Nilaja Amnehotep wrote:

"My question concerns the Priesthood, in pre-dynastic times is it true that before one could be say...a doctor or a mathmetician or a healer, that you first had to be a High Priest? It's something I read and just wondered if it was true.

I can understand the reasoning to be that one would then function with the highest ethics and have the universe to draw strength from.

Am I anywhere near the answer here?"

Serge Sauneron is your best source on how the priesthood of most cults in ancient Egypt were organised, but it covers the dynastic period only. His book is

Sauneron, S. 2000. The Priests of Ancient Egypt. D. Lorton, transl. Ithaca/London: Cornell University Press.

Sauneron (2002: 170-172) points out that what Egyptologists think they know about predynastic cults is primarily a matter of speculation, and at best, enlightened reconstructions based upon analysis of predynastic art, by comparing its quasi-religious icons to later dynastic successor imagery. But this sort of comparison is "risky," as Sauneron points out, in discussing the elements of the Pyramid Texts, "There is no real proof - aside from some graphics and grammatical variations - that the various rituals underlying the composition of the Pyramid Texts belonged to various historical periods, clothed in mythological garb, of wars fought by states two millennia earlier" (Sauneron 2000: 171).

That said, it is true that certain professions, such as the medical arts, required its members to also be associated with the priesthood of a specific deity. In this instance cited, doctors tended to be associated with the cult of Sekhmet, as she was the apotropaic deity associated with plagues and illnesses. Interestingly, Sekhmet was also associated with lawyers as well, possibly due to her mythic status as a "revenger" goddess.

But a doctor associated with the Sekhmet cult was not required to be a "high priest" to practice his profession: the Edwin Smith Papyrus, for example, makes no distinction that a healer be either a /snw/, the term associated with the skilled profession of doctor (or veterinarian), or simply a /wAb/, "purification priest," one of the lowest levels of the priesthood, in order to treat a patient (Nunn 1996: 134).

What was more likely is that a person chose a profession, either by apprenticeship, or as a hereditary position, and then placed his (or her) religious affiliation with the deity associated with that professions.

So, for example, craftsmen, construction workers, and thus, architects, held a special fondness for the god Ptah, a creator god, who was though to have "thought the world into existence, and then spoke it into being." Architects were also inclined to honour Imhotep, the famed architect of the Djoser Step Pyramid, who was himself deified during the New Kingdom. Beer-makers were associated with the cult of Hathor, as she was the "goddess of drunkenness," due to the myth of the goddess Sekhmet being transformed back into her milder persona as Hathor by means of beer. Likewise, judges were associated with a possible cult of Ma'at, the deified persona of justice and harmony, during the New Kingdom, as they wore her image upon their bodies during rendering of decisions. Embalmers were associated with the cult of Anubis, as mythically this god was the first embalmer, being the one who embalmed the 13 (of 14) pieces of Osiris in the first mythic instance of mummification.

You get the picture. :) However, please do not believe that these deities were only associated with one profession or concept, as Egyptian theological belief is far more complex than that.

But as affiliation with specific cults for mere mortals go, one could be strongly associated with a deity's cult based upon what one did for a living. However, it is known that the noble class were actually required to perform priestly duties as part of their adult lives, usually in respect with one deity of their choice (Roth 1991).

Let me give an example of where "single concept" thinking can lead, though: we all know that the king is associated with Horus, as he is the son of Osiris, as thus that god's "living descendant." So, the king is associated with the Osiris-Horus format of kingly succession (every king is descended from the original god-king of Egypt, Osiris). But then again, the king is also the "son of Ra," which means again is is descended from the king of the gods, Ra. So, as part of ancient traditions, the king is thus the highest of priests in the Heliopolitan theology (the solar cults of Ra), being divine himself.

However, when the kings of the Middle and New Kingdoms relocated the royal capital away from Memphis to /wAst/ (Thebes), interestingly enough, their divine royal cult also became closely associated, with the king as high priest and later direct divine son, of the Theban god, Amun. So this pattern continued in regards to other cults, with eventually the king seen as the "highest of priests" of every divine cult everywhere, usually surrounded some mythic connection between the king as "son" or some form of formal affiliation with the deity involved. As such, the "work" (or locale) of the king had little or no bearing upon the deity with which he honoured/worshipped.

Meanwhile, your plain every day Egyptian may have had several religious affiliations during his or her lifetime. Most Egyptians honoured the deity of their village or area in which they lived; they may also honour the deity associated with their profession, and they may have honoured/worshipped a national deity, such as Ra or Amun, as part of a "patriotic" stance - all at the same time.

On other occasions, such as the impending birth of a child in their household, a regular everyday Egyptian would honour, usually by giving a votive offering, to Hathor, Bes, or Taweret, all of whom were local household gods directly associated with easy childbirth for a woman. To assure further good fortune for the child, the Egyptians allow in midwives into their homes, who brought in cultic rites of Hathor with them, such as the "ecstatic naming" of the child (which told of the child's essence and possibly his future*). The everyday Egyptian saw no contradiction in this multiple religious affiliation, all of which was very fervent, or even giving somewhat "evil" deities homage as well, such as apotropaic supplications to Sekhmet, or on ocassion, Sutekh (Seth), just to be sure the did not cause the Egyptian harm in his/her everyday life.

This is why Egyptians were seen as polytheistic in their beliefs by most who lived outside of Egypt in ancient times, such as Herodotus.

However, my feeling is that likely what the everyday worshipping Egyptian was doing constituted a henotheism. They did gave their primary loyalty to one deity over all others as "their god," but they also saw no reason to discount the benefits that supplicating other deities may bring. Talk about hedging one's bets. ;)

Some of the best works on the subject of personal religious affiliation and allegiance are as follows:

Assmann, J. 1995. Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun and the Crisis of Polytheism. Studies in Egyptology. G. T. Martin. A. Alcock, transl. London: KPI.

__________. 1999. Conversion, Piety and Loyalism in Ancient Egypt. In J. Assmann and G. G. Stroumsa, Eds., Transformations of the Inner Self in Ancient Religions: 31-44. Studies in the History of Religions (Numen Book Series) Vol. LXXXIII. H. G. K. a. E. T. Lawson. Leiden: Brill.

__________. 2001. The Search for God in Ancient Egypt. D. Lorton, transl. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Fairman, H. W. 1954. Worship and Festivals in an Egyptian Temple. Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 37/1: 165-183.

Hornung, E. 1982. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many. J. Baines, transl. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Pinch, G. 1993. Votive Offerings to Hathor. Oxford: Griffith Institute.

Sadek, A. I. 1988. Popular Religion in Egypt During the New Kingdom. Hildesheimer Ägyptologische Beiträge 27. A. Eggebrecht. Hildesheim: Gerstenberg.

Tobin, V. A. 1989. Theological principles of Egyptian religion. American University Studies. Series 7, Theology and Religion 59. New York: Peter Lang.

Nunn, J. F. 1996. Ancient Egyptian Medicine. London: British Museum Press.

Roth, A-M. 1991. Egyptian Phyles in the Old Kingdom. The Evolution of a System of Social Organization. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization (SAOC) 48. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

I hope this assists.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg