Egyptian rituals and cult

Annotation

EGYPTIAN RITUALS AND CULT

(AEA5000062)

ZS 2023

Lecturers

Doc. Jiří Janák, Th.D. ([e-mail])

Doc. Filip Coppens, Ph.D. ([e-mail])

Lecture Room C505 (Celetná) — Friday, 12.30–14.05

ATTESTATION: Credit (započet)

CONDITIONS FOR RECEIVING THE CREDIT 1. Active participation during the course 2. Presentation of group seminar work

RECOMMENDATION

Basic knowledge of ancient Egyptian religion and mythology, as well as Middle Egyptian, is highly recommended.

COURSE SUMMARY

The main goal of the seminar is to present students with an introduction into specific, more advanced topics of ancient Egyptian religion, which already require some knowledge and pre-understanding, as are for instance the topics of mutual interaction between royal ideology and local divine cults or of continuity and change in religious beliefs. The activities will be centred around Egyptian iconography, the meaning of specific scenes, visual and textual puns and their interpretation. Within the seminar, the students will work with primary ancient Egyptian sources, which they shall analyse and interpret in group, as well as with up-to-date scholarly literature, which will be discussed in the class.

General structure 1. Introductory lecture 2. Ritual and magical scenes of purely symbolic in nature 3. Personal piety and public worship 4. Temple festivals and temple calendars 5. Magic and ritual in temples and tombs 6. Tomb and Temple: Interaction and exchange of architectural, textual and iconographic aspects 7. Funeral equipment in context 8. Presentation of group seminar work

INTRODUCTORY LITERATURE

- J. P. Allen, The Debate between a Man and his Soul, Leiden 2010.

- J. Assmann, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt, Ithaca 2005.

- J. Assmann, Of God and Gods, University of Wisconsin Press 2008.

- F. Coppens, “Temple Festivals of the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods”, in: J. Dieleman – W. Wendrich (eds.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles 2009: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4cd7q9mn

- H. W. Fairman, “Worship and Festivals in an Egyptian Temple”, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library Manchester 37 (1954–1955), 165–203.

- R. B. Finnestad, “Temples of the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods: Ancient Traditions in New Contexts”, in Shafer, B. (ed.), Temples of Ancient Egypt, London–New York 1997, 185–23.

- A. Grimm, Die altägyptischen Festkalender in den Tempeln der griechisch–römischen Epoche, ÄAT 15, Wiesbaden 1994.

- D. Kurth, Edfu. Ein ägyptischer Tempel, gesehen mit den Augen der alten Ägypter, Darmstadt 1994.

- R. Parkinson, Reading Ancient Egyptian Poetry: Among Other Histories, Oxford 2009.

- J.-F. Quack, “Das Mundöffnungsritual als Tempeltext und Funerärtext”, in B. Backes – J. Dieleman (eds.), Liturgical texts for Osiris and the deceased in Late Period and Greco-Roman Egypt, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2015, 145-159.

- M. A. Stadler, “Procession”, in: J. Dieleman – W. Wendrich (eds.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles 2008; https://escholarship.org/uc/item/679146w5

- M. Smith, Following Osiris, Oxford 2017.