Opening+of+the+Mouth

Opening of the Mouth


 * Also called:**

Opening of the Mouth and Eyes


 * Egyptian Name:**

//Wpt-r// or //Wn-r//

The Egyptian ritual that would re-animate the deceased, the Opening of the Mouth was an important ritual in both funerary and in temple practice. It was performed on statues of deities, kings, private individuals, and Ushabti, as well as on the mummies of both humans and on occasion sacred animals. It was even performed on the individual rooms of temples and on the entire temple structure. The effect of the ritual was to animate the recipient (or, in the case of a deceased individual, to re-animate it). The ritual allowed the mummy, statue, or temple to eat, breathe, see, hear, and enjoy the offerings and provisions provided, thus to sustain the Ka. Before a person could be interred, his senses had to be "opened," and before any temple could begin to be used, it had to be consecrated by this ritual.

The Opening of the Mouth was thought to be a reenactment of the ceremony that Horus performed for his father Osiris. Other sources claimed that the ritual was invented by the god Ptah. The Opening of the Mouth itself may have been a symbolic re-enactment of the clearing of a baby’s mouth at birth. The earliest implements used were probably the priests’ fingers, later replaced by finger-shaped iron blades. In many texts, reference is made to the "fingers of Horus."

The ritual itself is extremely old, and was preformed from as early as the 4th Dynasty, continuing until the Roman Period. At the day of the internment of the mummy, it was the duty of the eldest son and heir to act as the //Sem//-Priest and perform this ritual on his father's mummy. In the case of a royal burial, this became a means of legitimizing succession to the throne. If a pharaoh had no sons, then another person performed the ritual and thus was recognized as the spiritual son of the deceased.

The Opening of the Mouth ritual began when the mummy of the deceased had arrived at his tomb, set up on a clean mound of sand and facing south. It was a very elaborate ritua l consisting of many acts, the actual opening of the mouth being just one, but central. The first part involved washing the deceased’s mummy with purified water, anointing it with seven different kinds of oil from a Nemset Vase, and burning incense.

The mouth, eyes, nose, and ears of the mummy was touched with special ritual tools, such as an adze, an arm-shaped censer, the peseshkaf, and a serpent-headed blade. Sets of stone versions of these ritual tools were parts of the burial equipment for officials, priests, and their families in the late Old Kingdom. In the New Kingdom and Late Period, models of these tools were made as amulets that were placed in the mummy wrappings of the deceased. During one part of the Opening of the Mouth, a bull was butchered and the heart presented to the deceased. Its foreleg, the Khepesh, was also severed and pointed toward the deceased.

The Opening of the Mouth ritual was performed not only at the tomb, but in the workshops of the sculptor. A sculptor was called “he who gives life,” and his work was described as “giving birth.” The ritual was preformed on the statues of deities so that they would happily enter wood, stone, clay, and other sculptural methods. Egyptian tomb images of the Opening of the Mouth gave rise to legends about revivified mummies.


 * Quotes from the Book of the Dead and other sources:**

"Awake! May you be alert as a living one, rejuvenated every day, healthy in millions of occasions of sleep, while the gods protect you, protection being around you every day."

"My mouth is opened by Ptah; the bonds that gag my mouth have been loosed by my city-god. Thoth comes fully equipped with magic . . . my mouth has been parted by Ptah with this metal chisel of his with which he parted the mouths of the gods."

Opening of the Mouth Declaration


 * Modern Influence:**

Parallels between the Opening of the Mouth and Psalm 51 have been pointed out by scholar Benjamin Urrutia. These parallels include mentions of ritual washing with special herbs (Psalm 51:2,7), restoration of broken bones (verse 8), "O Lord, open thou my lips" (verse 15), and sacrifices (verses 16, 17, 19).

Important Terminology