DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4689#0041
nenti-
THE GRAFFITI.
35
several other ceremonies in honour of Osiris, which
cannot be classified under any of the foregoing
heads.
Plutarch mentions two which are very similar
and may possibly be the same ceremony as practised
in different parts of the country. At the one which
takes place at the winter solstice,." they lead the
sacred cow in procession seven times round her
temple, which procession they call in express terms
" The Searching after Osiris." The other " doleful
rite " was to expose to public view " a gilded Ox
covered with a pall of the finest black linen (for
this animal is regarded as the living image of Osiris),
and this ceremony they perform four days succes-
sively, beginning on the seventeenth of the above-
mentioned month (Athyr)."
The festival of lights is mentioned in the Ritual of
Dendereh, and is described by Herodotus. " There
shall be celebrated a voyage on the 22nd of Khoiak
in the 8th hour of the day, when many lamps shall
be lighted near them (the relics) and the gods
belonging to them, the list of whose names runs
thus, Horus, Thoth, Anubis, Isis, Nephthys, and
the nineteen Children of Horus. These shall be
put into 34 boats. Furthermore these gods shall
be bandaged with the four webs from the South
Town and the North Town (Sais)" (Brugsch).
Herodotus describes the festival as he saw it at
Sais. " When they meet to sacrifice in the city of
Sais, they hang up by night a great number of
lamps, filled with oil and a mixture of salt, round
every house, the tow swimming on the surface.
These burn the whole night, and the Festival
is thence named The Lighting of Lamps. The
Egyptians, who are not present at this solemnity
observe the same ceremonies wherever they be, and
lamps are lighted that night, not only in Sais, but
throughout all Egypt. Nevertheless, the reasons
for using these illuminations and paying so great
respect to this night are kept secret." There are
many allusions to this custom scattered through the
religious texts, and all show that it was a ceremony
in honour of Osiris. " O, Osiris, I kindle the flame
for thee on the day of the shrouding of thy mummi-
fied body." {Stela of Rameses IV, Piehl, A.Z.,
1885, 16). " The flame for thy ka, O Osiris Khenti-
Amentiu, the flame for thy ka, O chief Khcri-Jicb
Petamenap......It protects thee and shines
about thy head.....it makes all thine enemies
to fall down before thee, thine enemies are over-
thrown " (Dumichen, A.Z., 18S3, 14-15). At Soleb
during the Scd-festival of Amenhotep III, the light-
ing of a lamp forms part of the function (L. D. iii,
84); and at an earlier period still, in the Nllth
Dynasty, the kindling of a spark or lamp was
evidently one of the chief rites at the commemorative
ceremonies for the dead (Griffith, Si/ct, pi. viii).
Herodotus mentions a ceremony which he
describes partly from observation and partly from
hearsay, but which seems to be a confused account
of some Osirian rite. " The Egyptians celebrate a
certain festival from the day of Rampsinitus'
descent (into Hades) to that of his re-ascension
......The priests every year at that time,
clothing one of their order in a cloak woven the
same day, and covering his eyes with a mitre, guide
him into the way that leads towards the Temple of
Ceres [Isis], and then return, upon which, they say,
two wolves come and conduct him to the Temple,
twenty stades distant from the city, and afterwards
accompany him back to the place from whence he
came." The garment woven in one day is probably
the same that is ordered in the Ritual of Dendereh,
"the 19th of Khoiak, on which day shall be made
the linen for wrapping the body." The two wolves
stand for Upuaut of the South and Upuaut of the
North coming from the temple of Isis to meet the
incarnate Osiris. They conduct him as the
" openers of roads."
Firmicus Maternus gives a description of a cere-
mony which apparently represents the burial rites
of Osiris. A pine tree was cut down, and the heart
of the tree removed. From this was made an
image of Osiris, which was replaced in the hollow
tree as in a tomb, where it remained till the following
year, when it was burned.
CHAPTER VI.
THE GRAFFITI.
37. The walls of the Sety Temple have been used
for many centuries to record the scribblings of
visitors. The modern tourist, who scratches his
name on the wall of an ancient building, rouses our
ire and makes us indignant; but when the graffito
is over fifteen hundred years old it becomes hallowed
by time, and we hasten to copy it. During the
Greek and Roman periods, the Sety Temple was a
place of pilgrimage, as the engraved footprints show.
ate
THE GRAFFITI.
35
several other ceremonies in honour of Osiris, which
cannot be classified under any of the foregoing
heads.
Plutarch mentions two which are very similar
and may possibly be the same ceremony as practised
in different parts of the country. At the one which
takes place at the winter solstice,." they lead the
sacred cow in procession seven times round her
temple, which procession they call in express terms
" The Searching after Osiris." The other " doleful
rite " was to expose to public view " a gilded Ox
covered with a pall of the finest black linen (for
this animal is regarded as the living image of Osiris),
and this ceremony they perform four days succes-
sively, beginning on the seventeenth of the above-
mentioned month (Athyr)."
The festival of lights is mentioned in the Ritual of
Dendereh, and is described by Herodotus. " There
shall be celebrated a voyage on the 22nd of Khoiak
in the 8th hour of the day, when many lamps shall
be lighted near them (the relics) and the gods
belonging to them, the list of whose names runs
thus, Horus, Thoth, Anubis, Isis, Nephthys, and
the nineteen Children of Horus. These shall be
put into 34 boats. Furthermore these gods shall
be bandaged with the four webs from the South
Town and the North Town (Sais)" (Brugsch).
Herodotus describes the festival as he saw it at
Sais. " When they meet to sacrifice in the city of
Sais, they hang up by night a great number of
lamps, filled with oil and a mixture of salt, round
every house, the tow swimming on the surface.
These burn the whole night, and the Festival
is thence named The Lighting of Lamps. The
Egyptians, who are not present at this solemnity
observe the same ceremonies wherever they be, and
lamps are lighted that night, not only in Sais, but
throughout all Egypt. Nevertheless, the reasons
for using these illuminations and paying so great
respect to this night are kept secret." There are
many allusions to this custom scattered through the
religious texts, and all show that it was a ceremony
in honour of Osiris. " O, Osiris, I kindle the flame
for thee on the day of the shrouding of thy mummi-
fied body." {Stela of Rameses IV, Piehl, A.Z.,
1885, 16). " The flame for thy ka, O Osiris Khenti-
Amentiu, the flame for thy ka, O chief Khcri-Jicb
Petamenap......It protects thee and shines
about thy head.....it makes all thine enemies
to fall down before thee, thine enemies are over-
thrown " (Dumichen, A.Z., 18S3, 14-15). At Soleb
during the Scd-festival of Amenhotep III, the light-
ing of a lamp forms part of the function (L. D. iii,
84); and at an earlier period still, in the Nllth
Dynasty, the kindling of a spark or lamp was
evidently one of the chief rites at the commemorative
ceremonies for the dead (Griffith, Si/ct, pi. viii).
Herodotus mentions a ceremony which he
describes partly from observation and partly from
hearsay, but which seems to be a confused account
of some Osirian rite. " The Egyptians celebrate a
certain festival from the day of Rampsinitus'
descent (into Hades) to that of his re-ascension
......The priests every year at that time,
clothing one of their order in a cloak woven the
same day, and covering his eyes with a mitre, guide
him into the way that leads towards the Temple of
Ceres [Isis], and then return, upon which, they say,
two wolves come and conduct him to the Temple,
twenty stades distant from the city, and afterwards
accompany him back to the place from whence he
came." The garment woven in one day is probably
the same that is ordered in the Ritual of Dendereh,
"the 19th of Khoiak, on which day shall be made
the linen for wrapping the body." The two wolves
stand for Upuaut of the South and Upuaut of the
North coming from the temple of Isis to meet the
incarnate Osiris. They conduct him as the
" openers of roads."
Firmicus Maternus gives a description of a cere-
mony which apparently represents the burial rites
of Osiris. A pine tree was cut down, and the heart
of the tree removed. From this was made an
image of Osiris, which was replaced in the hollow
tree as in a tomb, where it remained till the following
year, when it was burned.
CHAPTER VI.
THE GRAFFITI.
37. The walls of the Sety Temple have been used
for many centuries to record the scribblings of
visitors. The modern tourist, who scratches his
name on the wall of an ancient building, rouses our
ire and makes us indignant; but when the graffito
is over fifteen hundred years old it becomes hallowed
by time, and we hasten to copy it. During the
Greek and Roman periods, the Sety Temple was a
place of pilgrimage, as the engraved footprints show.
ate