Since ancient Times Egyptians are known for how they're so committed and attached to religion.Thousands of years ago Egyptians believed that there were Gods ruling this universe and controlling every single action in the world, they even believed that Gods had access to human lives and can change anything in it. So according to that they built temples, pillars, statues and much more to be a standing example that they exist -as they thought- and a place for them to present in. Beside that, they believed that the Pharaoh was from the race of Gods, not just that but son of the Gods. So he was like the manager for them on Earth to fulfill their orders and make sure that everything is going fine. He was also supposed to be responsible for the religious rituals and worship of Gods on Earth but because he was crammed with so many other things like ruling the country, defense,economy,politics and so on. He didn't have time for that. Moreover, It was thought that the Pharaoh should pray in all temples throughout the country for the Gods, which was logically impossible, and Which leads us to the subject of our Topic today " The Priests in ancient Egypt".
Priests in ancient Egypt were basically assistants of the Pharaoh to fill the task he couldn't do; Making sure that Gods are worshipped on Earth and all the religious rituals are done. So that's a brief explanation about their job. However; They also had the ability to use magic, cure people, mummifying the dead and more importantly assure the safety and efficiency of temples.
Not everyone can be a priest at that time, like any other job it had specific criteria like:
1) Corrugation: It was a must for the priest to be clean because he was in the house of God, how can he be not clean???
2) Wasting: It was mentioned in Herodotus' writings that " Egyptian priests washed their bodies with cold water twice a day and twice a night, because water is the origin of everything and it's from where life began".
3) Shaving hair; from head to toe.
4) Circumcision; It was a must on the priest to do this for corrugation and it was optional for the rest of the people.
5) No intercourse
Also a very important mission for the Priests was; Protecting the Religion and what their ancestors discovered. That's why for thousands of years the Egyptian civilization was preserved and strong as a rock.
Priest's Clothes: They wore linen and in some places it was forbidden to wear anything other than linen, like it was not allowed to wear leather and wool, but we saw in their transcripts that the Priests of Heliopolis wearing Leopard's leather decorated with some sort of stars, and the Priest of Memphis also wearing leopard leather with tall braids in his hair. For shoes they had shoes made from Papyrus with white shoes.
Food: They didn't get food from their own money, daily they were served sacred bread, a big quantity of Cow meat and goose. Beside Wine made from grapes.
