A History of Ancient Egypt (Blackwell History of the Ancient World) by Marc Van De Mieroop

Author:Marc Van De Mieroop [Mieroop, Marc Van De]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2011-09-18T16:00:00+00:00

During the festival the statues of the gods Amun, his companion Mut, and junior god Khonsu, left Karnak carried in boats and accompanied by the king and priests. A select group entered Luxor, where Amun’s boat was placed in a special shrine. The king then entered the birth chamber to renew his special birth. Just as Hatshepsut had done in Deir el-Bahri (see Chapter 7), Amenhotep III portrayed himself as the offspring of the sexual union between his natural mother Mutemwia and the god Amun in the shape of his father Thutmose IV. The focus of the renewal was the king’s ka. Each Egyptian had a ka, a vital force separate from the body. In the case of the king the ka contained his divine essence, fashioned at the same time as his human body. During the Opet festival the king united again with his ka in the Luxor temple and when he re-emerged his divine being was reaffirmed. Hence Amenhotep III called Luxor “his place of justification, in which he is rejuvenated, the palace from which he sets out in joy at the moment of his appearance, his transformation being visible to all."5 Although Amenhotep III identified himself with the sun god Ra, it was the chief god Amun who assured his divinity.

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