c. The Official Egyptian Titulary of the King in the Protocols of Documents
The Greek dating formula amounted to an ever-growing protocol. Its function in part paralleled the protocol of the old Egyptian dating formula, which only temples continued to use. When it was combined with the Greek formula, the Egyptian preceded the latter. The Egyptian formula is based on the royal titulary or "Great Name" (see section II.1.a) which each king received at his coronation. It consists of five invariable titles (left column), each of which is followed by an individual name (right column). In general terms, the "Great Name" expresses the divine origin of the king, as the Greek dating formula does in a different way. It lacks an elaborate genealogy but lets the king ap-
[75] More on this in section II.1.c (2) and (4); W. H. Mineur, Callimachus: Hymn to Delos (Leiden, 1984), 165f. on line 168; P. Bing, The Well-Read Muse , Hypomnemata 90 (Göttingen, 1988), 136; Koenen, "Gallus," 136 n. 64, and "Adaption," 186f.
[76] See also section II.1.c (4); Quaegebeur, "Egyptian Clergy," 96, with a quotation from L. Bell, "Luxor Temple and the Cult of the Royal Ka," JNES 44 (1985): 283, stating that in the New Kingdom the rite served "to identify the reigning monarch with the divine ancestors."
The eponymous priesthoods made up the largest portion of the dating formula in official documents, side by side with the brief indication of the year of the king; the formula could get longer than the contract itself. Hence abbreviations were invented, but this is of no immediate interest in the present context.
pear as an incorporation of the gods, the original kings of the country. Thus, in the traditional parts of the name, in the invariable rifles (left column), the king appears as the son of the creator god. He is not called a "god," as in the Greek cults. In fact, he is only a god inasmuch as he exercises the creative and protective function of specific gods. He is not a god because honored as a god for his previous deeds, but he is the visible presence of the gods because of his divine office. Therefore, he repeats the deeds which the gods have done in mythical times. The pharaoh does not earn his divinity, but he displays it by playing his role. Despite such differences, it is clear that the Greek formula serves a general purpose similar to the Egyptian titulary. It propagates the king as the divine ruler. A closer, albeit rather quick look at the different elements of the Egyptian "Great Name" and the meaning of the Greek cult names confirms this impression.[77]
(1) "The King"
(2) "The Lord of the Crowns"
[77] In the following remarks I shall leave aside the changes in meaning that developed in the long history of the royal titulary in spite of its rather static terminology. For more information see Thissen, Raphiadekret , 27-42; J. yon Beckerath, Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen , Münchener Ägyptol. Studien 20 (Munich and Berlin, 1984), 1-42; H. Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods (Chicago, 1948), 46f.; G. J. Thierry, De religieuze betekenis van bet aegyptische koningschap (Leiden, 1913); A. Moret, Du caractère religieux de la royauté pharaonique , Ann. du Musée Guimet, Bibl. d'Ét. 15 (Paris, 1902), esp. 18-32.
and Lower Egypt, Nekhbet and Wadjet. Egypt was mythically regarded as a double kingdom and, through the ritual of the coronation, each king unified the two parts of the country (cf. section II.1.b [end] and (4) below). But this is too abstract. The two crowns were incorporations of the two tutelary goddesses of the double monarchy. By appearing in the crowns of the king, they protect the Two Countries. This idea is picked up in the corresponding names, which describe the king as being glorious, putting Egypt in order, and being pious towards the gods.
(3) The title "The Triumphant over His Enemies" is an interpretative rendition of what originally meant "Horus of (or upon) Gold" or more generally the "Falcon of Gold." In the late period of Egyptian history this was understood as "Horus being victorious over Seth" (Hr nb.tj ); hence the Greek translation. Thus, the title recalls the same myth which we encountered with the first title: when Seth had killed Osiris, the previous king, and had thus pushed the land back into its original chaos, he was conquered by Horus; the land was reestablished and regained the state in which Re had created it from chaos. The following individual name focuses on the same ideas: restoration of life (or rather: the king is life), renewal of the creation by Re, and the permanent renewal by means of a specific festival, the sed festival or thirty-year festival (see n. 110 [2a]).
(4) The njswt-bjt[*] title, "The Great King of the Upper and Lower Countries," again stresses the idea of the double monarchy represented in hieroglyphic form by the "Sedge" and the "Bee," the symbols for Upper and Lower Egypt (cf. section II.1.c [2]). It is followed by the individual "prenomen" of the king, which is encircled by a cartouche. Starting with the cartouche of Euergetes, it is here that the Egyptian titulary accommodated the genealogical descent so crucial for the Greek formula: "the descendant of the Gods Philopatores." The idea of descent becomes crucial for the prenomen (cf. n. 76). The filiation is followed by more traditional names assuring that the king has been approved by the gods; thus "Whom Helios Gave Victory" is simply a translation of the Egyptian name User-Ka-Re, literally "Strong Is the Spirit of Re." Moreover, Epiphanes received the name "Living Image of Zeus"; he is on earth what Zeus or, to use the Egyptian name of the god, what Amun-Re is in heaven. According to Egyptian beliefs this indicates that Amun-Re is living in him and that it is Epiphanes who on earth exhibits the might of Amun-Re, his father.[78]
[78] The pharaoh is generally the "image of God NN." The hieroglyphic phrase used for Epiphanes is shm-'nh-(n)-Jmn[*] , which in its general sense recalls the name of Tutankhamun (eighteenth dynasty): twt-'nh-Jmn[*] . Both words, shm[*] and twt , mean "image," but twt can also be rendered "complete, perfect"; and Tutankhamun's name may originally have meant "Perfect-with-Life-is-Amun" (G. Fecht, "Amarna-Probleme," ZAeS 85 [1960]: 90). Substituting shm[*] for twt is replacing an unwanted ambiguity by a meaningful one. shm[*] is not only very commonly used for "image" but originally meant "might." Thus, the Egyptian phrase used for Epiphanes still yields the connotation of "Living Might of Amun." See E. Hornung, "Der Mensch als 'Bild Gottes' in Ägypten," in O. Loretz, Die Gottebenbildlichkeit des Menschen , Schriften des Deutschen Instituts für Wissensch. Pädagogik (Munich, 1967), 123-156, esp. 137-150 and 143-145; eundem, Conceptions of God in Egypt: The One and the Many , trans. from Der Eine und die Vielen (Darmstadt, 1971) by J. Baines (Ithaca, N.Y., 1982), 135-142.
(5) The same idea appears in the final title: "Son of Amun-Re" (
R' ). I have already mentioned the legend of the birth of Ptolemy I. In the language of Greek myth, it reflected the Egyptian beliefs that the king was the son of, and protected by, the supreme god, that is, by Amun-Re, who in Greek terms corresponded to both Zeus and Helios. Alexander was depicted on coins as "Amun-Re," the ram god. Furthermore, the Macedonian king had marched to the Oasis of Amun in Siwa as soon as he had taken Egypt and, if for once we can trust Pseudo-Kallisthenes, had been crowned in the temple of Ptah at Memphis.[79] The march to Siwa was time-consuming and is dangerous even nowadays. It resulted from a shrewd calculation. Alexander could count on the fact that he would be greeted as the Egyptian king, hence as the "son of Amun." The same would have happened in any other Egyptian temple, but only the temple of Amun in Siwa had authority in the Greek world. Hence the message spread to Greece. In Egypt, legends were told illustrating the fifth rifle. In Pseudo-Kallisthenes, Alexander is fathered by Nektanebos, the Egyptian king, who appears as Amun. When Alexander appears on coins with the horn of a ram, this picture expresses his descent from the ram god Amun.[80]
The fifth title is followed by the proper names of the king, in the case of Epiphanes by a transcription of his Greek name "Ptolemaios" and traditional Egyptian names which further assure that he is "beloved by Ptah." The latter means more than the English phrase indicates to the
[79] Koenen, Agonstische Inschrift , 29-32; cf. Thompson, Memphis , 106: "When Alexander the Great took Egypt in 332 BC , he visited . . . Memphis, where he sacrificed to the Apis bull and to other gods, celebrating in the city with both gymnastic and musical contests. Arrian, unlike the later Alexander Romance , makes no mention of an actual enthronement ceremony here in the temple of Ptah, but it is dear that in Memphis, sacrificing to the Apis bull in its native form, Alexander was claiming acceptance as pharaoh among the Egyptians whom he now ruled." Most recently S. M. Burstein, "Pharaoh Alexander: A Scholarly Myth." AncSoc 22 (1991): 139-145, has argued against any coronation before that of Epiphanes, and specifically against a coronation of Alexander.
[80] See Grimm, "Vergöttlichung"; R. Merkelbach, Die Quellen des griechischen Alexanderromans , 2d ed., Zetemata 9 (Munich, 1977), 77-82; Koenen, "Adaption," 167; H. Brunner, Die Geburt des Gottkönigs: Studien zur Überlieferung eines altägyptischen Mythos , Ägyptol. Abh. 10 (Wiesbaden, 1964), esp. 22-31, 42-58; Moftah, Königsdogma , 99-106.
modern reader. It attests that Ptolemy is the son of the god, this time the son of Ptah. Or, to use another phrase recently used to explain the meaning: "A ruler described as beloved of a god becomes a form of that god."[81]
The proper names are again encircled by a cartouche. After the car-touche the Greek cult-names ("Epiphanes Eucharistos") are added, a practice which already began with the name of Ptolemy Soter. In the Rosettana the cult-names are followed by the proper names of the kings parents. By accommodating the Greek filiation the last two titles of the "Great Name" adopt the propaganda functions of the Greek dating formula. First, there is the filiation of the king with the cult-names of his parents (after the fourth title), then the king's own proper name "Ptolemaios," his own cult-names, and finally again his filiation, this time with the parents named by their proper names.