The cult of the pharaoh in ancient Egypt played a special role in the existence of society. This phenomenon was supported by the teachings of the priests. According to him, the pharaoh was considered the embodiment of a deity or god-man.
In other words, the ruler of Ancient Egypt had a dual nature. He possessed both human and divine sources. Even his birth was considered the result of a marriage between god the father and the earthly mother. In this regard, the pharaoh ruled the earth as the embodiment of Horus, and after death was identified with the lord of the already underworld.
Dynasties of Rulers
The history of Ancient Egypt is divided into five periods. It was the Early and Ancient, Middle and New, as well as the Late Kingdom. All of them existed in the 3-1 millennium BC. At these times, the country was alternately ruled by thirty dynasties of the pharaohs, each of whom was considered the embodiment on earth of the supreme god Osiris. The first such ruler was Mina. At one time, he combined Lower and Upper Egypt.
Considering the culture of this country, it should be noted that it was religious in nature. In addition, there was a sacralization of the power of the pharaoh (it will be briefly described in this article).
The attitude of ordinary people to rulers
All the rulers of Ancient Egypt embodied the unity of the country and were considered sacred figures. That is why the cult of the pharaoh was so developed. In ancient Egypt, he magically provided the much needed floods of the Nile through special rituals. Explaining this supernatural gift is quite simple. The fact is that the priests who possessed the relevant knowledge already knew on which day the river flood would begin. Pharaoh, at their prompting, threw an order scroll into the water. In the eyes of ordinary people, their ruler was the demigod that caused a flood of water.
That is why all the inhabitants of the country were sure that the yield of the fields, the offspring of domestic animals and even the birth of children in each family depend on their ruler. The name of the pharaoh was forbidden to pronounce aloud. In this regard, the common people had to use allegories. And only a few lucky ones managed to see a living god. In Egyptian texts one can find a description of such an audience. The visitor was required to lie on his stomach and kiss the ground near the feet of the ruler of the country. At the same time, a simple person often lost consciousness, and sometimes life, from sacred trepidation before the deity.
Sacralization
From the history of the development of society it is known that statehood in any country in the world arose on the basis of the power of kings or kings, which was, as a rule, unlimited. Moreover, this ruler was one in hundreds of thousands and even millions of his subjects.
So it was in ancient Egypt. There was a sacralization of the power of the pharaoh. This is a process endowing a ruler with sacred properties. A strong centralized power in the ancient state was achieved on the basis of the idea of the divine nature of the pharaoh. Moreover, the basic principles of this power was incomprehensibility and stability. Ancient Eastern people constantly organized around the sacred figure of their ruler. The people correlated their thoughts and deeds with him, saw in him a source of calamities and good deeds. It was as if the Pharaoh centered the world in which his subjects lived, and was a peculiar coordinate system of their views on life.
Religious beliefs
The sacralization of the power of the pharaoh was expressed in the subordination of the people to the will of one person. Moreover, this phenomenon was based on the belief of ordinary people that the ruler of their state is a representative of the supreme supernatural forces that endowed him with numerous rights. An important point at which the pharaoh’s power was possible was the approval of the concept of the “God-man,” whose power was bestowed upon him from above and does not need any rational and logical explanation.
There was a traditional ancient Greek representation. According to him, Pharaoh was the son of not only the supreme god, but also all the other main nine gods. That is, all supernatural forces were concentrated in the ruler of the country.
The sacralization of the power of the pharaoh was based on the fact that he was to a certain extent superior to all the gods individually. And this is not just an intermediary between the two worlds. He is a continuation of the divine world on earth. Such a vision of power is clearly visible in one of the ancient texts, “The Testament of Ramses”.
Pharaoh Status
The image and figure of the divine king received the most complete and complete expression in ancient Egypt. But, despite this, the cult of the pharaoh was only a tendency to preserve primitive ideas. People living in the outback believed their local gods, and the cult of the ruler of the state existed for them only formally.
The fact that the pharaohs did not always carry the symbol of divinity in the eyes of those submitted is evidenced by the ancient Egyptian texts that have come down to us. But still in this state the cult of the ruler was developed as much as possible in human society.
Theocratic nature of power
The head of Ancient Egypt was Pharaoh. In his hands concentrated absolute power over the country, its material, natural, labor and land resources. The name, which bears a similar sacralization of the power of the pharaoh, is theocracy. Translated from Greek, this word means "sovereignty." Everything that the country had was considered the property of its ruler. And it is not by chance that such a concept as “the house of the pharaoh” meant the same thing as “the state”.
The teachings of the priests of ancient Egypt demanded that the inhabitants of the country implicit obedience to their ruler. Disobedience threatened people with terrible misfortunes, not only during life, but also after death.
The role of art
The sacralization of the power of the pharaoh was supported by Egyptian culture. The works of art created in this way were not at all a source of aesthetic pleasure.
They affirmed in the astounding imagination of man the images and forms of the power that was endowed by the pharaoh. The culture of ancient Egypt stood in the service of the interests of the country's elite and its head. First of all, she was called upon to create monuments that glorified the pharaohs and knew theocratic political system. Such works were carried out according to certain rules, due to which the sacralization of the power of the pharaoh in Egypt was further strengthened.
Narmer Slate Slab
There is a striking monument testifying to the sacralization of the power of the pharaoh in Ancient Egypt. This is a Narmer slate slab. It is a plate sixty-four centimeters high, on both sides of which relief images and brief hieroglyphic inscriptions are applied. This plate tells of the victory of the ruler of Upper Egypt Narmer over Lower Egypt and the unification of these territories into a single state. Here you can see the image of the pharaoh in the very center of the composition. It is carved with a mace, which crushes the head of the leader of the enemies. On the other side, Narmer, as the winner, is sent to the group of prisoners of war defeated by him.
The image on the plate proves the fact that there really was a sacralization of the power of the pharaoh in the ancient Egyptian state. After all, the ruler is depicted higher than all the others. Moreover, artists have adhered to this principle for more than one decade in many works of art.
Sculpting
The sacralization of the power of the pharaoh in ancient Egypt found expression in many works of art. The sculptors of that time depicted the rulers of the state with the help of statues. At the same time, they tried to idealize the “demigods," giving their faces a calm expression, and making the figure more majestic and powerful.
A striking example is the statue of Pharaoh Chephren. This peaceful and calm ruler sits on a throne over which the god of the mountains spread his wings . This statue, like everyone else, is a cult, containing, according to the Egyptians, the spiritual essence of the deceased. Moreover, the main thing in the portrait of the pharaoh is not similarity with his facial features. The main emphasis here is on the type of ruler, estranged from everyday life, who is the head of the largest ancient Eastern state.
Temple Creation
To sacralize the power of the pharaohs, not only murals, statues and reliefs served. Their power was glorified by the creation of grandiose temples, as well as entire temple complexes. All of them were erected in honor of the deified rulers of Ancient Egypt.
One of the most striking examples of such an architectural masterpiece is the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut. It was built at the end of the 16th century. BC. in the valley of Deir al-Bahri. All the main paintings and inscriptions of this memorial temple describe the birth and coronation of the queen, as well as her remarkable military feat - a trip to the country of Punt. This was the first female pharaoh to rule Ancient Egypt.
Funeral cult
In the monuments of art that have come down to us from the time of a distant era, two themes are clearly traced - life and death. In Egypt, there was a doctrine that claimed that the resurrection certainly awaits the resurrection.
The pharaoh in this state is not only a holder of power, but also a divine being. Having finished his mission in the world of people, he is supposed to return to the gods again, where he stayed until his earthly birth.
The erection of tombs, which were to serve as the "house of eternity", further approved the sacralization of the power of the pharaoh. Theocracy and the funeral cult in this state found expression in these architectural monuments.
Powerful rulers gathered huge armies of workers who were forced to work hard, carving huge granite blocks, delivering them to the construction site, and then lifting and stacking the hardest materials using only primitive equipment.
History does not know of any other state where rulers would decide on such material and human costs only in order to erect such a monument. However, in Ancient Egypt, these tombs were of major cult significance. The people believed that with their help the pharaohs would be able to ascend into the world of the gods. The pyramid itself was a symbol of a multi-stage bench for commemoration, on which there was enough space for each resident of the state. This monument was the final stage in the funeral rite, starting with the pier, which arrived the body of the pharaoh, brought in a boat on the Nile. The entire last path of the ruler passed from east to west, that is, he repeated the movement of the celestial luminary in the sky.
Symbols of Greatness
How else was the sacralization of the power of the pharaoh carried out? The attributes worn by the ruler of Ancient Egypt were symbols of his greatness. One of the main ones was considered a headdress, which was called "millet". It consisted of two crowns - red (Lower Egypt) and white (Upper Egypt). This headdress was a symbol of power over both lands. Crowns were put on one another, attaching in front of the image of the goddesses, the patronesses of these territories.
Everyday headdress for the inhabitants of Egypt was considered a scarf. At the pharaoh, he was in the form of a large piece of striped fabric, a hoop with a snake and a ribbon. Such a scarf was called "Klaft", sometimes a crown was put on it.
Also among the attributes of the power of the pharaoh from ancient times was the staff. It reminded of past times when cattle breeding played a significant role in people's lives.
A rod with a curved upper end is also a symbol of the power of the ruler of Egypt. It is called a hake, or hook. In addition to the pharaoh, this symbol was worn by high officials. In addition, there was another rod - was. It was a long cane with a forked lower end. The top of the wasas was adorned with a stylized head of a dog or jackal.
In addition to these attributes, the pharaoh’s symbol of power was the whip, or neheh (flail). An important royal advantage was the beard. It was made of gold and tied to a ruler.
The Pharaoh sat on the throne. This seat was made in the shape of a cube and had a very low back. On both sides of the throne, a symbol of the unification of Egyptian lands was established, which was a reed transplanting papyrus.