Публикация

Предыдущая публикация

These vases may have contained ‘Nile water’, which is intriguing when you consider how prosaic river water is. There was a shrine to Hydreios in Delos (late second century BCE) but I suspect the hand covering is Roman, when we see another flowering of the Egyptian cults across the Empire.

Xander's Skyscape

26 июн., 19:27

I'm guessing the idea likely goes back to wab-priests, but that the original connotations had been lost along the way. Unless it was a sneaky getaround to avoid the strictures of a wab-priest's life during their time of service. And 'Nile water'! That's an idea! Could ordinary water be transformed?

Обсуждение

Ответы

Simon Bralee

2 июл., 13:34

That’s a good point. Some Roman authors certainly thought the priests weren’t so moral! I think it was likely ordinary water unless temples kept small amounts like some people today have flasks of water from Lourdes or the River Jordan. This practice could be linked to the New Year Festival.

Ответ для Simon Bralee

Xander's Skyscape

2 июл., 14:12

Ooh, yes, the New Year's flasks. Drew one of those in Tebilla. It could even refer to something symbolic, like the first flooding of any given river, not that that would be at the same time of year as in Egypt. But hypothetically might corellate better with New Year.