![]() "This god crieth out to their souls after he hath entered the city of the gods who are on their sand, and there are heard the voices of those who are shut in this circle which are like of many bees of honey when their souls cry out to Ra." Another ritual from the Book of "Am-Tuat", or "the Otherworld", compares the voices of souls to the hum of bees. Certain lines in ancient rituals indicate that the Egyptians may have even believed that the soul of a man (his "ka", or double the part which continues after death) took the form of a bee. In a ceremonial offering known as the "Opening of the Mouth", priests used special instruments to place honey into the mouth of a statue of a god, or the statue or mummy of a king or other great noble. It was widely believed in Ancient Egypt that if a witch or a wizard made a beeswax figure of a man and injured or destroyed it, the man himself would suffer or die. And because honey never spoils, it was still perfectly edible! One of our favorite stories to tell kids is that when King Tut's tomb was open, a 2,000-year-old jar of honey was found. Jars of honey were left in tombs as offerings the dead, to give them something to eat in the afterlife. Mummies were sometimes embalmed in honey, and often sarcophagi were sealed up with beeswax. ![]() These animals included the sacred bull at Memphis, the sacred lion at Leontopolis, and the sacred crocodile at Crocodilopolis. Sacred animals were fed cakes sweetened with honey. Honey and wax were used for religious as well as practical purposes. and promise to deliver to thee yearly twelve jars of honey." Honey was exacted as tribute from conquered countries for instance, many jars of honey were paid each year by the Retenu tribe of Syria to their Egyptian conqueror, Thothmes II. One marriage contract has been found which states, "I take thee to wife. ![]() It was used for everything from sweetening food, to preventing infection by being placed on wounds, to paying taxes. Honey was used by all classes in Ancient Egypt, indicating that it must have been produced on a large scale. ![]()
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