For the Egyptians, a mummy was not yet a complete being. The body had been preserved, but it still had to be given back the faculties that make a person alive: seeing, hearing, breathing, speaking, eating. This was the purpose of one of the most important rites of Egyptian religion, the Opening of the Mouth, in Egyptian wepet-ra. The same rite was applied to statues of gods and of the dead, which through it became bodies that could be inhabited.
Origins and sources
The rite is attested as early as the Old Kingdom and developed over the centuries until it comprised dozens of episodes. The most complete version is known from the New Kingdom, in particular from the tomb of the vizier Rekhmire at Thebes, where the scenes are painted in sequence with their captions. The Book of the Dead also contains spells linked to the Opening of the Mouth.
Many scholars believe the rite originated in the consecration of statues in the sculptor's workshop, and was only later extended to the mummy. This explains why craftsmen's tools appear among its instruments.
The officiants
Several figures took part in the rite:
- the sem priest, dressed in a leopard skin, who performed the main gestures;
- the lector priest, who read the text and directed the sequences;
- assistants and, in some cases, the son of the deceased, who symbolically took the role of Horus towards his father Osiris.
In the tomb of Tutankhamun a painting shows his successor Ay, wearing the leopard skin of the sem priest, performing the Opening of the Mouth on the king's mummy. The image also had political weight: whoever celebrated the rites of his predecessor presented himself as his legitimate heir.
The instruments
| Instrument | Description and meaning |
|---|---|
| Netjerty adze | A blade like a carpenter's adze, touched to mouth and eyes |
| Pesesh-kef | A fishtail-shaped blade, linked to birth and cutting the cord |
| Foreleg of a bull | An offering that conveyed vital force |
| Golden finger or little finger | Touching the mouth, as if clearing a newborn's |
| Vessels of ointment and water | Purification and consecration |
The pesesh-kef is especially eloquent. Many scholars connect it with birth: the rite would be a second birth, in which the deceased again receives the ability to breathe and take nourishment, like a newborn whose mouth is cleared.
The sequence of the rite
The extended New Kingdom version includes about seventy-five episodes, which can be grouped into major phases:
- purification of the statue or mummy with water, natron and incense;
- sculptor's sequences, in which the work is ritually completed and the image "awakened";
- offering of the bull, whose foreleg and heart are presented to the deceased;
- the opening proper, with the instruments touched to mouth and eyes;
- clothing and anointing, with cloth, ointments and insignia;
- a ritual meal, confirming that the mouth can once more receive offerings.
The order could vary, and not every sequence was always performed. Shorter versions, which were more common, kept the essential gestures.
Statues and temples
The rite was not only for the dead. Every cult statue of a god, once carved, underwent the Opening of the Mouth so that it could receive the divine presence. The same was done for statues of the dead in funerary chapels and, according to some sources, even for whole temples.
This is essential to understanding Egyptian religion: an image was not a mere representation, but a body that a god or spirit could inhabit. Consecration turned stone or wood into a place of presence.
The deeper meaning
The Opening of the Mouth brings together three central ideas: speech, because the deceased must be able to utter spells in the afterlife; nourishment, because he must receive offerings; rebirth, because the rite imitates the gestures that accompany coming into the world. Maestro Cornelio describes it as the threshold rite par excellence: the passage from an inert form to one capable of relationship.
In short
- The Opening of the Mouth restored the faculties of life to mummies and statues.
- The most complete version is painted in the tomb of the vizier Rekhmire at Thebes.
- The sem priest, in a leopard skin, used tools such as the netjerty adze and the pesesh-kef.
- In Tutankhamun's tomb, Ay performs the rite, presenting himself as heir.
- The same rite consecrated cult statues, making them able to host the divine presence.
