Sameref (priestly title)
| Sa-meref in hieroglyphics | ||||||
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S3-mr = f loving son |
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Sameref (also Sa-meref ) was the ancient Egyptian name for the " high priest of Sa-meref ". At the same time, Sa-meref is an epithet for Horus , which, similar to Iunmutef, was used as an independent name and title.
The role of Sa-meref symbolizes the care of the son and thus expresses the connection between Horus and Osiris .
background
Origin of the priesthood
The office of "High Priest of Sa-meref" was created especially for the cult of Osiris-Chontamenti in Abydos . From this Osiris temple district, which was in the north of Abydos, only small remains exist today. The inscriptions of Abydenean monuments in the Middle Kingdom show that the priests and officials working in Abydos understood themselves as "Sa-meref" and " Sem " at the same time . The epithet for Horus is described in the sons of the pyramid texts :
“I am your son, I am Horus. I am the son who loves his father in this, my name as Sa-meref. "
Activities of the Sa-meref
The priesthood Sa-meref included, among other things, activities in the cult of the dead for the deceased father, who mostly previously held the previous office. The tradition of the Sa-meref priesthood probably dates back to the early dynastic period . The old cult practice is described in the pyramid texts, in which the son lays down food offerings in his activity at the father's grave:
“Oh my father, get up from your left side, lie down on your right side. Take this bread that I gave you. I am your son, your heir "
The functions and duties associated with the office of Sa-meref related, among other things, to the assumption of the paternal priestly office, which the son had previously exercised with the activities as Medu-jau . With the arrival of the inheritance and the activities related to the cult of the dead, the Sa-meref ritually helped his father to continue to exist in the Duat as an opener of the way .
See also
literature
- Jan Assmann : Stone and Time - Man and Society in Ancient Egypt . Fink, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7705-2681-3 .
- Jean Sainte-Fare-Garnot: L'hommage aux dieux sous l'ancien empire egyptien - D'après les textes des Pyramides - . Presses universitaires de France, Paris 1954, pp. 139–140.
- Eberhard Otto : The relationship between rite and myth in Egyptian . Winter, Heidelberg 1958, pp. 11-12.