Most ancient cultures placed a strong emphasis on gods or deities, which they used as a means of explaining things in the natural world such as the ocean and the thunder. With the exception of the Hebrews, virtually all ancient cultures had a pagan belief system—that is, they worshiped many gods. These beliefs were certainly held by the Egyptians, who usually represented their gods as beings with bodies of men or women but the heads of other creatures.
Osiris, god of the underworld. Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission.
Principal among the Egyptian deities were Ra, the sun god, who later came to be called Amon-Ra; Osiris (oh-SIGH-riss), the god of the underworld;
Isis (EYE-siss), the goddess of the home; the evil Set; and the falconheaded Horus (HORE-us). There were hundreds of gods, each with its own priests, temples, and rituals. And then there were the men who the Egyptians believed were close to gods: the pharaohs.
In modern America, people are used to following the lives of celebrities, stars they read about in magazines and see on television shows. In ancient Egypt, by contrast, there was only one “star,” and he was the pharaoh. The word pharaoh (FAIR-oh) means “great house” or “one who lives in the palace.” This was the title for the king of Egypt, but the pharaoh was much more than a mere king. He was seen as a link between the gods and humankind, and the people viewed him more as a divine being than as a human. They addressed him as “son of Ra” or by other godlike names, and they considered him an earthly embodiment of Horus. Thus Egyptian illustrations often portrayed the pharaoh as a falcon, like Horus, whose wings covered the world.
When a pharaoh died, the Egyptians believed, he became one with the god Osiris and ruled over the dead. This role might seem unpleasant, but to the Egyptians, the afterlife was more important than life on earth. They believed that a person did not really die: the person's spirit would continue to live for eternity—if the people who prepared the body for burial followed certain procedures. Therefore the Egyptians built enormous tombs, the pyramids, for the pharaohs.
Pyramids were not simply graves. They were houses in which the pharaoh's spirit would live until it came time to emerge and begin life again in the afterworld. Along with dolls symbolizing their wives and servants, pharaohs were buried with various treasures, including jewelry as well as models of furniture, chariots, and boats. So that they would not go hungry, their tombs contained great quantities of food and drink, which would often be supplemented by offerings of more food and drink at a temple attached to the pyramid.
The pyramids housed the pharaoh's body, but that body first had to be preserved. Therefore the Egyptians developed the art of mummification. Eventually not only pharaohs, but Egyptian nobles and ultimately even rich commoners (nonroyalty) began having themselves mummified and buried in their own elaborate tombs. Indeed everyone, not just the pharaohs and the upper classes, believed that they would continue living in the afterworld. Only the select few, however, could afford to make what Egyptians considered the proper preparations.
Everything about the pharaoh distinguished him from other people—even the items he wore. One of these items was a rectangular-shaped ceremonial beard (i. e., it was not his real hair), that hung straight down from the chin about six inches. Often pharaohs were shown with arms crossed over their chests, each hand holding objects that symbolized their power: usually a whip and a crook. A pharaoh's crook is a long, hooked, striped object that looks a bit like a candy cane.
As it is today in the desert, headgear was extremely important in the hot, dry climate of Egypt. The pharaoh's head cloth, called a nemes, served to distinguish him from his subjects. From the front, the nemes (pronounced NEM-ease) had a shape like thick hair that hung down over both of his shoulders, to about the center of his rib cage. Like the crook, it was striped; across the top, over his eyebrows, it had a band of gold. At the center of this band were one or two golden cobras, the fearsome poisonous snakes that lived in the deserts around Egypt. This stood for the cobra goddess that protected the kings and queens of Egypt.
As impressive as the nemes looked, it was not the pharaonic crown. (The word “pharaonic” is simply pharaoh transformed from a noun to an adjective.) To describe his crown and its symbolism, however, it is necessary to appreciate what happened when a pharaoh named Menes united the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt in about 3100 b. c.
World History
