roles of sons at the mortuary rituals, this was at the opening of the mouth ceremony
these priests would only usually appear at the funeral of a king, as it is the means by
which the son would assume the throne these priests would be young men to
symbolise the young heir to the throne. This is usually reflected by the symbolic
youth side lock of hair that only priests and royalty had.
then there are the imyw-st“ priests “those who are in the place of the hands” these
were basically handy men they would have fore knowledge of the trade as they are the
Town’s actual builders they would also do this job in the religious centres of there
town .As Herodotus points out all priests were shaved all over this was an act of
purification this is basically to rid them of any infestation such as lice they were then
also made to bath twice a day, they had to keep their nails short they weren’t allowed
to eat fish or beans as these were thing that were believed to dirty they were also
prohibited from having sex until they either were not working in their temples any
more (if they were phylae priests) or they just had to give it up all together if they
worked there permanently. Then there were mortuary priests who were very rarely
found in any other places than Thebes this is because the funeral rites were only
performed in Thebes these were the men who did all the embalming and
mummification rites. They were also very rich and acted on there own the didn’t
attend a temple and weren’t figureheads for there communities not that the other types
of priests were. mortuary priests were highly specialised and this lead to there wealth
and influence. There were only a handful of people in Egypt who could do the
mummification precedure. These priests instead would travel to other areas and work
from different temples about four at a time. Then there are the senior priests who are
named hmw ntr which meant servant of the god, which was thought of as like a chief
servant would be to a king or pharaoh the top attendant of you will. The priests
performed the roles which the kings were theoretically meant to carry out but
obviously the king couldn’t be in every temple around Egypt every day so the senior
priests of each temple would carry out his role each day. The senior priest was the
only one who was allowed past the vestibue and into the chamber which contained the
God’s statue. Every day he would under go a ritual cleanseing.This meant he was
ritualistically and symbolically washed by priests dressed as Horus and Seth wearing
the fantastic masks and head gear that has become synonymous with hieroglyphics the
priest was covered in water three times then coverings were placed on his head to
represent the two halves of Egypt, which were now unified. This was a ritual of
regeneration the water associated with life and birth and the life that the Nile brings to
the city’s of Egypt. After he had been cleansed he then proceeded to the chamber of
the gods statue then he would actually dress the statue in very special garments that
showed the gods authority the clothes were the same as those seen on the depictions of
the gods on hieroglyphs .Then the god’s statue would be given a very large meal for
breakfast this would be of quite rare quality and would be more than the normal
people would have then after the god had taken the magical essence away and been
nourished then the priests would eat the food, this applied to lunch and dinner
aswell.The senior priest would then oversee the runnings of the temple and often
consult the people on their problems as the would see him as not only the voice of
reason but also the voice and guidance of the gods. The priest also would control the
economical side of the temple the money that came to the temple was partly from
taxes-tithes , but it also came from the industries that the temple actually had . The
temple had surrounding land and farmers could rent it and grow crops then use the
profits from the produce to pay the temple. The temple to amun in Thebes had a factory
which produced linen and this meant that it supplied jobs for the lower classes. at the
end of the day after the priest had enjoyed the extravagant meal of the gods , he would
then dress the statue in the nightclothes yes that’s rite he would put the god in a type
of pyjamas and let him go to sleep.
The senior priest was the only one allowed to see the statue of the god other than the
King but the king wouldn’t be there very often if ever the only time any body would
see the statue was on a one-day festival called the Rer gier, the statue was brought out
on a pulley and the towns people would admire it and worship it then for the rest of
the year the worship of the statue was left to the senior priest alone.
