Ritual of Opening the Mouth

 

The Purpose

The purpose of the Ritual of Opening the Mouth was to ensure that life would reenter into a deceased person so that he gained life in the Hereafter. It was also used on newly built temple buildings and reliefs, as well as new statues of deities, stelae and statues of deceased kings in order to imbue them with divinity. Before a person could be interred, his senses had to be 'opened' and before any temple could begin to be used, it had to be consecrated. It was done by a combination of the Opening of the Mouth ritual and the Daily Ritual which was performed each day in temples. These ritiuals emanated in 'Handing over the House to its Lord', which was done by the King.

Similar rituals were probably used already as early as in the Predynastic Period, at least in the Old Kingdom there was a ritual called the 'offering ritual' which was practically identical, and which is to be found in the Pyramid Texts (Utt:20-2). Most evidence comes however from the New Kingdom and its various copies of the Book of Going Forth By Day. There are copies of it to be seen on the walls of the tomb of vizier Rekhmire and at the temple of Horus at Edfu, where the frieze of the exterior east wall of the outer Hypostyle Hall is dedicated to describing the ritual of the Opening of the Mouth as used at the consecration of the temple building. On the west wall are inscribed the proceedings of the Daily Ritual of which some were also performed during the Opening of the Mouth ceremony.

For the Deceased

At the day of the internment of the mummy, it was the duty of the eldest son and heir to act as 'sem priest' and perform this ritual on his father´s mummy. In the case of a royal burial, this then became a means of legitimizing sucession to the throne, so that it could happen that another person who was not son or relative to the king, performed it, like in the case of Ay who is seen in the clothes of a sem priest, performing the ritual on the mummy of Tutankhamun.

Through this ritual, the mummy, statue or stelae, became a vessel for the Ka (soul) of the person so that he could live again in the Hereafter. The ritual could also be performed, not only at the tomb, but in the workshops of the sculptor or the embalmer.

It was a very elaborate ritual, which could have as many as over 100 different steps. People chose which parts they could afford to use or which was suitable. These included censing, sprinkling with water, presenting the mummy/statue with balls of natron and more incense for purification of the mouth. The mouth, eyes, ears of the mummy or statue was touched with special ritual tools reminding of a workmans´ chisel and adze in order to 'open' these senses to life so that the deceased or the statue was able to see, breathe etc. One of these instruments is the so called pesesh-kef, a flintblade with a bifurcated blade. Many of these have been found from the Predynastic Period.

The Rituals

The proceedings described below are more or less the same wether they are done for a deceased person of for the consecration of a temple or a statue of a deity. They are taken from the inscriptions on the walls of the temple of Edfu and they consisted of two parts; the first one was the Daily Ritual wich was performed on all statues in all temples each day. After a certain point, the ritual turned into the Opening of the Mouth which when ready emanated into 'Handing over the House to its Lord'. We do not know in what sequence it was performed or at what point one ceremony changed into the other. Several of the steps are also impossible to understand what they consisted of or how they were performed, let alone their purpose or symbolism. But we can at least glean something and get a fair estimation of the proceedings.

 

The Daily Ritual.

The rite was supervised by the 'Lord of Hermopolis' (Probably a priest impersonating Djehuty of Hermopolis). Priests often performed these rituals on behalf of the king, while impersonating certain divinities and this is more or less how it was done:

1.First the officiant cleansed the statue by pouring liquid out of pitchers, probably water and natron.
2. Next incense was thrown on fire to purify and bring scent.
3. Then the officiant placed a white nemes cloth on the head and arranged it.
4. The statue or mummy was anointed with unguents and oils.
5. The statue was next dressed it in white, green and red clothes, makeup was applied.
 

6. Royal insignia or divine insignia were presented, then hung upon it (collar f.ex.).
7. There was 'Salutation with the nmst' ewer.
8. Beatifications were chanted.
9. Offerings of bread, beer, frut, flowers etc, was presented.
10. All the gods and goddesses were censed.
11. Re was adored.
12. Summoning of all the gods.
13. The htp di niswt formula was recited:

Hotep di Nisut - An offering which the king gives to Anubis, guardian of the necropolis. A thousand of beer, a thousand of bread, a thousand of fowl, a thousand of cattle, a thousand of cool water, a thousand of alabaster, a thousand of every good and pure thing be to the god Anubis.

14. The offerings were placed upon the altar.
15. The sanctuary and the temple was cleansed and purified.

Sofar, the ritual was more or less the same as the Daily Ritual.

Opening the Mouth

1. Purification by the 'Lords of Purification'.
2. A priest impersonates the god Ptah another one the god Sokar. Ptah  takes his chisel to open the mouth of the statue and Sokar opens the eyes.
3. A priest presents a wavy wand with a ram´s head on top. (This is called 'Taking the Sorcerer' [wr-kh3w], we don´t know what was done more).
4. Next the priest was 'Presenting the Finger of Gold'.
5. Then the 'Adze of Yinepu' was presented to the statue.
6. The head efficient [s3-mry-f], son-whom-he loves, now 'opens' the eyes with this adze, and touches the mouth with four small stones [`bwt] with the words:

The adze was made from meteoric iron found in the desert, and made especially for ritual purposes.

7-9. Slaughtering of animals (oxen, gazelles, goose). These sacrifices were probably symbolical and had probably been made in advance, as no killing was usually allowed in front of a deity, lest he should take offense. It was also a matter of practicality, to have the offerings of various kinds ready to arrange on the offering table and be presented.
10. The great oblation of bread, beer and meat was presented.
11. Opening the Mouth of Throne-of-the-Protector-of-his-Father. (This probably adhered to the officiants now going round to the other parts of the temple)
12. All halls and rooms, with reliefs were now undergoing the same ritual: Censing its cult-chambers and purifying its chapels.
13. Sokar feeds the priesthood from the oblation, 'gladdening their hearts with their largess'. At a Consecration Ceremoy, this was a great meal from the offerings in which not only the priesthood and officiants partook but also craftsmen and workers who had been active in building the temple.
14. Ceding Wetjset-Hor to His Majesty. When the meal was over, the temple building was ready to be 'Handed over to its Lord' by which means by the King himself. It could now function to celebrate services and festivals in.

The Thought Behind.

So man-made statues, temple buldings and deceased persons could, by Egyptian thought, be imbued with life anew. But though the ritual was performed preferrably by the king, a sem-preist or another deputy priest, it was the Creator god himself who made it possible for this to happen. It was him who had:

"Made the images that are on earth, by means of instruments he himself made".

"Thus the gods entered the bodies made of wood, minerals, clay and all the other things that grow and in which they took form."

As long as the temple stood, the statue was functioning and the god was inhabiting it. The consecration ritual was often repeated each New Year. If reasons happened to demolish the building or rebuild it, these statues had to be stripped of their senses by destroying eyes, mouth etc

Sources:

Gods, Priests and Men - Aylward M. Blackman, Kegan Paul International 1998

Kingship and the Gods - Henri Frankfort, University of Chicago Press 1978

Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods - Dimitri Meeks and Christine Favard-Meeks, Cornell University Press 1996

The House of Horus at Edfu - Barbara Watterson, Tempus Publishing Ltd, 1998.