The priest: a royal delegate in serving the gods
Overview of priests and religion
In ancient Egyptian civilization, relations between mortals and the gods were heavily dependent on a set of places distributed along the Nile Valley. These heavenly gateways were represented by temples that were animated by the various hierarchies of priests who were responsible for their management.
A careful and meticulous observance of rites and offerings brought satisfaction to the gods who repaid with benevolence to all of Egypt. But at the same time, the pharaoh represented the divine nature pro tempore, ensuring a kind of balance and order between the universe and the created world. In this way, the ruler, in addition to ruling over the beloved land, made his royal function explicit by performing a priestly role, but, unable to fulfill ritual duties on a daily basis, he delegated the priests to fulfill the liturgies. Pharaoh, however, responsible for the actions of his representatives, supervised indirectly through his effigy; temple wall representations depict him in the performance of rituals, as if to indicate some sort of quality assurance or memento to his delegates.
The priest, therefore, representative-substitute for the pharaoh in serving the gods; this concept is also affirmed in the graphic representation of the role: in fact, in addition to the ideogram with phonetic value w 'b, i.e., pure, the priest was identified with hm - ntr i.e., servant of the god.
In what has just been mentioned we find the functions, constant through the centuries, of priests: keeping the area of temples and shrines pure, performing religious rites and practices, organizing and coordinating festivals, solemn celebrations, including the exit of the god from the temple.
Analyzing the ideogram of pure, which as anticipated was the Egyptian name used to delineate the category of worshipers, we find a man in the act of worship with a vase on his head from which water comes out. Purification achieved through the "washing" of dirt. Another sign, with the same phonetic value w 'b, is a variant of the previous term, but the symbolic value of purification with water remains and the man is graphically replaced by the phoneme b.
Purity, then, as a distinctive value and mark of the priest in the span of his functions; an attribute not necessary, on the other hand, for what concerned the life of this liturgical worker outside the temple.
The male clergy were divided, in a particularly permeable manner, into two groups, the first delegated to spiritual functions, the second quietly definable as technical-administrative personnel. The two structures, as already anticipated were yes parallel but open; a priest, at different times could play different roles.
The first group, which for convenience we will call priestly, was further divided into a high clergy, with functions purely inherent to worship and all those actions aimed at the directives and discipline to be kept in the house of god, and a low clergy with functions definable as auxiliary.
The first prophet or first servant of the god or high priest was the apex of this priestly hierarchy; below that were three other ranks of prophets, before arriving at a swarm of ordinary priests. In an undefined but placeable position between the prophets and the ordinary priests, we find the so-called god fathers. Completing the picture of the ordinaries, prominent figures include the superintendent, the inspector of prophets, and the deputy prophet. Of course, each with a specific function.
We should not imagine the priestly hierarchy as one compact body with the same guidelines both spiritual and temple management valid throughout. Each house of worship represented a small celestial universe unto itself, even from an organizational point of view; there was no form of subordination to other sectors of the clergy, beyond the size of the temple or the importance of the god being worshipped, with a few rare exceptions that occurred throughout the New Kingdom.
The role of priest was fulfilled by serving a specific god, in a specific temple in a specific location. In terms of hierarchical climbing, too, each god cult represented a career in itself; different hierarchical positions of the same priest within a temple where two deities were being worshipped were not uncommon. Supporting this hypothesis is the diligence with which the surviving documents carefully specify the priestly titles accompanied by the god of reference.
In short, there was never such a so-called state religion; the variegated Nilotic phanteon confirms this, and even worship in the city of Pharaoh remained of restricted jurisdiction.
