“Egypt came, then history came.” The rituals of coronation of kings in ancient Egypt and the story of the papyrus and lotus meeting

“Egypt came, then history came.” The rituals of coronation of kings in ancient Egypt and the story of the papyrus and lotus meeting
“Egypt came, then history came.” The rituals of coronation of kings in ancient Egypt and the story of the papyrus and lotus meeting

The king’s coronation ritual was one of the sacred rituals in ancient Egypt, as it was held to express cosmic concepts, not to express the king’s personality, and because he rules the first state that arose in human history. So those rituals had their origin and significance.

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Dr. Magdi Shaker, chief archaeologist at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, told Al-Ahram Gate that there is a hymn written to celebrate King Merneptah’s ascension to the throne of Egypt, describing the state of the world after the coronation ceremony as follows: “The water became abundant, the flood level rose, it became The day is longer, the light triumphed over the darkness, the night became hours, the months began to come on time, the nitro (divine beings) rejoiced and their eyes became calm, life became full of joy and happiness.

Henry Frankfurt says that such rituals for the coronation of the king and others (such as the rituals of erecting the Grandfather Pillar) are not just symbolic rituals, but rather practical rituals linked to cosmic events in which man actively participates. The sacred rituals are the role that man plays in important cosmic events..

Shaker explains that the magician in ancient Egypt was aware of the overlap between the spirit world (the divine world) and the material world in which man lives. The ancients did not see them as two separate worlds, as we do in the present era, and the role of the magician was to be in a state of “connection / A permanent connection / prayer with the divine world, the world of the spirit, and makes himself a channel through which the divine energy is transmitted. For this concept and for that sacred view of the ancient Egyptian king.

And although the study of the nature and concept of ownership in ancient Egypt shows that if the king of Egypt was usually described as a “god”, then in other texts he was treated on a completely non-divine basis, and Magdy Shaker adds that, in fact, the origin of the truth is due To the fact that the king in ancient Egypt was preserving the sacred divinity as a result of a number of important royal rituals, and through his practice of them, his symbolic and actual divinity was achieved for him, both.

Among the most important of these rituals was the enthronement of the divine king on the sacred throne of Egypt, which was seen as the ideal way through which the king could unite with his deifying royal “ka” (consort), and she represented that “royal” ka” inherited life force” and was also expressing “the immortal creative spirit of deified monarchy” in ancient Egypt.

This union was of the utmost importance, as it strengthened the king’s rule and supported the concept and foundations of his sacred monarchy, and from this standpoint, the king used to receive worship rituals as sacred as his deifying royal “ka”, and the king’s ascension to the throne was accompanied by a series of rituals and ceremonies, Which begins with the “purification” of the new king, which is performed by two priests who wear masks of the deities Horus and Set and put on the white crown of Upper Egypt, then he ascends to a pier on which a crown was placed. Likewise for the sidewalk while he was wearing a red crown, and this scene was called (the outing of Lower Egypt), then a stake was driven into the ground and around it a plant symbol of Upper Egypt and a plant symbol of Lower Egypt (sedge and lotus) were planted. It is believed that one of the most important things that the kings did was to erect a wall near the place on which Memphis was founded to protect the south from the attacks of the people of the Delta. And the union of the country, and since that time the Kingdom of Egypt was renewing a great part of its strength in remembering the past and the traditions that the country had .

After that, the papyrus and lotus plants, symbols of upper and lower Egypt, are unified. Then comes the ritual of circular running around the palace, after which the king receives the king’s various insignia, such as the scepter of the wail, the flail, and the two-faced crown. And he received their blessing, during that he was dressed, so his robe consisted of a short loincloth that had a ribbon over the left shoulder, then a belt in which the dagger was attached, and it had an animal tail on the back, and the belt had a clasp in the front on which the king’s name was written.