The Divine Duality of the Egyptian Gods and Their Pharaohs

The truth is probably to be found in a balance of these views: From the human perspective, the Egyptian king was viewed as one of the gods - he is called such and depicted along with other gods in divine scenes. On the other hand, it could be said that from a divine perspective the king was still human and was of course subject

Black granite statue of Ramesses II,
 the great pharaoh whose images
 and works strive to personify the
 idea of divine kingship, and who was
declared divine in his own lifetime.
 19th Dynasty.
 Egyptian Museum, Turin.

to human frailties and mortality. This dual nature of the living king - human and divine - seems to be implicit in the serekh, the device in which the king's name was written from early times (showing the god Horus atop the royal palace), and in the royal titulary which was drawn up at the king's accession from Middle Kingdom
times. The nesut-bit or "two ladies" title preceded the king's formal throne name, and has long been interpreted as signifying only rulership over Upper and Lower Egypt. But it may refer in fact tot he divine identity of the king in general (nesut) and the current human holder of the office in the line of kingly succession (bit). Beginning with Siegfried Morenz, a number of scholars have shown that the dual nature of the king may also be seen in constrasting nesur with another Egyptian word relating to kingship - hem, usually translated "majesty". The first word, nesut, refers to the divine power held by the king and used in the exercise of kingly roles, whereas the second word, hem, really refers to the idea of the individual in whom the divine power is incarnate. These two terms were sometimes used together (hem en nesut) meaning something like "the incarnation of divine kingship".

Accepting this duality amounts to a view of Egyptian monarchical ideology which understands the king as being in effect both human and divine during his lifetime. This apparent contradiction would have hardly been seen as problematic by the ancient Egyptian, whose theological systems contained many such enigmas. The apparent contradiction was resolved practically in the duality of the king's role - in essense, the nature of the Egyptian king depended upon the situation. The king represented the gods to his people as a god, and also the people of Egypt to the gods as a human. Theologically neither the divine nor the human realm could function without him.

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