Abydos

Abydos
Today on the west bank of the Nile there stands the village of Arabat el-Madfurnah, literally «Arabat the buried» and the sand has indeed engulfed most of the monuments.

Abydos

Abydos was the name which the Greeks gave to the ancient city of Thinis, cradle of the oldest dynasties and a holy city dedicated to the cult of Osiris. In fact the myth of Osiris which also emanated from the sanctuary at Busiris (the original name Pa-Uzir means «the dwelling place of Osiris») attained its most perfect realization here in Abydos both as regards the construction of important monuments and as a centre of pilgrimage (all Egyptians had to make a pilgrimage to the temple at least once in a life-time). The most important relic of the god, his head, was preserved in the sanctuary of Osiris.

Abydos

According to legend the god Seth killed his brother Osiris, chopped up his body into pieces (thirteen according to some souces, fourty two according to others) and scattered them over the various provinces of Egypt. The goddess Isis, the wife of the dead god, collected all the pieces and placed them in the Osireion in Abydos... all the pieces that is apart from the phallus which was swallowed by a fish in Lake Menzaleh near Port Said. Isis by, the force of her love brought her spouse back to life. When he opened his eyes a ray of light was emitted begetting in Isis a son, Horus. The killing of Osiris by his brother Seth is very reminiscent of the story of Cain and Abel in the Bible.

Abydos

Of this ancient city where all religious Egyptians longed to have a funerary chapel or at least a commemorative stele, and of the sanctuary, there remain today only a few ruins. On the other hand the palace of Seti I, the Memnonium, famous for its splendid paintings, which was described by Strabonius as an «admirably constructed palace» is extremely well preserved. Excavated by Auguste Mariette the palace was originally built to commemorate the pilgrimage of Seti I..lo Abydos. Although the work was continued by his son Ramses II the palace was never finished.

Abydos

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Cult Centre at Abydos

Cult Centre at Abydos
During the Middle Kingdom (2133-1786 BC) Abydos was fully established as a city of prime importance and a place of pilgrimage. The 12th Dynasty pharaoh Senusert I erected a large edifice on the site of the earlier shrine at Kom el Sultan, which became known as the Temple of Osiris. Senusert III completely renovated it during his reign, and surrounded it with an enclosure wall. Influential noblemen were permitted to place stelae or erect cenotaphs near the sacred area. For it had become desirable to have a monument constructed at or near Abydos, in order for the spirit of the deceased to join in the annual dramatization of the life, death and triumph of Osiris, enacted by the priests.

Cult Centre at Abydos

Each year, settlers would come from far and wide to see the ritualistic killing of Osiris by his brother Set, followed by several days of mourning. The people would show appropriate sorrow for the murdered god apd weep and lament in the manner of Isis. Funerary wreaths and flowers would be placed on a mummified figure of Osiris that was borne through the city. The cortege would be led by Wepwawat, the wolf-jackal, ‘He who opens the way’. The people would sing hymns ajid make offerings, and at a prescribed site a mock battle would take place between Horus and Set. The murder of Osiris was avenged, and the triumphant procession returned to the temple. The crowning scene was the erection of the backbone of Osiris, the Djed or pillar-like fetish. In horizontal position the Djed represented the slain hero and the low Nile. Upright it symbolised the resurrection of Osiris, as well as the flood and the rebirth of the land.

One of the functions of mythology was to explain certain natural, social or political ideas. The mythical Osiris (who was associated with the rebirth of the land) falling victim to Set (who was associated with the relentless desert) explained the physical environment; the constant battle against the encroaching desert. Set’s tearing the body of Osiris to pieces and scattering its parts up and down the Nile valley may be interpreted as the concept of sowing grain, following which, with the necessary incantations (like those performed by Isis and Nephthys), or rural festivals, the stalks of grain would be reborn (as Osiris was reborn). Horus, the son of the gods related to the rebirth of the land, triumphed over the desert (Set) and became prototype of the pharaohs.

Cult Centre at Abydos

In the Middle Kingdom the ordinary man could aspire to do what only members of the aristocracy had done before: pay homage to the legendary ancestor. Thousands of pilgrims from all walks of life made their way to the necropolis where Osiris was worshipped as ‘Osiris Khenti-Amentiu’, an epithet that means ‘he who rules the west’. Generation’s after generation’s offerings in pottery vessels were left at the cenotaph of Djer, which was believed to be the tomb of Osiris. Today the site has acquired the name of Om el Gaab (‘mother of potsherds’).

To identify with the resurrected deity, it had long become common practice to place grain in a mummy-shaped linen container, water it and let it germinate through the cloth. This so-called ‘Body of Osiris’ was an example of his power to give life. It was believed that the mummy, like the grain, would revive.

The cult of Osiris had thoroughly captured the popular imagination. The provincial priests who wished to give importance to their areas each claimed that a part of the body, dismembered by Set, was buried in their province. In one variation of the myth the head was said to be buried at Abydos. In another version it was the whole body that had been found there with the exception of the phallus that had been eaten by an Oxyrynchos fish. Abdu, Abydos, had by this time become the centre of the cult. It means ‘the mound of the Osiris head emblem’.

During the New Kingdom (1567-1080 BC), Abydos rose to its peak as a holy city. This was the empire period, when the state could afford to be generous. Thutmose I ordered a barge of cedar and electrum to be built for Osiris, and almost every pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty left evidence of his devotion to the god, making additions to the temple at Kom el Sultan. Thutmose III, in particular, carried out new work and restoration; and Thutmose IV arranged for the regular supply of sacrificial animals and birds for feasts and festivals.

Deceased noblemen from Thebes, the capital, were often borne, after embalming, to Abydos and placed in the precinct of the temple. Afterwards they were returned and interred at Thebes. If they could not make the pilgrimage, it was made symbolically; many tomb reliefs show boats bearing the deceased to Abydos (page iosf).

Cult Centre at Abydos

In the 19th Dynasty, Abydos and its chief deity were honoured by Seti I on an unprecedented scale. He raised the three gods of the Osi/ian Triad (Osiris, Isis and Horus) to an even higher level than the greatest gods of the land (Ptah of Memphis, Amon-Ra of Thebes, and Ra-Harakhte of Heliopolis). He constructed a marvellous temple (4), with separate sanctuaries for each deity and with a seventh chamber, of equal size, to himself as a god (page 26). His son and successor, Ramses II, built a temple of his own (5) to the north (page 29).

The decline of the cult of Osiris only came in the Graeco-Roman period (Part II, Ch. 6), when the seat of Osiris worship was shifted to Bigeh Island, and that of Isis to Philae. This might well have been done in an attempt to break the power of the wealthy and influential priesthood at Abydos. Thenceforth the cult of Isis outrivalled that of Osiris. Philae became the most holy place in Egypt and the centre of the most popular cult (page 183).

During the Graeco-Roman period, Abydos came to be regarded as a place of healing. Sufferers from all over the Graeco-Roman world gathered in the corridors and halls of the temple of Seti I, making humble pleas for health or fertility. The graffiti are in hieratic (a late development of hieroglyphics), Greek, Phoenician and Aramaic.

When Christianity spread to Upper Egypt, Seti’s temple was used by the early Christians escaping from Roman persecution. Later two ancient structures were used as convents, and the Monastery of St Moses was built to the north (6). (Chapter 8, page 204.)  

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Abydos and The Osiris Myth

Pharaonic Period (3100-332 BC)

Abydos

Background
Abydos (the Greek version of the ancient Egyptian name Abdu) is situated on the western bank of the Nile about seven kilometres west of the modern town of Balyana. It made its debut on the stage of Egypt’s ancient history even before the Dynastic period and retained its aura of sanctity longer than any other site in Egypt. This was because Abydos was the cult centre of Osiris, Egypt’s most beloved hero and the central figure of the country’s most popular myth.

Abydos Egypt

The Osiris Myth
The Osiris myth is one of the most poignant, and probably the most well-known of ancient Egypt. Surviving in oral tradition and variably recounted over the centuries, it has come down to us in many versions and with many contradictions. The earliest Egyptian sources are the Pyramid Texts (c. 2345-2181 BC), where the story is not in connected form. The most complete version is given by Plutarch, the Greek writer (c. 46-c. 126 AD).

According to the earliest version of the myth, Osiris, with his devoted wife Isis at his side, was a just god who ruled wisely and well. His brother Set, however, was jealous of his popularity and secretly sought to do away with him. At a rural festival Set enticed his visitors to try out a marvellously fashioned chest for size. When it came to Osiris’ turn, he unsuspectingly obliged, unaware that it had been made to his exact measurements. As soon as he lay down in it Set and his accomplices fell on the chest, shut the lid, and cast it into the Nile to be carried away by the flood.

Osiris God

Isis was overwhelmed with grief at the news. She Cast sand on her hair, rent her robes in sorrow, and set out in search of the chest. When she finally found it, she hid it beneath a tamarisk tree. Unfortunately, Set was out hunting and came upon the hiding place. He extracted the body, which he brutally tore into fourteen pieces, scattering them far and wide.

The tormented Isis, this time in the company of her sister, the goddess Nephthys, set out once more on a harrowing journey to collect the pieces of the body. Having done so, she and Nephthys called on the gods to help them bind the parts together and restore the body to life. Isis crooned incantations until breath came to the nostrils of Osiris, sight to his eyes and movement to his limbs. Then, the devoted wife, in the form of a bird, descended on Osiris and received his seed. When Isis gave birth to her son, Horus, she nursed him in solitude, and raised him to manhood to avenge his father’s death.

The tales of Isis’ devotion to her son Horus are many and varied. She brought him up secretly in the marshes of the Delta until he was strong. Then Horus set out in search of Set, his father’s slayer, and many and terrible were the battles between them. Horus, however, triumphed over evil, and emerged as victor. With the approval of the gods the throne was restored to him.

The Pyramid Texts are full of references to the faithful wife seeking the body of her husband. The weeping and lamentations of Isis and Nephthys for Osiris were a widespread and sacred expression of sorrow to the Egyptians. They loved to dwell on the loyalty and devotion of Isis, the evil of Set and the filial piety of Horus. They rewove the tale in their many oral renditions and dramatized them in public performances. (For later versions of the myth see pages 184 and 186.)

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Abydos and The Legendary Ancestor

The Legendary Ancestor
It is thought that Osiris may have been an actual leader in prehistory who was loved and respected by the community. Since his name is associated with the Nile - as a source of fertility - and with the death and rebirth of the land, he may have led his people to an understanding of the benefits of water control and crop rotation at a time when organized farming was first being introduced. When Osiris was killed by critical and jealous opponents, the sorrowing community who had followed him as a just and enlightened leader honoured him in death, when a form of ancestor-worship developed.

Abydos

It is not known where Osiris ruled. The most prevalent and widely accepted belief is that is was in the province of Djedu (near Abusir Bana) in the middle of the Delta, where the district was named after him: Per-Usire, or House of Osiris, which was rendered into Busiris by the Greeks. However, the earliest rulers of which we have historical evidence came from Thinis, neighbouring Abydos, and Osiris, the deified ancestor, came to have a prominent place there from early times, overshadowing Wepwawat, the wolf-jackal, the first god of the area.

The Thinite leaders slowly spread their influence. They moved southwards as far as Nekhen (Gr. Hierakonpolis), near the modern town of Edfu, which became the pre-dynastic capital of Upper Egypt, and northwards towards the Delta. A large macehead excavated at Nekhen records a military victory of an Upper Egyptian king (known as the “Scorpion King”) over the chieftains of the Delta (symbolically depicted as dead birds hung from Upper Egyptian standards). The main theme of this macehead is agricultural; the central register shows the king wielding a hoe in both hands and breaking ground amidst scenes of rejoicing.

Unification of the Two Lands has been attributed to Narmer (Menes) who was also a native of Thinis. He was the first pharaoh to be shown wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt in addition to the White Crown of Upper Egypt. According to tradition, when he chose Memphis - a site near the border between the T wo Lands - as capital, he diverted the river in order to render it more suitable for habitation. Therefore, although the palette symbolically depicted his triumph over the Delta on one side, and unification on the other, Narmer, too, was traditionally associated with water control Narmer and his successors of the ist and 2nd Dynasties (3100-2686 BC) ruled from Memphis (then known as the ‘White Wall’), and were buried in huge funerary monuments on the necropolis of Memphis (Sakkara). Nevertheless, they honoured their ancestral home. Among the barren hills west of Abydos they constructed impressive cenotaphs (1), where relatives and friends could make suitable offerings.

Abydos Temple

With the passage of time, the legendary ancestor Osiris, and the half-forgotten kings of Thinis of the first two Dynasties, became associated in the minds of the people. The Nile valley dwellers, who traditionally honoured the graves of their forefathers, came to pay homage at the cenotaphs on the necropolis of Abydos in the conviction that Osiris was buried there.

The ruins of the cenotaph of Hor Aha (who has been identified with Narmer, the first pharaoh of recorded history), show that it was brick-lined, and the underground chamber measured 12x9 metres. His successor, Djer, had an even larger structure of some 21 X20 metres. It was the latter cenotaph, of Djer, that came to be regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the burial place of Osiris.

The central chamber of Djer’s cenotaph was surrounded on three sides by irregular chambers, and there is indication that the whole structure was originally roofed with wooden beams. Surrounding it were no less than 338 subsidiary graves, many with crude stone stelae recording the names of the deceased who died after the pharaoh. It is possible that they may have believed that to be buried near the tomb or cenotaph of their master would ensure them a happy afterlife themselves.

During the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC) the centre of activity was at Memphis and Giza. But the great pharaohs did not neglect Abydos. Decrees were promulgated to safeguard the interests of the priests of sacred sites. There were endowments for meat and milk to be placed at the holy places on official feast days. There is evidence, too, that some of the pharaohs travelled to Abydos. Whether this was part of their official duties or a pilgrimage is not know n. There is a rectangular enclosure of crenellated brick, known as Shunet el Zebib (2) that is thought to date to the early Dynasties; and worth mentioning is that the only statue ever found of the pharaoh Khufu (builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza) is a tiny ivory statuette excavated from the area of Abydos.

By the end of the 5th Dynasty (2345 BC) the name of Osiris had crept into the mortuary literature as an explicit example of rebirth; the deceased was referred to as ‘Osiris’, meaning deceased and reborn ‘like Osiris’. The earliest shrine at Abydos, however, was not in honour of Osiris but of Wepwawat, the wolf-jackal of the necropolis, whose function was to protect the dead from prowling animals at the edge of the desert. It was built by the 6th Dynasty pharaoh Pepi I at a site now known as Kom el Sultan (3).

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Abydos in Ancient Egypt

Abydos
This was one of the most ancient cities in Egypt, which became the centre of the Osiris God cult. It was believed that here Isis found the head of Osiris, and buried it (though another version of the myth has her finding the whole body at Abydos City with the exception of the phallus which had been eaten by a crocodile).

Abydos

The earliest tombs at Abydos are pre-dynastic (Before Egyptian Dynasties). There are also the royal tombs of the first dynasty. After the fall of the Old Kingdom in ancient Egypt and the rise of the cult of Osiris the dead, the city grew and the solemn annual religious festivals included a passion play, enacted by the priests before multitudes in the manner of the Memphite Drama . It included a ritualistic killing of Osiris by his brother Set, followed by several days of mourning. Funeral wreaths and flowers were placed on the figure of the slain deity as he was borne through the city. The people sang hymns and made offerings and, at a prescribed place in the city, another mock battle took place between the brothers, but this time the murder of Osiris was avenged and a triumphant procession with a risen hero returned to the temple. The whole celebration took 19 days and the crowning scene was the erection of the backbone of Osiris (the Dad fetish) and the placing of his head upon it.

Abydos Wall

In the New Kingdom in ancient Egypt, Abydos Egyptian city became a centre of diverse cults. Ptah of Memphis was worshipped there, along with Harmachis and Amon. Seti I started the construction of a temple of the finest-grain limestone, and decorated it in reliefs that are among the finest productions of Egyptian relief sculpture of any age. The temple was completed by Ramses II Pharaoh . Its plan differs from other great Egyptian temples by having not one sanctuary to a single deity, but seven, dedicated to Osiris, Isis, Horus, Ptah, Harmachis, Amon and the deified king himself.

Ramses II Pharaoh also built a temple at Abydos, dedicated to Osiris. Although largely in ruin, this temple appears to have been more carefully constructed than other buildings raised by this pharaoh. Fine-grained limestone was used, with black and red granite for the doorways, sandstone for the columns, and alabaster for an inner shrine. The reliefs are much more crudely executed than those of the Seti I temple .

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