Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Defining Time and Space
- 2 Early Inklings
- 3 Gods, Gods, Gods
- 4 Cities, States, and Gods
- 5 The Lure of Egypt, 4000–1400 BCE
- 6 The Gods of Egypt
- 7 The Akhenaten Dream, 1350–1300 BCE
- 8 Practice in Egypt
- 9 The International Age, 1400–1000 BCE
- 10 Gods and People
- 11 The Lord Is One – Israel in Its Environment
- 12 The Turning
- 13 The Good God and the Bad God
- 14 The Lands of Baal
- 15 Greece, Etruria, Rome, and Conveying Traditions
- 16 The Dead Hand of the Past and the Living God
- 17 Experiencing Ancient Near Eastern Religion
- References
- Index
8 - Practice in Egypt
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Defining Time and Space
- 2 Early Inklings
- 3 Gods, Gods, Gods
- 4 Cities, States, and Gods
- 5 The Lure of Egypt, 4000–1400 BCE
- 6 The Gods of Egypt
- 7 The Akhenaten Dream, 1350–1300 BCE
- 8 Practice in Egypt
- 9 The International Age, 1400–1000 BCE
- 10 Gods and People
- 11 The Lord Is One – Israel in Its Environment
- 12 The Turning
- 13 The Good God and the Bad God
- 14 The Lands of Baal
- 15 Greece, Etruria, Rome, and Conveying Traditions
- 16 The Dead Hand of the Past and the Living God
- 17 Experiencing Ancient Near Eastern Religion
- References
- Index
Summary
Today old age has begun for you, and potency has left you. Think about the day of burial, the passing over to an honored state.
– Tale of Sinuhe (in Simpson 2003: 62)They were all confused to be taken out of the classroom, and they thought their songs were not really ready for public performance. Still, this was what they had been practicing for, some of them actually for years. The little girls were wearing their long white formal robes, and each had flowers placed in her hair. They were supposed to sing a mourning song as the high official heaved into view, and their hair had been let down so they would appear to be in mourning.
But they were not unhappy. The king had died years ago. They were simply being educated to keep up the mourning rituals so that his soul could be made happy in the West. To achieve that end, ladies had to sing at least once a day; it was an easy job, they were constantly told. They did not even have to grind grain or do any of the other tasks that women usually had to do. They did, however, have to get the songs right. So they waited patiently in their fine clothes, the first words playing through their minds.
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- Religions of the Ancient Near East , pp. 80 - 83Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010