If the myth surrounding Osiris and Horus effectively privileged the direct line of descent, this didn’t solve matters entirely, for Egyptian kings frequently married numerous women and enjoyed the sexual favors of a great many more besides.
Some exceptionally active kings produced scores of sons. According to the myth, Horus’ mother was his father’s sister, and both his parents were the offspring of the Earth-god Geb and the Sky-goddess Nut. Thus the principal wife in the mythological template possessed a lineage as sacred as that of the king himself. In certain instances, it can be proven that kings did marry their sisters and that the true heir was this couple’s eldest son. In other instances, it seems that kings married half-sisters strategically, so as to improve their own legitimacy and that of their future offspring. Thus, a king borne by a lesser status wife - presumably because the higher status wife had no surviving son - frequently married the daughter of a wife of nobler blood and made the eldest son of that union heir (Middleton 1962; Troy 1986). Some of Egypt’s most famous queens, such as Hatshepsut and Ankhesenpaaten, had far bluer blood than their spouses as a result of this practice. In addition to the status benefit of a union with the highest ranked woman in Egypt, kings who practiced sibling marriage indebted themselves to no one and blatantly disassociated themselves from the world of mortals. The only other population known to have practiced sibling marriage in Pharaonic times was the gods, and it is thus significant that such pairings were most frequent following periods of disunity in Egypt, junctures at which it was of utmost importance to quickly and decisively re-establish the Pharaoh’s divinity.
It must be stated, however, that the highest status wives of a king were not always closely related to him, and there are many whose origins we know little if anything about. Other women appear to have been raised to the exalted position of chief wife only after their sons had become crown prince or even king. Clearly, then, a son’s chances of ascending the throne occasionally depended on factors other than his mother’s bloodline, such as sentiment or active lobbying on the part of interested parties. In cases in which the choice of heir was not based on established protocol, it would presumably have been especially important for a king to publicly acknowledge his son as crown prince or co-regent prior to his death so as to avert contestation. In extreme cases, where no legitimate sons were produced or survived, kingship occasionally fell to a brother or a daughter. Given the unorthodoxy of these successions, however, such recourses often signalled the onset of dynastic disputes. Rather than allowing a female of royal blood to rule alone, even though Manetho ( Epitome fr., 8, 9, 10) asserts that this had been ruled permissible since the Second Dynasty, it was preferable to marry the most royal eligible female to someone deemed fitting, presumably due to their accomplishments, noble blood, and membership in the ruling circle. Whether such bridegrooms were drawn from administrative, religious, or military backgrounds, however, depended on the character of the time and of the individual concerned.
It is often the case in history that there is an inverse relationship between the legitimacy a leader enjoys and the amount of energy he or she expends in broadcasting it. When succession was not orthodox, extra measures were occasionally deemed necessary to bolster a king’s claim to his office. These included the manufacture of prophesy - in which the rise of a king was predicted by a wise man, in a dream, or by the gods. Likewise, in many cases it appears that kings, especially those of lesser legitimacy, were publicly acknowledged and ‘‘chosen’’ by a deity in the course of a festival or in some other particularly prestigious and populated context. The latter scenario undoubtedly would have been the occasion for much stagecraft and drama if presented as a spontaneous act on the part of the deity.
Unusual stress upon the divine parentage of a king (where the god’s role in the procreation of the monarch was unambiguously literal) was also often a sign of dubious legitimacy, and claims to theogamy were most famously applied by (or to) the first kings of the Fifth Dynasty and by Hatshepsut. Indeed, one wonders if the Fourth Dynasty title ‘‘Son of Re’’ had been introduced by Djedefre in an effort to bolster his own contestable claim to the throne. Such stratagems could, however, occasionally be employed by perfectly legitimate kings - such as Amenhotep III and Ramesses II - to enhance their own divine lustre while on earth. Both of the above named kings copied the tactics of Hatshepsut, portraying Amun as having lain with their mothers. In Ramesses II’s case, however, his true paternity may remain undecided, for Ptah, the patron god of Memphis, also confessed to him, ‘‘I am your father who begot you among the gods, all of your body being from the gods. Now I assumed my form as the Ram, Lord of Mendes, and I implanted you in your august mother’’ (Kitchen 1996: 102). In other texts Ramesses claimed to be born of Re and only raised by his earthly father.
Given child mortality rates - a problem even for the upper echelon of society - Egyptian kings believed in producing an heir and many spares. Royal princes were educated together with the sons of the top-tier elites in the royal court and/or were tutored by specific high-borne instructors. Although the degree of royal nepotism varied quite consciously throughout Egyptian history as a matter of policy, the heirs and lesser princes appear to have learned the fundamental skills related to literacy and military prowess. Some sons rose to positions in the priesthood, while others commanded armies, or became famous architects or administrators. Others no doubt busied themselves with the management of their father’s funerary cult and estates, as did the progeny of many wealthy nobles. When living kings chose to elevate a particular son to the position of crown prince or junior co-regent, however, on the job training increased, for the heir shadowed the king and at times replaced him in important rites and duties.
World History
