Notes on: Forshaw, Roger. The Role of the Lector in Ancient Egyptian Society. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2015.
These are just main takeaways from the awesome text listed above. Everything will have page numbers when it is information from the book. This is a summary and paraphrase unless otherwise quoted. This is what I subjectively valued and took from the book, and only the generalities, the book is filled with specifics to dive deeper into. I recommend giving it a read. I think the biggest thing is that the “lector” role is not at all well-defined, and in some cases can be much more casual and less official than we'd probably think. Forshaw argues that “Lector Priest” isn't a good term, but rather simply “Lector,” and I agree. While they could get up to even high ranking priests, they could also be as random as a person who performs household rituals. Mainly the term is associated with the keeper, carrier, reader, and sometimes writer of magical scrolls, and they were deemed capable of great magical acts. They were more public facing than, say, a high priest who was mostly in the temple, and they even could serve more “secular” services. Indeed, it seems the role was rather non-exclusive.
Roles
Rituals/Acts
Relationship to Royalty
Possible Equipment
Identification
Titles
Origins
These are just main takeaways from the awesome text listed above. Everything will have page numbers when it is information from the book. This is a summary and paraphrase unless otherwise quoted. This is what I subjectively valued and took from the book, and only the generalities, the book is filled with specifics to dive deeper into. I recommend giving it a read. I think the biggest thing is that the “lector” role is not at all well-defined, and in some cases can be much more casual and less official than we'd probably think. Forshaw argues that “Lector Priest” isn't a good term, but rather simply “Lector,” and I agree. While they could get up to even high ranking priests, they could also be as random as a person who performs household rituals. Mainly the term is associated with the keeper, carrier, reader, and sometimes writer of magical scrolls, and they were deemed capable of great magical acts. They were more public facing than, say, a high priest who was mostly in the temple, and they even could serve more “secular” services. Indeed, it seems the role was rather non-exclusive.
Roles
- “The title could be honorary, merely appended to a number of other titles, but it could also signify a working professional. His status in society could therefore vary greatly and monuments subsequently left by the lector range from a short statement on a collective stela at Abydos to a large tomb such as that of Pediamenopet on the Assasif at Thebes.” p139
- Carries and recites the ritual texts p10
- Associated closely with Djehuty p19
- Keeps and reads from the sacred papyri/texts p52
- “...the lector would have had to possess ritual knowledge, speaker competence, be endowed with the power to do what was required and be in a state of purity.” p51
- Private funeral services p1
- Main role is transfiguration: transformation of the dead into a divine being
- Transfiguration rites = “sakh” p104
- Causative form of becoming an “akh” p104
- “transfigurations that were recited by the lector can best be described as a wish that expresses an intense appeal and are thus not descriptive but appellative,” p104
- “transfigurations that were recited by the lector can best be described as a wish that expresses an intense appeal and are thus not descriptive but appellative… transfigurations that were recited by the lector can best be described as a wish that expresses an intense appeal and are thus not descriptive but appellative” p104
- The lector seems to be present throughout the whole process, often seen reading from or carrying his sacred texts. Sometimes they would be practically involved in the actions as well.
- Brings offerings to the dead p8
- Represents Djehuty p84
- Washes feet of the dead and embraces them, welcoming them to the afterlife p85
- Oversees and aids with transport and embalming p85-88
- Leads vigil p88
- Offering ritual (p90 shows all the movements)
- Presentation of the foreleg p93
- Sweeping away the footprints after ceremony p91
- Main role is transfiguration: transformation of the dead into a divine being
- Opening of the Mouth
- Representations come from New Kingdom p109
- Blades of meteoric iron, a chisel, adze, pesesh-kef knife, and other implements p110
- Announces entrance of imy-khent priest p110
- Helps give life to the statue and guide the ritual p110-111
- Presents foreleg p111
- Central performer in the Opening of the Mouth p114
- Healing magic p4
- The relationship between lectors and healing magic appears well attested
- Medical treatment p2
- Can both heal and cause illness p116
- Associated with the House of Life and Temple p116-119
- Worked together with physicians p120
- “Hands on approach” p121
- Acts of magical wonder p135-136
- Studying and working with the gods p119
- Stretching of the cord at temple inaugurations p4
- Embodied Djehuty p55
- Consecration of temple p56
- Sometimes secular roles p2
- State expeditions to foreign lands p5
- Mostly on mining operations into foreign lands p123
- Numbers and role unknown p126
- Possibly included caring for statues p126
- My guess would be protection and healing when necessary. For instance encircling rituals before crossing the desert, or addressing a gash or broken bone.
- Daily temple ritual, specifically then end where the god’s statue is given life,and the doors to the shrine sealed until the next ritual p54
- Keeper of the “house of books” p57
- Readers of/actors in Sacred Dramas p57
- Feast of Sokar - invokes Sokar, and praises Osiris in later periods p59-62
- “...the non-exclusive nature of the occupation of the lector in the Old Kingdom, and this is a feature that can also be recognised throughout Egyptian history” p1
- Not always priests p2
- “The title could be honorary, merely appended to a number of other titles, but it could also signify a working professional. His status in society could therefore vary greatly and monuments subsequently left by the lector range from a short statement on a collective stela at Abydos to a large tomb such as that of Pediamenopet on the Assasif at Thebes.” p139
- Sometimes involved with legal activities, such as on knbt councils, which were responsible for the organization and administration of the temple p130
- May have also sometimes acted as judged p131-132
- “The evidence for the direct involvement of the lector in the legal system in ancient Egypt is not strong…” p134
Rituals/Acts
- Execration ritual (eliminating foes/opposing forces) p21
- Breaking of the red pots p22. Good link on this here: Breaking the red pots and associated rituals
- Rites of Encircling, where a sacred person/group/area is ceremonially circled by the lector in magical favor of the subject. Could also be done with hostile intent p24
- Protection rituals p25
- Overthrowing Apep p25
- Spitting, licking, and swallowing could be positive or negative p26
- Magical consumption, such as writing a word of power on papyrus and then eating it p137
Relationship to Royalty
- Lector of [King] p15
- Sometimes proclaims the king’s royal name for the first time p65
- Royal purification p65
- Active role in Sed-festivals p4
- A principal officiant p66
- Announcer, reads from text p68
- “Illumination of the thrones” p70
- Precedes the king p80
- Related to Wepwawet and the Was Scepter p80
- Master of ceremonies p81
Possible Equipment
- Chest which the equipment was carried in p27
- Tyet knots p27
- Protective statues and amulets p32-33
- Protective wands p33-34, good images here: https://www.joanlansberry.com/setfind/knf-mid.html
- Figurines of women carrying snakes, wearing the mask of a lioness p34-35, possibly first Asherah figurines?
- Bronze serpent wand, first known of its kind p35-36
- Fertility figures p36-37
- Ivory dwarfs p38-39
- Model offerings p39-40
- Clappers p40-41
- Beads p41-42
- Djed column p42
- Burnisher p42-43
- Papyrus p43-44
Identification
- Broad fabric sash worn across chest p7
- Chief lector can have panther skin, a menat necklace, headband with ostrich plume, a cape, a scepter p7
- Generally they carried a papyrus roll p7
- Most frequent gestures: invocation (Gardiner’s A26) and hnw-gesture (Gardiner’s A8) p7-8
- “This image that is evoked is a representation of the lector that is repeatedly depicted on tomb and temple wall scenes, a lector consulting and reading from an unrolled papyrus scroll.” p119
Titles
- Hieroglyphs p13-17
- Greatest of Chief Lectors p13
- Senior/Elder Lector p13
- Senior Lector of the Robing-Room p13
- Lector of the House of Embalming p14
- Lector of the Funerary Estate p15
- (Chief) Lector of his Father p15
- Lector of [King] p15
- Lector of [God] p15-17
- Lector of [Locality] p15-17
- Lector who is in his year p15
- Lector p15
Origins
- Shamanism into sem-priesthood, then division of sem-priests into two separate categories p9
