History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 2 — 03 - Vol. 02, Ch. 01: The Political Constitution of Egypt, pt. 3

[Illustration: 027. jpg PAGE IMAGE] There was some hesitation at first as to the position the surname ought to occupy, and it was sometimes placed after the birth-name, as in “Papi Nofirkerî,” sometimes before it, as in [--] “Nofirkerî Papî.

” It was finally decided to place it at the beginning, preceded by the group [--] “King of Upper and Lower Egypt,” which expresses in its fullest extent the power granted by the gods to the Pharaoh alone; the other, or birth-name, came after it, accompanied by the words [--].

“Son of the Sun.

” There were inscribed, either before or above these two solar names --which are exclusively applied to the visible and living body of the master--the two names of the sparrow-hawk, which belonged especially to the soul; first, that of the double in the tomb, and then that of the double while still incarnate.

Four terms seemed thus necessary to the Egyptians in order to define accurately the Pharaoh, both in time and in eternity.

Long centuries were needed before this subtle analysis of the royal person, and the learned graduation of the formulas which corresponded to it, could transform the Nome chief, become by conquest suzerain over all other chiefs and king of all Egypt, into a living god here below, the all-powerful son and successor of the gods; but the divine concept of royalty, once implanted in the mind, quickly produced its inevitable consequences.

From the moment that the Pharaoh became god upon earth, the gods of heaven, his fathers or his brothers, and the goddesses recognized him as their son, and, according to the ceremonial imposed by custom in such cases, consecrated his adoption by offering him the breast to suck, as they would have done to their own child.

[Illustration: 028. jpg THE GODDESS ADOPTS THE KING BY SUCKLING HIM] Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Insinger.

The original is in the great speos of Silsilis.

The king here represented is Harmhabît of the XVIIIth dynasty; cf.

Champollion, _Monuments de l’Egypt et de la Nubie,_ pl.

cix.

, No. 3; Rosellini, _Monumenti Storici,_ pl.

xliv.

5;

Lepsius, Denkm.

, iii.

121 b. Ordinary mortals spoke of him only in symbolic words, designating him by some periphrasis: Pharaoh, “Pirûi-Aûi,” the Double Palace, “Prûîti,” the Sublime Porte, His Majesty,* the Sun of the two lands, Horus master of the palace, or, less ceremoniously, by the indeterminate pronoun “One.

” * The title “Honûf” is translated by the same authors, sometimes as “His Majesty,” sometimes as “His Holiness.

” The reasons for translating it “His Majesty,” as was originally proposed by Champollion, and afterwards generally adopted, have been given last of all by E. de Rougé.

The greater number of these terms is always accompanied by a wish addressed to the sovereign for his “life,” “health,” and “strength,” the initial signs of which are written after all his titles.

He accepts all this graciously, and even on his own initiative, swears by his own life, or by the favour of Râ, but he forbids his subjects to imitate him: for them it is a sin, punishable in this world and in the next, to adjure the person of the sovereign, except in the case in which a magistrate requires from them a judicial oath.

[Illustration: 029. jpg THE CUCUPHA-HEADED SCEPTRE.

] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the engraving in Prisse d’Avennes, _Recherches sur les légendes royales et l’époque du règne de Schai ou Scheraï,_ in the _Revue Archéologique_, 1st series, vol. ii.

p. 467. The original is now preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, to which it was presented by Prisse d’Avennes.

It is of glazed earthenware, of very delicate and careful workmanship.

He is approached, moreover, as a god is approached, with downcast eyes, and head or back bent; they “sniff the earth” before him, they veil their faces with both hands to shut out the splendour of his appearance; they chant a devout form of adoration before submitting to him a petition.

No one is free from this obligation: his ministers themselves, and the great ones of his kingdom, cannot deliberate with him on matters of state, without inaugurating the proceeding by a sort of solemn service in his honour, and reciting to him at length a eulogy of his divinity.

They did not, indeed, openly exalt him above the other gods, but these were rather too numerous to share heaven among them, whilst he alone rules over the “Entire Circuit of the Sun,” and the whole earth, its mountains and plains, are in subjection under his sandalled feet.

People, no doubt, might be met with who did not obey him, but these were rebels, adherents of Sît, “Children of Euin,” who, sooner or later, would be overtaken by punishment.

[Illustration: 030. jpg DIFFERENT POSTURES FOR APPROACHING THE KING] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger.

The picture represents Khâmhaît presenting the superintendents of storehouses to Tûtânkhamon, of the XVIIIth dynasty.

While hoping that his fictitious claim to universal dominion would be realized, the king adopted, in addition to the simple costume of the old chiefs, the long or short petticoat, the jackal’s tail, the turned-up sandals, and the insignia of the supreme gods,--the ankh, the crook, the flail, and the sceptre tipped with the head of a jerboa or a hare, which we misname the cucupha-headed sceptre.

* He put on the many-coloured diadems of the gods, the head-dresses covered with feathers, the white and the red crowns either separately or combined so as to form the pshent.

The viper or uraeus, in metal or gilded wood, which rose from his forehead, was imbued with a mysterious life, which made it a means of executing his vengeance and accomplishing his secret purposes.

It was supposed to vomit flames and to destroy those who should dare to attack its master in battle.

The supernatural virtues which it communicated to the crown, made it an enchanted thing which no one could resist.

Lastly, Pharaoh had his temples where his enthroned statue, animated by one of his doubles, received worship, prophesied, and fulfilled all the functions of a Divine Being, both during his life, and after he had rejoined in the tomb his ancestors the gods, who existed before him and who now reposed impassively within the depths of their pyramids.

** * This identification, suggested by Champollion, is, from force of custom, still adhered to, in nearly all works on Egyptology.

But we know from ancient evidence that the cucupha was a bird, perhaps a hoopoe; the sceptre of the gods, moreover, is really surmounted by the head of a quadruped having a pointed snout and long retreating ears, and belonging to the greyhound, jackal, or jerboa species.

** This method of distinguishing deceased kings is met with as far back as the “Song of the Harpist,” which the Egyptians of the Ramesside period attributed to the founder of the XIth dynasty.

The first known instance of a temple raised by an Egyptian king to his double is that of Amenôthes III.

Man, as far as his body was concerned, and god in virtue of his soul and its attributes, the Pharaoh, in right of this double nature, acted as a constant mediator between heaven and earth.

He alone was fit to transmit the prayers of men to his fathers and his brethren the gods.

Just as the head of a family was in his household the priest _par excellence_ of the gods of that family,--just as the chief of a nome was in his nome the priest _par excellence_ in regard to the gods of the nome,--so was Pharaoh the priest _par excellence_ of the gods of all Egypt, who were his special deities.

He accompanied their images in solemn processions;

he poured out before them the wine and mystic milk, recited the formulas in their hearing, seized the bull who was the victim with a lasso and slaughtered it according to the rite consecrated by ancient tradition.

Private individuals had recourse to his intercession, when they asked some favour from on high; as, however, it was impossible for every sacrifice to pass actually through his hands, the celebrating priest proclaimed at the beginning of each ceremony that it was the king who made the offering--_Sûtni di hotpu_--he and none other, to Osiris, Phtah, and Ka-Harmakhis, so that they might grant to the faithful who implored the object of their desires, and, the declaration being accepted in lieu of the act, the king was thus regarded as really officiating on every occasion for his subjects.

* *I do not agree with Prof. Ed.

Meyer, or with Prof. Erman, who imagine that this was the first instance of the practice, and that it had been introduced into Nubia before its adoption on Egyptian soil.

Under the Ancient Empire we meet with more than one functionary who styles himself, in some cases during his master’s lifetime, in others shortly after his death, “Prophet of Horus who lives in the palace,” or “Prophet of Kheops,” “Prophet of Sondi,” “Prophet of Kheops, of Mykerinos, of Usirkaf,” or “of other sovereigns.

” He thus maintained daily intercourse with the gods, and they, on their part, did not neglect any occasion of communicating with him.

They appeared to him in dreams to foretell his future, to command him to restore a monument which was threatened with ruin, to advise him to set out to war, to forbid him risking his life in the thick of the fight.

* * Among other examples, the texts mention the dream in which Thûtmosis IV.

, while still a royal prince, received from Phrâ-Harmakhis orders to unearth the Great Sphinx, the dream in which Phtah forbids Minephtah to take part in the battle against the peoples of the sea, that by which Tonûatamon, King of Napata, is persuaded to undertake the conquest of Egypt.

Herodotus had already made us familiar with the dreams of Sabaco and of the high priest Sethos.

Communication by prophetic dreams was not, however, the method usually selected by the gods: they employed as interpreters of their wishes the priests and the statues in the temples.

The king entered the chapel where the statue was kept, and performed in its presence the invocatory rites, and questioned it upon the subject which occupied his mind.

The priest replied under direct inspiration from on high, and the dialogue thus entered upon might last a long time.

Interminable discourses, whose records cover the walls of the Theban temples, inform us what the Pharaoh said on such occasions, and in what emphatic tones the gods replied.

Sometimes the animated statues raised their voices in the darkness of the sanctuary and themselves announced their will; more frequently they were content to indicate it by a gesture.

When they were consulted on some particular subject and returned no sign, it was their way of signifying their disapprobation.

If, on the other hand, they significantly bowed their head, once or twice, the subject was an acceptable one, and they approved it.

No state affair was settled without asking their advice, and without their giving it in one way or another.

The monuments, which throw full light on the supernatural character of the Pharaohs in general, tell us but little of the individual disposition of any king in particular, or of their everyday life.

When by chance we come into closer intimacy for a moment with the sovereign, he is revealed to us as being less divine and majestic than we might have been led to believe, had we judged him only by his impassive expression and by the pomp with which he was surrounded in public.

Not that he ever quite laid aside his grandeur; even in his home life, in his chamber or his garden, during those hours when he felt himself withdrawn from public gaze, those highest in rank might never forget when they approached him that he was a god.

He showed himself to be a kind father, a good-natured husband,* ready to dally with his wives and caress them on the cheek as they offered him a flower, or moved a piece upon the draught-board.

* As a literary example of what the conduct of a king was like in his family circle, we may quote the description of King Minîbphtah, in the story of Satni-Khâmoîs. The pictures of the tombs at Tel-el-Amarna show us the intimate terms on which King Khuniaton lived with his wife and daughters, both big and little.

He took an interest in those who waited on him, allowed them certain breaches of etiquette when he was pleased with them, and was indulgent to their little failings.

If they had just returned from foreign lands, a little countrified after a lengthy exile from the court, he would break out into pleasantries over their embarrassment and their unfashionable costume,--kingly pleasantries which excited the forced mirth of the bystanders, but which soon fell flat and had no meaning for those outside the palace.

The Pharaoh was fond of laughing and drinking;

indeed, if we may believe evil tongues, he took so much at times as to incapacitate him for business.

The chase was not always a pleasure to him, hunting in the desert, at least, where the lions evinced a provoking tendency to show as little respect for the divinity of the prince as for his mortal subjects; but, like the chiefs of old, he felt it a duty to his people to destroy wild beasts, and he ended by counting the slain in hundreds, however short his reign might be.

* *Amenôthes III.

had killed as many as a hundred and two lions during the first ten years of his reign.

A considerable part of his time was taken up in war--in the east, against the Libyans in the regions of the Oasis; in the Nile Valley to the south of Aswan against the Nubians; on the Isthmus of Suez and in the Sinaitic Peninsula against the Bedouin; frequently also in a civil war against some ambitious noble or some turbulent member of his own family.

He travelled frequently from south to north, and from north to south, leaving in every possible place marked traces of his visits--on the rocks of Elephantine and of the first cataract, on those of Silsilis or of El-Kab, and he appeared to his vassals as Tûmû himself arisen among them to repress injustice and disorder.

He restored or enlarged the monuments, regulated equitably the assessment of taxes and charges, settled or dismissed the lawsuits between one town and another concerning the appropriation of the water, or the possession of certain territories, distributed fiefs which had fallen vacant, among his faithful servants, and granted pensions to be paid out of the royal revenues.

* * These details are not found on the historical monuments, but are furnished to us by the description given in “The Book of Knowledge of what there is in the other world” of the course of the sun across the domain of the hours of night; the god is there described as a Pharaoh passing through his kingdom, and all that he does for his vassals, the dead, is identical with what Pharaoh was accustomed to do for his subjects, the living.

At length he re-entered Memphis, or one of his usual residences, where fresh labours awaited him.

He gave audience daily to all, whether high or low, who were, or believed that they were, wronged by some official, and who came to appeal to the justice of the master against the injustice of his servant.

If he quitted the palace when the cause had been heard, to take boat or to go to the temple, he was not left undisturbed, but petitions and supplications assailed him by the way.

In addition to this, there were the daily sacrifices, the despatch of current affairs, the ceremonies which demanded the presence of the Pharaoh, and the reception of nobles or foreign envoys.

One would think that in the midst of so many occupations he would never feel time hang heavy on his hands.

He was, however, a prey to that profound _ennui_ which most Oriental monarchs feel so keenly, and which neither the cares nor the pleasures of ordinary life could dispel.

Like the Sultans of the “Arabian Nights,” the Pharaohs were accustomed to have marvellous tales related to them, or they assembled their councillors to ask them to suggest some fresh amusement: a happy thought would sometimes strike one of them, as in the case of him who aroused the interest of Snofrûi by recommending him to have his boat manned by young girls barely clad in large-meshed network.

[Illustration: 037. jpg PHARAOH IN HIS HAREM] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin.

All his pastimes were not so playful.

The Egyptians by nature were not cruel, and we have very few records either in history or tradition of bloodthirsty Pharaohs; but the life of an ordinary individual was of so little value in their eyes, that they never hesitated to sacrifice it, even for a caprice.

A sorcerer had no sooner boasted before Kheops of being able to raise the dead, than the king proposed that he should try the experiment on a prisoner whose head was to be forthwith cut off.

The anger of Pharaoh was quickly excited, and once aroused, became an all-consuming fire; the Egyptians were wont to say, in describing its intensity, “His Majesty became as furious as a panther.

” The wild beast often revealed itself in the half-civilized man.

The royal family was very numerous.

The women were principally chosen from the relatives of court officials of high rank, or from the daughters of the great feudal lords; there were, however, many strangers among them, daughters or sisters of petty Libyan, Nubian, or Asiatic kings; they were brought into Pharaoh’s house as hostages for the submission of their respective peoples.

They did not all enjoy the same treatment or consideration, and their original position decided their status in the harem, unless the amorous caprice of their master should otherwise decide.

Most of them remained merely concubines for life, others were raised to the rank of “royal spouses,” and at least one received the title and privileges of “great spouse,” or queen.

This was rarely accorded to a stranger, but almost always to a princess born in the purple, a daughter of Râ, if possible a sister of the Pharaoh, and who, inheriting in the same degree and in equal proportion the flesh and blood of the Sun-god, had, more than others, the right to share the bed and throne of her brother.

* * It would seem that Queen Mirisônkhû, wife of Khephren, was the daughter of Kheops, and consequently her husband’s sister.

[Illustration: 039. jpg PHARAOH GIVES SOLEMN AUDIENCE TO ONE OF HIS MINISTERS]