Cultivating images

The cult of an ancient temple was largely cultivation of the cult image. Paul Johnson describes the activities in a typical Egyptian temple: “Except for Re, the sun-god, who was cultivated in the open, images were placed in the innermost sanctuary of the temple and the rite might even take place in pitch darkness. At dawn or soon after, the officiating priests (pharaohs on state occasions) broke the seal on the shrine containing the image, undressed it and washed it thoroughly, dressed it, put on its special perfume and cosmetics, crowned it, and then ‘fed’ it with sacrificial food. The image was thought to ‘eat’ the food by gazing at it. After a time, the food was taken away to be eaten by select mortals, the priest exited backwards dusting away his footprints, shut the door and sealed it. The god was then thought to inhabit the image until it was time for the next cult on the following day. As a rule, no one except the priest saw this process, for the image had to be ‘less accessible than that which is in heaven, more secret than the fairs of the nether world, more hidden than the inhabitants of the primeval oceans.”