Thus the palatial title may be rendered, “The powerful bull, crowned in Western Thebes.”
Above the cartouche will be noticed a group of four hieroglyphs, namely, a reed, bee, and two semicircles. This group is usually placed above the cartouche containing the prenomen or sacred name of the king, and the four are descriptive of the authority exercised by the monarch. They may be thus explained:—
Reed (su) is the symbol of Upper Egypt, where reeds of this kind were probably common, especially by the banks of the Nile. A flower or plant is often used as the emblem of a nation.
In ancient times the vine was the emblem of the king of Judah, and on the same principle the reed was the emblem of Upper Egypt. The semicircle below is called tu, and here stands for king. The two hieroglyphs together are called SUTEN, and may be rendered “king of Upper Egypt.”
Bee (kheb) is the emblem of Lower Egypt.
The four hieroglyphs are called SUTEN-KHEB, and mean “king of Upper and Lower Egypt.”
The bee was an insect that received great attention among the ancient Egyptians. They were kept in hives which resembled our own, and when flowers were not numerous, the owners of bees often carried their hives in boats to various spots on the banks of the Nile where many flowers were blooming. The wild bees frequented the sunny banks and made their habitations in the clefts of the rocks. Moses says that God made His people to “suck honey out of the rock,” and the Psalmist repeats the same idea, when he says, “with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.”
Below this group of hieroglyphs stands what is called the cartouche of Thothmes III. The word was first used by Champollion, and signifies a scroll or label, or escutcheon on which the name of a king is inscribed. The oval form of the cartouche was probably taken from the scarabeus or sacred beetle, an emblem of the resurrection and immortality; and thus the very framework on which the king inscribed his name spoke of the eternity of a future state. The form, however, may be from a plate of armour. The cartouche is somewhat analogous to a heraldic shield bearing a coat of arms, and its object was probably to give prominence to the king’s name, just as an aureole in Christian art gives prominence to the figure it encloses.
The three hieroglyphs charged in this cartouche make up the divine name of Thothmes, and consist of a solar disk, chessboard, and beetle. Each monarch had two names, respectively called prenomen, or divine name, somewhat analogous to our Christian name, and the nomen, corresponding to our surname. The prenomen is called the divine name, because it contains the name of the god from whom the king claims his descent, and often the deities also by whom he is beloved, and with whom he claims relationship. The king not only claimed descent from the gods, but he was accounted by his subjects as a representation of the deity.