual has its origins in predynastic times. At first it was limited exclusively to statues of God and included "the (not symbolic) completion of the statues in the temple workshop as a roughly finished workpiece, their equipment and clothing and the transfer to the statue shrine." In the course of time, the procedure was evidently assigned a deeper esoteric meaning, and starting in the Thinite period , i.e. during the course of the first two ancient Egyptian dynasties , the statue ritual, which had been exclusive until then, was also celebrated on the deceased (i.e. on their mummies ). At least since the 4th dynasty , the ritual at private funerals has been proven.

The Old Kingdom also already knew between the sacrificial ritual, which has the mouth opening in the core immediately before the statue or mummy is supplied with sacrificial food, and the mummy ritual, i.e. H. the animation of the corpse. - It is assumed that the complete ritual was only created at the beginning of the New Kingdom , and that all later renderings go back to these templates. It was practiced until the end of Egyptian antiquity, when shabtis and mummified animals were finally subjected to the ritual. In the course of time it was even used to "revitalize" the temple as part of temple consecrations.

The content, the sequence of scenes and the dialogues of the ritual are already known from the pyramid texts and other artifacts ; Complex representations, on the other hand, are only known from the New Kingdom, for example from the graves of the vizier Rechmire , King Sethos I and others. Various papyri , temple inscriptions and ostracas have also brought scenic complete or individual representations to the modern age.

Content and meaning

The popular scientific representations mostly refer to the description of the purely “handicraft act” of opening the mouth, which is said to have taken place by means of various ritual implements ( adzes ) and mostly unexplained magical statements made during their handling . This apparently purely gestural action was not aimed solely at opening the mouth, rather it included eyes, nose and ears, whereby these sense organs were regarded as representative of all body organs. In this respect, the ritual was aimed at the entire person of the statue or the deceased. The complex ritual of opening the mouth included accompanying actions and it was necessary to recite the appropriate sayings for this (by the priest reading aloud).

The sense of individual objects used in the ritual is revealed by the symbolism of their shape and material: the so-called Peseschkef knife was made from flint (flint), as was customary in archaic times, and objects made of gold or meteorite iron were also used. According to recent studies (according to AM Roth), this knife, which typically has a fish-tail-like shape, can be interpreted as a midwife's tool for cutting the umbilical cord and the “golden fingers” or the act of “sweeping out the mouth” can be explained as cleaning the oral cavity of the newborn baby . This would stimulate the sucking reflex that enables vital food intake. In the context of the sacrificial meal that follows the ritual, this interpretation appears particularly convincing. If one also interprets the stones, referred to in older literature as "polishing stones", as models of birth bricks , several of the devices or features of the ritual used to open the mouth can be combined with a birth ritual.

The slaughter of a cattle also plays an important role, the thighs of which are presented in the ritual and can even be understood as a tool for “opening the mouth” (due to the inscription on the scene); J. Assmann explains this action as being animated by the part of the animal's body that is still warm, i.e. exuding vitality. He also traces the shape of the adze back to the shape of the cattle thigh , which is interpreted as a sculptural tool ; this tool is sometimes referred to as being made of meteorite iron ( Egyptian bj3 n pt - "ore of the sky"), so that, together with its shape, there is a connection to the sky or the constellation of Orion, the Great Bear. The final main sacrifice, which served the ritual feeding of the victim's addressee, is to be seen as the actual goal of the entire ritual. The clothing, the adornment or the “investiture” of the statue or the mummy with insignia and power-laden types of jewelry (certain shape of the neck collar: Usech) is similar in motivation and meaning to the daily cult image ritual. In this way, the “revitalization” was magically supported and visualized. It is precisely this equipment that suggests status-related differences in the practice or completeness of the ritual. The final feeding of the sacrifices is the climax of the ceremony and at the same time the start of the usual after-burial care of the buried with offerings.

Acting persons

The ritual was mainly performed by an acting Sem-Priest ( sm ) - who basically played the symbolic role as the eldest son of the deceased (or as Crown Prince) - and a reading priest ( hrj-ḥbt ) who accompanied him primarily by reciting . In individual scenes or individual sequence of scenes, other people appeared: for example the “ loving son ”, various craftsmen, a priest referred to only as a Hemnetjer ( ḥm-nṯr = worshiper), a personality referred to as “Semer” ( smr ) and battle personnel for the ritual slaughter to be performed during the ritual.

In the elaborate, almost stage-like ritual, all actors had to perform set roles and ritual texts, with the statue or the human-like mummy coffin, standing on a pile of sand and facing south, being in the center of the action.

Victims, equipment used, clothing and other accessories

In addition to the sacrificed animals, for example cattle and goats as well as geese, sometimes larger quantities of bread, beer and other gifts, some of which can no longer be translated, are documented in the ritual, the best parts of which were symbolically presented to the addressee with food and drink.

Arrived equipment during the actual Mundöffnungsakt next to the Mesechtiu also the so-called ritual and other tools Peseschkaf ( PSS kf ) are used. Likewise, a snake-shaped "magic wand" ( wr-ḥkʒw = "the magic realm ") and a "finger made of gold" , in some cases also crowned with a uraeus .

The statue or the deceased also received the ritual of solution , accompanied by magical cleansing sayings, primarily with consecrated water (as equation with Osiris ), through the symbolic presentation of soda balls and incense . They were anointed with various oils.

Most of those involved in the mouth opening ritual are shown in the usual contemporary clothing. On the other hand, the Sem priest in charge of the ritual was clearly depicted wearing a panther skin . However, he put it aside for the sequence of scenes in which the statue was finished by hand and he made the first mouth-opening gesture ("touching the mouth with the little finger"). During these scenes he was dressed in the so-called knj chest bib , another ritual garment that is often shown in a reticulate manner and that covers the chest and shoulders. The statue or the sarcophagus was symbolically “dressed” during the ritual with different colored strips of fabric or typical clothing.

Ritual execution

In the literature, 75 individual scenes are listed, some with subdivided partial scenes, which, however, were not always performed ritually at every time and occasion. The individual scenes are also of different ages: Their elders are found in the pyramid texts and seem to reflect archaic customs there , others are much more recent and have flowed in from the temple, king or death cult, which is why they are not just repetitions and duplications occurrence.

On closer inspection, individual scenes and sequences of scenes within the specified number become clear that were only intended for the performance of rituals on statues, while others are aimed exclusively at the deceased. With the same overriding purpose, there were certain necessary differentiations: As a “statue ritual”, the ceremony in the sense of the final completion and enlivening of the statue stood quasi between its place of manufacture and its final place of installation. As a "ritual for the dead", however, it formed the turning point between the completed embalming / coffin and the burial of the mummy coffin in the grave. Accordingly, the ritual also took place in different places: The "gold house" (as a workshop for making the statue), the "soda house" (as a cleaning facility), the "sacrificial courtyard" (as the place where the sacrificial animals were slaughtered) and the so-called ḥḍ -chapel (the place that received the statue) called. As part of the funeral ritual of a deceased, the act was certainly held in an anteroom of the burial chamber.

Essential scenarios of the mouth opening ritual

• Installation of the statue on a pile of sand, with its face facing south
• Cleaning with water, baking soda , incense
• Commissioning the craftsmen to complete the statue
• Touching the mouth with the little finger
• Completion notification and delivery of the statue
• first sacrifices / ritual slaughter
• symbolic presentation of the heart and thigh of a cow
• actual mouth opening by means of several, differently designated and adze-like shaped devices as well as a similarly shaped "magic wand", also by different acting persons;
• further sacrifices / ritual slaughter
• Clothing and decoration of the statue
• Anointing and incense
• Handing over the rulership insignia
• final main sacrifice and ritual feeding of the statue
• Invocation of various deities
• Transport to the installation site (for the deceased: to the burial chamber)

What is mainly described here for the statue also applies analogously to the upright sarcophagus of a deceased; mentioned omissions and / or duplications in the various ritual occasions included.

In the case of more exclusive statues or the most illustrious deceased, the ritual could sometimes last for several days , demonstrably in the late period . On less important occasions - probably for reasons of cost - presumably short sequences of scenes with a limited staffing and number of victims were celebrated.

Relationship to Psalm 51

Parallels have been found between Psalm 51 and the mouth opening ritual:

• The mention of a ritual ablution with special herbs (Psalm 51: 7)
• Healing Broken Limbs (verse 8)
• "Lord, open my lips" (verse 15)
• Sacrifice (verses 16, 17, 18)

literature

• Jan Assmann : Death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt. Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-46570-6 .
• Hans Bonnet : mouth opening. In: Hans Bonnet: Lexicon of the Egyptian religious history. 3rd unchanged edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , pp. 487-490.
• Hans-W. Fischer-Elfert : The vision of the statue in the stone. Studies on the ancient Egyptian mouth opening ritual (= writings of the Philosophical-Historical Class of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. Vol. 5). Winter, Heidelberg 1998, ISBN 3-8253-0678-X .
• Mouth opening ritual. In: Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto : Small Lexicon of Egyptology. 4th, revised edition. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04027-0 , pp. 193f.
• Eberhard Otto : The Egyptian mouth opening ritual (= Egyptological treatises. Vol. 3, 1–2, ISSN  1614-6379 ). 2 volumes (Vol. 1: Text. Vol. 2: Commentary. ). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1960.
• Joachim Friedrich Quack : Fragments of the mouth opening ritual from Tebtynis. In: Kim Ryholt (Ed.): Hieratic Texts from the Collection (= The Carlsberg Papyri 7 = CNI Publications 30). Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen 2006, ISBN 87-635-0405-7 , pp. 69–150.
• Ann Macy Roth: The psš-kf and the "Opening of Mouth Ceremony": A Ritual of Birth and Rebirth. In: Journal of Egyptian Archeology (JEA). Vol. 78, 1992, ISSN  0075-4234 , pp. 113-147.
• Ann Macy Roth: Fingers, Stars, and the "Opening of Mouth Ceremony": The nature and function of the nṯrwj-Blades. In: Journal of Egyptian Archeology (JEA). Vol. 79, 1993, pp. 57-79.
• Ann Macy Roth, Catharine H. Roehrig: Magical bricks and the bricks of birth. In: Journal of Egyptian Archeology (JEA). Vol. 88, 2002, pp. 121-139.

Web links

• The mouth opening ritual
• Depiction of a Peseschkaf

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto: Small Lexicon of Egyptology. 4th, revised edition, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04027-0 , p. 193.
2. ^ Siegfried Schott : The memorial stone Sethos 'I for the chapel of Ramses' I in Abydos (= news of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen. Philological-Historical Class. 1964, Volume 1, ISSN  0065-5287 ). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1964, pp. 71-73.
3. ↑ Eberhard Otto: The Egyptian mouth opening ritual. Wiesbaden 1960, volume 2, p. 1.
4. ↑ Eberhard Otto: The Egyptian mouth opening ritual. Wiesbaden 1960, volume. 2, p. 10.
5. ^ Glyn Daniel : Encyclopedia of Archeology. Nikol, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-930656-37-X , p. 129.
6. ^ Ann Macy Roth: The psš-kf and the "Opening of Mouth Ceremony". In: Journal of Egyptian Archeology. (JEA) Vol. 78, 1992; Ann Macy Roth: Fingers, Stars, and the "Opening of Mouth Ceremony" . In: JEA. Volume 79, 1993.
7. ^ Ann Macy Roth, Catharine H. Roehrig: Magical bricks and the bricks of birth. In: JEA. Volume 88, 2002.
8. ↑ Jan Assmann: Death and Beyond in Ancient Egypt. Munich 2001, pp. 427-428.
9. ↑ Jan Assmann: Death and Beyond in Ancient Egypt. Munich 2001, pp. 413-414.
10. ↑ Eberhard Otto: The Egyptian mouth opening ritual. Wiesbaden 1960, Volume 2, p. 26.
11. ↑ Joachim Friedrich Quack: Fragments of the mouth opening ritual. Pp. 132-135.
12. ↑ Eberhard Otto: The Egyptian mouth opening ritual. Wiesbaden 1960, Volume 2, p. 19.
13. ↑ Eberhard Otto: The Egyptian mouth opening ritual. Wiesbaden 1960, Volume 2, pp. 131, 147.
14. ^ Benjamin Urrutia: Psalm 51 and the 'Opening of the Mouth' Ceremony. In: Scripta Hierosolymitana: Publications of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Volume 28, Jerusalem 1982, pp. 222-223.