UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
whole country and soon after their firstvictory Narmer set up a capital at
Memphis, near the junction of the two lands. 5
The kings of the first two dynasties of the archaic period (see
Chapter i) still remain rather nebulous figuresto us, nor can we learn much
more concerning the events of their individual reigns. Yet without doubt
this period was one of hard work for consolidation. During the 300 years
after the first dynasty the culture of the later years of the predynastic period
continued, but during the third and fourth dynasties political unity was
achieved and the new state was stable enough to express itself in a distinctively
Egyptian way. This took the form of a new dogma by which the
Egyptian king was regarded as other than human, as a god, in fact,
reigning over humans. The dogma of the divinity of the Pharaoh 6 may
have been a concept worked out during the early dynasties to consolidate
a single rule over the two lands. From the third dynasty onwards one
would be justified in saying that the head of the state was not an Upper
Egyptian nor a Lower Egyptian, but a god.
In the full theory of kingship, the Pharaoh was the state and was
responsible for every activity carried out in the country (see Chapter 3).
Moreover, he was high priest of all the gods and served them in every
temple every day. Obviously it was not possible for him to do, in practice,
all that he was supposed to do. It was necessary for him to have deputies
to carry out his divine word: cabinet ministers, officials in the provinces,
generals in the army and priests in the temples. True, his theoretical power
was absolute. Yet, in effect, he was not free to carry out his will. He was
the embodiment of beliefs and practices which had long been in existence
and which were progressively elaborated with the passage of years. The
lives of the kings were actually so codified that they could not even take
a walk or a bath except according to a pattern laid down for them,
regulated by ceremonies and obligations.
Yet beneath their elaborate crowns the Pharaohs naturally had human
hearts and human minds reacting to love and hate, ambition and mistrust,
anger and desire. Art and literature set up an ideal standard to depict
a stylized god king of Egypt from the beginning of the history of ancient
Egypt to the end, and it is remarkable that we nevertheless come to
know individual kings as distinct personalities in their own right.
We all know the great interest that ancient nations took in Egyptian
beliefs, and how those that had lost faith in the credence of their forefathers
turned to the wise men of Egypt. A certain reverence for the
wisdom of Egypt survived until the disappearance of polytheistic
religions.
Like other contemporary peoples, the Egyptians of the Neolithic age saw
their gods in their natural surroundings, believing that the earth and heaven
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5. See W. C. Hayes, 1965; J. L. de Cénival.
6. On the actual conception of the divinity of the Pharaoh, consult G. Posener, i960.