APPENDIX 9

THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE TEMPLE AND TOMB OF IN RELATION TO THE RITUALS (Ch. IV, n. 128)

The short account of the ritual given in Ch. IV, p. 63, is adequate to explain the way in which this is representated in the Nile Mosaic. In reality, however, the ritual was much more complicated; more­ over variations may have existed in different places. We shall shortly discuss the processes involved, in order to gain a better understanding both of the representation in the Nile Mosaic and of the other representations which we have adduced for compara­ tive purposes (see figs. 75, 77, 79-85 and 89). Nevertheless several aspects must remain unclear, because the procedures of the Osiris ritual have not been studied in full. Our best source of information is the Dendera inscription which, however, contains many obscure elements1. On the roof of the temple at Dendera there are two complexes of chapels, which we may call the eastern and western chapel, each consist­ ing of three rooms2. The revival ritual seems to have taken place in the eastern chapel which contains both the Dendera inscrip­ tion (in the first room) and a representation of the 'garden' in which the rebirth of the corn-mummy took place (on the back­ wall of the third room) 3 • On the 22nd of the month of Khoiak there was a festive boat procession which carried the revived mummy together with , Nephthys, , Amon, That, , the 29 children of Horus, 34 boats and 365 lamps. The procession was staged in miniature on the sacred lake of the temple4 • At the end of the procession the Corn Osiris was placed in the western chapel, which was called the upper or upper tomb5. While the ritual of the corn-mummy was performed there, a mummy of Osiris-Sokaris was also prepared in the eastern

1 See Ch. IV, n. 126 2 In literature they are also referred to as the southern and northern chapel respectively, see PM VI , 93 ff.; Beinlich 312 f.; Cauville 24. 3 Cauville 23 ff., 27 ff.; Beinlich 276 ff. 4 See Chassinat 71, 229, 614 ff.; Cauville 29. 5 See Chassinat 71, 257 ff., 618 ff. GEOGRAPHY OF THE TEMPLE AND TOMB OF OSIRIS 137 chapel. On the 24th this mummy was carried in a procession through and round the temple and was eventually also placed in the western chapel6• On the 26th took place the famous procession with the Henu-bark of Sokaris7. The mummies of Osiris and Soka­ ris underwent the various embalmment rites and then remained in the upper tomb for the rest of the yearS. The mummies of Osiris and Sokaris of the previous year had in the mean-time been moved from the third room to the second room of the chapel. They were redressed and placed in new sarcophagi and then on the 30th of Khoiak buried in the lower tomb. This is described as the place of the nbh plants beneath the grove in the necropolis; it has not been preserved9. The Dendera inscription tells us firstly that the Khoiak mystery consisted of two rituals, i.e. those of the Corn Osiris and of Sokaris, which proceeded partly in parallel; secondly that several larger or smaller processions with sarco­ phagi took place1o, and thirdly that there were two 'funerals': that of the new mummies of Osiris and Sokaris, in the upper tomb, on the 22nd and 24th of Khoiak respectively, and that of the old mummies in the lower tomb on the 30th. The distinction between the upper and the lower tomb reflected Egyptian burial practice where a tomb usually consisted of a funerary chapel, the upper tomb, for funerary rites above ground, and the lower tomb, a crypt which contained the sarcophagi11 • What is striking about Den­ dera, however, is that at Dendera the upper and lower tombs were not connected; the upper one was on the roof of the temple while the lower one must have been elsewhere. This may be explained by the fact that the ritual took place in the roof chapels of the temple and the burial elsewhere. The other sanctuary where we are informed about the Osiris ritual is the temple of Isis at Philae. In this case the tomb of Osiris, the Abaton, was situated on the island of Bigeh12. The procedures

6 See Chassinat 71, 635 f., cf. our Ch. IV, n. 126. 7 See LA V, 1066 f., s.v. Sokar, XII, Henu-bark; Cauville 30 ff., fig. 5. 8 Chassinat 71 f., Cauville 31. 9 See Chassinat 71 ff., 232 ff., 618 ff., 625 ff., 632 ff.; cf. our Appendices 8 and 10. 10 See further Appendix 10. .. 11 See Chassinat 227, 618 f.; Junker 44; and in general LA I, 994 ff., s.v. Dat; II, 826 ff., s.v. Grab, esp. 834; Badawy 1968, 415 ff., e.g. figs. 217, 219; Chassinat 626 ff. 12 See n. 113, App. 8, figs. 82, 83, 88, 89.