Epagomenal Days (Egypt)

Written by Alexandra V. Mironova.

In the Egyptian calendar, an interval between the last day of the year, IV Smw 30, and the festival of the New year, I Axt 1, was taken for a transitional period from one year to another. Those five days after the 360 days of the calendar year have a conditional name of ‘epagomenal’; they were for special festivities for the sake of overcoming dangers waiting for people before the new calendar year would come. Data on those festivities are found in the calendar from the Nyuserre Temple (V dyn.), in the list of festivals of Khnumhotep II in Beni Hasan (XII dyn.), in the inscriptions of the coffin of Ma (XII dyn.), in a papyrus from the tomb of Harhotep (XII dyn.). In the Pyramid Texts, these days are called ‘Birth of gods’; they were interpreted the days of birth of five gods, correspondingly: Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis, and Nephthys.

According to a myth retold by Plutarchus, god Ra got angry at his spouse goddess Nut, because of her adultery with god of Earth, Geb; and Ra prohibited her to deliver children in all the 360 days of the year. The goddess went for help to god Thoth, who decided to create five additional days out of the curse of Ra. To achieve it, he started a game of senet with the Moon and won five days and nights, which were added to the solar year. Thus, those days did not belong to any month and were called ‘those which are over the year’ (hryw rnpt). After it, goddess Nut was able to deliver five children: Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis, and Nephthys.

According to the ‘Tale on the Extermination of People’, known from some sources of the Middle Kingdom, in the 12^th month of the year, called mesore (4 Smw), assistants of goddess Sekhmet (Eye of Ra) went to exterminate people. To pacify the goddess and to get her help in the days before the new year which were interpreted as unlucky ones, they held the ritual of the ‘pacifying Sekhmet’ (sHtp sxmt). In that period, they set special protecting symbols on linen fragments and bound it around the neck. According to some sources of the Late Period, at the same time, they held a ritual for the sake of extermination of Seth and his henchmen (Urk. VI, 141–143).

Five deities delivered by Nut had corresponding epithets in calendar lists. Osiris was called ‘Ox of the West, whose name is hidden from his children’, «!Agsw, who does not know his oar’, ‘pure ox on his own field’; Horus was called ‘Great in power, the lord of horror’, ‘boating in the lake’; Seth was ‘the Lord of life, standing ahead of the barque of Ra’; Isis was ‘Great one, daughter of Nut’, ‘chick in the own nest’; Nephthys was ‘Daughter of Nut’, ‘chick in the own nest’. On such days, they, perhaps, pronounced special spells over figurines of the abovementioned deities and made them offerings in bread and beer, vessels-hnw, and burned incenses.

The meaning of the first festival — the ‘birthday of Osiris’ — is presented in reliefs of the Opet Temple of the Ptolemaic time, where there is a scene of resurrection of Osiris on his bed (De Wit 1958, 121, 233). In the accompanying texts, Osiris is called ‘pure ox on his own field’, born by Nut, goddess of heaven. The event of birth of Osiris was associated also with the rising of Ra, every day appearing on the dawn from the body of Nut.

A special significance was attached to the festival of ‘chick in the own nest’ or ‘mighty falcon staying in the nest’, which was connected with the birthday of Isis in one texts, and that of Nephthys in the others. Anyway, that epithet indicated young Horus and it was associated with the cult of king identifying as falcon. On the eve of that day, they celebrated additional festival: ‘the night of the (festival) of the chick in the own nest’. In the calendar of the Hathor Temple in Dendera, they declare that at that moment there were ‘the festivities through all the land’ and processions with statues of Hathor and her ennead around the temple building which was called ‘the divine home’ of Hathor (Dendera IX, 202. 11–12). Besides, they held rituals of offering tissues, in which goddess Renenutet took part (Dendérah II, 149. 11–12). Those ceremonies were associated with the coming New Year festival and the cult of Hapi, the god of the Nile. Thus, festivals of the 4^th and the 5^th additional days of the year had direct connection to the motif of renovation of powers of the nature and those gods who were responsible for starting the inundation of the river.

Bibliography

• Panov M.V. Epagomeny v drevneegipetskov kalendare (Epagomenal days in the Ancient Egyptian calendar) // Manuscript. 2020. Vol. 13. Iss. 2. P. 77–82. URL: https://www.gramota.net/articles/issn_2618-9690_2020_2_13.pdf (date of call: 2.07.2020)

• Eschweiler P. Bildzauber im alten Ägypten, die Verwendung von Bilderen und Gegenständen in magischen Handlungen nach den Texten des Mittleren und Neuen Reiches. Freiburg: Universitätsverlag; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994. P. 59–61.

• Germond Ph. Sekhmet et la Protection du Monde. Genève: Ägyptologisches Seminar der Universität Basel, 1981 (Ægyptiaca Helvetica, 9).

• Raven M.J. Charms for Protection during the Epagomenal Days // Essays on Ancient Egypt in Honour of Herman te Velde / Ed. J. van Dijk. Egyptological Memoires, 1. Groningen: Styx Publications, 1997. P. 275–291.

• Spalinger A. Some Remarks on the Epagomenal Days in Ancient Egypt // Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 1995. Vol. 54, No. 1. P. 33–47.

• De Wit C. Les inscriptions de temple d’Opet à Karnak. Brussels : Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élizabeth, 1958. Vol. I (Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca, vol. 11).

Sources

Tags: Ancient Egypt, Alexandra V. Mironova, Articles, Festivals

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