Talking about Egyptian rulers is like entering a completely different world, like returning to that dreamt “golden age” that numerous legends tell us about, a time with different standards of living, different customs, and cosmological understandings.
In front of the magnificent works of that millennium-old civilization, in front of the inheritance of wisdom that still lives on, and in front of the astonishing endurance of their political system, we ask ourselves: did the gods really rule over Egypt, the land of Kem?
Which other known civilization managed to endure for so long? Despite historians’ disagreement regarding certain dating, we must acknowledge the fact that ancient Egypt, since its unification during Menes’ reign, existed for at least three thousand years. Which other political institution, government, or party held onto power for so long? And, perhaps most importantly, did any other people love their kings as sincerely and happily? If we look at the funerary steles, frescoes, statues, and papyri, we will see that the Egyptians depicted Not only as happy, peaceful and cheerful people, but their moral principles speak of the wisdom of the nation, revealing its traits of refinement and moderation.
Despite the inevitable changes that affect everything that exists and is subject to cycles, the durability and preservation of its heritage show that Egypt has managed to survive despite invasions, the Middle Ages, and dynastic shifts. Whether we accept it or not – because we are rational beings – one fact has been scientifically proven, and that is the Egyptians’ belief that they are ruled by gods or sons of gods. Egyptian rulers, together with the people, have diligently sought to fulfill their duty and maintain Maat on earth, in order to achieve what is considered utopia in our civilization – happiness.
In a short article, it is impossible to delve deeply into the soul of the Egyptian people. However, we will try to explain in more detail their understanding of the pharaoh and his role as the ruler of earthly Egypt and their understanding of royal authority. This can help us understand the unique relationship they have with their leaders and their concept of power. “Flattery to their worldview and way of thinking.”
“We will not dwell on purely historical issues, such as who ruled before Menes, whether King Scorpion or Narmer existed, whether different chronological tables coincide, whether a certain record refers to this or that pharaoh, nor will we analyze battles and trade agreements. Our intention is to approach the archetype of the Egyptian king, not his passing characteristics. This approach falls into what we call ‘history of mentality’.”
“However, in order to narrow down this topic, we will mention some sources used by Egyptologists in the study of Egyptian dynasties.”
Another source is The History of Egypt or Manetho’s Egyptian Chronicle, preserved only in fragments, about which classical authors such as Josephus Flavius, Julius Africanus, Eusebius, Diogenes Laertius, Aelianus, Lycophron, Malalas, Plato’s scholiasts, Plutarch, Porphyry, Theodoret, and Theophilus wrote. Manetho’s work was considered a mandatory reference for them, perhaps the most important when talking about the millennia-old Egyptian culture.
Other sources are:
a) The list of kings from Saqqara
It was found in a tomb in Saqqara and is currently located in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It lists 47 kings up to Ramesses II, although it probably initially included 58 rulers. It begins with Miebhis, the sixth king of the 1st dynasty. It does not include rulers from the 13th to the 17th dynasty and also preserves a tradition about Lower Egypt.
b) The list of kings from Abydos
It is located on the wall of a corridor in the temple of Seti I in Abydos. It contains a chronological list of the names of 76 kings from Menes to Seti I. It does not include rulers from the 13th to the
XVII dynasty. There is also a duplicate of this document in the temple of Ramesses II in Abydos, but it is not completely preserved.
c) List of kings from Karnak
Currently housed in the Louvre Museum in Paris. The list initially contained the names of 71 kings, from Menes to Thutmose III. The names of some rulers from the Middle Kingdom period (from the XIII to the XVII dynasty) have also been preserved. Like the list from Abydos (the burial place of Osiris), this list also preserves the tradition of Upper Egypt.
d) Turin Papyrus
This is a far more important document than the aforementioned lists. It was written in hieratic script. It probably contained the names of over three hundred rulers and the duration of their reigns in years, months, and days. Similar to Manetho’s work, the Turin Papyrus begins with the dynasties of the gods, followed by mortal rulers. All in all, this work has many similarities to Manetho’s History of Egypt.
e) Palermo Stone
This source dates back to the V dynasty, around 2600 BC. It was a massive stone p Separated from black diorite, with dimensions of 213 x 366 cm, only a smaller fragment is preserved to this day, located in the museum in Palermo. Smaller pieces of the same, as well as other similar monuments, are located in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and at University College London.
Unfortunately, the text is incomplete, but there is certainly a closer connection between Manet and this find than with the other sources mentioned so far. The stone is divided by years. The upper part indicates important events, while the lower part represents the floods of the Nile. During the reign of the first dynasties, the years were not marked with numbers, but with names related to significant events. Like with Manet, religious and military events were especially highlighted, as well as other events such as pyramid construction.
Theological Origins of the Kings
In accordance with the claims of Mircea Eliade1, the kings – just like any other theme from ancient Egypt – were closely connected to what was considered sacred. Ancient peoples did not distinguish between divine and worldly. For them, there was only the Cosmos. The os, inside which the Holy space was located, or the part that the gods dedicated, the world they created and live in.
In this world, everything is planned and arranged according to the order and hierarchy of tasks that each god performs to keep everything going. The deities have the task of maintaining that order in perpetuity, and the pharaoh, who is the son of a god, must do the same on Earth.
Therefore, the pharaoh justifies his existence by the fact that the gods have entrusted him with maintaining order on Earth, to preserve the balance against chaos. This cosmological thinking points to the Egyptian belief in the “cosmic duality” of opposing forces in balance. This duality, as a reflection of the celestial in the terrestrial, manifests itself in the one who is the mediator between heaven and earth.
This is evident in the myth of Osiris. As Henri Frankfort says, the pharaoh will be called the “Two Lords”, which represents the combination of the two eternal enemies, Horus and Seth, mythological symbols of conflict. “Struggle is one of the elements in the universe that we must not underestimate. negiravao koncept borbe između Horusa i Seta, umjesto toga promovirajući njihovo pomirenje i ravnotežu. Taj koncept nije samo simboličan za svemir, već i za državu i kraljevo vladanje. Kada se kralj naziva Horus-Set, to znači da je uspio uništiti suprotnosti i uspostaviti red. To je bilo posebno vidljivo nakon vladavine Menesa, koji je ujedinio Gornji i Donji Egipat. Faraon je bio gospodar oba dijela zemlje i oba svijeta – živih i mrtvih. Kao predstavnik bogova, faraon je služio kao primjer jedinstva u mnogobrojnosti. transcends good and evil, youth and old age, male and female, and above all, life and death. Because of this, the Egyptians believed that the pharaoh, together with the gods, would welcome them into the afterlife.
In addition to this collective role, the pharaoh was also a symbol of individual reality, in which every person is similar to the gods. It would be too extensive to explain here how the Egyptians perceived humanity, but essentially, it can be summarized as follows: a person consists of a series of material and spiritual elements. However, above the body, feelings, and mind, there exists a timeless reality in which all individuals participate. Everyone was considered to be children of the gods, but they recognized different degrees of distance from their own divinity, and therefore, different levels of inner attainment. The pharaoh represented a visible and tangible proof of the possibility of inner development. This understanding was even more comprehensive. It could be said that the Egyptians believed in the invisible unity of everything that exists. Everything is interconnected, and the fundamental link is There is a connection between all things on one side, and the pharaoh and the gods on the other. “Therefore, all the gods and their Ka are one with him, contained in him and united with the Lord of the Two Lands.”
It is necessary to understand the importance of this seemingly simple argument. Whether they were peasants, soldiers, scribes, viziers, or priests, the Egyptians believed in the existence of gods, and in their name the pharaoh ruled and their land. What evil could befall them when they are protected by the gods? The people were internally calm, knowing that someone would take care of the timely flooding of the Nile, abundant harvests, and that no attacker would enslave them. Someone made sure that the strong did not oppress the weak and that justice prevailed.
Some may consider this stance somewhat childish, as if it were about children who know that nothing bad can happen to them as long as their parents are there to protect them. However, the fact is that this kind of thinking was effective and contributed to the great achievements of the Egyptian people. >On the other hand, the Egyptian understanding of the sacred implied the following: the universe was the “Cosmos,” or the order maintained by the gods, and on earth, in imitation of the heavens, the same order had to be maintained. This was achieved through rituals in which everyone, from the pharaoh to the lowest peasant, had to participate. Considering the importance of the royal obligation to maintain order, the pharaoh, moreover, was subordinate to the rituals more than the subjects. The peasant could afford some freedom, but the pharaoh had to perform a strict series of rituals from dawn until the sunset in the west, imitating the eternal ritual of the Sun Father, Amun Ra, and resembling him in all things. This was the case during the rule of many royal dynasties, and a similar phenomenon was present in other cultures, such as Chinese.
In the Egyptian society, everyone accepted their duty, behaving like gears in a sacred machine. Each part of this machine had a task that needed to be fulfilled, so as not to disrupt the balance.
This allows us to understand. the preservation of rituals unchanged over many generations is of utmost importance, as is the significance of the priestly class in assisting the pharaoh in fulfilling his cosmic duty of preserving and transmitting these formulas. The word “formula” is used here in the same sense as it is used today by mathematicians, physicists, or chemists, meaning a synthesis of reality that can be reproduced anywhere and anytime, provided that its values are respected. Therefore, each deity or divine trinity was worshipped through specific rituals performed by priests in a precise manner, and thus the canons of ritual performance were able to be preserved until the fall of the Empire.
We consider this detail to be extremely important because it represents the “leitmotif” of Egyptian culture as a whole. In our opinion, Egypt is best characterized by its longevity and the artistic, literary, and scientific patterns that have been preserved and untouched for millennia. The Egyptians believed that The knowledge is hidden in the original formulas that were given to them by the gods and which should be preserved at all costs.
The received original formulas were later only meant to be constantly repeated. And indeed, during the decline of the Egyptian Empire, the Egyptians repeated these formulas in a similar way to illiterate priests in medieval monasteries: they did not understand what they were transcribing, but they tried to faithfully transmit the “drawings.” Many medical records from recent times have been found, which are actually copies of older texts from the time of the first dynasties.
Egyptian culture is the only one that reveals itself to us as almost perfect: it is a culture with developed art, architecture, science, literature, and politics, which few later surpassed. Furthermore, its recognized shortest duration is over three thousand years. We could we should question whether the formulas “worked”. Did the Egyptians really reach the pinnacle of almost perfect knowledge at one point in their history, what Martin Bernal calls the “axial core”? We do not know the answer to this question. We can only observe that along with the decline of Egypt, there is also a decline in the application of formulas. Plato’s Republic also points to this, explaining how changes in customs lead to changes in political systems.
But let’s get back to our topic. It is clear that Egyptian priests had a monopoly on knowledge in their “houses of life,” “houses of eternity,” or “houses of millennia.” They essentially ruled Egypt, with the supreme priest – the pharaoh – at their head. From their position in the hierarchical pyramid, with the power bestowed upon them by the gods, these priest-architects-physicians governed customs, law, and all forms of public and private life.
We would like to make a step towards better understanding Egyptian culture and religion. Public perception, even in academic circles, often misunderstands certain concepts due to ignorance. In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh and priests had specific roles and tasks that the people understood and accepted, and they carried out their duties within Egyptian society. Egypt was like a grand temple ruled by gods, and the life of the gods, the universal laws of Nature, were celebrated in rituals.