Abydos • Temple of Seti I
Temple of Seti I
About
bydos is the cult center of Osiris, god of the dead. The necropolis is a place of pilgrimage and burial and at least ten temples were originally constructed here. Among those ten temples, three remain that are of special note.
These include the Temple of Seti I, the Great Osiris Temple and the Ramses II Temple. Among these three, the Temple of Seti I is the most well-preserved. Located in northern Upper Egypt, Abydos has been a sacred site to
the Egyptians since predynastic times. Wepwawet, the jackal-headed god, held it sacred and it was believed that he “opened the way” to the world of the dead through Abydos. The ancient Egyptians have always held their dead
in high regard and revered them with respect.
Markaz Al Belina, Sohag Governorate 82825, Egypt
I
Temples
Located about 2.5 hours by car north of Luxor, Abydos was one of the most important religious sites to ancient Egyptians. Much like modern Muslims hope to complete a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime, ancient Egyptians would have hopes
to visit Abydos, which for them was strongly associated with the entrance into the afterlife. Although there were several temples constructed here, the largest and most significant is known as the Temple of Seti I. Seti I was the father
of the great Ramesses II, who actually completed the construction of most of the temple after his father’s death.
symbols are associated with Isis:
Sept: a star that marked the beginning of a new year and the start of the Niles’s flooding.
Thet: the buckle or knot of Isis. The thet might represent a stylized uterus with its ligatures and a vagina. It was usually made of a red substance and represents blood and life.
Sacred Animals: cow, scorpion and snake.
Sacred Birds: dove, hawk, swallow and vulture.
About Temple
The temple dates from the 2nd century BC and was dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis, whose cult was widespread throughout the Roman Empire. The entrance (A), which opens off the south side of the Via del Tempio d’Iside,
bears a dedicatory inscription to its reconstruction after the earthquake of AD62. The reconstruction was financed by the freedman Numerius Popidius Ampliatus in the name of his son Celsinus.
The entrance opens onto a courtyard surrounded by a four sided portico. The portico was decorated in the fourth style with red panels (shown below) containing priests in ceremonial dress and Egyptian landscapes separated by architectural
themes with small Nilotic scenes or naval battles all above a lower orange frieze of lionesses, sphinxes, dragons and dolphins. The upper zone contained floating temples and small paintings of landscapes and still lifes on a white
ground.
All surviving decoration can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples in a series of rooms specifically devoted to the temple and its finds (rooms LXXIX – LXXXII, and LXXXIV).
About Temple
T he temple, which sits on a raised podium in the centre of the courtyard, has a porticoed entrance (B) with niches on either side of the entrance to the cella. The walls were originally covered in white stucco in imitation of
opus quadratum, while along the back wall was a raised plinth (C) designed to support statues of Isis and Osiris. In a niche at the rear of the podium was a statue of Dionysus with a panther, a gift of Numerius Popidius Ampliatus.
The temple’s main altar (D) (pictured lower left) sits to the left of the steps with a second altar (E) on the south side of the podium. On the eastern side of the complex is a small temple-like structure (F) (pictured below) with
a stairway leading down to an underground cistern containing the sacred waters of the Nile. The small temple is referred to as the Purgatorium, the place where purification rites were performed. The facade has a broken triangular pediment
and a frieze with two processions of priests converging towards the centre. Mars with Venus and Perseus with Andromeda are shown in relief on the exterior side walls. A detail from the east side wall is shown lower left.
Temple Information
TTo the west of the temple court is a large room (G), known as the Ekklesiasterion. This hall was found virtually intact with a black mosaic floor and fine fourth style frescoes. On the north wall (a contemporary drawing is shown
below) was the central scene of the liberation of Io by Hermes while the south wall contained the scene of Io’s arrival at Canopus in Egypt (bottom left). (Both frescoes are in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples).
To the south of this hall is a room referred to as the Sacrarium, used to store cult objects, which has a fresco of snakes guarding a wicker basket adorned with lunar symbols.
In the south east corner of the complex a series of rooms (I) open off the south side of the portico. These rooms were the living quarters (Pastophorion) of the priests and include a kitchen, triclinium and cubiculum.