DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4032#0040
30
THE FESTIVAL-HALL IN THE GEEAT TEMPLE OF BUBASTIS.
Osorkon rests, or a platform, or staircase, the
word ret ^5§^ ^ meaning a staircase, a flight of
steps. I consider @5ii tep retu, the top of
the stairs, as being those shrines to which
access is given by a flight of steps, and I shall
translate " shrine," a sense which is confirmed
by the other instances where the word occurs.
"We find on this side priests of a different kind
from those who appeared on the southern wall.
I have placed conjecturally on this wall a block
which at first sight seemed to belong- to the wall
D, but for which I could find no room (pi. xxv.
No. vi). Tt is the repetition of what we saw
before, of part of the festival of Tonen ; the am
Jckentn,ihe sahu are lying down. Somebody says:
" Hail (to the festival), hail to Phthah (Tonen)."
The sitting priest of pi. xiv., the |y Ties, "the
singer," speaks also, but nothing remains of
what he savs. Above him are the women with
tt
lotus flowers, they are called here -i-° 'v\^ J|
" singers ; " again they repeat, " Hail to the
festival, hail, the festival of Phthah Tonen
takes place," and the significant words:
" Horus rises, he has received the two plumes,
he is the king Osorkon."
Over them is a procession of men headed by
I still adhere to the view which
theJD
tiil £=> tlij d ,
I expressed elsewhere, that they must be con-
sidered as judges. The four gods of the cardinal
points, who sit in the court over which Osiris
is president, are called by this name ; but they
are judges having a religious character, some-
thing like the cadis of the present day.
That is all we can reconstruct of the northern
doorpost, whereas the other side contained a
great deal more. It is impossible to say why
this side has suffered so much in comparison
with the other. It may be that in former times
the way was shorter from there to the canal on
which the blocks were shipped to the villages,
where they would be used for oil-presses, mill-
stones, or thresholds. At present, in the neigh-
bouring villages, remains of the great temple
of Bast are built in the walls or in shakiyehs,
and used for agricultural purposes. I remember
having come across Ptolemaic inscriptions in a
shakiyeh of the village of Aslooghi, where it
had been brought from the sanctuary of Bast.
"Who knows whether fragments which
might give us the key to very important
questions for which, at present, we have no
solutions, are perhaps hidden in a wall, or used
by a fellah woman as a washing-board. It is
possible, also, that the blocks of the north were
on the top of those of the south, and were
carried away sooner. We do not know how
the temple was destroyed, probably by digging
under the walls, which caused the whole con-
struction to collapse. If the southern wall was
destroyed first, and the northern afterwards,
so that the blocks fell over the ruins of the
other, the people who, during centuries, used
the temple as a quarry, would, of course, begin
with the upper stones, while the lower ones
would be preserved.
Hardly anything remains of the long Avail
which was symmetrical with the wall B, except a
most curious block which, having no clue
whatever to its place, I have put in the middle
(pi. xx. 5). It contains an interesting picture of
dwarfs holding each of them a long cane. One of
them seems to have been their chief, their ^JD,
but their name seems to have been 1^4^ sash.
This name is well known; it means the
"guard, the policeman, the beadle," especially
" the police of a temple." Brugsch 9 quotes a
representation of Abydos, in which men having
this name and armed with sticks precede a
train of priests. It is exactly so in this case;
they hold long sticks and precede several
Icherheb, who were, perhaps, followed by other
priests.
It seems rather strange to us who are accus-
tomed to see in Roman Catholic churches
8 Diet. Suppl. p. 284.
!
THE FESTIVAL-HALL IN THE GEEAT TEMPLE OF BUBASTIS.
Osorkon rests, or a platform, or staircase, the
word ret ^5§^ ^ meaning a staircase, a flight of
steps. I consider @5ii tep retu, the top of
the stairs, as being those shrines to which
access is given by a flight of steps, and I shall
translate " shrine," a sense which is confirmed
by the other instances where the word occurs.
"We find on this side priests of a different kind
from those who appeared on the southern wall.
I have placed conjecturally on this wall a block
which at first sight seemed to belong- to the wall
D, but for which I could find no room (pi. xxv.
No. vi). Tt is the repetition of what we saw
before, of part of the festival of Tonen ; the am
Jckentn,ihe sahu are lying down. Somebody says:
" Hail (to the festival), hail to Phthah (Tonen)."
The sitting priest of pi. xiv., the |y Ties, "the
singer," speaks also, but nothing remains of
what he savs. Above him are the women with
tt
lotus flowers, they are called here -i-° 'v\^ J|
" singers ; " again they repeat, " Hail to the
festival, hail, the festival of Phthah Tonen
takes place," and the significant words:
" Horus rises, he has received the two plumes,
he is the king Osorkon."
Over them is a procession of men headed by
I still adhere to the view which
theJD
tiil £=> tlij d ,
I expressed elsewhere, that they must be con-
sidered as judges. The four gods of the cardinal
points, who sit in the court over which Osiris
is president, are called by this name ; but they
are judges having a religious character, some-
thing like the cadis of the present day.
That is all we can reconstruct of the northern
doorpost, whereas the other side contained a
great deal more. It is impossible to say why
this side has suffered so much in comparison
with the other. It may be that in former times
the way was shorter from there to the canal on
which the blocks were shipped to the villages,
where they would be used for oil-presses, mill-
stones, or thresholds. At present, in the neigh-
bouring villages, remains of the great temple
of Bast are built in the walls or in shakiyehs,
and used for agricultural purposes. I remember
having come across Ptolemaic inscriptions in a
shakiyeh of the village of Aslooghi, where it
had been brought from the sanctuary of Bast.
"Who knows whether fragments which
might give us the key to very important
questions for which, at present, we have no
solutions, are perhaps hidden in a wall, or used
by a fellah woman as a washing-board. It is
possible, also, that the blocks of the north were
on the top of those of the south, and were
carried away sooner. We do not know how
the temple was destroyed, probably by digging
under the walls, which caused the whole con-
struction to collapse. If the southern wall was
destroyed first, and the northern afterwards,
so that the blocks fell over the ruins of the
other, the people who, during centuries, used
the temple as a quarry, would, of course, begin
with the upper stones, while the lower ones
would be preserved.
Hardly anything remains of the long Avail
which was symmetrical with the wall B, except a
most curious block which, having no clue
whatever to its place, I have put in the middle
(pi. xx. 5). It contains an interesting picture of
dwarfs holding each of them a long cane. One of
them seems to have been their chief, their ^JD,
but their name seems to have been 1^4^ sash.
This name is well known; it means the
"guard, the policeman, the beadle," especially
" the police of a temple." Brugsch 9 quotes a
representation of Abydos, in which men having
this name and armed with sticks precede a
train of priests. It is exactly so in this case;
they hold long sticks and precede several
Icherheb, who were, perhaps, followed by other
priests.
It seems rather strange to us who are accus-
tomed to see in Roman Catholic churches
8 Diet. Suppl. p. 284.
!