The Divine Feminine

In the most popular creation myth, the god Atum lights upon the primordial mound in the midst of the swirling waters of chaos and sets about creating the world. In some versions of this tale, however, it is the goddess Neith who brings creation and, even where Atum is the central character, the primordial waters are personified as Nu and Naunet, a balance of the male and female principles in harmony which combine for the creative act.

Following the creation and beginning of time, women continue to play a pivotal role as evidenced in the equally popular story of Osiris and Isis. This brother and sister couple were said to have ruled the world (that being Egypt) after its creation and to have taught human beings the precepts of civilization, the art of agriculture, and the proper worship of the gods. Osiris is killed by his jealous brother Set, and it is Isis who brings him back to life, who gives birth to his child Horus and raises him to be king, and who, with her sister Nephthys and other goddesses such as Serket and Neith, helps to restore balance to the land.

The goddess Hathor, sent to Earth as the destroyer Sekhmet to punish humans for their transgressions, becomes people’s friend and close companion after getting drunk on beer and waking with a more joyful spirit. Tenenet was the goddess of beer, thought to be the drink of the gods, who provided the people with the recipe and oversaw successful brewing. Seshat was the goddess of the written word and librarians, Tayet the goddess of weaving, and Tefnut the goddess of moisture.

Even the pᴀssage of the year was viewed as feminine as personified by Renpet, who notched her palm branch to mark the pᴀssage of time. The goddess Bastet, one of the most popular in all of Egypt, was a protector of women, of the home, and of women’s secrets. Egyptian religion honored and elevated the feminine, and so it is hardly surprising that women were important members of the clergy and temple life.

Women & Religion

The most important position a woman could hold, beginning in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (2040-1782 BCE), was God’s Wife of Amun. There were many “God’s Wives” ᴀssociated with different deities, and initially, in the Middle Kingdom, the God’s Wife of Amun was simply one among many. The God’s Wife was an honorary тιтle given to a woman (originally of any class but later of the upper class) who would ᴀssist the high priest in ceremonies and tend to the god’s statue.

Throughout the New Kingdom of Egypt (1570-1069 BCE) the position increased in prestige until, by the time of the Third Intermediate Period (1069-525 BCE), the God’s Wife of Amun was equal in power to a king and effectively ruled Upper Egypt. During the New Kingdom period, the most famous of the God’s Wives was the female pharaoh Hatshepsut (r. 1479-1458 BCE), but there were many other women to hold the office before and after her.

Women could be scribes and also priests, usually of a cult with a feminine deity. The clergy of Isis, for example, were female and male, while cults with a male deity usually had only male priests (as in the case of Amun). The high prestige of the God’s Wife of Amun, however, is an example of the balance observed by the ancient Egyptians in that the position of the High Priest of Amun was balanced by an equally powerful female.

It must be noted that the designation ‘cult’ in describing ancient Egyptian religion does not carry the same meaning it does in the modern day. A cult in ancient Egypt would be the equivalent of a sect in modern religion. It is also important to recognize that there were no religious services as one would observe them in the present. People interacted with their deities primarily at festivals where women regularly played important roles such as the two virgins who would perform The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys at the festivals of Osiris.

Priests and priestesses maintained the temples and cared for the statue of the god or goddess, and the people visited the temple to ask for help on various matters, repay debts, give thanks, and seek counsel on problems, decisions, and dream interpretation, but there were no worship services as one would recognize them today. Aside from festivals, people would pray to the gods at home in front of personal shrines, thought to have been erected and kept by women as part of their household responsibilities.

Women were also consulted in dream interpretation. Dreams were considered portals to the afterlife, planes on which the gods and the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ could communicate with the living; they did not always do so plainly, however. Skilled interpreters were required to understand the symbols in the dream and what they meant. Egyptologist Rosalie David comments:

“In the Deir el-Medina texts, there are references to ‘wise women’ and the role they played in predicting future events and their causation. It has been suggested that such seers may have been a regular aspect of practical religion in the New Kingdom and possibly even earlier. ”

These wise women were adept at interpreting dreams and being able to predict the future. The only extant accounts of dreams and their interpretation come from men, Hor of Sebennytos and Ptolemaios, son of Glaukius, (both c. 200 BCE), but inscriptions and fragments indicate that women were primarily consulted in these matters. David continues:

“Some temples were reknowned as centres of dream incubation where the peтιтioner could pᴀss the night in a special building and communicate with the gods or deceased relatives in order to gain insight into the future. ”

The most famous of these was attached to the Temple of Hathor at Dendera where the clergy was largely female.

Occupations of Women

The clergy of ancient Egypt enjoyed great respect and a comfortable living. History from the Early Dynastic Period in Egypt (c. 3150 to c. 2613 BCE) through the Late Period of Ancient Egypt (525-332 BCE) abounds in records of the clergy, especially that of Amun, amᴀssing land and wealth. In order to become a priest, one had to first be a scribe, which required years of dedicated study. Once a woman became a scribe, she could enter the priesthood, go into teaching, or become a physician.

Female doctors were highly respected in ancient Egypt, and the medical school in Alexandria was attended by students from many other countries. The Greek physician Agnodice, denied an education in medicine in Athens because of her Sєx, studied in Egypt c. 4th century BCE and then returned to her home city disguised as a man to practice.

As the course of study to become a scribe was long and hard, however, not many people – men or women – chose to pursue it. Further, scribes were usually from families of scribes, where great value was placed on literacy and children were expected to follow in their father’s or mother’s occupation. Women, therefore, were regularly employed as weavers, bakers, brewers, professional mourners, sandal-makers, launderers, basket weavers, cooks, waitresses, or as a “Mistress of the House,” known today as an estate owner or property manager. Female brewers and launderers frequently supervised male workers.

When a woman’s husband died, or when they divorced, a woman could keep the home and run it as she liked. This aspect of gender equality is almost astounding when one compares it with women’s rights over just the past 200 years. A widow living in America in the early 19th century, for example, did not have any rights in home ownership and had to depend on a male relative’s intercession to keep her home after the death or departure of her husband. In ancient Egypt, a woman could decide for herself how she would make money and keep her estate in order. Scholar James C. Thompson writes:

There were many ways in which a ‘Mistress of the House” could supplement her income. Some had small vegetable gardens. Many made clothing. One document shows an enterprising woman purchasing a slave for 400 deben. She paid half in clothing and borrowed the rest from her neighbors. It is likely the woman expected to be able to repay the loan by renting out the slave. Indeed, we have a receipt showing that one woman received several garments, a bull, and sixteen goats as payment for 27 days work by her slave. Those who could not raise the money on their own sometimes joined with neighbors to buy a slave. Women were often part of such a consortium. We know that a woman could inherit and operate a large, wealthy estate. A man who owned such an estate would hire a male scribe to manage it and it would seem reasonable that an heiress would do the same thing. We have little evidence of elite women with paying jobs whether full or part time.