Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger. The
picture represents Khâmhaît presenting the superintendents
of storehouses to Tûtânkhamon, of the XVIIIth dynasty.
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin,
from the engraving in Prisse
d’Avennes
While hoping that his fictitious claim to universal dominion would be realized, the king adopted, in addition to the simple costume of the old chiefs, the long or short petticoat, the jackal’s tail, the turned-up sandals, and the insignia of the supreme gods,—the ankh, the crook, the flail, and the sceptre tipped with the head of a jerboa or a hare, which we misname the cucupha-headed sceptre.* He put on the many-coloured diadems of the gods, the head-dresses covered with feathers, the white and the red crowns either separately or combined so as to form the pshent. The viper or uraeus, in metal or gilded wood, which rose from his forehead, was imbued with a mysterious life, which made it a means of executing his vengeance and accomplishing his secret purposes. It was supposed to vomit flames and to destroy those who should dare to attack its master in battle. The supernatural virtues which it communicated to the crown, made it an enchanted thing which no one could resist. Lastly, Pharaoh had his temples where his enthroned statue, animated by one of his doubles, received worship, prophesied, and fulfilled all the functions of a Divine Being, both during his life, and after he had rejoined in the tomb his ancestors the gods, who existed before him and who now reposed impassively within the depths of their pyramids.**
* This identification, suggested by Champollion, is, from
force of custom, still adhered to, in nearly all works on
Egyptology. But we know from ancient evidence that the
cucupha was a bird, perhaps a hoopoe; the sceptre of the
gods, moreover, is really surmounted by the head of a
quadruped having a pointed snout and long retreating ears,
and belonging to the greyhound, jackal, or jerboa species.
** This method of distinguishing deceased kings is met with
as far back as the “Song of the Harpist,” which the
Egyptians of the Ramesside period attributed to the founder
of the XIth dynasty. The first known instance of a temple
raised by an Egyptian king to his double is that of
Amenôthes III.
Man, as far as his body was concerned, and god in virtue of his soul and its attributes, the Pharaoh, in right of this double nature, acted as a constant mediator between heaven and earth. He alone was fit to transmit the prayers of men to his fathers and his brethren the gods. Just as the head of a family was in his household the priest par excellence of the gods of that family,—just as the chief of a nome was in his nome the priest par excellence in regard to the gods of the nome,—so was Pharaoh the priest par excellence of the gods of all Egypt, who were his special deities. He accompanied their images in solemn processions; he poured out before them the wine and mystic milk, recited the formulas in their hearing, seized the bull who was the victim with a lasso and slaughtered it according to the rite consecrated by ancient tradition. Private individuals had recourse to his intercession, when they asked some favour from on high; as, however, it was impossible for every sacrifice to pass actually through his hands, the celebrating priest proclaimed at the beginning of each ceremony that it was the king who made the offering—Sûtni di hotpu—he and none other, to Osiris, Phtah, and Ka-Harmakhis, so that they might grant to the faithful who implored the object of their desires, and, the declaration being accepted in lieu of the act, the king was thus regarded as really officiating on every occasion for his subjects.*
*I do not agree with Prof. Ed. Meyer, or with Prof. Erman,
who imagine that this was the first instance of the
practice, and that it had been introduced into Nubia before
its adoption on Egyptian soil. Under the Ancient Empire we
meet with more than one functionary who styles himself, in
some cases during his master’s lifetime, in others shortly
after his death, “Prophet of Horus who lives in the palace,”
or “Prophet of Kheops,” “Prophet of Sondi,” “Prophet of
Kheops, of Mykerinos, of Usirkaf,” or “of other sovereigns.”
He thus maintained daily intercourse with the gods, and they, on their part, did not neglect any occasion of communicating with him. They appeared to him in dreams to foretell his future, to command him to restore a monument which was threatened with ruin, to advise him to set out to war, to forbid him risking his life in the thick of the fight.*