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How the Pharaoh passed to be the son of the Sun to nostalgic ruler of times gone by.
The Horus’s son
The ancient Egyptians traced the legitimacy of their lord to an alleged relationship with the solar god, sometimes represented as Horus and others as Ra. As a direct descendant of the solar entity, considered without any shadow of doubt the most powerful in this life, the pharaoh was considered to be a real god on earth, the only contact with the celestial and earthly world.
As such, even his death was not considered “common”, but provided that he first transformed into Akh, a form of spirit similar to an ibis, went back to heaven and then became Osiris, thus completing such a divine regeneration. Again by virtue of his role, the mythical Egyptian ruler was also thought to have the power to control floods and block the forces of chaos.
The fall of the Pharaoh
If in the early Egyptian history these beliefs were very strongly rooted in the Egyptian civilization, everything started to crumble already with the sixth dynasty, approximately in 2190 BC. Already in this period, in fact, several local nobles became increasingly autonomous, leading to a period of internal unrest that would subsequently cause the penetration of the Hyskos into Egypt.
With foreign rule, the condition of Pharaoh will be almost completely annihilated, being reborn stronger than ever only in the New Kingdom. Once freed, Egypt, and, with it, the pharaoh, will gain top ranks within the local imagination, a condition that will deteriorate, however, due to yet another internal revolts, this time fatal. Ramses XI will in fact be the last ruler to be able to truly exercise his divine origins, an attribute that was never bought back. Starting from about 1070 BC, in fact, the land of the Nile will live between continuous internal autonomistic pushes and foreign invasions, definitively corrupting the ancient customs. Probably the divinity whose collapse has most changed the fate of the country.
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