Violence in Ancient Egyptian Religious Iconography: Purpose and Meaning.

By

David A. Falk, PhD. (Paper given at VST 2019 Religion and Violence Conference)

While violent motifs in ancient Egyptian religion are well-documented, scholars through the 20 th century generally believed that violence portrayed in the religious context was merely symbolic. But in 2013, an executed slave found beneath the foundation of the temple of Mut at

Luxor reopened the whole question of violence in ancient Egyptian religion and iconography.1

Iconography in Egyptian contexts is largely misunderstood, so then it is not surprising that modern scholarship has misinterpreted violent motifs in temples and tombs. The Egyptians featured scenes of war and prisoner decapitations upon the walls of their temples. This could lead one to believe that Egyptian religion glorified violence, but the reality is more nuanced than it might appear at first blush. This paper will explore the use of violent iconography in Egyptian religious settings and will suggest that religious violence had a phenomenological function that served as an apotropaic device protecting Egypt’s fragile agriculture.

Primer to Understanding Egyptian Iconography

Perhaps the biggest hurdle to understanding violence in Egyptian iconography is coming to terms with the normal function of iconography in Egyptian religion. This requires a bit of a primer in Egyptian metaphysics and phenomenology.

The Egyptians believed that writing and drawing could instantiate magical power and physical presence. Egyptian metaphysics tied magic together with writing, both of which were attributed to the god Thoth.

1 Mark D. Janzen, The Iconography of Humiliation: The Depiction and Treatment of Bound Foreigners in New Kingdom Egypt (Ph.D. diss., University of Memphis, 2013), 317.

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Let us say that I were to write a mild curse on a piece of paper, “may there be one less step than my nemesis expects.” The Western mind would think nothing of this other than to maybe crack a wry smirk because in the West something written on a piece of paper has no more power than a bitter tweet or a nasty greeting card. Separation exists between the agency of the writer, the object of writing, and the mechanics of the world.

With the ancient Egyptian mind, that separation does not exist. Divinity had the ability to unite with its images (both statuary and temple reliefs) embodying the god’s divine power. This resulted in a phenomenological view of writing. Writing a mild curse on paper created an object of writing that affected the mechanics of the world. The contents of the written form changed the fabric of reality. So, my mild curse would cause my nemesis to trip at every of steps he climbs.

Keeping this in mind, when we approach the reliefs on the walls of temples and tombs, we have to realize that human beings are not the audience. It may be tempting to postulate that these reliefs served as priestly reminders or just decoration. But, the reliefs of temple rituals probably do not reflect the actual order of ritual performance.2 For example, the order of the rituals at ’s Abydos temple remains hotly debated. 3 I suspect that the reason for this debate is that scholars are asking questions that the original writers were never intending to answer.

But if these reliefs are an attempt to instantiate divine reality, then the reliefs in temples and tombs are not there to remind priests or keep detailed historical records. Instead, this would suggest that the purpose for these reliefs was to create a perpetual reenactment of a ritual in writing for the benefit of the Egyptian gods. In effect, the carved reliefs recreated ritual to praise

the gods day and night.

2 Katherine Eaton, Ancient Egyptian Temple Ritual: Performance, Pattern and Practice (New York: Routledge, 2013), 43. 3 At least eight different orderings have been suggested for the daily ritual scenes at Abydos. See Eaton, 20-22.

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Gods, Weapons, and War

We will begin with our examination of violence in Egyptian iconography with Montu, the

Egyptian god associated with warfare. 4 There is of course the obvious display of violence of

with Montu on the right carrying in his left hand a large curved sword. But perhaps, less obvious

is the double uraeus cobras on the crown.

Prima facie the uraeus cobra may not seem like especially violent iconography as the

uraeus is ubiquitously used as a protective symbol all over Egypt. But I would suggest that in

this particular context that the violent aspect is quite overt. PT 256 states that the uraeus spits

out fire against the enemies of the king. 5 Normally, the uraeus is paired with the

vulture, and together the pair symbolized holiness as the Nekhbet keeps a space pure while the

uraeus protects space of defilement from the outside. However, the double uraeus is like a

double-barreled shotgun, an icon that expresses double aggression. This is an example of

iconographic intensification, where the icon is multiplied to multiply its effect. And later kings

of the Napatan 25 th Dynasty would wear the double uraeus to emphasize their martial tendencies.

In this slide, we have a shallow relief that dates to the Saite period. In it we see the goddess Satis which often represented the star Sirius. She also represented war and hunting, and is shown holding a recurve bow and arrows. Other gods, such as Bes or Sekhmet, are frequently portrayed as warriors or holding weapons.

Killing snakes is also a common violent religious motif. At the temple of Kom Ombou, the king is shown killing a snake with a long trident.6 The slide from TT1, the tomb of

Sennedjem, shows a cat that is beheading a snake with a knife.

4 Jaroslav Černý, Ancient Egyptian Religion (New York: Hutchinson’s University Library, 1952), 37. 5 PT 256 (Kurt Sethe, Die Ältaegyptischen Pyramidentexte [Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, 1908], 302). 6 Description de L’Égypte: Publiée par les orders de Napoléon Bonaparte, Edition complete (Paris: De L’Imprimerie Impériale, 1809; reprint New York: Benedikt Taschen Verlag, 1997), 1:45.

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In Egyptian myth, Apophis was the serpent that on a daily basis attempted to devour the sun. Apophis was the perpetual enemy of the sun god Re and the light. 7 The daily defeat of

Apophis was often symbolized by a Bastet, represented by a cat killing a snake with a knife.

These scenes are sometime referenced in tombs such as TT 132 that depicts a beheaded snake

representing the god Apophis.8 On the one hand, the Egyptians recorded the natural antipathy between cats and snakes. On the other, the Egyptians portrayed this antipathy mythologizing it and elevating it as a war metaphor that was incorporated into the eternal daily solar cycle. 9

Execution of Captives

Many violent iconographic motifs originated as references to war scenes. One of the earliest of these is found on the Palette. This object measures 64 x 42 cm and is an oversized cosmetics palette. The circle in center was used for grinding pigments possibly for the application of cosmetic eye paint on cultic statues and was found in the foundation deposit at

Herakleopolis. This palette dates to the first dynasty of Egypt and is one of the earliest cult objects from pharaonic Egypt.

The palette portrays one of the unification wars. The image on the left shows king

Narmer smiting a Lower Egyptian with a mace, while the god gaffs an enemy with a large hook. On the right, the top register shows the decapitated bodies of the war dead, and the bottom register shows the king symbolized as a tearing down the walls of the city.

These scenes of captive execution became commonplace in New Kingdom temples. The

mace was a common weapon type used in the Old Kingdom; however, the mace fell out of favor

7 Adolf Erman, A Handbook of Egyptian Religion. trans. A. S. Griffith (London: Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd., 1907), 59. 8 Bertha Porter and Rosalind L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Tests, Reliefs, and Paintings, vol. 1 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960), 247. 9 Paul John Frandsen, “Aspects of Kingship in ” in Religion and Power: Divine Kingship on the Ancient World and Beyond ,2 nd Ed. ed. Nicole Brisch (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2012), 47

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as a weapon of war by the end of the Middle Kingdom. 10 In the New Kingdom reliefs, the mace

was an anachronism even though it is found in most of the smiting reliefs. The display of

anachronistic weaponry shows how the weapons themselves become part of the religious

repertoire.

These reliefs are commonly found in both mortuary and divine temples. We find this

motif in the temple of Medinet Habu, the mortuary temple of Ramesses III (Dynasty 20). But

this same motif also appears in the Temple of Ramesses III. 11 The scenes often show

the king with his arm stretched out holding nine prisoners by the hair and in his raised arm he

holds a mace. 12 The nine prisoners represent the so-called “nine bows” which are the traditional

nine enemy nations against Egypt.

However, a smiting scene can also be shown with particular foes. Here Ramesses III is

smiting a pair of Shasu, Levantines who had attempted to invade Egypt from southern Palestine.

The king is dressed in clothing similar to -Re, with extra pairs of uraeus added to the

crown on either side symbolizing his aggression towards the foreign invaders. A male lion

below, representing the power of the king, attacks the Shasu while they are being smited.

We should however recognize that the smiting motif is not isolated to Egypt. This motif

is also referenced in Israelite literature, e.g., “by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm”

(Deut 4:34).13 The “mighty hand” holds the mace while the “outstretched arm” grabs the hair.

Given that executed prisoners have now been found beneath the foundation deposit of at least one temple,14 we can surmise that some prisoners were ritually killed within the temple precincts and the bodies buried among the foundation deposits. It is important to note that the

10 Anthony J. Spalinger, War in Ancient Egypt (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 76. 11 Epigraphic Survey, Ramses III’s Temple with the Great Inclosure of Amon . Part 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1936), pl. 5. 12 Description de L’Égypte, 3:52. 13 James K. Hoffmeier, “The Arm of God Versus the Arm of Pharaoh in the Exodus Narratives,” Biblica 67 (1986), 379-380. 14 Janzen, 317.

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captives that were killed were foreign prisoners of war and not criminals. Part of the reason for this is the value of foreign captives. Captives in general had real value. And captive foreign soldiers were often pressed into military service for the Egyptians as military specialists.

It is important to note that smiting imagery is found in temples that post-date Egypt’s imperial periods. Images of captive execution are found on the outer pylon at the Temple of

Horus at Edfu dating the 237 BCE during the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes. 15

Even at the temples of Isis, Hathor, and Amun-Osiris at Philae, the scene of captive

executions appears on the outer pylon.16 And instead of simply using this image as a repetitive

motif, which it does in the west portion of the temple, 17 the artists at Philae also created a variety

of images where the king is spearing his enemies. 18

The point of these reliefs is to flaunt the terrifying presence of the king. In TT 57, before an image of Amenhotep III, a sphinx is shown pinning down and killing captives. 19 The sphinx represented the power and might of the king and his ability to instill fear into foreigners.

Temple reliefs could show not only the repertoire execution motif but could also include full battle scenes. Here is a relief from the Ramesseum, Ramesses II’s mortuary temple, showing the Battle of Kadesh. A battle scene from the same conflict also appears on the Great Temple of

Abu Simbel, a temple dedicated to Amun-Re, “king of the gods.” Abu Simbel was a boundary temple, a temple designed to show the people of Cush the extreme reach and power of Egyptian hegemony.

War motifs, on the one hand, have a historical component that is being referenced to by these motifs. However, we need to recognize that these portrayals are not purely the recording of

15 Description de L’Égypte , 1:49. 16 Description de L’Égypte , 1:6. 17 Description de L’Égypte, 1:19. 18 Description de L’Égypte, 1:11 and 1:13. 19 Schott photo 2163.

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history per se .20 This is not to say that the Egyptians are not telling the truth of the events or are exaggerating. Instead, poetic imperatives that represent the way world is supposed to be are idealized and magnified for the effect of making the world as it should be. 21

In the Kadesh reliefs, the king is magnified in size and is shown to be single-handedly killing the who flee in panic and drown in the river. The reality is that Ramesses II nearly lost the war with the Hittites, had nearly half of his army decimated, and grasped a stalemate from the jaws of defeat. 22

These war motifs appear in both public and private areas of the temples. In essence, their function was not primarily for propaganda as they are put in temple areas that were inaccessible to foreigners, commoners, and the military. For example, the battle at Migdol shown at Medinet

Habu appears in the hypostyle hall which would have been forbidden to non-priests.

In the scene from the Ramesses III Temple at Karnak, we have the king in the chariot followed by soldiers on foot fighting Syians. The king is shown victorious leading Syrian captives away. In the bottom register to the left, the king is on foot killing Libyans. In the middle, the king kills the Libyan chief. And on the right the scribes are counting severed hands, which is how the war dead were tabulated.

Pits at Avaris containing 16 human right hands were found in the northern part of the

Hyksos palace at Tell el-Dab ҁa dating to King Khayan. 23 The collection of human hands as war trophies is an example where violent practice predicated the inspiration of violent iconography.

20 Robert B. Gozzoli, “Introduction” in The Writing of History in Ancient Egypt during the First Millennium BC (ca. 1070-180 BC): Trends and Perspectives. ed. Roberto B. Gozzolo (London: Golden House Publications, 2006), 2-3. 21 K. A. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions: Translated & Annotated Notes and Comments, vol. 2 (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999), 5. 22 K. A. Kitchen, Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II (Mississauga: Benben Publications, 1982), 56-62. 23 Manfred Bietak, “The of the ‘gold of valour’,” Egyptian Archaeology 40 (2012): 42-43.

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Violence and Knife-Edge Agriculture

The iconography of violence in Egyptian religion leads to some profound considerations to religion in general. It is perhaps too easy to misinterpret this iconography as either royal triumphalism or as a glorification of violence. But if iconography were a ritual re-enactment, then a more nuanced understanding comes to play.

The Tale of Sinuhe, dating to the Middle Kingdom, tells us that Sinuhe left Egypt and passed by the “Walls of the Prince” that were designed to check the Asiatic and crush the nomadic tribesmen.24 At the end of the Second Intermediate Period, King Sekenenre went to

war against the kings because “the entire land paid tribute to him, delivering their taxes

in full as well as bringing all good produce of Egypt.”25

The Libyans during the reign of robbed the borders of Egypt. 26 And in

Merneptah’s words, foreigners came “to fill their bellies daily… to seek the necessities of their

mouths do they come to the land of Egypt.”27 The world saw ancient Egypt as a land of wealth, a land of gold, and a land of plentiful food. During the famine in the Hittite empire, the Hittites asked for food and in response Merneptah sent grain.28 While Egypt was perceived as a land of

plenty, the reality was that over time Egypt subsisted on knife-edge agriculture.

Mummified remains indicate that 30 percent of individuals suffered from “episodes of

intermittent disease or malnutrition.”29 Since the process of mummification was restricted to the upper classes, we can conclude that most people in Egypt lived according to subsistence

24 William Kelly Simpson, “The Story of Sinuhe” in Literature of Ancient Egypt, 3rd Ed. ed. William Kelly Simpson (New Haven: Yale University Press), 56. 25 Edward F. Wente, “The Quarrel of Apophis and Seknenre” in Literature of Ancient Egypt, 3rd Ed. ed. William Kelly Simpson (New Haven: Yale University Press), 70. 26 Colleen Manassa, The Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah: Grand Strategy in the 13 th Century BC (New Haven: Yale University, 2003), 28. 27 Manassa, 34. 28 Kenneth A. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions: Historical and Biographical, vol. 4 (Oxford: Blackwell, Ltd., 1982), 2:6 and 5:3. 29 A. T. Sandison and Edmund Tapp, “Disease in ancient Egypt” in Mummies, Disease and Ancient Cultures. eds. Thomas Aidan Cockburn, Eve Cockburn, and Theodore A. Reyman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 39.

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agriculture. Starvation among the nobility was not unknown in Egypt. A reference to this for ironic effect is found in the Admonitions of Ipuwer , a Middle Kingdom text:

Men will both say and hear, “Food is lacking for numerous children, And there is no sustenance from [the different grains]. What would it taste like now?”

Verily, the nobles perish from hunger, And men follow those who once themselves were followers, For the arm of the violent is protection and succor. 30

The fear of starvation was perhaps the single driving imperative of ancient Egyptian culture and

religion. And here we also see the culturally understood connection between violence and

protection.

The elaborate burials of the middle and upper classes were done in order to facilitate the feeding of the dead in the next life. The coffin texts are replete with references to food, drink, food-offerings, bread, and hunger, e.g., CT 604:

To bring an offering of bread and beer in the realm of the dead. Hail to you, you lords of food-offerings, who grant provisions, who bring food and convey provisions; may you bring to me food and convey provisions to me, for I am a living soul, a follower of Osiris. Come to me and bring me the food-offerings and provisions of Osiris, for I am a ‘son- who-loves.’31

This complete coffin text has no other religious concern than the feeding of the deceased spirit.

And so also is anxiety over starving in the afterlife: “The tears of the cackler are in my eyes, my hunger is in my belly, my tears are in my eyes, my tears are in my throat.”32

30 Vincent A. Tobin, “The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage” in LAE , 195. 31 Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, vol. 2 (Warminster: Aris & Phillips, Ltd., 1977), 194. 32 Faulkner, 303.

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So if the primary imperative of the ancient Egyptian was concern over the next meal, what then is the connection of this imperative to violent iconography? The Loyalist Instruction

of reads:

Adore the king, Nymaatre (Amenhotep III), living forever, in your innermost parts. Place His Majesty in friendly fashion in your thoughts… He is the one who makes (the land) green, even more than a high inundation: he has filled the Two Lands with victory and life. He gives nourishment to those in his circle, and he feeds the one who adheres to his path. The king is . His utterance is Abundance.33

This text, dating to Egypt’s Middle Kingdom, ascribes to the king the creation of bounty. Those

that obey the king are nourished with food. And the very word of the king was enough to bring

forth abundance from the land.

In the earliest days of Egypt, Egypt was unified to optimize agriculture. Divided, the

independent kingdoms of Upper and could not properly leverage hydrologic

engineering. The was a ceremonial weapon memorializing the deeds of

King Scorpion II (Dynasty 0). On the reverse side would have been a scene from the unification

wars while the obverse face shows the king opening an irrigation canal. Violence tied to the

supply of food. During the Middle Kingdom, the incursion of Libyans and Semitic sojourners

put pressure on the food supply; while during the Second Intermediate Period, the Hyksos taxed

food from the governors of .

Under the circumstances of knife-edge agriculture, the food supply of Egypt was under

pressure by incursions from the outside. Fear of the king kept outsiders at bay, 34 which

maintained the delicate balance of Egypt’s agricultural system. As food was scarce, the food for

33 Simpson, “The Loyalist Instruction from the Sehetepibre Stela” in LAE, 173. 34 Bryon E. Shafer, “Temples, Priests, and Rituals: An Overview” in Temples of Ancient Egypt (Ithica: Cornell University Press, 1997), 5.

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food-offerings to the gods was not wasted. Food and wine offerings to the gods was presented to the cult statues by priests, and then the food and wine was redistributed to the people. 35

In conclusion, the use of violence in iconography was to ritually reenact, magically instantiate, and magnify the fear of king, and ultimately “to restore a disturbed social order”36 that was precipitated by uncertainties regarding the Egyptian food supply chain. Reliefs illustrating the dread of the king magically and mythopoeically created a deterrent in the surrounding nations 37 and served to protect Egypt’s fragile agriculture.

35 B. J. J. Haring, Divine Households: Administrative and Economic Aspects of the New Kingdom Royal Memorial Temples in Western Thebes (Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor he Nabije Oosten, 1997), 7-10. 36 Fidèle Ingiyimbere, “St. Augustine and the Foundation of Just War Theory,” Journal of Catholic Social Thought 11 (2014), 184. 37 Wente, “The Israel Stela” in LAE, 357. Clinton Bailey, Bedouin Culture in the (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018), 110.

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