Abstract
Much evidence from throughout the pharaonic period demonstrates that women actively participated in the religious life of ancient Egypt. Titles survive both on monuments of females and in private letters which indicate cultic activity, although these unfortunately give us almost no details about actual cultic responsibilities. Religious activities of unmarried women, middle class housewives, and royal family members are documented, but women's opportunities for active leadership roles in the cult varied over the long history of ancient Egypt and also from cult to cult. We will proceed chronologically because, when dealing with over two thousand years of source material and its obvious recording of changes and developments, it seems inappropriate to do otherwise. Section headings are as follows: Women in the Old Kingdom Cults, Evidence from the Middle Kingdom, Women and Religion in the New Kingdom, Late New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period Religious Women, Economic Power of the Priesthood, Royalty's Role, Private Cults and Personal Religion, and New Cultic Roles for Women in the First Millennium, followed by a brief bibliography.
About the author
Barbara S. Lesko is the Administrative Research Assistant in the Department of Egyptology at Brown University, collaborating editor for the
Dictionary of Late Egyptian, and the author of numerous invited articles and several books pertaining to social history and women's studies, most recently
The Great Goddesses of Egypt, Norman: 1999. This article is an elaboration upon her brief article "Ancient Egyptian Religions" published in The
Encyclopedia of Women and World Religions, Volume 1, edited by Serinity Young and published by Macmillan Reference, New York: 1999, pages 32-35.
