When did the title "Pharaoh" actually appear, and how were the rulers of ancient Egypt called?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Anyone who is even a little familiar with the history of Ancient Egypt can easily name a couple of names of the rulers of this country - the pharaohs, those who were portrayed in special clothes, for whom huge tombs were erected, in whose honor inscriptions were carved on the walls of temples. Being a pharaoh meant about the same as being a celestial - a deity, as if briefly descended to earth. But what is surprising is that none of the rulers ever called himself Pharaoh, moreover, the title of ruler of Egypt never included the word “Pharaoh”.

How and why did the term "Pharaoh" appear?

No wonder modern researchers are much more willing to use the word "king" in relation to the rulers of Ancient Egypt. The word “per-aa” in ancient times was called the “great house”, the royal palace, and only in the time of the New Kingdom this term began to be used to denote the one who owns this palace. The king of Egypt was perceived as an intermediary between gods and people, and therefore each of those who stood at the head of state were endowed with a long title, which was supposed to be uttered in full during solemn ceremonies, and it was forbidden to pronounce it just like that, in vain. Apparently, this is how the tradition arose to call the king a pharaoh - the ruler of the "great house", in order, on the one hand, to reduce the cumbersome turns of speech, and on the other, to avoid the risk of disturbing the gods once again by calling their names.

For the first time the appeal "Pharaoh" was recorded in a document during the reign of Akhenaten, in the middle of the XIV century BC, and according to some versions - a hundred years earlier. This word since those times began to mean something like "your majesty", "his majesty", but in the official titles of the Egyptian king it was absent. The title under which the king ruled consisted of several names, each of which carried a special meaning and rooted into ancient times. And the purpose of the title was not only to reflect the status of the ruler as the bearer of sacred and secular power, but also to formulate the essence, idea, formula of his reign.

What the title of the king of ancient Egypt actually consisted of

The title of the Egyptian kings was established in the era of the Middle Kingdom (the era between the 21st and 18th centuries BC) and lasted until the conquest of these lands by the Romans at the beginning of the new era. The title included five "names"., the oldest of the official names that the ruler received, appeared already in the pre-dynastic or early dynastic period - in the third-fourth millennium BC. This name was supposed to represent the ruler as an earthly incarnation of the god Horus (Horus), who was depicted as a falcon or a man with a falcon's head. The first Egyptian kings are known only by a choral name. An epithet about the ruler was added to the name of the god, for example, for the pharaoh Neferhotep it sounded like "Founding both lands."

The second part of the title was "", it contained a dedication to two mistresses, mistresses of Upper and Lower Egypt. It was after the unification of the two lands that the rise and prosperity of the country began, and therefore the mention of this duality is constantly found in the symbolism of the royal power. The goddess of Upper Egypt, Nehbet, was depicted in the form of a vulture, and the goddess of Lower Egypt, Wadzhet, was depicted as a cobra. The name according to Nebti could look, for example, as “great by the royal power in Ipet-sut” - this was what Akhenaten had. This name has been used since the first dynasty.

The third part of the title is. Less is known about him than others. It is assumed that the meaning of the use of the Golden name was reduced to the worship of the sun god Ra, whose symbol was this noble metal. For the first time such a name was recorded in the title of Djoser from the III dynasty. The main requirement in the creation of this part of the title was the mention of gold, for example, "Your golden name." At the same time, the hieroglyphs depicted a reed and a bee - a symbol of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. Starting from the V dynasty, the name was not added if the personal name of the king contained a mention of the god Ra. The throne name was lengthened due to the use of epithets in relation to the king - for example, Pharaoh Amenhotep's throne name was "Lord of Truth Ra"., the fifth and last title, was given at birth. It was preceded by the hieroglyph "son of Ra", which was an image of a duck (a homonym for the word "son") and a circle - the Sun.

Title as program manifesto and formula of government

This is how the entire title of Pharaoh Thutmose III sounded: “Horus, the Mighty Bull, Arising in Thebes; From both Ladies, Ascending in royal dignity, Like Ra in heaven; Golden Mountain, Strongest of the mighty, Sacred phenomenon; God of Two Lands, Unchanging, manifested as Ra; Son of Ra, Thutmose, the most beautiful."

All five names of the pharaoh were named in full on especially solemn occasions. At the same time, the pronunciation or image of the title conveyed the essence of the reign of the pharaoh. It was clear what qualities he valued most in himself, what he considered his priority in politics, what he was proud of, what events he took credit for. As a rule, the title remained unchanged throughout the entire reign, but if the pharaoh changed the style of government, changes were also made to his official names.

The spelling of the names of the king made it much easier for historians and archaeologists to work on deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs and dating monuments. Modern historians designate the rulers by a personal name, adding to it a serial number - I, II, III - if these names are the same for different rulers.

And the name "Pharaoh" in the time of Hellenism - from the IV century. BC. before the 1st century n. NS. - was already used for any king, not only Egyptian, but also foreign. Then it got into the Greek language, from where it migrated to Russian - in the form in which it is still used as a synonym for the expression "Egyptian king".

By the way, among those whose names mankind has tried to erase from history, once the sun god Ra himself hit - though not for long.