Neith Festival (Esna)
| Khnum Temple in Esna in hieroglyphics | |
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The " Neith festival ", which was solemnly celebrated in the temple of Esna as the " creation festival " on the 13th Epiphi , the third month of the Schemu season , is not documented in this special Esna form in any other place in ancient Egypt .
The Neith hard was considered a female counterpart of Khnum -Festes " setting the potter's wheel ," which at the same time in Esna with the Dendera -Fest " collection of the sky for Ptah was celebrated." The reasons for this are to be seen in the special importance of the Khnum and the Neith in Esna, who were worshiped there as creator deities.
The festival symbolized the creation of ancient Egypt, with the complex of themes including eight primordial gods, thirty other gods, the births of Re , Apophis and Thoth and the creation words of the Neith-Methyer. The celebration began the evening of the previous day with the move to Sais , where torches, candles and other objects were lit:
“Lighting torches inside the temple. Celebrate a nice day on the part of the men and women, cheer on the part of the whole city, so that there is no sleep for anyone until dawn. "
Herodotus reports that the custom of lighting a torch with the subsequent celebration was also used outside of Sais. It is therefore likely that that festive practice formed the festive framework everywhere.
literature
- Maria-Theresia Derchain-Urtel: The image and text design in Esna. In: Ursula Verhoeven , Erhart Graefe (Hrsg.): Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt. Commemoration for Philippe Derchain on his 65th birthday on July 24, 1991 (= Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta. (OLA). Volume 39). Departement Oriëntalistiek et al., Leuven 1991, ISBN 90-6831-337-1 , pp. 107-121.
- Alexandra von Lieven : The sky over Esna. A case study on religious astronomy in Egypt using the example of the cosmological ceiling and architrave inscriptions in the temple of Esna (= Ägyptologische Abhandlungen. (ÄA). Volume 64). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-447-04324-5 (also: Tübingen, Univ., Master's thesis, 1998).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Alexandra von Lieven: The sky over Esna. Wiesbaden 2000, p. 87.
- ^ Herodotus, Historien, 2nd book, 62.