Temple of Horus at Edfu: Overall view

The Mammisi (or 'birth-house': an annexe where the annual ritual of divine birth was performed) shows the decoration of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II, Ptolemy IX Soter II and Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos. This colonnaded structure was the site of the annual Festival of Coronation, which reenacted the divine birth of Horus and the reigning pharaoh. Around the back of the building are reliefs of Horus being suckled by Isis.\u000a\u000aEdfu [ancient Egyptian, Behdet or Djeba; Greek, Apollinopolis; now Idfu] is the site of a temple dedicated to Horus begun by Ptolemy III Euergetes 237 BCE. The Temple of Horus, the most completely preserved of all Egyptian temples, dates mainly to the Ptolemaic period. Horus of Behdet was a divine metaphor for the living king who, having vanquished the enemy, ruled as the victorious winged sun-disc. It was therefore especially appropriate and expedient for the Greek rulers of the Ptolemaic period to venerate the victorious Egyptian divine king Horus, perhaps to reinforce their own kingship and to draw the human parallel that they had liberated Egypt from the Persian yoke.