Oracles and Letters to the Dead

Temples were closed to most people, as Cult Temples and Memorial Temples explained. Yet ordinary Egyptians did reach the gods and their own dead. Oracles and letters to the dead, which build on the offering cult at the tomb, show how.

Key idea

People asked gods questions through oracles at festivals, and wrote letters to dead relatives asking for help.

Oracles

Especially from the New Kingdom on, a god could answer questions when its boat-shrine came out in procession. A question was put to the god, aloud or written on a potsherd. The priests carrying the boat felt it move: forward could mean yes, backward no, or the boat could stop before one of several written answers. People asked about lost property, disputes, illness and choices. At Deir el-Medina, the workmen consulted the deified king Amenhotep I, honored as their village’s founder, and many of their questions survive on ostraca.

Letters to the dead

The dead were still part of the family and could act among the living. Some people wrote letters to dead parents or spouses, often on a bowl that held a food offering left at the tomb. The letters ask for help (with an illness, a quarrel, a hope for a child) or ask the dead to stop troubles the writer blamed on them. Examples are known from the Old Kingdom on.

Why it works

Both practices rest on beliefs from earlier lessons. A god dwelt in its image, so when the image came out, the god could be asked. The dead lived on, needed offerings and could hear, so a letter left with food would reach them. Small "ear stelae", carved with ears, asked a god to listen to a prayer. Together they show that religion was part of daily life, not only of temples and kings.

sḏm, "hear": the cow’s ear, with s and m. People asked the gods, and the dead, to hear them.

Worked example: How did the god answer?

At a festival, a farmer asks Amun whether his neighbor took his goat. How might the answer come?

The god’s boat is carried by priests in the procession.
The boat moves forward for yes or back for no.
The answer is the god’s judgment.

Answer: By the movement of the god’s boat.

Worked example: Reading a bowl

A pottery bowl from a tomb has writing on it addressed to a dead mother, asking her to help her son. What is it?

It is addressed to a dead relative.
It was left at the tomb, likely with food.

Answer: A letter to the dead.

Common mistake

Thinking ordinary people had no way to reach the gods. Oracles, prayers, ear stelae and letters to the dead show how they did. Quick check: look for the questions on ostraca and the letters on bowls.

Oracles and Letters to the Dead

Oracles

Letters to the dead

Practice

Builds on

Leads to

Sources and further reading