PRIESTS BEAR THE SACRED BARKS
OF OPET IN A RELIEF ON THE
12TH-CENTURY B.C. MORTUARY
TEMPLE OF RAMSES III, MEDINET
HABU, THEBES.The Luxor reliefs show the evolution of
the celebration and how it changed over
time. The colonnade, added during the
time of Tutankhamun’s reign, has impres-
sively detailed reliefs that give insights into
Opet rituals and how they changed from
the time of Hatshepsut. The artworks re-
veal that Amun-Re has been joined by his
consort, Mut, and their son, Khons, in the
procession. Some reliefs even show the rul-
ing pharaoh as part of the group.
Changes in the route can be seen in the
artwork at Luxor. The statues of the gods
traveled in both directions along the Nile
rather than along the Avenue of Sphinxes.
During the outward trip south, against
the flow of the river, the bark was pulled
by other boats and by people on the river-
banks. High-ranking officials who took
part regarded rowing the boats as a great
honor worthy of being recorded in their
life stories. During the journeys along the
river, the barks were escorted from the
shore by soldiers, dancers, and bearers of
offerings, among them fattened oxen that
were to be sacrificed.The reliefs make a great effort to depict the
grand spectacle: Many priests support the
barks and statues, while a crowd makes a joy-
ous din with sistrum rattles. The gods’ barks
were brought alongside the jetty at the Temple
of Luxor and were carried on the shoulders
of the priests to the sacred precinct. A series
of ceremonies were conducted in the outer
courts, after which the barks were taken into
the inner sanctuary, accompanied solely by
high-ranking priests and the pharaoh. Once
the ceremonies were completed, the barks re-
turned downstream to Karnak.Mysteries of Opet
Even though the surviving reliefs provide con-
siderable information about the processions,
they offer no indication of the exact purpose
of the rituals performed at Luxor. Despite the
conspicuousness and majesty of Opet in art-
works, no text describing the event survives.
Neither have traces of a processional bark from
the festival ever been found.
One popular theory is that the Opet rites
confirmed the monarch’s possession of the
royal ka. This life force inhabited the bodies
of all legitimate pharaohs of Egypt and passed
from the old to the new on the latter’s death.
An annual confirmation of such a process
would help bolster the king’s authority.
Horemheb, the last pharaoh of the 18th
dynasty, had been a military commander dur-
ing the reign of Tutankhamun, and had prob-
ably been his official heir despite not being
a blood relative. Horemheb restored order to
Egypt after the chaotic rule of Akhenaten,
who upended Egypt’s religious and civic or-
der. Horemheb’s coronation took place dur-
ing Opet, a return to Egyptian tradition that
may have granted him legitimacy in the eyes
of the people and the gods. If the ceremony
identified him as the son of Amun-Re, then
his claim to the throne would be strengthened
even though he was no blood relation to the
previous rulers.
Scholars also believe that the festival rep-
resented the renewal of the gods’ divine life
force. The journey from Karnak to the temple
in Luxor restored the power of Amun-Re and
his family, strengthening them and the land
of Egypt as well.ERICH LESSING/ALBUM
GODHEAD
A 12th-century B.C.
statue of a ram’s
head, sacred to
Amun-Re, was
dedicated to him in
Karnak, in memory
of Amenhotep I.
Kunsthistorisches
Museum, ViennaDEA/ALBUM