…
The leek’s taboo! Don’t chew an onion head!
O holy people, whose gods are garden-bred,
They spare the woolly race and won’t permit
The throat of any goatbitch to be slit,
Yet unrebuked, at meals of human flesh they sit.1
The theology of ancient Egypt, with its awesome pantheon of animal-headed deities, its imposing temples and its idiosyncratic preparations for death, has fascinated observers from the end of the Dynastic period onwards. Juvenal’s largely inaccurate religious satire quoted above – far from being taboo the onion was a staple of the Egyptian diet, while there is certainly no evidence to support claims of bloodthirsty acts of priestly cannibalism – indicates how even to the peoples of the classical world the gods of Egypt were a powerful and exciting mystery, the subjects of endless superstition and rumour. Two thousand years later tourists continue to flock in vast numbers to gaze in wonder at the pyramids and there speculate on the faith which inspired such extravagant building projects, while the mystical names of Isis, her husband–brother Osiris and her son Horus, have retained their power to conjure up vivid images of ancient beliefs and dark, intriguing rituals.
It would certainly not be possible to make any valid study of Egyptian society without giving some consideration to the religion which played an important political role within the Egyptian state, and which may be supposed to have influenced the thoughts and daily actions of her people. However, any such consideration must be taken with a suitable degree of caution. It is extremely difficult for us, looking back over a vast span of historical events, to evaluate the precise influence of past beliefs. Although we are fortunate enough to have both written and archaeological evidence for a variety of religious and superstitious rituals it must always be remembered that we are able to observe only some of the outward or material signs of inner faith. It may be very tempting to impose our own expectations and preconceptions on the Egyptians, to the extent of imagining that we might actually be able to understand how they thought and felt, but this would clearly be wrong. We only have to consider the problems of a twenty-second-century archaeologist trying to identify all aspects of Christian doctrine, based on the excavation of a few churches plus a study of the Bible, to see how difficult an attempted interpretation of past religions can be.
The conventional phrase ‘Egyptian religion’, with its implication of one single creed enshrined in holy writings and accepted by all, is actually very misleading. Throughout the Dynastic period there were several distinct but related aspects of Egyptian spiritual life which were able to co-exist happily, each gradually evolving and developing through time while always overlapping with the others. The two extremes which may easily be both recognized and classified were the official or major tradition, represented by the formal state theology and its associated bureaucracy, and the unofficial or minor tradition which included the less respectable arts often lumped together under the headings of magic, superstition and witchcraft. Between these two distinct poles lay the respectable semi-official religions; the regional and family cults which were very important in the lives of individual households and their members but of relatively little interest to the state. There was no obvious cut-off point between any of these religious approaches, and each influenced the ordinary man and woman to a greater or lesser extent. For example, the women of Deir el-Medina, living very close to the centre of the cult of the state god Amen, participated in the annual festivals of the major tradition but officially worshipped the more local patron deities of the Theban necropolis, the deified king Amenhotep I and his mother Ahmose Nefertari together with Meretseger (‘She-Loves-Silence’), the snake goddess of the Theban mountain who was also known as the ‘Peak of the West’. Evidence recovered from their houses, however, suggests that more personal family-based cults with a heavy emphasis on the gods and spirits associated with pregnancy and childbirth were at least equally important in their lives, while belief in the awesome powers of superstition and magic was widespread.
Fig. 42 Woman praying
This diversity of religious approach is by no means unusual. Indeed, it is widely recognized that where there is a highly focalized official religion with an intricate theology less sophisticated grassroots cults will often develop, adapting and reinterpreting certain facets of the mainstream belief while completely disregarding others. This is particularly common where the major tradition is primarily a male-oriented religion, controlled by an élite of upper-class educated men and therefore remote from the daily life of most women. In these circumstances men are often able to satisfy their religious needs by adherence to the state theology while women, excluded from fully participating in the rituals of their official faith and often unable to fully understand the intricacies of doctrine due to a lack of religious teaching, find their spiritual fulfilment by developing the minor traditions, or ‘woman’s superstitions’, without feeling that they are in any way deviating from the demands of their major religion.