The King and His Role in Ancient Egypt

Janelle Richardson Professor Ogden Goelet Ancient Egyptian Religion First Paper 4/8/13 The mightiness and his role During the times of the Ancient Egyptians there were many spirits that the Egyptians stood by, one of which world the ideal of polytheism. The Egyptians live in a spiritual dethaw reign. Although they tend to follow the beliefs of the community that they lived in and around, they were for the most part free to wor post and practice whatever they may with whatever God they felt right.Another belief the Egyptians held onto was the belief in male monarchship and aim, Maat. The construct of Kingship during the times of the Ancient Egyptians was crucial to the unification of the Egyptian people. Through his associations with the Gods he was expected to observe the order or kinda maat of the land, which was inhabited by the Egyptian people. The exponent was responsible for keeping the peace and amongst the people and the land both figuratively and liter eithery. The k ing was tasked with protect the people from potential attacks from foreign lands.But perhaps most importantly the King served as the median between the people and the Gods. They were therefore expected to make offerings to Gods that would sate to their needs as deities, pleasing them and placing the king and thus his kingdom, his land and his people in good favor with the Gods. This was crucial because this meant that the Gods have blessed the land that the Egyptians gather on assuring lasted nourishment, the king had to feed his people, and if he alone managed to please the Gods on behalf of him and his people he was able to accomplish fair(a) that.But we cant forget the idea that when the people are happy the king is secure. All of the positive exchanges between the Gods and king were important in securing a pharaohs kingship and in the end giving them the opportunity to create and secure a dynasty for a farseeinger period of time. This is an important idea when discussing th e topic of the development of Religion in State. cope with to the construct of kingship, religion and ritual were a vital part of the Egyptian horticulture, thus a vital part in their unity, especially during times of tribal strife and war.Also key in the formation of religion is the Egyptians obsession over final stage, which could leave a dark air about the culture as whole, but the idea of an later on-life, life after(prenominal) death was brought to the Egyptians through the image of Gods. The Egyptians created a world of polytheistic ideals and rituals that reflected their beliefs Egyptians believed dated back to the time when gods control on earth, and by the law laid down by the King, their son and earthly representative. (Cerny 35).So being that the relationship that the Egyptian people had with the Gods and their importance in the trammel of chaos in their world the ideal of the Kings divinity was key for the survival of society and perhaps the sanity of society as well. Egypt was the firstborn large nation state, with a culture virtually restricted to that state, and thus was very self-contained in which kingship was an unquestioned presupposition of social orderindeed order was hardly conceivable without it. (Baines, 2).The Kings responsibilities stretched as far as the prevention of the collapse of their Egyptian state. Of course it was important to every Egyptian to be responsible for themselves and do their duties unto the land as the Gods may have it and they praised and celebrated and communed because of these rituals and these practices. But in these times, even if an Egyptian works as hard as he can consistently to please the Gods on his own if the king falls short of his duty as the Divine middleman, the Egyptians reap may not bloom crops sufficient enough to feed themselves of their families.The King as a Divine Creature Although out of the archives and data that has been put in over the past decades about Ancient Egyptian, the evidence that shows the King as being an actual divine being of the Gods, usually an incarnation of a finicky God or sometimes a mosh of multiple Gods the King was scene by the people as divine and a direct globe of the Gods, therefore the only person with the ability to be in communication with the God. The sun-god we are told elsewhere had appointed hum to be shepherd of this land, to keep the people alivein theory he was the officiant in every temple in the landand every religious ceremony and ritual was in a sense a royal ritual. (Fairman 1958, 76). The Egyptians also believed the Kings, if they werent to fail and disgrace themselves in the eyes of the Gods, received a several(predicate) treatment after death.The afterlife of a king wasnt thought to be the same as one of an Egyptian civilian, rather the Egyptian people believed that after the death of the kings cross over to the worlds of the divine, some believe that they become Osiris in the afterlife. The king This idea i s seen in many of the art pieces make by the Egyptians that referenced kings after their deaths and their relationship to the Gods, or in a lot of cases a particular God (For example The God Horus).Whole tombs at the highest level of grandiosity and tribute were made for kings after their deaths. Many rituals were had for the kings before and after their passing including the kings initial coronation which involve d the selection of the new Sacred Falcon, which was effected by Horus by means of an oraclespecial hymns were sung, one greeting the New Year and the second being concerned with ensuring the protection of the Sacred Falcon (Fairman 1958, 80).It was believed that the spirit of Horus enters the king at the coronation and guides the king along the path of maat. Then when the king died his spirit was merged with Osiris from where he could guide his successors. The King was key in the lives of the Egyptians. The King had a foot in both worlds, the secular and the spiritual, or rather the sacred, which were treated as one in the same thing by the Egyptians, at all times. The King was the religious leader and the law book simultaneously.The Kings was seen as a representation/manifestation of God in a flesh and entirely mortal carcass that served the God King for as long as they are to rule until their time to go and take part in their after-life begins The king, it is true, interprets the evidence, translating light beam and motion in terms of religious meaning, answering them by cultic action and speaking to a God who expresses himself in a strictly heliomorphic way (Assman 1989, 68). until now the Pharaohs ritual vestments were designed to show his power.The symbols of the gods were the kings tools of office. The crook, to reward the innocent, the flail, to punish the guilty, showing his authority to rule the two-lands, and the Ureaus Cobra or Eye of Ra seeing all that the Pharaoh did, good or evil. (Humphries). The Kings was responsible for keeping or der or Maat , the rule of order over the chaos that the Egyptians thought was waiting to instance the world, at any moment without the guidance of the Gods and the usefulness of the King.The focus was on balance, the people the Egyptians themselves were inclined to honor the Gods along with the King by living a life of obedience and balance so that they can rest assured that all w mad be well, they have pleased the Gods and they shall not be punished for any wrong doing. The kings notional strength came from the support of the gods and as long as this was maintained no ill could befall the country.There is little denying that the Egyptians didnt believe that their kings werent in part Gods themselves as represented by most of their art and writings. But this system that the Egyptians became so accustomed to held the potential to cause problems for the king. The key to life lived in balance is Maat but once this was lost, however, the kingdom was thrown into turmoil until a new ine xpugnable king, who had the support of the gods, took the throne. The Kings and the Egyptians found out that the Gods arent always pleased.The Integration of the Church and State and the Problems that it caused the King The Pharaoh was seen as the emissary of the gods and life was good as long as the religious rites were performed and maat was maintained, but what happened when maat wasnt contained? What problems arose for the king then, when something hasnt lined up with divine order? Though I stress the importance of the king in Ancient Egypt, we cant forget that not everything always went so smoothly for the Egyptians and those who ruled over them.Perhaps one of the most obvious drawbacks to being a king endowed with such divine responsibility is if and when the Gods were not perceived to be happy whether specifically at the kings actions or the actions of his people, the state of the kings position in his kingdom comes into question and under fire. These occurrences however, mig ht have helped balance out the Egyptians belief of the God identical ways of being for the king. The King is mortal and fallible, after all, the king is still human.This ideal is showcased in a lot of the literary texts of the New Kingdom, Many different types of human frailties and weaknesses characterize all the figures inThe Contendings of Horus and Seth (Wente 1972c, 108-126 translation and Lichtheim 1976, 214-223 translation), The gods were anthropomorphized from an early period in ancient Egypts history (Hornung 1982a, 105-107), and their portrayal both in figures and in text clearly is humanized. They have family problems. They bicker. They display moods (Silverman 1995, 53-54).In other words theyre human, just as they were and were witnessed to be in life outside of their association with the Gods. closing curtain Was the king divine? Its obvious now that the Egyptians without a doubt believed in the divinity of their king, some might even say that that belief was necessi ty for the survival of the Egyptians I would say that by definition and according to what most of society today thinks of to be divine, the answer is yes and no, the king wasnt really divine in the sense that he possessed magical powers that directly affected those around him and his people, or in the sense that the king was actually just God.But in accordance to what I believe as a member or todays society and from what I know of the Ancient Egyptians and their beliefs, I think that the king was divine, but I believe that by the same nature of the king being divine, so was every other Egyptian that lived during the time. at present this is simply my opinion and lines up directly with my personal beliefs in God, but in a less personal explanation, the presence and usefulness of the King in relationship to the Egyptian people and the order of the Egyptian world, served as a very sturdy backbone in the Egyptian society.Footnotes The silence of the god who expresses himself visually is balanced by the voice of the king which plays such an important part in the inscriptions. The king is the speaking god, spreading truth (Maat) upon earth as the Aten Spreads light and life. Sources and Bibliography Assmann, J. , The Name Formula, in The Search for God in Ancient Egypt, D. Lorton, trans. (Ithaca, NY 2001) 83-110. Bell, Dr. Lanny. Montclair State University. Divine Kingship in Ancient Egypt -Mythology and Iconography. N. p. n. d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. . Cited for information on Horus Cerny, J. ,, Egyptian Oracles, Chap. 6 in R. A. Parker, A Saite Oracle Papyrus from Thebes (Providence 1962) 35-48 Dunn, Jimmy. King Ramesses I, Founder of the 19th Dynasty. King Ramesses I, Founder of the 19th Dynasty. Tour Egypt, n. d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. . Fairman, H. W. The Kingship Rituals of Egypt, in Myth, Ritual and King ship Essays on Theory and Practice of Kingship, S. H. Hooke (Oxford 1958) 74-104 Hornung, E. , The Pharaoh, Chap. 10 in S. Donadoni, ed. , The Egyptians (Chicago a nd London 1997) 283-314. Hornung, E. , History as Celebration, Chap. 8 in Idea into Image (New York 1992) 147-164. Humphries, Ken. Egypt Was Pharaoh Divine. Egypt Was Pharaoh Divine. N. p. , n. d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. Used as a study source Silverman, D. P. , The Nature of Egyptian Kingship, in Chap. 2 in D.OConnor and D. P. Silverman, eds. , Ancient Egyptian Kingship. Probleme der Agyptologie 9 (Leiden 1995) 49-92. Lichtheim, M. Stela of Sehetep-ib-re, Ancient Egyptian Literature I (Berkeley 1975) 125-129. Teeter, Emily. Festivals. Religion and Ritual in Ancient Egypt. Cambridge Cambridge UP, 2011. 56-75. Print. Wente, Edward F. , and Robert A. Oden. Response to Robert A. Odens The Contendings of Horus and Seth (Chester Beatty Papyrus No. 1) A Structural InterpretationChicago University of Chicago, 1979. 105-07. Print.