The Opening of the Mouth
A ritual that gave the dead back their breath, their voice, and their senses.
Also: Opening of the Mouth · wepet-er · wp(t)-rꜣ · mouth-opening ritual · adze ritual · animation ritual
Before burial, Egyptians performed the 'Opening of the Mouth' on the mummy and on tomb statues: a priest touched the mouth and eyes with special tools to magically restore the dead person's ability to breathe, speak, eat, and use the senses. Only then could the deceased benefit from offerings and live fully in the afterlife. The same rite could animate a statue or even a temple image.
In short
A funerary ritual performed on the mummy (and on statues) to restore its senses and faculties — touching the mouth and eyes with ritual implements so the deceased could breathe, eat, speak, and receive offerings in the afterlife.
Where it’s found
Old Kingdom origins; the developed ritual in New Kingdom tomb scenes and ritual papyri
Read it in the Egyptian texts
The passages in our corpus where this idea is discussed — each opens in our reader with the Egyptian transliteration and the English translation side by side.
How the idea developed across Egypt
Rooted in Old Kingdom statue and funerary ritual; elaborated into a long sequence of scenes by the New Kingdom (depicted in tombs and described in the Opening-of-the-Mouth ritual texts).
The Egyptian name is wp(t)-rꜣ ('opening of the mouth'); transliterated here as 'wepet-er' to avoid confusion with the god Ra (the rꜣ here is the word 'mouth,' not the sun god).