Misplaced Pages

#120879

63-529: The festival was celebrated to promote the Fertility of Amun-Re and the Pharaoh, who was believed to be the spiritual offspring of Amun-Re – the son or daughter of Amun-Re. John Coleman Darnell argues that “Opet began on II Akhet 15 under Thutmose III and lasted 11 days (Sethe 1907: 824, line 10); by the beginning of the reign of Ramesses III , the festival stretched over 24 days.” The festival included

126-402: A monocle , and one time when "Darnell accidentally took a chunk out of a classroom chair with an ancient sword". In January 2013, scandal broke out when it was discovered that John Darnell had engaged in a long-running affair with his student-turned-coworker Colleen Manassa . Within the small Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC) department, they were the only two faculty members in

189-610: A child, hoping he would take a nap, but he was fascinated and did not nap. Darnell got his BA (1984) and MA (1985) at Johns Hopkins University and his PhD (1995) at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago . He joined the Yale Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations as Assistant Professor in 1998; he became Associate Professor in 2004, and Professor of Egyptology in 2005. He

252-543: A crowd. While not regarded as a dynasty, the High Priests of Amun at Thebes were nevertheless of such power and influence that they were effectively the rulers of Egypt from 1080 to c. 943 BC. By the time Herihor was proclaimed as the first ruling High Priest of Amun in 1080 BC—in the 19th Year of Ramesses XI —the Amun priesthood exercised an effective hold on Egypt's economy. The Amun priests owned two-thirds of all

315-467: A moment; none remains. His breath comes back to us in mercy ... May your ka be kind; may you forgive; It shall not happen again. Subsequently, when Egypt conquered Kush , they identified the chief deity of the Kushites as Amun. This Kush deity was depicted as ram-headed, more specifically a woolly ram with curved horns. Amun thus became associated with the ram arising from the aged appearance of

378-619: A ritual procession of the barque (a ceremonial boat used to transport statues of gods and deities) of the cult statue of “Amun-Re, supreme god, his wife Mut , and his son Khons .” The procession carried the statue for 2 km from Karnak Temple to “Luxor Temple, destination of the Opet Feast.” At the Luxor Temple , a ritual marriage ceremony took place in the Birth room between the Pharaoh and Amun-Re, spiritually linking them to ensure

441-465: A sign or intervention from a specific god who wanted them to maintain the natural order of the universe, or ma’at . To appease the gods, Egyptians routinely made offerings to the gods of sacrifices, prayers, and festivals. In this perceived symbiotic relationship, celebrations of the gods provided assurance to Egyptians, allowing them to live their lives without fear of divine intervention. The Opet festival re-established essential communication between

504-583: A specially made bark, known in Egyptian as the Userhat-Amun (“mighty of prow is Amun”). This vessel was built of Lebanon cedar covered with gold. Its prow and stern were decorated with a ram’s head, sacred to the god.”. Although the nature of the route between temples remained the same, the length of the festival changed with each ruler. In certain years, the barque of Amun-Re travelled solely Karnak to Luxor, “…a ritual journey from their shrines at Karnak to

567-430: A symbol of virility, Amun also became thought of as a fertility deity, and so started to absorb the identity of Min , becoming Amun-Min. This association with virility led to Amun-Min gaining the epithet Kamutef , meaning "Bull of his mother", in which form he was found depicted on the walls of Karnak , ithyphallic , and with a "flail" , as Min was. As the cult of Amun grew in importance, Amun became identified with

630-461: A vast ceremonial stage to celebrate the consolidation of power, and the Opet festival took centre stage”. During the reign of Thutmose III (1458-1426 B.C.), the festival lasted for 11 days. By the start of the rule of Ramesses III in 1187 B.C., it had expanded to 24 days; by his death in 1156 B.C., it had stretched to 27. The most accurate information of the history of the Opet festival comes from

693-627: Is carried around Luxor in celebration of his life. This Mawlid celebration takes place around the vicinity of the Abu Haggag Mosque . The Opet festival became a mainstream festival in the early New Kingdom (circa. 1539-1075 B.C.) when the 18th dynasty came to power, after “driving out the Hyksos invaders who had occupied the northern part of the Nile Valley for 200 years. Egypt’s new rulers wasted no time in making its capital city Thebes

SECTION 10

#1732765815121

756-477: Is normal in being merciful. The Lord of Thebes does not spend an entire day angry. As for his anger – in the completion of a moment there is no remnant ... As thy Ka endures! thou wilt be merciful! In the Leiden hymns, Amun, Ptah , and Re are regarded as a trinity who are distinct gods but with unity in plurality. "The three gods are one yet the Egyptian elsewhere insists on the separate identity of each of

819-552: The Hymn to the Aten : When thou crossest the sky, all faces behold thee, but when thou departest, thou are hidden from their faces ... When thou settest in the western mountain, then they sleep in the manner of death ... The fashioner of that which the soil produces, ... a mother of profit to gods and men; a patient craftsman, greatly wearying himself as their maker ... valiant herdsman, driving his cattle, their refuge and

882-622: The Kingdom of Kush . The Victory Stele of Piye at Gebel Barkal (8th century BC) now distinguishes between an "Amun of Napata " and an "Amun of Thebes". Tantamani (died 653 BC), the last pharaoh of the Nubian dynasty, still bore a theophoric name referring to Amun in the Nubian form Amani . In areas outside Egypt where the Egyptians had previously brought the cult of Amun his worship continued into classical antiquity . In Nubia, where his name

945-611: The Luxor Temple . This Great Inscription (which has now lost about a third of its content) shows the king's campaigns and eventual return with items of potential value and prisoners. Next to this inscription is the Victory Stela , which is largely a copy of the more famous Merneptah Stele found in the funerary complex of Merenptah on the west bank of the Nile in Thebes. Merenptah's son Seti II added two small obelisks in front of

1008-626: The Old Egyptian Pyramid Texts . The name Amun (written imn ) meant something like "the hidden one" or "invisible", which is also attested by epithets found in the Pyramid Texts "O You, the great god whose name is unknown". Amun rose to the position of tutelary deity of Thebes after the end of the First Intermediate Period , under the 11th Dynasty . As the patron of Thebes, his spouse

1071-607: The Sun god , Ra , as Amun-Ra (alternatively spelled Amon-Ra or Amun-Re ). On his own, he was also thought to be the king of the gods . Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom (with the exception of the " Atenist heresy " under Akhenaten ). Amun-Ra in this period (16th–11th centuries BC) held the position of transcendental , self-created creator deity "par excellence"; he

1134-627: The temple lands in Egypt and 90 percent of her ships and many other resources. Consequently, the Amun priests were as powerful as the pharaoh, if not more so. One of the sons of the High Priest Pinedjem would eventually assume the throne and rule Egypt for almost half a century as pharaoh Psusennes I , while the Theban High Priest Psusennes III would take the throne as king Psusennes II —the final ruler of

1197-601: The 21st Dynasty. In the 10th century BC, the overwhelming dominance of Amun over all of Egypt gradually began to decline. In Thebes, however, his worship continued unabated, especially under the Nubian Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt , as Amun was by now seen as a national god in Nubia. The Temple of Amun, Jebel Barkal , founded during the New Kingdom, came to be the center of the religious ideology of

1260-500: The 3rd century BC, slew them. John Coleman Darnell John Coleman Darnell (born August 1962) is an American Egyptologist . Darnell attributes his interest in archaeology to his mother, who also had a lifelong interest in archaeology. He grew up in south Alabama and had a particular interest in the Mississippian Mound Builders . Darnell tells a story of his mother reading him archaeology books as

1323-473: The Aten ceased for the most part and worship of Amun-Ra was restored. During the reign of Horemheb, Akhenaten's name was struck from Egyptian records, all of his religious and governmental changes were undone, and the capital was returned to Thebes. The return to the previous capital and its patron deity was accomplished so swiftly that it seemed this monolatrist cult and its governmental reforms had never existed. The god of wind Amun came to be identified with

SECTION 20

#1732765815121

1386-591: The Kush ram deity, and depictions related to Amun sometimes had small ram's horns, known as the Horns of Ammon . A solar deity in the form of a ram can be traced to the pre-literate Kerma culture in Nubia, contemporary to the Old Kingdom of Egypt. The later ( Meroitic period ) name of Nubian Amun was Amani , attested in numerous personal names such as Tanwetamani , Arkamani , and Amanitore . Since rams were considered

1449-591: The Nile” with construction commencing c.1970 BC by Senusret I and between 1390-1352 BC by Amunhotep III (see History of the Karnak Temple complex ). Karnak was further expanded by Thutmose I early in the New Kingdom, measuring nearly two square miles. Thebes also provides archaeological sources for the Opet Festival and is “believed to have been an ancient observatory as well as a place of worship where

1512-433: The Opet festival. John Coleman Darnell emphasises the importance of the general population in executing the festival: “Ramesses II listed amongst those responsible for arranging the festival: members of the civil administration, provincial governors, border-officials, heads of internal economic departments, officers of the commissariat, city-officials, and upper ranks of the priesthood.” Those who were not actively involved in

1575-454: The Pharaoh’s fertility and reinstate the Pharaoh as the intermediary between the gods and Egypt. During the marriage ceremony, the Pharaoh was ceremonially reborn through a re-crowning ceremony, emphasising the fertile nature of the Pharaoh and legitimising his divine right to rule. The ancient festival survives in the present-day feast of Sheikh Yūsuf al-Haggāg , an Islamic holy man whose boat

1638-655: The Precinct of Amun-Ra took place during the 18th Dynasty when Thebes became the capital of the unified ancient Egypt. Construction of the Hypostyle Hall may have also begun during the 18th Dynasty, though most building was undertaken under Seti I and Ramesses II . Merenptah commemorated his victories over the Sea Peoples on the walls of the Cachette Court , the start of the processional route to

1701-471: The Second Pylon, and a triple bark-shrine to the north of the processional avenue in the same area. This was constructed of sandstone, with a chapel to Amun flanked by those of Mut and Khonsu . The last major change to the Precinct of Amun-Ra's layout was the addition of the first pylon and the massive enclosure walls that surrounded the whole Precinct, both constructed by Nectanebo I . When

1764-490: The army of the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty expelled the Hyksos rulers from Egypt, the victor's city of origin, Thebes , became the most important city in Egypt, the capital of a new dynasty. The local patron deity of Thebes, Amun, therefore became nationally important . The pharaohs of that new dynasty attributed all of their successes to Amun, and they lavished much of their wealth and captured spoil on

1827-490: The artisans' village at Deir el-Medina record: [Amun] who comes at the voice of the poor in distress, who gives breath to him who is wretched ... You are Amun, the Lord of the silent, who comes at the voice of the poor; when I call to you in my distress You come and rescue me ... Though the servant was disposed to do evil, the Lord is disposed to forgive. The Lord of Thebes spends not a whole day in anger; His wrath passes in

1890-733: The ceremony would be held annually. Amun B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W Amun was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad . Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet . His oracle in Siwa Oasis , located in Western Egypt near the Libyan Desert , remained

1953-481: The changing nature of the route between Karnak and Luxor temples. Marina Escolano-Poveda provides a comprehensive analysis of the shifting path between the temples. “The processional route between the temples varied with time, sometimes traveling by foot along the Avenue of Sphinxes, a road nearly two miles long, lined with statues of the mythical beasts. At other times, the sacred statue traveled from Karnak to Luxor in

Opet Festival - Misplaced Pages Continue

2016-516: The chief deity who was worshipped in other areas during that period, namely the sun god Ra . This identification led to another merger of identities, with Amun becoming Amun-Ra. In the Hymn to Amun-Ra he is described as Lord of truth, father of the gods, maker of men, creator of all animals, Lord of things that are, creator of the staff of life. During the latter part of the Eighteenth dynasty ,

2079-563: The construction of temples dedicated to Amun. The victory against the "foreign rulers" achieved by pharaohs who worshipped Amun caused him to be seen as a champion of the less fortunate , upholding the rights of justice for the poor. By aiding those who traveled in his name, he became the Protector of the road . Since he upheld Ma'at (truth, justice, and goodness), those who prayed to Amun were required first to demonstrate that they were worthy, by confessing their sins. Votive stelae from

2142-462: The even-smaller Egyptology program. "Four individuals with close ties to the department" claimed the relationship was common knowledge within the department, and Assyriology professor Benjamin Foster reported "the basic situation has been known for a very long time." In divorce documents filed by Darnell's wife Deborah Darnell on November 5, 2012, she asserted that the affair began in 2000 when Manassa

2205-467: The god Amun would interact directly with the people of earth.” Carvings on the Red Chapel’s south side at Karnak provide the oldest evidence for the festival of Opet. The Chapel was made of grey diorite and red quartzite and housed the ceremonial barque of Amun-Re when not in use. Sources also provide information on the changing route of the cult statue of Amun-Re. The text on a sphinx of Nectanebo I on

2268-494: The gods and Egyptian society through the rebirth ceremony in the Temple of Luxor’s birth-room, which initiated the Pharaoh as an intermediary for the gods by being reborn as the son of Amun-Re, in “the rebirth of the sun-god.” This rebirth promoted the fertility of the pharaoh, ensuring his divine right to rule and consolidating his lineage. The Opet festival also reinforced the fertility of the harvest, which fluctuated depending on

2331-481: The holiest title in Egypt. The promotion of fertility in the festival strengthened the validity of the Pharaoh’s lineage, as it “celebrated the renewal of the ka-force of Amun, and the transmission of the spirit of kingship in the eternal present”, allowing the Royal Family to maintain power over the social classes. The religious rites during the Opet Festival re-established and confirmed the Pharaoh’s possession of

2394-519: The importance of a relief in the Red Chapel of Hatshepsut in depicting the celebratory nature of the festival, “The reliefs make a great effort to depict the grand spectacle: many priests support the barks and statues, while a crowd makes a joyous din with sistrum rattles. The gods’ barks were brought alongside the jetty at the Temple of Luxor and were carried on the shoulders of the priests to the sacred precinct. A series of ceremonies were conducted in

2457-481: The inundation of the Nile, and was therefore celebrated in the “second month of the Akhet season.” It was not just the Pharaoh who was active during the festival; sailors and soldiers were the most prominent non-religious groups in the festival. They have been observed in the colonnade hall relief-scenes, which demonstrated that a large number of civil and military official partook in the preparations for, and running of,

2520-433: The making of their living ... The sole Lord, who reaches the end of the lands every day, as one who sees them that tread thereon ... Every land chatters at his rising every day, in order to praise him. When Akhenaten died, Akhenaten's successor, Smenkhkare , became pharaoh and Atenism remained established during his brief 2-year reign. When Smenkhkare died, an enigmatic female pharaoh known as Neferneferuaten took

2583-509: The only oracle of Amun throughout. With the 11th Dynasty ( c.  21st century BC), Amun rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing Montu . Initially possibly one of eight deities in the Hermapolite creation myth, his worship expanded. After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I (16th century BC), Amun acquired national importance , expressed in his fusion with

Opet Festival - Misplaced Pages Continue

2646-545: The outer courts, after which the barks were taken into the inner sanctuary, accompanied solely by high-ranking priests and the pharaoh. Once the ceremonies were completed, the barks returned downstream to Karnak.” On November 25, 2021, after a long renovation project, the Avenue of Sphinxes was re-opened in a grand ceremony similar to the Opet Festival. On December 7, 2021, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced that

2709-527: The pharaoh Akhenaten (also known as Amenhotep IV) advanced the worship of the Aten , a deity whose power was manifested in the sun disk, both literally and symbolically. He defaced the symbols of many of the old deities, and based his religious practices upon the deity, the Aten . He moved his capital away from Thebes, but this abrupt change was very unpopular with the priests of Amun, who now found themselves without any of their former power. The religion of Egypt

2772-404: The prayer, who comes at the cry of the poor and distressed...Beware of him! Repeat him to son and daughter, to great and small; relate him to generations of generations who have not yet come into being; relate him to fishes in the deep, to birds in heaven; repeat him to him who does not know him and to him who knows him ... Though it may be that the servant is normal in doing wrong, yet the Lord

2835-402: The result of which was the renewal of Amun in the person of his ever-renewing human vessel, the reigning king” ensured that Egypt would be met with another fertile year; through population growth, large harvests, and a large inundation of the Nile. The Pharaoh’s religious role was reinforced through the Opet festival, as it re-affirmed their role as “The first prophet of Amun-Re, king of the gods”,

2898-468: The route between Karnak and Luxor describes the construction (refurbishment) of the route for Amun, “so that he might carry out his good navigation in Luxor”, revealing that the basic sense of “navigation” would be the same for the deity traveling within the portable barque, both on the deck of the riverine barge and the shoulders of the priests. John Coleman Darnell believes that using the land route to Luxor

2961-417: The royal Ka , the representation of the human soul’s lifeforce. “This life force inhabited the bodies of all legitimate pharaohs of Egypt and passed from the old to the new on the latter’s death. An annual confirmation of such a process would help bolster the king’s authority.” The Karnak (Temple of Amun) and Luxor Temples were the archaeological centrepiece of Thebes, being constructed on “the eastern bank of

3024-422: The running of the festival were “able to observe from the riverbanks, and at least some may have had limited access to the forepart of the temple.” The festival also provided jobs for wab and lector priests , who were on three-month rotations. They recited spells and hymns among the general population on the riverbank to ensure that reverence was upheld. “Common people took almost no part in religious rituals; that

3087-428: The solar god Ra and the god of fertility and creation Min , so that Amun-Ra had the main characteristic of a solar god , creator god and fertility god . He also adopted the aspect of the ram from the Nubian solar god, besides numerous other titles and aspects. As Amun-Ra, he was petitioned for mercy by those who believed suffering had come about as a result of their own or others' wrongdoing. Amun-Ra "who hears

3150-429: The sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going." A Leiden hymn to Amun describes how he calms stormy seas for the troubled sailor: The tempest moves aside for the sailor who remembers the name of Amon. The storm becomes a sweet breeze for he who invokes His name ... Amon is more effective than millions for he who places Him in his heart. Thanks to Him the single man becomes stronger than

3213-417: The temple of Luxor”. However, the return journey from Luxor to Karnak also acted as a celebration, “…part of the Opet Feast, it must have taken place on the return journey to Karnak.” New Kingdom Egyptian society depended on the generosity of the gods to ensure they received what they needed. Because they lacked scientific understanding to explain specific events, the Egyptians looked upon each natural event as

SECTION 50

#1732765815121

3276-700: The testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libya and Nubia . As Zeus Ammon and Jupiter Ammon , he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece and Jupiter in Rome. In 1910 René Basset suggested that the cult of Amun first developed in ancient Libya before spreading to ancient Egypt. But this is just an unproven hypothesis since Amun was "[f]irst attested in the tomb of Pharaoh Unas " (ca. 2350 BCE) in Egypt, and not in Libya. Amun and Amaunet are mentioned in

3339-513: The three." This unity in plurality is expressed in one text: All gods are three: Amun, Re and Ptah, whom none equals. He who hides his name as Amun, he appears to the face as Re, his body is Ptah. Henri Frankfort suggested that Amun was originally a wind god and speculating pointed out that the implicit connection between the winds and mysteriousness was paralleled in a passage from the Gospel of John : "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear

3402-411: The throne for a brief period but it is unclear what happened during her reign. After Neferneferuaten's death, Akhenaten's 9-year-old son Tutankhaten succeeded her. At the beginning of his reign, the young pharaoh reversed Atenism, re-establishing the old polytheistic religion and renaming himself Tutankhamun . His sister-wife, then named Ankhesenpaaten, followed him and was renamed Ankhesenamun. Worship of

3465-535: Was Mut . In Thebes, Amun as father, Mut as mother, and the Moon god Khonsu as their son formed the divine family or the " Theban Triad ". The history of Amun as the patron god of Thebes begins in the 20th century BC, with the construction of the Precinct of Amun-Ra at Karnak under Senusret I . The city of Thebes does not appear to have been of great significance before the 11th Dynasty. Major construction work in

3528-440: Was an undergraduate student under Darnell's supervision. On January 8, 2013, John Darnell admitted to the affair and accepted a one-year suspension without pay. Darnell also admitted to "participating in the review" of Manassa's hiring and attempting to cover up his multiple policy violations. In August the university prohibited Darnell from holding an administrative position until 2023, and Manassa until 2018. Eventually John

3591-537: Was inexorably tied to the leadership of the country, the pharaoh being the leader of both. The pharaoh was the highest priest in the temple of the capital, and the next lower level of religious leaders were important advisers to the pharaoh, many being administrators of the bureaucracy that ran the country. The introduction of Atenism under Akhenaten constructed a monolatrist worship of Aten in direct competition with that of Amun. Praises of Amun on stelae are strikingly similar in language to those later used, in particular,

3654-537: Was invited back to teach, but Colleen left Yale in 2015. Now married, the pair are residents of Durham, Connecticut , dress in 1920s-era vintage clothing, both in their professional life and on an every-day basis. Their book Egypt’s Golden Couple: When Akhenaten and Nefertiti Were Gods on Earth was released in November 2022. In 2007 he had a dog Antef, named after King Antef II . In 2020 he and Colleen have two Basenji dogs, Narmer (after Narmer ) and Kemi (from

3717-501: Was meant to evoke the dry period that preceded the Nile’s annual inundation and that the return to Karnak by river symbolised the onset of the flooding. He also argues that the contrasting land and water journeys symbolised the perilous journey which the sun was meant to take through “the dry realms of the Land of Sokar ” (the underworld) each night. Egyptologist Marina Escolano-Poveda outlined

3780-465: Was pronounced Amane or Amani (written in meroitic hieroglyphs as "𐦀𐦉𐦊𐦂" and in cursive as "𐦠𐦨𐦩𐦢"), he remained a national deity, with his priests, at Meroe and Nobatia , regulating the whole government of the country via an oracle , choosing the ruler, and directing military expeditions. According to Diodorus Siculus , these religious leaders were even able to compel kings to commit suicide, although this tradition stopped when Arkamane , in

3843-489: Was the champion of the poor or troubled and central to personal piety . With Osiris , Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods. Ra's name simply means "sun". Like most gods in Egyptian mythologies, gods had multiple names; his additional names were Re, Amun-Re, Khepri, Ra-Horakhty, and Atum. As the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire , Amun-Ra also came to be worshiped outside Egypt, according to

SECTION 60

#1732765815121

3906-622: Was the director of the Theban Desert Road Survey , which has used remote sensing to detect transportation networks between settlements in the Western Desert of Egypt that has focused on the connections between Thebes and such settlements as the Kharga Oasis . In December 2006 a student of his created a Facebook group titled, "John C. Darnell...Man, Myth or Legend?" due to eccentricities such as wearing

3969-421: Was the sacred responsibility of the priestly class.” The Pharaoh acted as the intermediary between Egyptian society and the gods during the festival at Luxor Temple, and although “the union of a god with his temple may appear as a sexual union”, the Pharaoh used this link to promote their divine fertility and re-establish their right to rule over Egypt. The Pharaoh’s marriage ceremony to the gods, “a divine marriage,

#120879