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Amun-Ra, often styled "lord of the Two Lands" and "King
of the Gods", crowns Hatshepsut on the pyramidion of one
of her obelisks. 18th Dynasty.
Temple of Amun, Karnak. |
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The sun god Re, seen here in the form of Re-Horakhty,
was also closely connected with the concept of kingship
in Egyptian mythology. 19th Dynasty. Tomb of Siptah
Valley of the Kings. Western Thebes. |
Although the attributes and roles of kingship are ascribed to many Egyptian deities, the portrayal of the highest god in a given period as king is naturally most common. In almost all eras of Egyptian history we find that one Egyptian god or another rose to a pre-eminent position; this elevated role was attributed in turn to the ancient sky god Horus, the solar god Re, the hidden god Amun or the fused Amun-Re, and briefly but nonetheless actually to Akhenaten's favored solar disk, the Aten. In the final age of ancient Egyptian history the pre-eminent position was occupied by Isis, the queen of heaven - and also, implicitly, monarch of the gods. In any period, the role of the king of the gods was a superlative one indeed, for while polytheistic religions are often viewed as lessening the importance of individual deities, the deity who ruled over the vast pantheon of ancient Egypt can only have been envisioned as transcendently great.
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