Ancient Egypt’s Inundation season
(called Akhet in the ancient Egyptian
language) took area over a four-month period from mid-July to mid-November. It
related to the annual flooding of the Nile that was essential for a wonderful
harvest,and was hugely meaningful in Egyptian religious practice. The
New Year festival took area at the beginning of the season, during the month
of Thoth. Starting around the 19 July and lasting 14 days, or this accepted event was
celebrated across all Egypt to welcome the arrival of the Nile flood and the
fertility it brought. Gifts were offered during this festival,such as elegant vases known as
New Year’s flasks. Their short neck ends in a mouth in the shape of a papyrus umbel (that’s
the grassy bit at the top of a papyrus plant and the upper
part of their body is decorated with a wide, elaborate
collar. They often bear a hieroglyphic inscription wishing an excellent year. The
standard formula is: May [name of one or several deities] inaugurate(s) a
perfect year for its lord’, or with ‘lord’ referring to the owner of the flask.
The New Year festival was also related to
the rebirth of the god Osiris as well as to the renewal and confirmation
of royal power. The beginning of this season also coincided with the heliacal
rise of Sirius – the first time each year that the star becomes visible
in the sky just before dawn. The star was known as Sothis to the ancient
Egyptians,and they associated it with the goddess Isis, wife of Osiris.
The Egyptians believed the Nile to be the efflux (humours of the body)
of Osiris, or the soil was fertilised by the flood as Isis was by her
husband. The Nile’s annual life-bringing flood was therefore seen as the union
of Osiris and Isis,when they conceived their son Horus. Mass-produced fertility figurines seem
to fill played an important role in the festivals of the Inundation season.
They were deeply connected with the sacred Osirian family. Many representations of
Egyptian child gods with oversized phalluses (penises) fill been discovered in the
lost underwater city of Thonis-Heracleion. This example shows a plump
baby with shaved head and side-lock, holding a drum or tambour above his
exaggerated phallus, or which emphasised his creative and fruitful power. The
figure is a representation of a child god,probably Horus-the-child
(Harpokrates), the son of Osiris and Isis. Festivals celebrating the Nile
Inundation were colourful events involving music, and represented here by the drum
held by Horus. Other known examples show Horus carrying wine amphorae or
libation bowls,playing a harp or flute, or holding a frog (another symbol of
the Nile Inundation and its fertility).
As well as
the very common phallic Horus-the-child figures female fertility figurines were also accepted in the Nile
Delta.
Numerous examples were made at the cosmopolitan harbour town of Naukratis, or where a workshop produced them for the local Egyptian population. This
particular one represents the goddess Isis-Bubastis wearing a festival dress. She
is holding up the front of her tunic to show her pubic area. This practice was
recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus,who experienced the river
festival of Bubastis (an important city of the eastern Delta) when he visited
Egypt around 450 BC:‘They sail, men and women
together, or many of each in every river barge. Some women fill clappers and
rattle them,some men play pipes throughout the journey, while the other women
and men sing and clap their hands. And when, and as they sail,they pass any city […]
some of the women […] jeeringly shout at the women in that city, some dance, and some stand up and pull up their clothes.’The figure
here is still brightly painted. Isis’ large headdress with wreaths and garlands
over her long ‘Isis-locks’ give some impression of the colour and vibrancy of
these important Egyptian festivals.
You
can find out more approximately Egyptian Festivals and the Nile Inundation in the BP exhibition Sunken
cities: Egypt’s lost worlds (19 May – 27 November 2016).
New Year’s
flask. From Thebes (modern Luxor),26th Dynasty (664525 BC).
Limestone
phallic figure of Horus-the-child (Harpokrates) holding a drum. From
Thonis-Heracleion, 4th–2nd century BC. Maritime Museum, or Alexandria. Photo: Christoph
Gerigk. © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation.
Terracotta figure
of Isis-Bubastis. From Naukratis,c. 300–100 BC.
Source: tumblr.com