The oldest temple discovered in Egypt is little more than a doorway with
an altar at its threshold, and with a stele on either side of the altar.
This temple is near the base of the stepped pyramid of Meydoom, dating
back probably to the beginning of the fourth dynasty.[366]
Later, in Egypt, as in early Babylonia, the doorway, above the
threshold, had peculiar sacredness, in the temples and in the approaches
to the under-world. The pylon, or propylon, of an Egyptian temple, was a
monumental gateway before the temple, and exalted honor attached to it.
It frequently gave its name to the entire temple.[367] The side towers
of this gateway are said to have represented Isis and Nephthys, and the
door itself between these towers stood for Osiris, the judge of the
living and the dead.[368]
There was indeed a temple in Thebes which bore the name of “Silver
Threshold.” This temple “is mentioned in the time of the twenty-first
dynasty; and it cannot have been earlier than the eighteenth dynasty,
when silver was growing cheaper in Egypt.”[369] But the prominence of
the “threshold” in the designation of the “temple” is aside from the
question of the time of the use of silver.
“The winged sun disk was placed above all the doors into the temples,
that the image of Horus might drive away all unclean spirits from the
sacred building.”[370] These overshadowing wings marked the special
sacredness of the doors beneath them.
When an Egyptian priest opened the door of the shrine–the holy of holies
of the temple–he must prostrate himself at the threshold in reverent
worship. “According to the Theban rite, ... as soon as he saw the image
of the god he had to ‘kiss the ground, throw himself on his face, throw
himself entirely on his face, kiss the ground with his face turned
downward, offer incense,’ and then greet the god with a short
petition.”[371] This priestly worship was at the threshold of the
shrine.
The Egyptian idea of the future life, and of the world beyond this, had
marked correspondences with the Babylonian. Osiris presided over the
under-world, as, indeed, he was the chief object of worship in
this.[372] He had been slain in a conflict with evil, and in his new
life he was the friend and helper of those who struggled against
evil.[373] He was in a peculiar sense the door of the life beyond this,
“Osiris, opening the ways of the two worlds;”[374] and those who passed
that door safely were identified with himself in the under-world.[375]
A closed door toward the west, in a tomb, represented the deceased on
his way to Osiris.[376] And as shown in the “Book of the Dead” the
approach to Osiris was by a series of doors, which could be passed only
by one who showed his identification with Osiris, and his worthiness as
such.[377] At the entrance to the Hall of the Two Truths, or of the
Two-fold Maāt,[378] as the place of final judgment, the deceased was
challenged by the threshold of the door, by the two side-posts, by the
lock, by the key, and by the door itself; and he could not pass these
unless he proved his oneness with Osiris by his knowledge of their names
severally.[379]
A saint’s tomb, called a _wely_, is a common place of worship in Egypt.
Sometimes a mosk is built over it, and sometimes it serves as a
substitute for a mosk, where no mosk is near. “At least one such
building forms a conspicuous object close by, or within, almost every
Arab village;” and these tombs are frequently visited by those who would
make supplication for themselves, or intercession for others, or who
would do a worthy act, and merit a correspondent blessing. “Many a
visitor, on entering the tomb, kisses the threshold, or touches it with
his right hand, which he then kisses.”[380] Similar customs prevail in
Arabia and Syria.
At Carthage, which was a Phenician colony but which impressed its
character on northern Africa, the chief temple gave prominence to the
threshold, rising in steps as an altar before a statue of the Queen of
Heaven. Virgil, describing the arrival of Æneas at the court of Queen
Dido, says:
“There stood a grove within the city’s midst,
Delicious for its shade; where when they came
First to this place, by waves and tempest tossed,
The Carthaginians from the earth dug up
An omen royal Juno had foretold
That they should find, a noble horse’s head;
Thus intimating that this race would shine,
Famous in war, and furnished with supplies
For ages. Here the great Sidonian queen
A temple built to Juno, rich in gifts,
And in the presence of the goddess blessed.
A brazen threshold rose above the steps,[381]
With brazen posts connecting, and the hinge
Creaked upon brazen doors.”[382]
The churches of Abyssinia always stand on a hill, and in a grove–like
the temple at Carthage. “When you go to the church you put off your
shoes before your first entering the outer precinct.... At entry, you
kiss the threshold and two door-posts, go in and say what prayer you
please; that finished you come out again, and your duty is over.”[383]
The yard of an Abyssinian church has been compared to “the _lucus_ or
sacred grove of the pagan temple.” “The church itself is square, and
built of stone with beams stuck in to support them. At the porch, the
wooden lintels, which the pious kiss with intense earnestness,–in fact,
kissing the walls and lintels of a church is a great feature in
Abyssinian devotion, so much so that, instead of speaking of ‘going to
church,’ they say ‘kissing the church,’–are carved with quaint and
elaborate devices.”[384]
At Yeha, near Aksum, are the remains of a ruined temple, within the area
of which a church was at one time built. “In front of the vestibule
stood two rude monoliths, at the base of one of which is an altar with a
circular disk on it, presumably, from the analogy of those at Aksum, for
receiving the blood of slaughtered victims.” Obviously, the altar of
this temple was at its threshold.
Marriages are said to be celebrated in Abyssinia at the church door–the
wedding covenant being thus made before the threshold altar.[385]
And so in the earlier temples of Egypt, of Carthage, and of Abyssinia,
and in Christian and Muhammadan places of worship, the doorway is held
sacred, and, most of all, the threshold, or “floor of the door.”