DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55202#0108
88
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM IN THEBES
some of the linen marks on the bandages which were wrapped about
her were dated in the 35th, the 38th and the 43d years of the reign,51
and she probably died in about the 50th year. Later in the same
reign was born that Amun-em-het who survived the Eleventh Dy-
nasty to occupy the throne himself for thirty years. Beyond this
little we know nothing of the god before the Twelfth Dynasty.
Sethe would have it that Amun—even granting that he was men-
tioned in the Pyramid Texts52—was only introduced to the Thebans
by their prince, the Horus Wah-fankh In-yotef, as a result of his
victory over the Heracleopolitans. Sethe seems to assume, since there
is no contemporary evidence of the fact, that the Theban conquest
somehow extended as far north as Hermopolis, where Amun had been
among the local eight deities—a god of the elements, anthropo-
morphic and not animal formed like the primitive nome gods. How-
ever, aside from any speculations on the circumstances of its intro-
duction-—as an incident of the war with the north or not—we have
seen that the Amun cult was already in Thebes at the outset of the
Eleventh Dynasty. But, on the other hand, it never seems to have
been the official religion of the Eleventh Dynasty kings, and it was
only with Amun-em-het I—and probably because of some personal
or family reason of the new king’s—that Amun came into his own.
Then, however, his reputation grew apace, and very shortly after-
ward he was even identified with the Old Kingdom sun-god as
Amun-Ref53
It would have been natural for the new ruler to do everything he
could to strengthen his own position by increasing the prestige of his
patron god. There may have been something even in the earliest The-
ban ritual of Amun involving journeying by boat.54 Perhaps the
earliest annual voyage of the god was to southern Opet, on the east
bank of the Nile where the town of Luxor now is located. A fragment
of relief was found in Deir el Bahri which some have taken for the
prow of the bark of Amun in the days of Neb-hepet-Ref55 If this
voyage actually took place at such an early date it would have been
very easy for Amun’s namesake, Amun-em-het, to establish a new
51 Daressy, Sphinx, 1913, p. 100.
62 Sethe, Amun und die acht Urgotter, § 61 (reviewed caustically by Wainwright, JEA, 1931,
p. 151); Pyramid Texts, §§ 446, 1095, 1540.
53 Sethe, Amun, § 236. Lange and Schafer, Grabsteine, 20754, of the XII Dyn. and not of
the XI Dyn., as Sethe thought.
64 Sethe, Amun, § 54.
55 Foucart, BIFAO, 1924. Pl. IX; Naville, XI Dyn. Temple, 1, Pl. XIII.
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM IN THEBES
some of the linen marks on the bandages which were wrapped about
her were dated in the 35th, the 38th and the 43d years of the reign,51
and she probably died in about the 50th year. Later in the same
reign was born that Amun-em-het who survived the Eleventh Dy-
nasty to occupy the throne himself for thirty years. Beyond this
little we know nothing of the god before the Twelfth Dynasty.
Sethe would have it that Amun—even granting that he was men-
tioned in the Pyramid Texts52—was only introduced to the Thebans
by their prince, the Horus Wah-fankh In-yotef, as a result of his
victory over the Heracleopolitans. Sethe seems to assume, since there
is no contemporary evidence of the fact, that the Theban conquest
somehow extended as far north as Hermopolis, where Amun had been
among the local eight deities—a god of the elements, anthropo-
morphic and not animal formed like the primitive nome gods. How-
ever, aside from any speculations on the circumstances of its intro-
duction-—as an incident of the war with the north or not—we have
seen that the Amun cult was already in Thebes at the outset of the
Eleventh Dynasty. But, on the other hand, it never seems to have
been the official religion of the Eleventh Dynasty kings, and it was
only with Amun-em-het I—and probably because of some personal
or family reason of the new king’s—that Amun came into his own.
Then, however, his reputation grew apace, and very shortly after-
ward he was even identified with the Old Kingdom sun-god as
Amun-Ref53
It would have been natural for the new ruler to do everything he
could to strengthen his own position by increasing the prestige of his
patron god. There may have been something even in the earliest The-
ban ritual of Amun involving journeying by boat.54 Perhaps the
earliest annual voyage of the god was to southern Opet, on the east
bank of the Nile where the town of Luxor now is located. A fragment
of relief was found in Deir el Bahri which some have taken for the
prow of the bark of Amun in the days of Neb-hepet-Ref55 If this
voyage actually took place at such an early date it would have been
very easy for Amun’s namesake, Amun-em-het, to establish a new
51 Daressy, Sphinx, 1913, p. 100.
62 Sethe, Amun und die acht Urgotter, § 61 (reviewed caustically by Wainwright, JEA, 1931,
p. 151); Pyramid Texts, §§ 446, 1095, 1540.
53 Sethe, Amun, § 236. Lange and Schafer, Grabsteine, 20754, of the XII Dyn. and not of
the XI Dyn., as Sethe thought.
64 Sethe, Amun, § 54.
55 Foucart, BIFAO, 1924. Pl. IX; Naville, XI Dyn. Temple, 1, Pl. XIII.