The temple daily Ritual

Abydos 
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The daily divine Ritual was performed in all temples in Egypt. To the time of Sety, it incorporated former solar rituals and Osirian rituals at a time. The sun disappears in the evening and is born again the morning: by worry of consistency, every god was assimilated then to Re.  Then the cult was influenced by the funeral rituals bound to Osiris.  So each god was joined then also to Osiris: perfume, makeup, colorful clothes are similar to those of the Osirian mummies .

 

The liturgy of Karnak contains 66 episodes so-called "chapters" described in the papyrus of Berlin dating from the 22th dynasty. In 1902, A. Moret made a detailed discussion of it.  The first chapters (I in VI) concern rituals bound to the purification before entering in the chapel: to light fire (lighting, purification of the sanctuary); to take the censer and to purify themselves; to put silt to burn; to make to burn the resin and to advance toward the holy place. These first rituals are not represented inside the chapels of Abydos. Only the last would correspond to the first episode describes in the chapels. On the walls of the chapels of Abydos, one recovers 29 episodes of this liturgy, a digest in comparison with respect to the papyrus of Berlin, either for lack of place or because these rituals were only performed in special opportunities. So the presentation of the Ma'at (XLII chapter of the papyrus) is not represented inside, but on the external north wall.

 

In the chapels of Isis, Horus, Re and Ptah, the scenes and the inscriptions are practically identical. The chapel of Amun essentially shows some differences due to the more important area occupied by the barques. Also an episode (who doesn't exist elsewhere) of purification of the priest after the exit of the chapel is represented there. The chapel of Osiris possessesadditional episodes. This chapel was probably a way towards the Osiris complex.

 

Some authors, including Moret assume that there are  two successive openings of the naos in which are the gods. R. David thinks that these two openings correspond to two chapels, the barque one and the  god one. In the chapel of Re, the succession of the scenes is the most coherent. It is schematized below, except for the scenes of the beginning and the end where I used other chapels. I also used the scenes of other chapels in the presentation when  those of the chapel of Re were in disrepair. I adopted here the suite of the Ritual in the proposed order by A.R. David. 

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You can click on the numbers to get the detailed photos and explanations on the different scenes
   
       

Re01.jpg

Re02.jpg

Right panel in back

Right panel

Re03.jpg

Re04.jpg

Left panel

Left panel in back

 

Back panel