Kings
Kings
In ancient Egypt kings were thought to be in part gods. In life they were associated with the god Horus and in death they were associated with Osiris. Both were male gods and kingship was considered essentially male. That means that in 3000 years of Egyptian history we only know of around 6 women who ruled in their own right.
One of the symbols of kingship was the false beard. He also wore crowns, usually a white crown and a red crown symbolising Upper and Lower Egypt respectively. The crown was often adorned with a uraeus (rearing cobra) which symbolically protected him.
If you look to the left of the case in the Egypt Centre you will see stone statues of a female king, Hatshepsut, wearing a false beard. On other depictions she is shown wearing a kilt. She does not appear to be the first Egyptian female queen to do so. Sobeknefru, a Middle Kingdom woman, was depicted in the same manner.
By the Middle Kingdom the king had five names. These associated him with different gods.
The king stood halfway between his people and the gods. This meant that the king mediated between the two. It was he who was responsible for maintaining the order of the universe, or maat, by offering to the gods. In theory all offerings were made by the king to the gods but in reality the priests in the temples did this on behalf of the king. Because in theory, offerings were made by the king, the offering formula always starts with the words ‘hetep di nesu’ (an offering which the king gives).
The title ‘pharaoh’ only came in around 1450 BC and wasn’t commonly used until later. The word means ‘Great House’. It is a bit like the queen being referred to as ‘Buckingham Palace’. The more usual word for king in ancient Egypt was ‘nesu’ though the people would have referred to him as ‘hem ef’ (His Majesty).
Items in the Egypt Centre associated with kings include:
Part of a plaster frieze from Amarna showing Akhenaten
Ring bezels showing cartouches of Amarna kings
EC485 door of a shrine showing a king offering
W165 head of Amenhotep II or Thutmosis III
SM1959.3.2 Glass with the name of Amenhotep II on it
