The King and the Gods

The semi-divine status of the king which is alluded to in private tomb depictions of the king with the gods was further encouraged by festivals which linked the king to the gods.

These included the festival of Thutmose III outside of the temple of Monthu which is depicted in the Theban tomb TT31 (Fig. 2). This created a link, in the minds of the people who witnessed the festivals, between the king and the gods, in a way that written ideas could not. The temple of Monthu depicted in TT131 shows the cartouches of Thutmose III who built the temple, which again furthered the perceived link between the king and the god. A similar idea can be seen in the mortuary temples on the West Bank at Thebes, which were dedicated to Amun, amongst other gods, as well as to the deceased king. Festivals connected with these temples, such as the Beautiful Feast of the Valley,¹⁸ emphasized the links between the gods and kings, as divine statues were carried in procession to the mortuary temples of deceased kings (Bell 1998: 137). The effects of state attempts to link the king with the gods may be seen in the amalgamation of divine and royal cults in depictions in private tombs at Thebes, such as images of the king with Amun, as seen in TT2 where a statue of Amenhotep I is carried by priests alongside a statue of Amun (Fig. 1). Several images also show the figure of a king being protected by the Hathor cow, a good example being found in TT4 (Cerny 1927: pl. iv (2)) in which she is shown protecting Amenhotep I. The goddess Hathor was closely linked with the king in royal ideology (Bleeker 1973: 51) and this could be seen as the reason for her inclusion in these scenes. However, the lack of similar scenes of Isis with the pharaoh,¹⁹ another goddess with a close connection to the king in ideology (Lesko 1999: 156), suggests another reason for the inclusion of Hathor.

It is likely that the popular cult of Hathor that existed at Deir el-Bahri, as demonstrated by the existence of many Ramesside votives at the site at the time (Pinch 1993: 13-25), was responsible for the inclusion of scenes of Hathor protecting the king (there was no equivalent cult of Isis in the area). The connection between the king and the goddess may have been strengthened by attempts by the state to emphasize a link between Ramesses II and Hathor at Deir el-Medina during his reign (Blumenthal 2001: 48), but surely if this was the sole reason then images of the Hathor cow in private tombs would have been paired with images of Ramesses II rather than more than 50 per cent showing her protecting Amenhotep I. This suggests that the cult of a king, in this case Amenhotep I, was amalgamated with an existing cult, that of Hathor at Deir el-Bahri, to create new traditions among the people. Martin (2006: 404) notes that combining cultural memory with religion makes it more accessible to many people, and so the combination of royal festivals with state and local religions could be seen as evidence of this. Assmanns discussion of the Late Period²⁰ Canopic Processions of the Osiris Mysteries (Assmann 2006: 14-16)²¹ emphasizes this point. This festival combined ritual relating to the end of the inundation with that of the finding and embalming of the scattered limbs of Osiris ending with his resurrection. The ceremonies have a ‘political, historical and cultural meaning' which related to ‘a past that stands midway between myth and history' (Assmann 2006: 15). It is this combination of history and myth in Egyptian festivals, made more potent when these festivals were further combined with religious figures such as Hathor, that made them such effective lieux de memoire; lieux de memoire.

Deceased kings played a further part in the lives of the people through their mortuary institutions. Festivals, as discussed above, were an important source of knowledge and supported the role of the king in the cultural memory of the group, but the importance of the mortuary estates went beyond that.

These estates required large numbers of people, both lay and priests, to run them. An image of the running of the mortuary cult of Thutmose IV can be seen in the tomb of Khonsu (TT31²²), in which there is a depiction of animals being herded before the deceased, who holds the title ‘Overseer of the cattle of Thutmose IV' (Fig. 2). By the time of Ramesses III, Papyrus Harris records over 80,000 people in the employ of the estate of Amun at Thebes, although over 60,000 are recorded to have been given to Medinet Habu and worked throughout Egypt (Grandet 1994: 235-6), which shows the large numbers of people that may have had connections to temple estates. Haring (1997: 240-1) states that roles for laity within temple complexes included stewards of the house and overseers of cattle, as well as scribes, stonemasons, templesmiths and carpenters. And this was in addition to the religious staff. In all, it can be said that the temples played a huge role in the lives of the people outside of the festivals, and that many people relied on the mortuary temples of deceased kings for their livelihood.²³ Looking at private tombs, one can see titles relating to kings in many, for example ‘wab-priest of Amenhotep, the favourite of Amun' (TT14), ‘First Prophet of the Royal ka of Thutmose I' (TT51), and ‘Divine Father of the Mansion of Amenhotep III' (TT277).²⁴ These titles were clearly deemed to be of enough importance to record them in tombs (and even depict scenes relating to them as discussed above with relation to the scenes in TT31), and ‘above all, the king was the builder of the temple, and it was he who endowed it with personnel, land, cattle and material wealth' (Haring 1997: 204). This helped to encourage the idea of a beneficent pharaoh, as well as simply ensuring that his name remained in the minds of the people through titles relating to his cult. By playing an active role in the economic life of the community, the king retained a functioning position in village life and in some ways remained ‘alive', thus helping to ensure his place in the cultural memory of the group.

Festivals and mortuary cults of the king, therefore, both encouraged his place in the cultural memory of the group, and manipulated that memory. They emphasized his divine features especially when his image was paired with divine images taken from local cultic activity, his benevolence and role as provider (though temple estates), and his key role in the functioning of the group (oracles).

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Source: Bommas M., Harrisson J., Roy Ph. (Eds.). Memory and Urban Religion in the Ancient World. Bloomsbury Academic,2012. — 312 p.. 2012

The King and the Gods

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