Sedfest
| Sedfest in hieroglyphics | |||||||
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| Occupied since the Old Kingdom |
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(Heb-sed) Ḥb-sd Sed-Fest / Jubilee Festival |
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The Sedfest was an ancient Egyptian festival in which the king played a central role. The oldest evidence goes back to the early dynastic period , it may not have been celebrated since the late period , but it still played an important role in the depictions of kings until the Ptolemaic period . Images of the Sedfest can be found for the first time in the Old Kingdom in the south grave of Djoser , in the sun shrine of Niuserre and in the mortuary temples of Sahure , Teti II. And Pepi II .
The source situation for the Sedfest is very sketchy, the most complete representation can be found in the solar sanctuary of Niuserre . During his reign, the Sedfest experienced an appreciation of its importance, as it has since been part of the festival ceremonies in the main temple, after this cult was performed in a smaller sun temple away from the main temple in the past. The main function was evidently the renewal of the king's power, according to the ideas of the ancient Egyptians it was also celebrated in the afterlife .
Emergence
A possible forerunner of the Sedfest is the unification festival of the two countries , which was also held as an anniversary festival for the renewal of rule during longer periods of government. Since the original meaning of the Sedfest is not clear, Egyptology considers a ritual among the hunter-nomadic ancestors of the Naqada II people, in which the old leader was replaced by a young ruler by ritually killing the old incumbent.
Such a regicide was practiced by various north-east African peoples until modern times. Cyril Aldred advocates this thesis and sees archaic remains of this custom in the Sed festival: the king circles the city, wreathed with onions - just like the sacrificial animals. The chopping up of the soil is said to be a leftover from the excavation of the royal tomb. In this context, the origin of the term “Sedfest” is uncertain; Considerable for this is the name of the god Sed , the Egyptian word sd "animal tail", or an article of clothing of the same name.
In the Old Kingdom, the meaning of the sun god Re changed . The earlier references to the later royal rule in the Duat were initially taken over by Re, before Osiris, as the king's representative, assumed the position of mediator between the Duat and Re. Therefore, the early location of the Sedfest processions also changed. The associated sanctuaries are therefore missing in the solar sanctuary of Niuserre. The representations there did not refer to the real Sedfest cult, but only reflected the former wish of the king for eternal rule.
Date and expiration
The Sedfest was mostly celebrated in the thirtieth year of the reign and more frequently thereafter. However, since the Old Kingdom there are also known Sedfest arrangements as part of the "small Sedfest" during the Sokar celebrations , which were not tied to a thirty-year rule. The festival calendar of Niuserre shows that in the Old Kingdom the day of erecting the Djed pillar took place shortly before sunrise on the 1st Peret I and thus originally heralded the new season.
In addition, the Sedfest was directly related to the Min Festival , which was also closely linked to the renewal of royal power as part of the festival calendar . The central importance of the Sedfest becomes understandable with the location in the "hidden world chamber" of the sun sanctuary of Niuserre, which thus has the character of a place of rebirth. In the depictions of the Sedfest in the Niuserre solar sanctuary, the king assumes the role of the “executor of creation ”.
The proclamation of the Sedfest took place since the Middle Kingdom during the celebrations of the coronation festival . The Egyptians celebrated the Sedfest in the New Kingdom on the fixed date of the 27th Schemu II ( Payni ). The valley festival formed the background for the appointment , as in the worst case it could fall on the 26th Schemu II due to the appointment in the lunar calendar .
The exact course of the Sedfest is controversial, so the sequence shown below cannot be more than an attempt to put the representations in order. At the beginning of the festival there was a procession, followed by the "lion furniture series" in a building. Then the king with the red or white crown sits enthroned in a pavilion and receives emissaries from the country, after which the king visits the chapels of various gods to pick up their statues for the parade. In a special regalia with an apron and an animal tail, the king and the statues of the gods hold the Sedlauf. This ceremony is followed by the demonstration and delivery of the cattle to the gods. Finally, the king visits the imperial shrines in his litter, where he performs various rites.
A special royal regalia is typical for the Sedfest: a short coat with an almost shoulder-free neckline, the white or red crown, a crook and fronds.
Sedfest in the ancestral cult
The Sedfest played an important role in the ancestral cult of the Egyptians, as the ruling king could renew and strengthen his position of power with the divine approval of the ancestors. Accordingly, Sedfest representations can often be found in the mortuary temples of the rulers.
The largest expression is found in the complex of the Djoser pyramid - there is an area in the complex consisting of a courtyard with surrounding symbolic temples for the other side of the sed run. In later burial complexes, this elaborate element was replaced by relief depictions of the Sed run in the mortuary temple .
literature
- Cyril Aldred : Akhenaten. God and Pharaoh of Egypt. License issue. Pawlak, Herrsching 1986, ISBN 3-88199-336-3 , p. 37.
- Jürgen von Beckerath : Thoughts on the dates of the Sed festivals. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute. Cairo Department. (MDAK). Volume 47, 1991, ISSN 0342-1279 , pp. 29-33.
- Hans Bonnet : Thirty Years Celebration. In: Hans Bonnet: Lexicon of the Egyptian religious history. 3rd unchanged edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , pp. 158-160.
- Jean Daniel Degreef: The Heb Set Festival Sequence and pBrooklyn 47.218.50. In: Göttinger Miscellen . (GM). Volume 223, 2009, pp. 27-34.
- Jocelyn Gohary: Akhenaten's Sed-festival at Karnak. Kegan Paul International, London a. a. 1992, ISBN 0-7103-0380-7 .
- Sedfest. In: Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Volume 5: Building a pyramid - stone vessels. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1984, ISBN 3-447-02489-5 , column 782 ff.
- Erik Hornung , Elisabeth Staehelin: Studies on the Sedfest (= Aegyptiaca Helvetica. Volume 1, ISSN 1017-5474 ). Editions de Belles Lettres, Geneva a. a. 1974.
- Erik Hornung, Elisabeth Staehelin: New studies on the Sedfest (= Aegyptiaca Helvetica. (AH). Volume 20). Schwabe, Basel 2006, ISBN 3-7965-2287-4 .
- Eric Uphill: The Egyptian Sed-Festival Rites. In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies . Volume 24, No. 4 = Erich F. Schmidt Memorial Issue Part 2, 1965, pp. 365-383.
