Marriage of Horus and Hathor

The ceremony of sacred marriage 

There is a famous scene on the opposite wall that tells how the ancient Egyptians celebrated the marriage anniversary of the god Horus and his wife Hathor. This festival is held twice a year , once in the temple of Edfu, where the god Horus lives, and in the temple of “ Dendera “, where the goddess Hathor lives. 

The ancient Egyptians brought statues of two deities on the sacred boats from the Holy of Holies in each temple, and tied the two sacred boats together with many locals singing and dancing on both sides of the Nile celebrating the two deities’ sacred wedding.

The two sacred boats should be celebrated every time they arrive somewhere; the last place was inside the temple itself.

The priests would raise the statues of the gods after reaching the temple and walk around it to make sure that the place they would live in becomes ready.

Then they were placed in the holy place of Edfu Temple for 14 nights, and returning the statue of Hathor the next morning to her temple in Dendera.

The second celebration was God Horus’ repatriation to the temple of his wife Hathor in  “ Dendera ” to celebrate their marriage anniversary. 

Holy of Holies 

It is the holiest place in the temple and it is the first place to be established in the temple, and no person can enter this place except the high priest ( on behalf of the king ).

We note that the lighting is very dim through the ceiling openings.

In the middle of the room we find the altar, on which the sacred boat is placed.

Which comes out from the Holy of Holies on days of celebrations and major holidays.

At the end of the room we find the granite mosquito, inside which is placed the statue of Horus Edfu and that statue is made of pure gold ( gold symbolizes the gods ).

The scenes of the Holy of Holies are the scenes of the daily service that the High Priest performs on the king’s behalf.

That sacred compound ( replica, copy ) 

The real boat was taken by August Merritt to France and it is now on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Ninth Hall :

The statues of the gods are assembled after being charged with solar energy.

Nine rooms :

Those rooms around the Holy of Holies are dedicated to the 9 gods of  Edfu.

1- Trinity Avenger Chamber : 

And sometimes that room is called the torch. Where we see on the inscriptions the goddess Sekhmet carrying the flame of fire.

2- Sometimes it is called the throne of the sun and it contained the statue of the god Ra, who used to participate in the annual celebrations in welcoming his daughter, Hathor.

Ra is the sun god, so the priests covered the statue of Ra with a curtain from sunset until sunrise so that Ra would illuminate the universe again after dark .

3- The Khonsu shrine and the Hathor shrine : 

And sometimes called the leg room.

Khonsu is the moon god of the son of Amun and Mut ( Theban Triad ) and is depicted in the form of a falcon over his moon’s head and sometimes he is represented as a mummy.

This room was designated to save the leg of the god Osiris. The inscription depicts the obelisk, which had the leg of Osiris.

4- The Horus room or the Palace of Courage room 

Directly behind the Holy of Holies.

It has multiple names such as the sacred boat room, the room of bravery.

The priests used to keep in that room the sacred symbols of Horus and Hathor, such as : the golden slugs of Hathor, the spear and the scorpion of Horus.

5- Suite of Osiris: 

And that suite includes 3 rooms inside which were statues of the god Osiris.

6- Textile and Fabrics Room : 

And it contains the provincial fabric provided to the temple.

We see the wall inscriptions depicting the provinces of Egypt, and in front of each region the textiles it provided.

7- Silver Room :

The silver vessels that are used in the daily service of the temple rituals are kept in it.

Holy passage ( Immaculate) pure corridor 

The main purpose of this passage was to separate the living world from the divine world.

The common people were also allowed to be present in that pure corridor to pray and request petitions from the gods of the nine chapel.

Likewise, psychopaths were present in that corridor to sleep for a maximum period of time in order to heal and cure, and that was through the revelation that appeared to them in the dream. And if the revelation did not appear within 3 days at most , the priests would go to the cabin of God to seek help.

The eastern wall of the corridor represents the myth of the birth of Horus in the jungles of the Delta, and on the opposite wall are inscriptions depicting Horus’ victory over the enemies of Egypt.

We also find inscriptions of the song of Edfu, which is the largest religious hymn in the history of Egypt and was sung during the celebration of the birth of Horus, praising God and commend the victory of God.

Note that there are holes in the wall : 

First opinion: These holes were to hang the curtains to obscure the tasus gods of Edfu from sunset to sunrise.

Second opinion: The soldiers of the French Campaign punctured a wall to install large nails to tie their horses .

The inscriptions imply that one of the ceremonies for the celebration of Falcon Festival is that they bring a real falcon to participate in the celebration, where we see the gods placing jewelry on the falcon.

1- Scenes of the conflict between Horus and Set : 

It consists of 11 repeated scenes but with different texts, and these scenes are not sequential ( not arranged). It symbolizes the story of the conflict between Horus and his uncle Set, when Set turned into a hippopotamus, while Horus turned into a fighter carrying a spear on a boat for a killer. Hippo ( six) and finally controls him and tied him with a rope and does not kill him.

Why ???

 Because it is not permissible to kill evil according to the law of the universe. Good and evil must remain forever.

God’s victory over evil symbolizes the king’s victory over his enemies, as we can see a scene representing the 11 names of the city of Edfu.

Horus festival 

We are going behind the temple to see inscriptions on the walls that represent the story of Horus’ revenge. And it is a play in which Horus is installed as king, taking revenge on his uncle Set.

The first man named “ Osiris “ married his sister “ Isis “, but his younger brother “ Set “ married his sister “ Nephthys “ . So brothers fall in hatred and wanted to take revenge on each other.

The first man named “ Osiris “ married his sister “ Isis “, but his younger brother “ Set “ married his sister “ Nephthys “. So brothers fall in hatred and wanted to take revenge on each other.

What shall he do ? 

One day he gave his brother a coffin to see if it was suitable for him or not.

While he was trying, his brother closed the coffin and threw it into the Nile, but his wife  ( Isis ) would help him get back to life.

The younger brother wanted to take revenge on his brother again, killing actually his brother and the divided his brother’s body into 24 parts, and each part was buried in the capitals of different govern-orates in Egypt.

But because his wife is a goddess, she will bring him back to life, how ? She went to different govern-orates in Egypt to collect parts of her husband’s body, so every time she goes somewhere, people love her and believe in her.

Then Horus was born , but his father died and he would never rise again, only in the next life could he be resurrected, so his father Osiris is the god of death in the hereafter. Horus grew up and his mother informed him : “ your uncle killed your father and you must kill him when you grow up and take revenge on him”.

So we will see before us Horus, his mother, and the priests all taking revenge on his uncle His uncle was in the river and he was symbolized by a hippopotamus.

But if you look closely, you will find that the hippo here is so small, but bigger in another sight, what does that mean?

This indicates that Horus wants to tell us : “ My revenge on my uncle is not easy “. You can see it’s a small hippo, that’s only because it’s in the water but when it’s out of the water, you will see a big hippo.

The previous scene is not real revenge, so what is it? It is a play, like a performance, so at the end of this play you will see a huge hippo.

You can ask yourself how Horus killed the hippo, and then how did he survive ? 

Because it turns out that this is not real revenge but a symbolic one, so in the final section of the play, the priests came to make a cake in the shape of a hippopotamus and eat it after dividing it into several parts with a knife, indicating that they killed him.

Because “ Ster “ was originally a bad god, you cannot really take revenge on him, because this is balancing on earth.

Just an example: All people will not be good, there must be bad people, such as hot and cold weather, so there must be a balance between human behavior and morals, one of them is good and the other is bad to form a balance on the ground.

The view of the great ladies: 

This scene depicts Horus on a boat and with him the god Jahothi and with them Horus again as a protector of the triumphal procession and they attend the hippopotamus (the god Set) while some women are waiting for the victory parade on the beach as they strike the tambourines.

3- A ritual view of the slaughter of a hippopotamus:

The god Horus is shown stabbing Set with a spear in front of the 9 gods of Edfu 

4- Scenes of killing the symbols of evil : 

And it is by bringing statues of clay or dough ( any material subject to stabbing ) and they stab it with a spear.

Thus, Horus stabs ( Set ), while the king stabs Egypt’s enemies.

5- The scene of sacrifice of a hippo : 

6- Fishing scene on the net :

Note that we see the enemies of Egypt in the net.

How to celebrate New Year’s Eve ?

They New Year’s celebration in every temple is on July 14 every year, brought statues of the goddess and placed them on the roof of the New year celebration room.

Then they turned the face of God to the east in the morning for the direction of the sun going out, and then they turned the face of God to the west in the afternoon for sunset’s direction. Why are they celebrating? Because in their idea, if the statue of the gods is exposed to the sun every year, it means that the sun god will bestow the gods’ grace and power.

In doing so, people will ensure that their gods continue to grant them vitality and blessing, so they should celebrate.

The nilometere

After the Holy of Holies, we return to the columns hall II, which contains the scene of the celebration of the Holy Marriage, then entering the opposite northern opening to reach the Nilometer.

Where we enter from the left door to the back of the temple to visit the Nile water level meter, what is it used for ? 

Because the Nile River floods regularly during 4 months from June to October of each year, and the floodwater can submerge the temple, so they made a gauge of the Nile water level to prevent the water from rushing into the temple. 

There is another use because people have to pay for water for irrigation, so depending on the level of the Nile water; they will know how much they have to pay.

The fulfillment of the Nile is must be expressed in the nineteenth degree, that is the time during which the Nile does not overflow. Therefore, the Nile water level meter must be available in many temples.