The term ‘Nine Bows’ was frequently used to refer to the enemies of Egypt, the specific identity of whom varied from one time to another.
Although they usually included Asiatics and Nubians. They were generally symbolized by depictions of rows of bows or bound captives, the number of which varies, and the motif often decorated such royal items as sandals, footstools, and daises, so that the pharaoh could symbolically tread on his enemies. The depiction of nine bound captives surmounted by a jackal, on the seal of the necropolis of the Valley of the Kings, was evidently intended to protect the tomb from the depredations of foreigners and other sources of evil.
Depictions of bound foreign captives frequently feature in Egyptian art. Various prestige items of the late Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods (such as the Narmer Palette) include scenes in which the king dispatches or humiliates bound foreigners. The scene of the smiting pharaoh is not only one of the most enduring aspects of pharaonic art (appearing on temple pylons as late as the Roman Period) but also one of the first recognizable icons of kingship, the earliest known instance being a sketchy depiction painted on the wall of the late predynastic Tomb loo at Hierakonpolis in the late fourth millennium BC.
The excavations of the 5th - and 6th-Dynasty pyramid complexes of Raneferef, Nyeuserra, Djedkara, Unas, Teti, Pepy I, and Pepy II at Saqqara and Abusir have yielded a large number of statues of foreign captives, which may perhaps have been placed in rows along the sides of the causeway leading from the valley temple to the pyramid temple. At a slightly later date, representations of bound captives were used in cursing rituals, as in the case of five early lath-Dynasty alabaster captive figures (now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo) inscribed with hieratic execration texts comprising lists of the names of Nubian princes accompanied by insults.
Throughout the pharaonic and Graeco-Roman periods the depiction of the bound captive was a popular theme in the decoration of temples and palaces. The inclusion of bound captives in the decoration of aspects of the fittings and furniture of royal palaces served to reinforce the pharaoh’s total suppression of foreigners and probably also symbolized the elements of ‘unrule’ that the gods required the king to control. There are, therefore, a number of depictions in GraecoRoman temples showing lines of gods capturing birds, wild animals, and foreigners in clapnets.
The reikhyt-bird (a type of lapwing or plover with a distinctive crested head) was often used as a symbol for foreign captives or subject peoples, probably because, with its wings pinioned behind its back, it roughly resembled the hieroglyph for a bound captive. The first depiction of this bird is attested in the upper register of relief decoration on The late predynastic Scorpion Macehead (c.3100 bc), comprising a row of lapwings hanging by their necks from ropes attached to the standards representing early Lower Egyptian provinces. In this context the rekhyt appears to be representing the conquered peoples of northern Egypt during the crucial period when the country was transformed into a single unified state. In the 3rd Dynasty (2686-2613 bc), however, another row of lapwings were depicted in the familar pinioned form, alongside the Nine Bows, crushed under the feet of a stone statue of Djoser from his Step Pyramid at Saqqara. From that point onwards there was a continual ambiguity in the symbolic meaning of the birds (to modern eyes at least), since they could, in different contexts, be taken to refer either to the enemies of Egypt or to the loyal subjects of the pharaoh.
World History
