DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4859#0019
The Egyptian
tomb a pri-
vate, not a
common
grave
Even wives
and relatives
have no rights
in it
THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES
have no claim on the burial benefits which an inscribed tomb helped to
confirm to its owner, except in so far as their close association with the
clearly and repeatedly designated proprietor might involve them in the
salvation which he had achieved. This was natural. The inscriptions con-
stituted a legal deed assuring enumerated benefits, no less real because
without any stipulated limits, to So and So, by the grace of the king and
the gods, in return for services rendered to them. And, as the Theban
tomb (apart from its burial places, which often admit of indefinite sup-
plement) is generally confined at most to an inner and an outer room
and a connecting passage, these constituted the private suite of a single
person, which he naturally reserved for himself and his wife.
Even the most loved wife takes a quite secondary place in the tomb
and has no prescribed rights there, but only an indirect participation in
the blessings on which her husband has, or thinks he has, a lien. The
Miltonic ideal "she for God in him" seems fully to prevail at this time.
Though she is generally shown by his side when a rite is being performed
for his benefit, the boon is assured to him personally, and it is only through
her relation to him that she enjoys it. Only in rare cases is her per-
sonal right recognized by the mention of her ka also.1 Indeed the par-
ents of the owner seem to be given a stronger claim; for a hotpedens
prayer for offerings on their behalf specially is more than once recorded
on the tomb walls, and the blessings expressly devoted to both.2 Occa-
sionally a son, desiring to acknowledge, and to carry forward with him
into the unknown, the womanly devotion which he had the most reason
to appreciate, associated his mother with him in place of a wife. The
statues of the parents, or it may be of a brother, as well as of the wife,
may sometimes be seen side by side with the owner's in the recesses of the
tomb, and there, through the formula inscribed on their skirts, receive
offerings from the altar of the gods. Whether this, the nearest approach
1 E.g., in Tomb 161. Less solemn presentations of the cup, bouquets, or sistrums by children are, however,
addressed to both parents with the words "for your ka" and to dead parents of the owner even in the case of
a ritual offering. Whether the use of the singular term "ka" in such cases points to the married pair being
regarded as a single personality is not clear.
2 E.g., in Tomb 276 and on PI. XVII.
tomb a pri-
vate, not a
common
grave
Even wives
and relatives
have no rights
in it
THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES
have no claim on the burial benefits which an inscribed tomb helped to
confirm to its owner, except in so far as their close association with the
clearly and repeatedly designated proprietor might involve them in the
salvation which he had achieved. This was natural. The inscriptions con-
stituted a legal deed assuring enumerated benefits, no less real because
without any stipulated limits, to So and So, by the grace of the king and
the gods, in return for services rendered to them. And, as the Theban
tomb (apart from its burial places, which often admit of indefinite sup-
plement) is generally confined at most to an inner and an outer room
and a connecting passage, these constituted the private suite of a single
person, which he naturally reserved for himself and his wife.
Even the most loved wife takes a quite secondary place in the tomb
and has no prescribed rights there, but only an indirect participation in
the blessings on which her husband has, or thinks he has, a lien. The
Miltonic ideal "she for God in him" seems fully to prevail at this time.
Though she is generally shown by his side when a rite is being performed
for his benefit, the boon is assured to him personally, and it is only through
her relation to him that she enjoys it. Only in rare cases is her per-
sonal right recognized by the mention of her ka also.1 Indeed the par-
ents of the owner seem to be given a stronger claim; for a hotpedens
prayer for offerings on their behalf specially is more than once recorded
on the tomb walls, and the blessings expressly devoted to both.2 Occa-
sionally a son, desiring to acknowledge, and to carry forward with him
into the unknown, the womanly devotion which he had the most reason
to appreciate, associated his mother with him in place of a wife. The
statues of the parents, or it may be of a brother, as well as of the wife,
may sometimes be seen side by side with the owner's in the recesses of the
tomb, and there, through the formula inscribed on their skirts, receive
offerings from the altar of the gods. Whether this, the nearest approach
1 E.g., in Tomb 161. Less solemn presentations of the cup, bouquets, or sistrums by children are, however,
addressed to both parents with the words "for your ka" and to dead parents of the owner even in the case of
a ritual offering. Whether the use of the singular term "ka" in such cases points to the married pair being
regarded as a single personality is not clear.
2 E.g., in Tomb 276 and on PI. XVII.