Through the Eras

Religionand Amun. An inscription from the time of Ramesses II(1279–1213 B.C.E.) states that Ptah engendered the kingin his form of Banebdjed, a ram god.HORUS. The king could be equated with any numberof deities when he was said to be fulfilling the functionof those gods. From the earliest periods of Egyptianhistory, the king was thought to be the embodiment ofthe ancient sky god Horus. Amenemhet I (r. 1938–1909B.C.E.) is described as “driving out evil when he appearslike Atum.” Sesostris III (1836–1818 B.C.E.) was describedas Sekhmet, a fierce lion goddess representing thefiery heat of the sun, when attacking the enemies whotrespassed on the borders of Egypt. The Loyalist Inscriptiondescribes King Amenemhet III (r. 1818–1772B.C.E.) as Sia (goddess of perception), Re, Khnum,Bastet, Hapi, Montu, and Sakhmet. Here the king wasnot the incarnation of these deities, but equating the kingwith these gods described his roles as warrior (Montu),provider (Hapi), protector (Sakhmet), and father figure(Khnum).FOUR PURPOSES. According to an Egyptian textthat scholars call The King as Sun Priest, Re establishedkingship in Egypt for four purposes: “judging men, formaking gods content, for creating truth (maat), and fordestroying evil (isfet).” The first of these duties, judgingmen, refers to the king’s civil duties as the source of lawand justice. The second, making the gods content, refersto the king’s responsibility to see to it that temples tothe gods were built and maintained throughout Egypt,and that in them the gods received the necessary offeringsand the required rituals were performed. The thirdand fourth duties, creating maat and destroying isfet, gotogether. Maat has been translated as truth, order, justice,or righteousness. It refers to the order establishedby the gods at creation, when a space was established inthe chaos of Nun for life to take place. It refers to thenatural order as well as to the social order, and embracesthe concepts of duty, responsibility, social justice, andethical behavior. It was the way the Egyptians thoughtthings ought to be. It was the king’s responsibility to ensurethat maat was preserved and that its opposite, isfet(evil, disorder, injustice) was overcome. One of the king’smost important duties was to present maat, representedas a small figure of the seated goddess with her legs drawnup, to the gods in their temples daily. In this way, theking reaffirmed that he was fulfilling his duty of preservingmaat.SOURCESH. Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods (Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1978).David O’Connor and David P. Silverman, eds., AncientEgyptian Kingship (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill,1995).SEE ALSO Literature: The Literature of Moral Values;Philosophy: MaatKINGSHIP RITUALSFORMAL TITULARY. The king acquired and maintainedhis divinity through a series of rituals. The firstsuch ritual the king participated in was his coronation,called in Egyptian khai, which means “to arise” and wasalso used to describe the sun’s rising. At this time, thefive elements of the king’s formal titulary were announced:a Horus name, representing the king as theearthly embodiment of the sky-god Horus; a “TwoLadies” name (the two ladies being the goddessesNekhbet and Wadjit, the two protective goddesses ofUpper and Lower Egypt); the Golden Horus (or simplythe Gold) name, the exact significance of which is uncertain;his throne name, assumed at accession, whichwas preceded by the title “King of Upper and LowerEgypt”; and the birth name which, beginning in theFourth Dynasty (2625–2500 B.C.E.), was compoundedwith the title “son of Re.” It is the throne name andbirth name that were surrounded by a cartouche (an ovalor oblong figure that held the king’s names).OPET FESTIVAL. Once inducted into office, the kingparticipated in rituals designed to maintain and renew hisdivine status. Once a year he traveled to Thebes to participatein the Opet festival at the temple of Luxor. Duringthis festival, which began on the fifteenth ornineteenth day of the second month of the first seasonknown as Akhet (Inundation), the king participated in aprocession from Karnak to Luxor temple, where some ofthe rituals of the coronation were reenacted. The purposeof these rituals was to renew or restore the king’s royalka (spirit) and reconfirm his right to rule. Each Egyptianpossessed a ka, which can roughly be translated “lifeforce.” This was a separate entity that was thought to inhabitthe body. The ka was transmitted from parent tochild, and embodied the procreative power. The ka representeda bridge between the physical world and theworld of the spirit. At his coronation, the king had receivedthe royal ka, the same ka possessed by all the previouskings of Egypt. It was possession of this ka thatrendered the king divine. As the vessel of the royal ka,some kings had temples dedicated to their worship builtduring their lifetimes. Amenhotep III (r. 1390–1352B.C.E.) erected temples to himself at Soleb, Sedeinga, andArts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.) 225