Women also held offices in the temple and performed duties there, though not as priestesses.

The priests were exempt from taxes, and were provided for out of the public stores.  They superintended sacrifices, processions, funerals, and were initiated into the greater and lesser mysteries; they were also instructed in surveying.  They were particular in diet, both as to quantity and quality.  Flesh of swine was particularly forbidden, and also that of fish.  Beans were held in utter abhorrence, also peas, onions, and garlic, which, however, were offered on the altar.  They bathed twice a day and twice in the night, and shaved the head and body every three days.  A great purification took place before their fasts, which lasted from seven to forty-two days.

They offered prayers for the dead.

The dress of the priests was simple, chiefly of linen, consisting of an under-garment and a loose upper robe, with full sleeves, and the leopard-skin above; sometimes one or two feathers in the head.

Chaplets and flowers were laid upon the altars, such as the lotus and papyrus, also grapes and figs in baskets, and ointment in alabaster vases.  Also necklaces, bracelets, and jewelry, were offered as thanksgivings and invocations.

Oxen and other animals were sacrificed, and the blood allowed to flow over the altar.  Libations of wine were poured on the altar.  Incense was offered to all the gods in censers.

Processions were usual with the Egyptians; in one, shrines were carried on the shoulders by long staves passed through rings.  In others the statues of the gods were carried, and arks like those of the Jews, overshadowed by the wings of the goddess of truth spread above the sacred beetle.

The prophets were the most highly honored of the priestly order.  They studied the ten hieratical books.  The business of the stolists[159] was to dress and undress the images, to attend to the vestments of the priests, and to mark the beasts selected for sacrifice.  The scribes were to search for the Apis, or sacred bull, and were required to possess great learning.

The priests had no sinecure; their life was full of minute duties and restrictions.  They seldom appeared in public, were married to one wife, were circumcised like other Egyptians, and their whole time was occupied either in study or the service of their gods.  There was a gloomy tone to the religion of Egypt, which struck the Greeks, whose worship was usually cheerful.  Apuleius says “the gods of Egypt rejoice in lamentations, those of Greece in dances.”  Another Greek writer says, “The Egyptians offer their gods tears.”