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For the ancient Egyptians the word had a magical power: the name evoked,
created, “was” the thing nominated.
To be called “Protector of Egypt”
meant to really became it.
These concepts gave a creative power both to
the hyerogliphic writing, as to the representations.
For this the name
on the cartouch was fundamental for the sovereign, who had five names:
the royal “title”. The first one (dedicated to Horus, the Hawk good, of
whom the king was the heir on the earth and his incarnation), appears
already in the I dynasty. Always in the I dynasty appears the name of
the “Cane reed and the Bee” that is “King of upper and lower Egypt” (the
cane reed is a plant, symbol of the valley of the Nile, the bee of the
Delta) and the name of the “two ladies” who were Wadjet and
Nekbet, goddesses who protected the two lands.
From the IV dynasty appears the
name of “Golden Horws” while the “cane reed and bee” one is changed into
the pre-name that represented the King’s religious title.
Even the
sovereign’s real name, that belonged to him since birth, appears from
the IV dynasty; ever since the name and the pre-name were engraved on
the pharaohs monuments of their epoch the name hours appears, but later
only the fourth and the fifth are reported.
Nefertari Cartouche
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