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The Pharaoh
The
Pharaoh was the supreme authority in the Egyptian social pyramid.
The word
“Pharaoh” means “great house”.
The Pharaoh was portrayed with a beard,
curved or attached to the chin by a ribbon. Other symbol declare his
power, like the crown, The Upper Egypt one white, the Lower Egypt one red,
double, the one of the unified country. Attached to the skirt belt he had
an animal’s tail, differently identified as the tail of a dog or of a
bull. The king grasped a curved crook and the scourge. On his head there
was often the Ureos, the female cobra snake, that represented the solar
god’s eye; on his shoulder the hawk Horus sat,
Isis’s and Osiride’s son.
The sovereign could be approached only by the subject who prostrated
himself until he kissed the ground. His birth was preceded by miraculous
apparitions that anticipated his consecration. The pharaoh’s typical day
was carefully organized, on one part by the official duties, on the other
by domestic tasks.
What we know about the living Pharaoh, of their
thoughts, of their feelings is nothing compared to what we know about them
dead, the only exception being the Pharaoh Akhenaten, that paintings,
unusually realistic, portray in scenes of family life that document his
attention for his daughters and wife.
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