COMMUNICATION WITH THE DIVINE IN ANCIENT EGYPT: HEARING DEITIES, INTERMEDIARY STATUES AND SISTROPHORES by ELEANOR BETH SIMMANCE A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham September 2017 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis examines the desire for contact with deities in Egypt, the artistic and textual expression of which can be viewed as characteristic of ‘personal piety’. The attribution of hearing abilities to deities through epithets and phrases is evocative of human attempts to communicate with the divine sphere, and the Egyptian evidence is presented. A case study of so-called ‘intermediary statues’, which claim to facilitate communication between human and god, offers an opportunity to investigate how some members of the elite adapted their artistic output to take advantage of popular beliefs, furthering their own commemoration. Sistrophorous statues (bearing a naos-sistrum) are well-represented in the intermediary corpus, and their symbolism is explored alongside the significance of statue form and temple location in the context of communication with gods. The nature of the authority and power present in the communicative relationships between human, god and statue is considered, in part through the lens of compliance-gaining theory. It is argued that the notion of hearing deities and mediation provided humans with some power over their gods, and statue-owners with a means to maintain elite governance over what were ostensibly more personal and accessible modes of worship. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is the product of four years of research which would not have been possible without the generous three-year grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Numerous individuals also provided invaluable help in various aspects of my study. Thanks in particular must go to Kelly Accetta, Nicki Adderley, Dilwyn Jones, Guy Kirkham-Smith, Curtis Lisle, Michela Luiselli, Campbell Price, Chiara Salvador, Beth Spacey and Katharina Stövesand for answering my questions and readily providing information and resources on specific aspects of my research. I am also grateful to the members of Birmingham Assyriology for allowing me to air ideas on Near Eastern evidence pertinent to the chapter on hearing deities, and providing useful feedback. I owe much to participation in Birmingham Egyptology during my time at university, for giving me opportunities to speak, chair discussions and conferences, edit papers, co-ordinate other activities, and enjoy scholarly discussions beyond the scope of my own research – a necessary but guilt-free break! Thanks to Steven Gregory and all others involved. I also must acknowledge the individuals at various institutions that have assisted me in procuring information and images, notably the librarians of the Sackler Library and the staff of the Griffith Institute, Oxford – Elizabeth Fleming, Francisco Bosche-Puche and Kat Warsi – for allowing me access to their J. J. Clère archival material on three separate occasions, and for giving permission to include some images from that material here. Also: Danny Zhang (Sotheby’s New York), Kiersten Neumann (Oriental Institute, Chicago), Julia Irons and Lauren Hancock (Field Museum, Chicago), Deidre Lawrence and Roberta Munoz (Brooklyn Museum/Wilbour Library), Eva Meedsom (Antwerp Museums), Dr Susanne Beck (University of Tübingen), Klaus Finneiser (AEMP, Berlin), Nina Willburger (Landesmuseum, Stuttgart), Krystyna Pickering (Royal Pavilion & Museums) and Maria Esain (Chiddingstone Castle). To my advisor, Dr Gareth Sears, I owe thanks for his comments on an early version of the chapter on doorways, and his advice as I neared the end of my studies. Thanks also to Dr Henry Chapman, who kindly agreed to chair my viva voce, and subsequently suggested some reading material in light of the discussion. My examiners, Prof Leslie Brubaker and Dr Kate Spence, were not only gratifyingly positive, but also provided perceptive feedback, getting to the core of the areas that could be improved for this final version. Of course, I cannot thank my supervisor Dr Tony Leahy enough. From my first Egypt lectures during my undergraduate degree to the completion of my doctoral thesis in Egyptology, he has always been a source of seemingly inexhaustible knowledge, advice, and patience. I wish him all the best in his retirement. Finally, I owe the deepest gratitude to my family for their support, my many siblings included, but particularly my parents Richard and Alison who lent their teachers’ red pens and encouraging words to several sections of this thesis. Most of all, innumerable thanks go to my partner Luther for all the advice, hugs and laughter (and for the ‘Not that kind of doctor’ t- shirt), which kept me grounded throughout the whole of this process. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 I.1 Religious concepts 1 I.1.1 The purpose of religion and the need for contact with the divine 1 I.1.2 Hearing deities 3 I.1.3 The concept of mediation 4 I.2 Intermediary statues 6 I.2.1 Texts, form and location 6 I.2.2 Purpose 9 I.3 Communication and persuasion 10 I.3.1 Communication theory 12 I.3.2 Compliance-gaining and persuasion 14 I.3.3 Listening 16 I.4 Explaining the compilation of the corpora 17 I.4.1 Hearing deities in Egypt 17 I.4.2 Intermediaries 17 I.4.3 Sistrophores 19 I.4.4 The reasons behind studying statuary 19 I.5 Methodological issues 21 I.5.1 A texts-based approach to material culture 21 I.5.2 Criticisms of communication theory 23 I.5.3 Studying ancient religions: the emic and the etic viewpoints 25 I.6 General outlook 28 Chapter One: The notion of hearing deities 30 1.1 Silent deities 32 1.2 Hearing deities in Egypt 34 1.3 Phrases and invocations referring to hearing deities 35 1.3.1 Hearing deities in funerary literature 35 1.3.1.1 Pyramid Texts 36 1.3.1.2 Coffin Texts 38 1.3.1.3 New Kingdom funerary literature 42 1.3.2 Other phrases and attestations of hearing 45 1.3.2.1 Onomastics 46 1.3.2.2 Phrases 49 1.3.3 Epithets related to ears and hearing 60 1.3.3.1 Epithets of the Old Kingdom 63 1.3.3.2 Epithets of the Middle Kingdom 64 1.3.3.3 Epithets of the New Kingdom 65 1.3.3.4 Epithets post-New Kingdom 66 1.3.3.5 Usage over time and the deities represented 68 1.3.3.6 Towards a detailed chronological analysis of epithets: difficulties and overall remarks 72 1.4 Some comments on the significance of hearing deities for personal religious beliefs 74 1.5 Final thoughts and conclusions 81 Chapter Two: Intermediary statues: texts and identification 87 2.1 Introduction: statuary in Egypt and Catalogue A 87 2.2 Intermediary statues (explicit): introduction 88 2.2.1 Table 1: A.1 – A.23 89 2.2.2 Notes on Table 1 97 2.2.3 Further comments on the categories in Table 1 112 2.2.3.1 The importance of the text categories: altering the definition of an intermediary? 112 2.2.3.2 Deities named in Htp-di-nsw rites (Table 2) 116 2.3 Intermediary statues (implicit): introduction 120 2.3.1 Table 3: A.24 – A.31 122 2.3.2 Notes on Table 3 125 2.3.3 Further comments on the categories in Table 3 129 2.3.3.1 Difficulties in identification and the importance of the categories 129 2.3.3.2 Deities named in Htp-di-nsw rites (Table 4) 133 2.4 Further comments on the monuments of both Tables 1 and 3 134 2.4.1 Titles: ‘bald one’, ‘servant’, ‘reporter’ and ‘sistrum-player’ 134 2.4.2 Biographical nature of the statuary 136 2.4.3 Placating and pleasing the goddess 139 2.4.4 Doorways 141 2.5 The applicability of the text categories to form and location 143 2.6 Locations of intermediary texts 144 2.7 Communication, persuasion and compliance-gaining in intermediary inscriptions: introduction 147 2.7.1 Compliance-gaining on intermediary statues 151 2.7.1.1 Altercasting (positive) 151 2.7.1.2 Audience-use 152 2.7.1.3 Authority appeal 152 2.7.1.4 Bargaining/pre-giving/promise 153 2.7.1.5 Benefit (other) 154 2.7.1.6 Benefit (self) 155 2.7.1.7 Benefit (target) 155 2.7.1.8 Disclaimer (task) 156 2.7.1.9 Esteem (positive) by others 156 2.7.1.10 Esteem (positive) by the actor 157 2.7.1.11 Invoke norm 157 2.7.1.12 Nature of situation 158 2.7.1.13 Persistence 158 2.7.1.14 Personal expertise 159 2.7.1.15 Surveillance 160 2.7.1.16 Warning 160 2.7.2 Brief observations 161 2.8 Intermediary texts, or similar, appearing on monuments other than statues 161 2.9 Final remarks 166 2.9.1 The text categories 166 2.9.2 The locations of pertinent texts 167 2.9.3 The implications of compliance-gaining for understanding intermediary statues 168 2.9.4 The development of intermediaries and their texts 169 Chapter Three: The importance of form for statuary 171 3.1 Introduction 171 3.2 Comments on statue forms 174 3.2.1 Seated 174 3.2.2 Standing 175 3.2.3 Kneeling 176 3.2.4 Cross-legged 178 3.2.5 Block 182 3.2.6 Base size and statues as door-stops 187 3.2.7 ‘Begging gesture’ 192 3.2.8 Baldness 195 3.2.9