Pharaoh
The Pharaoh of ancient Egypt is
normally described as the typical example of a divine ruler. The reality was more complex
than this, since the Pharaoh seems to have been a combination of a human element and a
divine counterpart. This duality is expressed not only in the ruler's titles, which often
have a double aspect to them, but also in the king's names. Every Pharaoh had a human
name, given to him at birth and used in intimate contexts throughout his life. These names
are the ones by which we know them. Since such names tended to repeat themselves in
families, we now need to distinguish kings with the same name by numbers. In addition,
there was a throne-name, conferred at the accession and containing the immortal form of
the ruler's divinity. The king was an embodiment of the sun god, an eternal prototype, and
the human frailties of the individual ruler did not affect this embodiment: a convenient
system, surely, for having the best of both worlds when it comes to government. The
Pharaoh was essentially an icon, much as the imperial Tsar was an icon, and even the
president of the United States sometimes appears to be.
How far can icons be stretched? Pharaoh was the manifestation of the sun in time and
place: he could be old, young, athletic, gay, incompetent, boring, alcoholic or insane,
but he would still be Pharaoh. Examples of all these types are known, or hinted at in the
sources. But could he be female? The theoretical answer to this question may have been
'yes', since there are several ancient Egyptian texts describing creator-gods with both
male and female attributes, but it was one thing to concede an abstract possibility and
another to welcome its embodiment. Female rulers are attested in the long history of
dynastic Egypt, and later tradition puts the names of queens at or near the end of both
the Old Kingdom (c. 2200 BC) and the Middle Kingdom, some five centuries later. (The Old
Kingdom one, Nitocris, later attracted considerable legends, and appears prominently in
Herodotos). However, the important point was that tradition placed these queens at the end
of their particular dynasties: female Pharaohs were unnatural, and meant decline and
retribution. Egyptian society gave remarkable freedoms and legal rights to women - far
more than in the rest of the Near East or in the classical world - but limits were limits,
even by the Nile. From Hatshepsut: the Female
Pharaoh
Songs referenced:
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