146: Restoration III, Tut'ankhamun in Opet

Amun, Mut, Khonsu, and the King. Once a year, the city of Waset (Thebes / Luxor) hosted an enormous celebration. The Beautiful Festival of Opet honoured the great gods Amun-Ra, Mut, and Khonsu. The deities would emerge from their secret shrines, and ride in procession through the city and on the river. King Tut'ankhamun would lead these events, renewing the power of the gods and his right to rule...

This is a big episode, probably best consumed over several sittings. Enjoy!

Episode Details

Date: c. 1336 BCE.

Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com.

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Music by Keith Zizza.

Music by Ancient Lyric.

Music by Jeffrey Goodman.

Sound interludes by Luke Chaos.

Special voiceover work by vorob1003.

Read the full publication of Tut’ankhamun’s Opet reliefs in The Epigraphic Survey, Reliefs and Inscriptions at Luxor Temple - Volume I: The Festival Procession of Opet in the Colonnade Hall (Chicago, 1994). PDF available free from the University of Chicago.

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Select Bibliography:

 L. Bell, ‘Aspects of the Cult of the Deified Tutankhamun’, in P. Posener-Kriéger (ed.), Mélanges Gamal Eddin Mokhtar, Bibliothèque d’étude 97 (Cairo, 1985), 31–59.

L. Bell, ‘Luxor Temple and the Cult of the Royal Ka’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 44 (1985), 251–94.

J. C. Darnell, ‘Opet Festival’, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (2010).

N. Kawai, ‘Studies in the Reign of Tutankhamun’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, Johns Hopkins University (2005).

L. Manniche, Music and Musicians in Ancient Egypt (London, 1991).

The Epigraphic Survey, Reliefs and Inscriptions at Luxor Temple – Volume I: The Festival Procession of Opet in the Colonnade Hall (Chicago, 1994).

M. Verner, Temple of the World: Sanctuaries, Cults, and Mysteries of Ancient Egypt (Prague, 2013).

W. Waitkus, Untersuchungen zu Kult und Funktion des Luxortempels (Gladbeck, 2008).

R. H. Wilkinson, The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt (London, 2000).

R. H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (New York, 2003).

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