Ancient Egypt was ruled by powerful kings called Pharaohs.
He was Egypt's political and religious leader
The first pharaoh was Narmer who was identified with Menes in the ancient Egyptian written records as the first king ,who united the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt in about 3150BC.All the pharaohs after Narmer lived lives of great magnificence in fine palaces surrounded by courtiers and servants .They were extremely wealthy because they owend large states and they could afford to build large temples and tombs.
The ordinary word for for king is 'nsw';which we conventionally translate sovereign; another titles common appellation is nb 'the lord'.We can not discuss their epithets of the king.such as ntr nfr 'the good god' nb tawy 'the lord of the two lands.
The Egyptian original Pr-aa 'Great House'(written with the two biliteral hieroglyphs pr "house" and ˤ3 "column") was used in the old kingdom as part of many phrases like smr pr aa 'courtier of the Great House' and clearly they referred to the palace itself or to the court, and not to the person of the king.
From the end of Dyn. XII on wards the term is write Pr-aa ankh wdja snb' Great House ,may it live,prosper,be in health' with the suspicious but still it seems to mean only the oalace.
The earliest certain instance where Pr-aa ewfers to the king is in a letter to Akhenaten.
The Acient Egyptians though thier Pharaohs in two ways.He was a king who governed Egypt with the help of royal officials and made the laws that organize the Egyptians life and the leader who defend Egypt against any foreigners .He was also a god .a living version of the God Hours.the son of Osiris and was shown deep respect for this reason too. So he was 'High Priest of Every Temple' all over Egypt .He is often shown performing rituals serving and looking after the gods and building temples to honour them.The main responsibility of the pharaoh was to maintain Ma’at, The truth, universal harmony, in Egypt. The goddess Ma’at was thought to work her will through the pharaoh but it was up to the individual ruler to interpret the goddess’ will correctly and to then act on it .
The kings of ancient Egypt had anumber of names,By the end of the Fifth Dynasty (about 2510BC), they have five names that were regulalary used.Collectively ,these names are known in English as 'titulary' and in ancient Egyptian Language Nekhbet.which were assumed by the Pharaoh on the day of his accession.
The five names in the titulary are:
Hoursname- nebty name-golden Hours name-prenomen-nomen,and these five names will be discussed extensively in the next article
Stay tuned for more exciting artilcles with me
Nswt
Beloved of nwt.