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.
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.