The Regalia of the Pharaoh or Pharaoh's attributes are the symbolic objects of royalty in ancient Egypt (crowns, headdresses, scepters). In use between 3150 and 30 BC, these attributes were specific to pharaohs, but also to certain gods such as Atum, Ra, Osiris and Horus. In Egyptian mythology, these powerful gods were considered the original holders of royal power and the first rulers of the Nile Valley.
As successor to the gods, the pharaoh never appeared bareheaded in public, given his sacrosanct function. In Egyptian iconography, royal attributes appeared as early as the dawn of civilization. As early as the First Dynasty, the white crown of Upper Egypt, in the shape of an elongated mitre, was commonly worn by sovereigns. The same is true of the mortar-shaped red crown of Lower Egypt, and the pschent double-crown. The latter was sometimes adapted to the nemes headdress, a pleated, striped cloth. Later, the blue khepresh headdress was quite common in the New Kingdom. A powerful symbol of protection, the snake-uraeus inevitably encircled the royal brow on all occasions.
Throughout the history of Pharaonic Egypt, crowns, scepters, canes and other royal accessories such as scarves, sandals, loincloths and ceremonial beards played a dual role of protection and power. Very prosaically, these objects served to distinguish the Pharaoh from other human beings. All these sacred objects also conferred on their bearer civil authority as supreme commander of the state administration, military authority as head of the armies and religious authority as earthly representative of the gods.[1]
Each regalia carried its own symbolic significance. Each one was a powerful magical amulet whose role was to protect the pharaoh from all danger and to ward off the hostile forces that haunted the universe (invisible demons, Egyptian rebels, enemy countries).[2]
Some of these objects pre-date the foundation of the Egyptian state, and were already attested in the Predynastic period. Others were added during the First Dynasty. During the Second Dynasty, their functions became more formalized, remaining practically unchanged for the three millennia of Pharaonic kingship.[3]
The Pharaoh shared with the major deities the privilege of wearing crowns. These sacred headdresses were many and varied, and some were complex compositions combining horns, high feathers and uraeus (hemhem, atef, wereret, henu crowns, etc.).[4] The three royal crowns were the most sober. The white crown was shaped like an elongated mitre, ending in a bulb.[5] The red crown resembled a mortarboard, with the rear part rising to the top and a stem ending in a spiral; the khabet.[6] From the First Dynasty onwards, these two crowns came to represent the royalty of Upper and Lower Egypt respectively. Symbolizing the South and not unrelated to the annual flooding of the Nile, the white crown was worn by the vulture goddess Nekhbet and by Osiris, the murdered god whose lymphs were responsible for the Nile flood.[5] Symbolizing the North and the Nile Delta, the red crown was worn by the serpent goddess Wadjet and the warrior goddess Neith.[6]
Nested one inside the other, the white and red crowns form the double crown pa-sekhemty, "the Two Mighty Ones", which the Greeks, by linguistic deformation, called pschent.[7] This double crown symbolized the union of the country, of which the Pharaoh was the guarantor. On a divine level, the pschent was worn by Atum, the creator god, by Mut, Amun's consort, and by the falcon Horus, protector of the double monarchy and archetypal model of the pharaoh.[8]
The origins of the white and red crowns are lost in the mists of prehistory, but both seem to have originated in Upper Egypt alone.[9] The earliest depiction of the red crown appears on pottery found at Naqada (Nubt) and dated to the Naqada I period (3800 / 3500 BC). The earliest depiction of the white crown is on a censer found at Qustul in Lower Nubia (circa 3150 BC), a locality linked to the Egyptian city of Nekhen from which the unifying will of Egypt originated. As a result, throughout Pharaonic history, the superiority of the white crown over the red one was an established fact. The oldest representation of the pschent -engraved on a rock in the western desert dates back to the reign of Djet (first dynasty). Subsequently, the same crown appears on an ivory label dated to the reign of Den and found at Abydos.[10] According to French Egyptologist Bernadette Menu, archaic documentation suggests that the two crowns, before being geographical markers, were indicators of the two main roles played by the pharaoh. Wearing the white crown, he repelled disorder by massacring his enemies with a mace in hand, while wearing the red crown, he brought prosperity by surveying the fields and taking a census of the herds.[11]
Although they were not crowns, some headdresses were reserved for the gods and the pharaoh. The nemes was a pleated, striped cloth in lapis lazuli blue and yellow.[12] Worn over the head, it completely enveloped the hair and fell to the chest and behind the shoulders, where it was gathered into a sort of braid. A snake-uraeus was positioned at forehead level, with its throat dilated, ready to strike down a potential assailant. When the Pharaoh didn't wear a nemes, he was sometimes content with a simple wig, inflated at the back, the khat, girded with the headband holding the uraeus.[13] The nemes seemed to be worn only in a cultic context, when the pharaoh was officiating before the gods, or in a funerary context.[14] The earliest attestation dates back to a statue of King Djoser (3rd Dynasty) placed in the serdab of the Step Pyramid (circa 2650 BC).[15] The most colossal representation of this headdress is that of the Giza sphinx, whose head represents a king of the 4th dynasty: Khufu or Khafre.[16] In the tomb of Tutankhamun (18th dynasty), rediscovered in 1922, the head of the royal mummy wore a finely-worked gold funerary mask. The pharaoh was shown wearing the nemes with the symbols of the goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjet (vulture and ureus)[17] on his forehead. In royal statuary, numerous representations show the sovereign wearing the nemes headdress, which served as a support for the pschent double-crown.[18]
Nicknamed the "blue crown", the khepresh is a late headgear reserved exclusively for pharaohs. It appeared at the end of the Middle Kingdom, but only became common during the 18th and 19th dynasties, when the rulers were in battle.[19] The headdress is relatively tall, bulbous and studded with numerous small circular golden lozenges. For a long time, Egyptologists mistakenly considered this headdress to be an iron war helmet, as the ruler wore it quite frequently in battle scenes, during military parades or at certain religious celebrations such as the Min Festival. It is in fact a distinctive sign of the monarch, a mark of triumph, probably made of fabric or leather.[20]
The word uraeus is the Latinized form of a Greek term derived from iâret, the Egyptian name for the cobra, which also means "to ascend, to rise, to stand up".[21] This snake, ready to attack, is seen attached to the foreheads of gods, pharaohs and sometimes queens. As a pharaonic insignia, the uraeus is an ornament attached to crowns (white, red, pschent) and headdresses (nemes, khepresh).[22] The earliest depiction of the uraeus on a royal brow dates back to the reign of Den (1st Dynasty), on an ivory label showing the king stunning an enemy.[23] The cobra is one aspect of the Eye of Ra, which can also take the form of a woman (the word eye is feminine in Egyptian) or a dangerous lioness. The function of the Uraeus is clear. This female snake is a powerful symbol of protection, power and benevolence.[24] Attached to the pharaoh's forehead, the cobra spits venom fire at the kingdom's enemies. The reptile thus assumes both aggressive and apotropaic power in the face of the evil forces of chaos.[25] In the earliest royal scenes, the pharaoh was led by a courtier bearing a sign featuring the canine Wepwawet "The Way Opener", standing on all fours and accompanied by a protective uraeus.[26] The serpent appeared alone on the Pharaoh's forehead when he was alive. In death, the sovereign wore the cobra and the vulture's head, namely Wadjet and Nekhbet, the two protective goddesses of the Egyptian Double Country. This was the case on Tutankhamun'santhropomorphic sarcophagus, his Ushabtis and his canopic jars.[17] The foreheads of the Nubian pharaohs of the 25th dynasty featured two serpents, perhaps to symbolize their dual power, over the Nubia from which they came and over the Egypt they tried to conquer, without ever fully succeeding, in the Nile delta held by the 26th dynasty.[27]
The sceptre-heqa is surely the oldest symbol of Pharaonic domination. It represents a shepherd's crook, a stick with a curved end.[28] The hook and its spread were designed to grasp an ovis or caprinae (ewe, goat) by the hind leg in order to administer care. The symbolism of the Pharaonic crook is simple to analyze. Reflecting the pastoral aspects of Egyptian society, the Pharaoh was the shepherd of his people, guiding and protecting them.[29] In hieroglyphic writing, the image of the crozier served as an ideogram for the concept of "power/authority/sovereignty", noting the words "regional governor" and "foreign sovereign".[30] The two oldest known examples came from the royal necropolis of Abydos (Cemetery U). The first is fragmentary and dates from the end of the Naqada II period, while the second is complete and dates from the end of the Predynastic period. The latter was found in tomb U-j, where a Thinite ruler was buried, possibly King Scorpion. The earliest representation of a pharaoh with a Heqa scepter in his hand is a small statuette bearing the name of Ninetjer (2nd Dynasty).[29] On the other hand, the same figure holds the nekhekh flail (or flagellum). Often misrepresented as a fly swatter, the nekhekh was actually used to prod cattle. It, too, was a symbolic object born of the Egyptian agricultural mentality, which was strongly influenced by the values of animal husbandry.[31] With the development of the Osirian cult from the 4th Dynasty onwards, the scepter-heqa and flail-nekhekh became attributes of Osiris; the funerary god holding both in his two hands and crossed over his chest. By assimilation with this important divinity, pharaohs were also depicted in this posture, notably on the Osiride pillars of their monuments of eternity and on their sarcophagi.[32]
The animal world greatly influenced royal iconography during the formation of the Pharaonic state.[33] On several commemorative cosmetic palettes dating from the Predynastic Period, the Pharaoh was depicted in animal form. The idea was to show that the Egyptian ruler was imbued with the supernatural forces of nature. On the Battlefield Palette, Pharaoh appeared as a lion, while on the Bull Palette and Narmer Palette (verso, lower register), he appeared as a raging bull. He trampled on his vanquished enemies, depicted as a panicked, dismembered men. The lion and the bull were two animals that symbolized ferocity.[32] When the sovereign appropriated these appearances, it was a pictorial device that artists used to show his role as defender of Creation and fierce opponent of the forces of chaos. During the first two dynasties (or Thinite Period), royal iconography was codified. During this process, representations of the Pharaoh in entirely animal form were abandoned. References to the natural world were retained, however, but appeared in more subtle forms. The innate power of the bull, namely its virility and strength, was evoked by the bull's tail worn by the Pharaoh, suspended from the back of his loincloth. The earliest known depiction of the bull's tail appears on the Scorpion Macehead. From then on, the bull's tail became a canonical attribute of Pharaonic costume right up to the end of Egyptian royalty.[34]
Beard
The Pharaoh's face was usually shown hairless and clean-shaven. A rare white stone ostracon featured a drawing of a king with unshaven stubble. From the testimony of the Greek Herodotus, we learn that in Egypt, close relatives of the deceased grew beards and no longer cut their hair. This tells us that the new pharaoh was in mourning for his predecessor.[35] The ceremonial beard (or hairpiece) was, however, a royal insignia attested as early as the Predynastic period. Pharaohs shared this attribute with male deities, and it served to distinguish them from ordinary mortals. The beard took the form of a long braided artificial goatee, straight or curved at the tip, worn on the chin and attached to the ears by a long golden thread. The Pharaoh Hatshepsut (18th Dynasty), as holder of supreme power, didn't hesitate to wear this typically masculine attribute.[36]
The sandals worn by the Pharaoh were also imbued with religious symbolism, as they constituted the point of contact between him and the territory over which he exercised his power. In the First Dynasty, the front and back of the Narmer Palette showed a courtier holding the sandals while the king went about his rituals barefoot. Later, the sandal-bearer took on an important administrative role, due to his close relationship with his master. In official discourse and imagery, the symbolic role of royal sandals was linked to the myth of the struggle between order and chaos. The Pharaoh's primary role was to crush Egypt's enemies, represented by the inhabitants of neighboring lands (Nubians, Libyans, Asians). To deflect evil influences, bound enemies were depicted on the stool in front of the throne or on the pavement of the processional roadways. Each time the sovereign stepped on these representations, Pharaonic victory was symbolically consummated. In each case, the agents of victory were the sandals, with the country's enemies placed beneath them.[26]
Yes! we ensure his physical protection by warding off the Nine Bows, since you chose him out of millions to do what pleases our Ka. And so we give him the duration of Ra and the years of Atum, with all the lands under his sandals, forever - yes, forever!
The oldest documentation refers to the mekes as a kind of scepter with the appearance of a mace-stick. The object is mentioned in this form in the Pyramid Texts engraved in the tombs of Pharaohs Unas and Pepi I. Later, during the New Kingdom, it became a small scroll, a kind of case, which the king held firmly in one of his hands.[38] In statuary from the 19th Dynasty onwards, Ramesses II was commonly depicted with this attribute. According to the terms of the royal speech, the case-mekes was supposed to contain a divine decree drawn up by Thoth. This document declared the Pharaoh, like Osiris and Horus, the heir of Geb, the god of the earth. The transmission of this earthly heritage was often also the work of the Theban god Amun. The decree was known as an imit-per and was presented as a deed of ownership or a kind of inventory describing the possessions of the royal domain.[39][40]
I place my temple under your responsibility, O venerable father. I have drawn up a written statement of its assets for you to have in hand: I have set up an "imit-pert" for you from all the lists in my possession, so that they may be forever established in your name. For I administer the Two Lands for you, in accordance with the inheritance you bestowed on me at my birth.
Pharaoh is the vernacular term often used for the monarchs of ancient Egypt, who ruled from the First Dynasty until the annexation of Egypt by the Roman Empire in 30 BCE. However, regardless of gender, "king" was the term used most frequently by the ancient Egyptians for their monarchs through the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty during the New Kingdom. The earliest confirmed instances of "pharaoh" used contemporaneously for a ruler were a letter to Akhenaten or an inscription possibly referring to Thutmose III.
A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, particularly in Commonwealth countries, as an abstract name for the monarchy itself, as distinct from the individual who inhabits it. A specific type of crown is employed in heraldry under strict rules. Indeed, some monarchies never had a physical crown, just a heraldic representation, as in the constitutional kingdom of Belgium.
Tefnut is a deity of moisture, moist air, dew and rain in Ancient Egyptian religion. She is the sister and consort of the air god Shu and the mother of Geb and Nut.
Wadjet, known to the Greek world as Uto or Buto among other renderings including Wedjat, Uadjet, and Udjo, was originally the ancient Egyptian local goddess of the city of Dep or Buto in Lower Egypt, which was an important site in prehistoric Egypt. Wadjet's worship originally started in the Predynastic period, but evolved over time from a local goddess to a patron goddess.
The Uraeus or Ouraeus is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt.
The pschent was the double crown worn by rulers in ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians generally referred to it as sekhemty (sḫm.ty), the Two Powerful Ones. It combined the White Hedjet Crown of Upper Egypt and the Red Deshret Crown of Lower Egypt.
Deshret was the Red Crown of Lower Egypt. When combined with the Hedjet of Upper Egypt, it forms the Pschent, in ancient Egyptian called the sekhemti.
Hedjet is the White Crown of pharaonic Upper Egypt. After the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, it was combined with the Deshret, the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, to form the Pschent, the double crown of Egypt. The symbol sometimes used for the White Crown was the vulture goddess Nekhbet shown next to the head of the cobra goddess Wadjet, the uraeus on the Pschent.
The Egyptian civilization used a number of different crowns throughout its existence. Some were used to show authority, while others were used for religious ceremonies. Each crown was worn by different pharaohs or deities, and each crown had its own significance and symbolic meaning. In early Egypt, one significant and important characteristic of the many crowns, was the color white. The color symbolized kingship or nisut in the early periods and Upper Egypt. The color blue was also an important color from the 18th Dynasty on. The crowns include the Atef, the Deshret, the Hedjet, the Khepresh, the Pschent, and the Hemhem.
The crook and flail were symbols used in ancient Egyptian society. They were originally the attributes of the deity Osiris that became insignia of pharaonic authority. The shepherd's crook stood for kingship and the flail for the fertility of the land.
The khepresh (ḫprš) was an ancient Egyptian royal headdress. It is also known as the blue crown or war crown. New Kingdom pharaohs are often depicted wearing it in battle, but it was also frequently worn in ceremonies. While it was once called the war crown by many, modern historians refrain from characterizing it thus.
Nemes were pieces of striped head cloth worn by pharaohs in ancient Egypt. It covered the whole crown and behind of the head and nape of the neck and had lappets, two large flaps which hung down behind the ears and in front of both shoulders. It was sometimes combined with the double crown, as it is on the statues of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel. The earliest depiction of the nemes, along with a uraeus, is the ivory label of Den from the 1st Dynasty. It is not a crown in itself, but still symbolizes the pharaoh's power.
In Ancient Egyptian texts, the "Two Ladies" was a religious epithet for the goddesses Wadjet and Nekhbet, two deities who were patrons of the ancient Egyptians and worshiped by all after the unification of its two parts, Lower Egypt, and Upper Egypt. When the two parts of Egypt were joined together, there was no merger of these deities as often occurred with similar deities from various regions and cities. Both goddesses were retained because of the importance of their roles and they became known as the Two Ladies, who were the protectors of unified Egypt.
Historical ceremonies of introducing a new monarch by a ceremony of coronation can be traced to classical antiquity, and further to the Ancient Near East.
The modius is a type of flat-topped cylindrical headdress or crown found in ancient Egyptian art and art of the Greco-Roman world. The name was given by modern scholars based on its resemblance to the jar used as a Roman unit of dry measure, but it probably does represent a grain-measure, and symbolizing one's ability to learn new information by having an open mind with an empty cup. Serapis was the main idol/figurehead at the Library of Alexandria during the ancient Egyptian & Roman alliance.
Menkhaure Snaaib was an Egyptian pharaoh during the Second Intermediate Period between the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom at the end of the Middle Bronze Age.
Hemhem crown was an ancient Egyptian ceremonial headgear. The hemhem crown consisted of three atefs, two uraei, two ram's horns, and three to six solar disks. The first appearance of the hemhem crown is during the reign of Akhenaten in the 14th century BC, appearing as an alternative to the atef crown, and it underwent development between the 18th and 21st dynasties. Gods like Heka, Isis, and Osiris also appeared with the hemhem crown, and during the Greco-Roman period, solar deities were also depicted wearing it in some temples.
The Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt, also known as the Second Egyptian Satrapy, was effectively a satrapy of the Achaemenid Persian Empire between 343 BC to 332 BC. It was founded by Artaxerxes III, the King of Persia, after his reconquest of Egypt and subsequent crowning as Pharaoh of Egypt, and was disestablished upon the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great.
The Tomb of Panehsy is a sepulchre in Amarna, Upper Egypt. It was erected for the noble Panehsy who bore the titles the First servant of the Aten in the house of Aten in Akhet-Aten, Second prophet of the Lord of the Two Lands Neferkheprure-Waenre (Akhenaten), the sealbearer of the King of Lower Egypt, Overseer of the storehouse of the Aten in Akhetaten, Overseer of cattle of the Aten in Akhet-Aten.
The Vulture crown was an ancient Egyptian crown worn by Great Royal Wives and female pharaohs. It was depicted as a headdress in the shape of a vulture draped over the head, with its wings hanging down on the sides. It was a symbol of protection associated with the vulture goddess Nekhbet, who often wore this crown when depicted in a human form. These crowns were frequently worn by the Great Royal Wife, high ranking priestesses, and female pharaohs. These crowns were also sometimes equipped with the Uraeus to symbolize Wadjet, representing both Upper (Nekhbet) and Lower Egypt (Wadjet).
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Senusret III wearing the white crown, Musée du Louvre.
Mentuhotep II wearing the red crown, Cairo Museum.
Senusret III crowned with the Pschent, Luxor Museum.
