DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4863#0037
The walls re-
flect what
occurred
within them
Ritual ser-
vices by the
priests of
Anion
CEREMONIAL AID
chapel, must not be taken to indicate poverty of imagination. It is more
probable that they simply present an almost photographic record of what
did, or should, take place beside these walls. The real presentation of
food offerings to Puyemre was certainly made at the raised entrance of
the shrine between their pictorial presentations; not by loyal friends
only, but by a compact with the temple staff. We may conclude, too,
that the quickening of the spirit of the dead man by contact with the
sacred emblems, as shown in the upper picture, was a ceremonial of only
secondary importance, and one frequently celebrated here. And if we
find the two opposite pictures meeting in the center of the front wall, the
arrangement is not unstudied. The procession of performers files in at
the door and, once within, falls into two ranks on the two sides of the
little room. The difference in detail on the two walls must of course not
be taken too seriously, though it was grounded on permitted latitude.
Similarly an offering to the great gods on behalf of the dead may well
have been performed facing the doorway as a preliminary rite. The pro-
vision of the offerings by slaughter, no doubt, took place outside; other-
wise, unpleasant memorials of it would still be traceable.
It appears that the Egyptian temple, during the night at least, was
guarded by four companies (% [,) of priests, who probably kept watch
for spells of three or four hours each1; since the institution was modeled
on that of the ship, where the four watches corresponded to the four
stations of the crew, viz., the two sides, the bows, and the stern. These
watches were formed from the class of priests, called wennutiu, a term
which does not seem to be nautical, though the names of the watches
were.2 If the inscriptions had been preserved, we should probably have
found that all four were represented on the walls here; the starboard and
aft watches on the north (Plate LI 11), the port and forward watches on
the south (Plate LIV). To judge by the picture, each watch consisted of
four men, but this may only be a deputation. These priests bring to
Puyemre the viands which had been laid before the god in the temple of
'Or possibly, like the priests generally, each watch served for three months in the year.
2Sethe, A.Z., 54, p. 3. The terms "starboard watch" and "port watch" are still in use. The fifth
company, introduced in Ptolemaic times, may have served as a dog watch.
22
flect what
occurred
within them
Ritual ser-
vices by the
priests of
Anion
CEREMONIAL AID
chapel, must not be taken to indicate poverty of imagination. It is more
probable that they simply present an almost photographic record of what
did, or should, take place beside these walls. The real presentation of
food offerings to Puyemre was certainly made at the raised entrance of
the shrine between their pictorial presentations; not by loyal friends
only, but by a compact with the temple staff. We may conclude, too,
that the quickening of the spirit of the dead man by contact with the
sacred emblems, as shown in the upper picture, was a ceremonial of only
secondary importance, and one frequently celebrated here. And if we
find the two opposite pictures meeting in the center of the front wall, the
arrangement is not unstudied. The procession of performers files in at
the door and, once within, falls into two ranks on the two sides of the
little room. The difference in detail on the two walls must of course not
be taken too seriously, though it was grounded on permitted latitude.
Similarly an offering to the great gods on behalf of the dead may well
have been performed facing the doorway as a preliminary rite. The pro-
vision of the offerings by slaughter, no doubt, took place outside; other-
wise, unpleasant memorials of it would still be traceable.
It appears that the Egyptian temple, during the night at least, was
guarded by four companies (% [,) of priests, who probably kept watch
for spells of three or four hours each1; since the institution was modeled
on that of the ship, where the four watches corresponded to the four
stations of the crew, viz., the two sides, the bows, and the stern. These
watches were formed from the class of priests, called wennutiu, a term
which does not seem to be nautical, though the names of the watches
were.2 If the inscriptions had been preserved, we should probably have
found that all four were represented on the walls here; the starboard and
aft watches on the north (Plate LI 11), the port and forward watches on
the south (Plate LIV). To judge by the picture, each watch consisted of
four men, but this may only be a deputation. These priests bring to
Puyemre the viands which had been laid before the god in the temple of
'Or possibly, like the priests generally, each watch served for three months in the year.
2Sethe, A.Z., 54, p. 3. The terms "starboard watch" and "port watch" are still in use. The fifth
company, introduced in Ptolemaic times, may have served as a dog watch.
22