Aegyptus

(This post, while hopefully having some interesting stuff in itself, will serve also as a jumping off point for my next post in several topics.)

In my last post, I talked a little bit about the religious and philosophical change that came over Egypt's Old Kingdom. I thought that here I'd expand on that idea a little, based partly on the comments on my last post, and talk about how that change was reflected in some of their other ideas.

My question while researching is, was this change reflected in how they governed the people? Did they, like several of you suggested, use their status as a demi-god to maintain better control? It seems reasonable enough to me. But what if the Pharaoh's status was already so high that this was really just another layer of icing on a hugely overdone cake?

(This is actually a real picture. It was on the BBC, so it must be. Really, go type in 'huge cake' on Google image search sometime. In fact, do it now, if you don't find Egypt all that interesting. But make sure to come back and finish reading this post, or I'll be sad.)

I found something interesting that relates to that question. The philosophy of the Egyptian government seems to have not been simply one ruler over everything. In theory, of course, the Pharaoh was the ultimate king of the land; but in practice, it soon became impossible for him to deal with all of the issues he needed too without assistance. Thus, the kings began to use a new level of delegation in their government(source). This can also be seen in Imhotep's status under Djoser. He has a very impressive list of titles (source) that show many areas that he was made the administrator of. So at first it seems like they aren't taking to their new 'godlike' status as impressively as some would. But on further reflection, I thought: wouldn't this system of government make sense to someone who believed in a king of the gods? The head god directing his lesser servants from the top?

(Get it? The top?)

In any case it makes sense to me. I know from experience with anything that requires large-scale planning that it's usually important for the leader to delegate certain responsibilities to trustworthy people. Otherwise it's just too much to do.

To tie this thought about government more closely into oral knowledge, I decided to look for any decrees of the Pharaohs of that time, and see how they used the eloquence of words written to be proclaimed.

Unfortunately there is not much evidence of these things that remains...So I'm going to keep looking and try to bring that up in a later post.

However I did find another interesting idea from the Old Kingdom's philosophy. There was a strong belief in fate, that one's destiny was determined from birth. Interestingly, at birth, a person's manner and time of death were supposed to be decreed verbally by seven 'Hathors', or Fates in the Greek equivalent.

Eventually, there was even a ceremony performed at birth was intended to close the mouths of the Hathors so they could not predict calamity on a newborn. Source

This is an example of the oral knowledge closely associated with religious and philosophical ideas. There are several stories with reference to fate, transcribed during the Middle Kingdom but most likely originating during the Old as an oral tradition. One tells the story of a prince who seemingly evades his predestined death, and another speaks of a man whose fate leads him far from home and into riches and power. I'd suggest reading at least the first one yourself sometime, since it's a great old fairy tale as well as a glimpse into the old ideas about fate. (Sadly, it's missing the very end of the story...)

In any case, I think that this emphasis in storytelling on the idea of fate directing people's lives led to what some people see as the Egyptian preoccupation with death. When all your stories contain the idea that your death is known from birth, I would think it tends to work into the collective psyche of the people. Perhaps, to tie it all in together, the idea of the Pharaoh's divinity was his personal attempt to change the inevitable passing from this life by ensuring the gods' protection even in death. That, I think, is the power of a continuous oral tradition to impact the workings of a people.

...And just for fun, every week I'll be putting a different translation of "the old kingdom of egypt" in the post labels. There's no real reason, except that it's cool. This week's bonus label is brought to you by France.