Category Archives: Goddess Hathor

Wandering Isis

Part 3

Thoth, in the form of a baboon, lures Tefnut, in the form of a lioness, back home to Her father Re

Let’s finish up our exploration of Isis as a Wandering Goddess by looking at some additional ways Isis’ story fits in with the myth of the Wandering/Distant/Returning Goddess. Last time we saw how Isis’ lioness form and the raped-Goddess theme fit in with other Wandering and Distant Goddesses, as well as how prevalent that myth was in the Delta—the place where Isis’ worship most likely originated.

So let’s see what else we can find out.

Eye of Re

The fiery Eye of Re

In addition to being fierce and protective Lioness Goddesses, our Wandering Goddesses are also fierce and protective Eye Goddesses. Usually, They are Solar Eyes—Daughters of Re—hence Their fiery nature—though we saw that the Lioness Goddess Mehyt may be associated with the Udjat Eye, the full Lunar Eye, which in turn connects Her with the ever-so-famous Eye of Horus, son of Isis.

Isis is Herself a Divine Eye and Daughter of the Sun God Re. She is said to “emerge” from Re or “come forth” from His body. At Her Philae temple, inscriptions say that She “appears” as the Eye of Re. (On the other hand, as a Primordial Goddess, Isis is also said to give birth to Re, so there’s that.) Isis is called Re’et, the Female Re…indeed, at Denderah She is called “the Re’et of Re’ets,” that is, “Sun Goddess of Sun Goddesses,” and She is also Queen of the Re’et Goddesses. She is the Solar Eye, “the right eye of He Who shines like gold” and She is the solar disk, the Aten Itself. Hathor and Isis are the only Goddesses Who have the distinction of being identified as the solar disk itself. At Denderah, Isis is Re’et “in the dual course of the sun and the moon,” and so She encompasses both Solar and Lunar Eyes.

Eye of Re Who has No Equal in Heaven and on Earth

The Fiery Goddess strikes fear in the heart of Her, and Re’s, enemies. Her power can cause death “in this vigorous form” and She describes Herself as “She who triumphs, the companion of Re.” As the Sacred Eye, the Goddess coils as a uraeus serpent and third eye upon the Sun God’s brow, protecting Him and fighting an ongoing cosmic battle against His great opponent, the destructive Serpent Apop (Gr. Apophis). Inscriptions from Philae call Isis “Neseret-serpent on the head of Horus-Re, Eye of Re, the Unique Goddess, Uraeus” and “Eye of Re Who has No Equal in Heaven and on Earth.”

The all-seeing black kite

In addition to being a Divine Eye, we can also understand Isis as having particularly keen sight due to Her sharp raptor’s eyes. Her most prominent sacred bird is the kite hawk, whose sky-high viewpoint gives it an advantage in being able to see far distances, which could easily lead to the conclusion that it was All Seeing. In later periods of Her worship, Isis was invoked not only as “all-seeing,” but “many-eyed.”

Isidorus’ Faiyum hymns to the Goddess describe Her as gazing down on the activities of humanity and noting the individual virtues of human beings. Yet the glance of Isis’ sharp eye can have dire consequences for those who oppose Her. When the Ennead of the Gods is arguing over whether Horus or Set should receive Osiris’ throne, the Deities back down in the face of the anger and flashing eyes of Isis.

The Goddess Leaves the Premises

The next few pieces of our puzzle, I admit, are not as strong as the argument to date. We just don’t have a surviving Isis myth that’s close to Tefnut’s or Hathor/Sakhmet’s angry departure and joyful return. My guess is that Isis became so strongly associated with the Osirian myth cycle—and there were so many other Goddesses associated with the Wandering Goddess cycle—that there simply wasn’t a need for people to retain that particular myth—if there originally was one, as I think there was—in relation to Isis.

Isis wanders, finds each piece, and creates a shine for Osiris

As Isis began to break away from the Goddess pack, so to speak, and Her worship spread not only throughout Egypt, but into the entire Mediterranean region and beyond, there was less and less reason to include that theme in Her worship. Instead, the very human, heart-touching emotionalism, tragedy, and eventual triumph of the Isis-Osiris-Horus myth took over…even as She was becoming, more and more, the Goddess of 10,000 Names.

And yet, Isis does wander. She wanders throughout the length and depth of Egypt searching for the pieces of Her Beloved’s body. She creates shrines in the major cities and towns of Egypt, so that Her story is known by all. The ubiquity of the Isis-Osiris myth was so prevalent that the historian Herodotus, in the 5th century BCE, had the impression that Isis and Osiris were the only two Deities universally worshiped in Egypt. Not only that, but we can imagine that Isis’ wandering is filled with grief and mourning, yes, but also with anger. If you have ever lost someone suddenly, you will understand, on a gut level, that anger is a very familiar part of mourning.

Is Induced to Return

Horus takes His rightful place as king; Isis is in joy

Rather than being coaxed into returning home, however, Isis is more self-directed. She returns when Her task of gathering Osiris is complete and She has guided His resurrection and transformation into Lord of the Dead. Her concerns at home now turn to ensuring Horus takes His rightful place as king. And here again we see Her demonstrate the fiery power and righteous anger of the Divine Eye. Remember what we saw above regarding the Ennead backing down in the face of Her anger.

Is Pacified (and Goes on a Boat Ride)

Backing down and admitting that Horus should indeed be king, the Ennead pacifies Isis. Ah, so Our Lady did need a bit of placation after all. What’s more, at Hathor’s Denderah temple, where the two Goddesses are so, so close, we even find that Isis needed an isheru to cool Her off.

See the wavy lines indicating water on three sides of Her throne? That’s the isheru.

At Denderah, Hathor and Isis often mirror each other. In the main temple, we see Hathor on Her throne on one wall and Isis on another. Beneath Hathor’s throne we see 16 vases of Inundation water, one vase for each cubit of the ideal height for the Nile flood. The king offers Her a jar of Primordial Water, while Her son Ihy plays the sistrum and rattles the menat to sooth Her anger. On another wall in the same room, we find Isis enthroned. Beneath and around Her throne are the wavy lines that indicate water in a basin shaped roughly like an isheru. The inscription identifies it as precisely that by telling us that, “Her isheru lake is all around Her.”

This same scene, the two seated Goddesses with 16 vases beneath Hathor’s throne and an isheru surrounding that of Isis, is also found in Denderah’s so-called Chapel of Purification, the Per-Nu. And yet again, the same scene of Isis alone is found on another wall in a different room of the temple. As before, the enthroned Isis is seated over an isheru-shaped basin. The inscription reads, “Isis the Great . . . is seated/pacified in the isheru that is all around Her, Who crosses the lake within Her barque.” The inscriptions go on to describe Isis’ traveling on the isheru as a meeting with Her father Nun and tell us that He enfolds Her in His arms. Both Isis and Hathor are connected with the Inundation and the Primordial Waters. The Waters are offered by the king to Hathor since She regulates the ideal Inundation, while Isis, Who brings the Inundation, is embraced by Her father Who is said to be the primordial Watery Abyss Himself.

Detail of a fresco from the Temple of Isis in Pomeii thought to refer to the Navigium Isidis, with Isis or Her priestess in the ship

The Goddesses’ ritual travel by boat upon the isheru is known to Egyptologists as a navigation. (At Denderah, there were 9 navigations, by the way: one for each place the Goddess stopped on Her way back from Nubia.)

We might remember that Isis, too, has a rather famous navigation: the Navigium Isidis (the “ship of Isis” or “sailing of Isis”). I’m still trying to confirm the Egyptian word that was used for the “navigation” in the Hathor-Isis festival. There is an Egyptian word, khenet, which is related to other words having to do with boats, sailors, and navigation—as well as a festival of Osiris that featured a procession of boats—but I’m not sure whether the same word was used for the navigation of Isis and Hathor on the isheru.

A fanciful Italian mosaic, from the Hellenistic period, showing Egypt during Inundation

Nevertheless, it is clear that at Denderah one of the things the Return of the Goddess was about was the return of the waters of the Inundation that would bring food and prosperity to Egypt. In addition, the rising river made the Nile more navigable for a wider variety of boats and ships. Just before the flood was the time of the river’s lowest, most-difficult-to-travel water levels. The Navigium Isidis (Gk: Ta Ploiaphesia; the Launching [of the Ship of Isis]), while not concerned with the water level or Inundation of the Nile, was concerned with the navigability of the Mediterranean Sea that would mark the start of the shipping season in spring.

Then Festival Ensues

The Fierce Feline Goddess, now pacified, celebrates

We now come to the final element in the Wandering Goddess myth: Her joyful return and the Festival of Drunkenness. We have already seen evidence of such festivals for Mut, Tefnut, Bastet, Nehemant, and of course, Hathor. And I’m sure that, at Denderah, with the closeness of the Goddesses, Isis devotees would have participated with Hathor devotees during the festivals held there. There certainly were joyous festivals for Isis—She is, after all, called “the Festive Goddess.” Often, these were related to the conception and birth of Horus and the birthdays of Isis and Her siblings during the epagomenal days. What’s more, She is known as a joyful Goddess; temple inscriptions call Her the Queen of Joy, Lady of Rejoicing, and Lady of Jubilation. Deities and human beings rejoice when They/they see Her. Isis is called She Whose Heart is Open and Her joy is likened to the beauty of the full moon.

Still, we don’t have solid evidence of a full-fledged Festival of Drunkenness for Isis.

And yet.

There are these two little bits of graffiti from Her temple at Philae. They’re in bad shape. They’re from a late period. But one mentions a day of singing and drunkenness, the other notes a dedication to Hathor, a “house of greeting,” and “the place of drunkenness of the people.”

Let us celebrate the Festival of Tekh (drunkenness) that we may see the Goddess

In fact, all of this makes sense. Philae was home to a temple of Hathor—just as Denderah included a temple of Isis. Philae was also Tefnut’s first stop on Her way back from Nubia.

It was at Philae that She changed from burning lioness to peaceful Goddess. So it may well be that—in that fluid way of Egyptian Goddesses and Their festivals—Isis-Hathor-Tefnut may have been celebrated with a Festival of Drunkenness at Philae, too. Since there is no temple calendar carved on the walls at Philae, we can’t be sure, but perhaps we will learn more from other discoveries as time goes on.

So, there you have it. It may have been that Our Lady Isis participated in both of the great mythic themes of ancient Egypt: the Isis & Osiris story as well as the myths of the Wandering/Distant/Returning Goddess.

Wandering Isis

Part 3

Thoth, in the form of a baboon, lures Tefnut, in the form of a lioness, back home to Her father Re

Let’s finish up our exploration of Isis as a Wandering Goddess by looking at some additional ways Isis’ story fits in with the myth of the Wandering/Distant/Returning Goddess. Last time we saw how Isis’ lioness form and the raped-Goddess theme fit in with other Wandering and Distant Goddesses, as well as how prevalent that myth was in the Delta—the place where Isis’ worship most likely originated.

So let’s see what else we can find out.

Eye of Re

The fiery Eye of Re

In addition to being fierce and protective Lioness Goddesses, our Wandering Goddesses are also fierce and protective Eye Goddesses. Usually, They are Solar Eyes—Daughters of Re—hence Their fiery nature—though we saw that the Lioness Goddess Mehyt may be associated with the Udjat Eye, the full Lunar Eye, which in turn connects Her with the ever-so-famous Eye of Horus, son of Isis.

Isis is Herself a Divine Eye and Daughter of the Sun God Re. She is said to “emerge” from Re or “come forth” from His body. At Her Philae temple, inscriptions say that She “appears” as the Eye of Re. (On the other hand, as a Primordial Goddess, Isis is also said to give birth to Re, so there’s that.) Isis is called Re’et, the Female Re…indeed, at Denderah She is called “the Re’et of Re’ets,” that is, “Sun Goddess of Sun Goddesses,” and She is also Queen of the Re’et Goddesses. She is the Solar Eye, “the right eye of He Who shines like gold” and She is the solar disk, the Aten Itself. Hathor and Isis are the only Goddesses Who have the distinction of being identified as the solar disk itself. At Denderah, Isis is Re’et “in the dual course of the sun and the moon,” and so She encompasses both Solar and Lunar Eyes.

Eye of Re Who has No Equal in Heaven and on Earth

The Fiery Goddess strikes fear in the heart of Her, and Re’s, enemies. Her power can cause death “in this vigorous form” and She describes Herself as “She who triumphs, the companion of Re.” As the Sacred Eye, the Goddess coils as a uraeus serpent and third eye upon the Sun God’s brow, protecting Him and fighting an ongoing cosmic battle against His great opponent, the destructive Serpent Apop (Gr. Apophis). Inscriptions from Philae call Isis “Neseret-serpent on the head of Horus-Re, Eye of Re, the Unique Goddess, Uraeus” and “Eye of Re Who has No Equal in Heaven and on Earth.”

The all-seeing black kite

In addition to being a Divine Eye, we can also understand Isis as having particularly keen sight due to Her sharp raptor’s eyes. Her most prominent sacred bird is the kite hawk, whose sky-high viewpoint gives it an advantage in being able to see far distances, which could easily lead to the conclusion that it was All Seeing. In later periods of Her worship, Isis was invoked not only as “all-seeing,” but “many-eyed.”

Isidorus’ Faiyum hymns to the Goddess describe Her as gazing down on the activities of humanity and noting the individual virtues of human beings. Yet the glance of Isis’ sharp eye can have dire consequences for those who oppose Her. When the Ennead of the Gods is arguing over whether Horus or Set should receive Osiris’ throne, the Deities back down in the face of the anger and flashing eyes of Isis.

The Goddess Leaves the Premises

The next few pieces of our puzzle, I admit, are not as strong as the argument to date. We just don’t have a surviving Isis myth that’s close to Tefnut’s or Hathor/Sakhmet’s angry departure and joyful return. My guess is that Isis became so strongly associated with the Osirian myth cycle—and there were so many other Goddesses associated with the Wandering Goddess cycle—that there simply wasn’t a need for people to retain that particular myth—if there originally was one, as I think there was—in relation to Isis.

Isis wanders, finds each piece, and creates a shine for Osiris

As Isis began to break away from the Goddess pack, so to speak, and Her worship spread not only throughout Egypt, but into the entire Mediterranean region and beyond, there was less and less reason to include that theme in Her worship. Instead, the very human, heart-touching emotionalism, tragedy, and eventual triumph of the Isis-Osiris-Horus myth took over…even as She was becoming, more and more, the Goddess of 10,000 Names.

And yet, Isis does wander. She wanders throughout the length and depth of Egypt searching for the pieces of Her Beloved’s body. She creates shrines in the major cities and towns of Egypt, so that Her story is known by all. The ubiquity of the Isis-Osiris myth was so prevalent that the historian Herodotus, in the 5th century BCE, had the impression that Isis and Osiris were the only two Deities universally worshiped in Egypt. Not only that, but we can imagine that Isis’ wandering is filled with grief and mourning, yes, but also with anger. If you have ever lost someone suddenly, you will understand, on a gut level, that anger is a very familiar part of mourning.

Is Induced to Return

Horus takes His rightful place as king; Isis is in joy

Rather than being coaxed into returning home, however, Isis is more self-directed. She returns when Her task of gathering Osiris is complete and She has guided His resurrection and transformation into Lord of the Dead. Her concerns at home now turn to ensuring Horus takes His rightful place as king. And here again we see Her demonstrate the fiery power and righteous anger of the Divine Eye. Remember what we saw above regarding the Ennead backing down in the face of Her anger.

Is Pacified (and Goes on a Boat Ride)

Backing down and admitting that Horus should indeed be king, the Ennead pacifies Isis. Ah, so Our Lady did need a bit of placation after all. What’s more, at Hathor’s Denderah temple, where the two Goddesses are so, so close, we even find that Isis needed an isheru to cool Her off.

See the wavy lines indicating water on three sides of Her throne? That’s the isheru.

At Denderah, Hathor and Isis often mirror each other. In the main temple, we see Hathor on Her throne on one wall and Isis on another. Beneath Hathor’s throne we see 16 vases of Inundation water, one vase for each cubit of the ideal height for the Nile flood. The king offers Her a jar of Primordial Water, while Her son Ihy plays the sistrum and rattles the menat to sooth Her anger. On another wall in the same room, we find Isis enthroned. Beneath and around Her throne are the wavy lines that indicate water in a basin shaped roughly like an isheru. The inscription identifies it as precisely that by telling us that, “Her isheru lake is all around Her.”

This same scene, the two seated Goddesses with 16 vases beneath Hathor’s throne and an isheru surrounding that of Isis, is also found in Denderah’s so-called Chapel of Purification, the Per-Nu. And yet again, the same scene of Isis alone is found on another wall in a different room of the temple. As before, the enthroned Isis is seated over an isheru-shaped basin. The inscription reads, “Isis the Great . . . is seated/pacified in the isheru that is all around Her, Who crosses the lake within Her barque.” The inscriptions go on to describe Isis’ traveling on the isheru as a meeting with Her father Nun and tell us that He enfolds Her in His arms. Both Isis and Hathor are connected with the Inundation and the Primordial Waters. The Waters are offered by the king to Hathor since She regulates the ideal Inundation, while Isis, Who brings the Inundation, is embraced by Her father Who is said to be the primordial Watery Abyss Himself.

Detail of a fresco from the Temple of Isis in Pomeii thought to refer to the Navigium Isidis, with Isis or Her priestess in the ship

The Goddesses’ ritual travel by boat upon the isheru is known to Egyptologists as a navigation. (At Denderah, there were 9 navigations, by the way: one for each place the Goddess stopped on Her way back from Nubia.)

We might remember that Isis, too, has a rather famous navigation: the Navigium Isidis (the “ship of Isis” or “sailing of Isis”). I’m still trying to confirm the Egyptian word that was used for the “navigation” in the Hathor-Isis festival. There is an Egyptian word, khenet, which is related to other words having to do with boats, sailors, and navigation—as well as a festival of Osiris that featured a procession of boats—but I’m not sure whether the same word was used for the navigation of Isis and Hathor on the isheru.

A fanciful Italian mosaic, from the Hellenistic period, showing Egypt during Inundation

Nevertheless, it is clear that at Denderah one of the things the Return of the Goddess was about was the return of the waters of the Inundation that would bring food and prosperity to Egypt. In addition, the rising river made the Nile more navigable for a wider variety of boats and ships. Just before the flood was the time of the river’s lowest, most-difficult-to-travel water levels. The Navigium Isidis (Gk: Ta Ploiaphesia; the Launching [of the Ship of Isis]), while not concerned with the water level or Inundation of the Nile, was concerned with the navigability of the Mediterranean Sea that would mark the start of the shipping season in spring.

Then Festival Ensues

The Fierce Feline Goddess, now pacified, celebrates

We now come to the final element in the Wandering Goddess myth: Her joyful return and the Festival of Drunkenness. We have already seen evidence of such festivals for Mut, Tefnut, Bastet, Nehemant, and of course, Hathor. And I’m sure that, at Denderah, with the closeness of the Goddesses, Isis devotees would have participated with Hathor devotees during the festivals held there. There certainly were joyous festivals for Isis—She is, after all, called “the Festive Goddess.” Often, these were related to the conception and birth of Horus and the birthdays of Isis and Her siblings during the epagomenal days. What’s more, She is known as a joyful Goddess; temple inscriptions call Her the Queen of Joy, Lady of Rejoicing, and Lady of Jubilation. Deities and human beings rejoice when They/they see Her. Isis is called She Whose Heart is Open and Her joy is likened to the beauty of the full moon.

Still, we don’t have solid evidence of a full-fledged Festival of Drunkenness for Isis.

And yet.

There are these two little bits of graffiti from Her temple at Philae. They’re in bad shape. They’re from a late period. But one mentions a day of singing and drunkenness, the other notes a dedication to Hathor, a “house of greeting,” and “the place of drunkenness of the people.”

Let us celebrate the Festival of Tekh (drunkenness) that we may see the Goddess

In fact, all of this makes sense. Philae was home to a temple of Hathor—just as Denderah included a temple of Isis. Philae was also Tefnut’s first stop on Her way back from Nubia.

It was at Philae that She changed from burning lioness to peaceful Goddess. So it may well be that—in that fluid way of Egyptian Goddesses and Their festivals—Isis-Hathor-Tefnut may have been celebrated with a Festival of Drunkenness at Philae, too. Since there is no temple calendar carved on the walls at Philae, we can’t be sure, but perhaps we will learn more from other discoveries as time goes on.

So, there you have it. It may have been that Our Lady Isis participated in both of the great mythic themes of ancient Egypt: the Isis & Osiris story as well as the myths of the Wandering/Distant/Returning Goddess.

Isis & Hathor, Twins?

The partially restored Temple of Hathor on neo-Philae (Agilkia) island

On the island of Philae, east of the Temple of Isis, stands a smaller temple to Hathor. The Hathor temple was restored, at least in part, in 2012 and reopened to the public. (Both the Isis and Hathor temples, as well as the other temples of ancient Philae are now on the Egyptian island of Agilkia, aka Agilika, where they were moved prior to the building of the Aswan Dam, which created Lake Nasser and flooded Philae.)

A lovely Hathor head, from a processional boat, now in the British Museum
A lovely Hathor head, from a processional boat, now in the British Museum

Compared to the Temple of Isis on Agilkia, the Temple of Hathor is quite small. Reciprocally and interestingly, at Denderah, Hathor’s great Ptolemaic temple complex, there is a similar small Temple of Isis. Clearly, there is a relationship between these two Great Goddesses; so much so that it was required that each Goddess would have a smaller temple near the great temple of the other.

In fact, sometimes that relationship between Isis and Hathor is so close that it’s hard to tell Them apart. Beginning in the New Kingdom, we regularly see Isis wearing the Horns & Disk crown of a Cow Goddess that is emblematic of Hathor. Sometimes Isis also has a small throne on top of the Horns & Disk to indicate that She is indeed Isis rather than Hathor, sometimes She doesn’t. But guess what? Hathor sometimes borrows Isis’ headdress, too.

Again at Denderah, we find a carving of Hathor—and the hieroglyphs confirm that She IS Hathor—wearing the Horns & Disk with the throne on top. It’s a bit hard to make out in this photo, but you can see the throne sitting atop the disk in Hathor’s crown.

Both Isis and Hathor are associated with Horus, Isis as His mother, Hathor sometimes as mother, sometimes as lover. Both are Cow Goddesses and Goddesses of the Sycamore, though Hathor probably has the prior claim on both these symbols. Both are Eyes of the Divine and holy Uraeus Serpents, powerful, fiery, protective and vengeful Goddesses. Thus both can become Sekhmet, that most fierce and bloodthirsty of Goddesses. Both Isis and Hathor are Goddesses of the Otherworld, Goddesses of rebirth and resurrection, Whom the dead ones adore.

Looking just as these correspondences, Isis and Hathor seem interchangeable. Is it so?

I don’t think so. Instead, They are sister branches of the Divine Tree. They are ultimately united in the Tree’s trunk, yet there is a quite palpable difference in the energy feeling of the two Goddesses—at least out in the twigs and leaves of the Tree where we most often experience Them. As you know, I have an enduring dedication to Isis, but in another part of my spiritual life, I also have a strong connection to Hathor.

A beautiful Hathor from Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple, by Steve F-E-Cameron (own work, public domain)

Hathor’s energy always has an underlying feeling of excitation, of arousal. It may be sexual, but it doesn’t have to be. Hathor imparts the excitement of living, and thus She is the Great Lady of Love, Joy, Drunkenness, and Dance. Her symbol par excellance is the sistrum, the sacred rattle that is shaken to stir things up. In Egyptian, to “play the sistrum” is iri sekhem, to “do power.” Hathor has something of the maenad in Her, if I may draw from a different cultural metaphor; She’s a bit more wild than Isis, more likely to roar or hiss or spit. O, but She will dance you to ecstasy; She will love you to ecstasy; She will sing you to ecstasy. Perhaps She will also put a bit of Divine terror into your belly while She’s doing it. But then She will turn Those Eyes upon you, those soft, bright, deep cow’s eyes, and She will soothe you, take you in, and make you understand that Love, only Love, is at the heart of the Divine reality.

Of course, Isis, too, inspires passion. She certainly inspires it in me. But that’s not the foundation of Her energy. At Isis’ heart is strength interwoven with the numinous power of magic. Hathor’s tingle is the excitement of life and love. Isis’ tingle is the excitement of magic, of heka. Hers is a deep, sometimes overwhelming, Intelligence; flowering in my mind like stars that blossom into the depths of Space and Time.

Isis by Mojette

And yet, and yet. The Mystery of these two Great Goddesses is such that They can share many or even most of Their symbols, and have a share in each other’s power.

Blessed be the Ladies.

Women as Priestesses in Ancient Egypt

Priestess Merit, photo by Hilda H Photography
Priestess Merit, photo by Hilda H Photography

Our topic today? Sexism in egyptology.

Well, it’s actually priestesses in ancient Egypt, but it was a bunch of sexist assumptions by previous generations of egyptologists that allowed the importance of priestesses to be overlooked or discounted and inspired me to choose this topic for the post.

What sort of sexist assumptions you say?

Many old-school egyptologists have assumed that women were not allowed to participate in the most holy—that is, most important—aspects of worship. They have assumed that the sacerdotal titles of high-status Egyptian women were simply honorary and the women did not actually perform the work of a priestess. Such assumptions are never made when it comes to Egyptian men with corresponding titles. Never. By translating the Egyptian term, Servant of the God—which was used of both men and women—as priest or priestess, the old gentlemen were allowing themselves a little mental sexism for, in their minds, a priestess was always of lower status than a priest because in their society women were of lower status than men. It was assumed that the religious involvement of women with priestly titles was not “professional” and when Egyptian religion became “more organized” in the New Kingdom, there was an effort to exclude women.

An early-photography fantasy of a languid Priestess of Isis
An early-photography fantasy of a languid Priestess of Isis

Sheldon Gosline, the author of a scholarly article I’m reading on this topic, believes this assumption is mainly based on Christian and Jewish exclusion of women from priestly activities rather than on any real evidence from Egypt. There has also been the assumption—less these days than it was, thank Goddess—that women’s roles in the temple were mainly sexual; that the female musicians were some sort of harem (because music is inherently sexual, you see) and that the God’s Wife, another priestessly title, was supposed to have sex with the priests of the temple who represented the God. Such assumptions were, no doubt, based on statements like this one from the Greek geographer Strabo, himself hailing from a supremely sexist culture. Says Strabo:

“To Zeus [Amun] they consecrate one of the most beautiful girls of the most illustrious family . . . She becomes a prostitute and has intercourse with whoever she wishes, until the purification of her body [menstruation] takes place.”

Queen Ahmose Nefertari, Hatshepsut's grandmother and God's Wife of Amun
Queen Ahmose Nefertari, Hatshepsut’s grandmother and God’s Wife of Amun

(We are always hearing tales of temple prostitution, are we not? It’s just so…so…well, pagan.) In fact, there is no evidence of Egyptian temple prostitution or that priestesses were expected to have sex—sacred or otherwise—in the temple. In fact, the opposite is true; one was decidedly NOT supposed to have sex in the temple. (None of this is to say that sex had no place in ancient Egyptian religion and culture; it did, and an important place. But that’s a topic for another day. And that other day has come. Here’s the article about that.)

Thankfully, more modern egyptologists are taking a less biased view.

So what’s the real story?

Unfortunately, due to the incomplete nature of the evidence, we can never be entirely certain. Yet we do have the opportunity to look at what evidence remains in a fresh way. When we do so, we notice that we have records of quite a large number of ancient Egyptian priestesses. These records come from all periods and regions of Egypt. We see that supposedly honorific titles were borne by some women who were not married to priests or who were married to men of lower rank. In other words, the woman’s status was her own and she did not derive it from her husband. From the fifth dynasty we have a record that shows that the sons and daughter of one noble family took turns being the Servant of the God of Hathor. The religious duties of the sister Servant of the God would have been the same as those of the brother Servant of the God or it would not have been possible to switch off like that. We also have records showing that lower-ranked priestesses and priests were paid exactly the same amount for their temple service, which must indicate the equal importance and likely equal duties the job entailed. We have evidence that the priestessly title of Meret, “Beloved,” may have been quite a high-ranking position. At least one Meret priestess was responsible for the financial security of the temple through care for its real estate and agricultural resources—a very important role and one that must have required a great deal of education and experience.

The sarcophagus of a Chantress of Amun
The sarcophagus of a Chantress of Amun

As Egypt came in contact with other cultures or due to internal Egyptian politics, it seems that some priestessly power eroded. Perhaps this is why Hatshepsut’s grandmother felt the need to revive the important title of God’s Wife, which Hatshepsut later took for herself. From the New Kingdom on, we find many priestesses with the title of Chantress and may be tempted to dismiss it as a minor role, yet it may well be that we are undervaluing the vital role that music played in the worship of the Goddesses and Gods. Many of the women with this title were royal and noble. We have letters surviving from some of these Chantresses that indicate they wielded a great deal of power. The Great Chantress of Amun wrote to a military official sharply ordering him to supply rations for the workmen: “Don’t let [name of another official] complain to me again,” she writes. “Have them prepared for the people…” Women tended to prefer using their title of Chantress even over other prestigious titles they may have held, which surely indicates the title’s high status.

Like other Deities, Isis would have been served by Her priestesses. They would have made music and sung hymns for Her, presided over offerings, and perhaps even tended Her temple’s real estate holdings. In fact, by the New Kingdom, Isis was one of the Deities (others are Amun, Montu, Mut, and Osiris) most commonly served by priestesses.

A lovely 19th century painting of a priestess serving the ka of a cat by John Weguelin

A lovely 19th century painting by John Weguelin of a priestess making offerings for the ka of a cat