Editing Pharaoh (section)

== Divinity ==

=== Ancient Egypt ===
In [[Ancient Egypt]], the Pharaoh was often considered to be divine. This precept originated before 3000 BCE and the Egyptian office of divine kingship would go on to influence many other societies and kingdoms, surviving into the [[modern era]]. The Pharaoh also became a mediator between the gods and man. This institution represents an innovation over that of [[Sumer|Sumerian]] city-states where, though the clan leader or king mediated between his people and the gods, did not himself represent a god on Earth. The few Sumerian exceptions to this would post-date the origins of this practice in ancient Egypt. For example, the legendary king [[Gilgamesh]], thought to have reigned in Uruk as a contemporary of the Egyptian ruler [[Djoser]], was cast as having had his mother as the Mesopotamian goddess [[Ninsun]] alongside his father, the previous human ruler of Uruk. Another Mesopotamian example of a god-king was [[Naram-Sin of Akkad]]. During the [[Early Dynastic Period (Egypt)|Early Dynastic Period]], the Pharaoh was represented as the divine incarnation of [[Horus]], and the unifier of Upper and Lower Egypt. By the time of [[Djedefre]] (26th century BCE), the Pharaoh also ceased to have a father, as his mother was magically impregnated by the solar deity [[Ra]]. According to Pyramid Text Utterance 571, "... the King was fashioned by his father Atum before the sky existed, before earth existed, before men existed, before the gods were born, before death existed ..." According to an inscription on the statue of [[Horemheb]] (14th–13th centuries BCE): "he [Horemheb] already came out of his mother's bosom adorned with the prestige and the divine color ..."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Najovits |first=Simson R. |title=Egypt, trunk of the tree. 1: The contexts |date=2003 |publisher=Algora Publ |isbn=9780875862347 |location= |pages=151–157}}</ref> Inscriptions regularly described the Pharaoh as the "good god" or "perfect god" (''nfr ntr''). By the time of the [[New Kingdom]], the divinity of the king was imbued as he possessed the manifestation of the god [[Amun-Re]]; this was referred to as his 'living royal ''ka''<nowiki/>' which he received during the coronation ceremony. The divinity of Pharaoh was still held to during the period of [[Persia|Persian]] domination of Egypt. The Persian emperor [[Darius the Great]] (522–486 BCE) was referred to as a divine being in Egyptian temple texts. Such descriptions continued and were designated to [[Alexander the Great]] after his conquest of Egypt, and later still for the rulers of the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom]] that succeeded Alexander's rule.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Collins |first=Andrew |date=2014 |title=The Divinity of the Pharaoh in Greek Sources |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/classical-quarterly/article/abs/divinity-of-the-pharaoh-in-greek-sources/10B843BD8305A47AFB789F70AF0E7D11 |journal=The Classical Quarterly |language= |volume=64 |issue=2 |pages=841–844, also see n. 1 |doi=10.1017/S000983881400007X |issn=0009-8388}}</ref>

=== Classical Greece ===
Descriptions of the divinity of the Pharaoh are much more infrequent in sources from [[Classical Greece]]. One Ptolemaic-era hymn describes the divinity of the Pharaoh, though this may reflect Greek notions of divine kingship just as much as it could reflect Egyptian ones. The historian [[Herodotus]] explicitly denies this, claiming that Egyptian priests rejected any notion of the divinity of the king. The only explicit classical Greek source which describes the divinity of Pharaoh is contained in the writings of [[Diodorus Siculus]] in the 1st century BCE, who in turn relies on [[Hecataeus of Abdera]] as his source of information. Diodorus slightly contradicts himself in a different passage where he asserts that Darius I was the first ruler of Egypt to be honored as a king.<ref name=":0" />

=== Rabbinic literature ===
Even after the reign of the Egyptian kings and pharaohs, the notion of Pharaoh's self-notion as a divine being survived and is described in [[rabbinic literature]]. In these sources, the Pharaoh is described as hubristically asserting his own divinity and yet, compared to the one true God, is no more than an impotent human. ''[[Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael]]'', Shirah 8:32 names Pharaoh among those who proclaimed themselves as gods, alongside [[Sennacherib]] and [[Nebuchadnezzar]].<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Patmore |first=Hector M. |title=Adam, Satan, and the King of Tyre: The Reception of Ezekiel 28:11-19 in Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity |date=2008 |access-date=2024-12-18 |degree=PhD |publisher=Durham University |url=https://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2381/1/2381_391.pdf |page=170}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Litwa |first=M. David |title=Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Early Jewish and Christian Mythmaking |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn= |location= |pages=33}}</ref> ''[[Genesis Rabbah]]'' 89:3 invokes Pharaoh describing himself as the god over the [[Nile]] river. In ''[[Exodus Rabbah]]'' 10:2, Pharaoh boasts that he is the creator and owner of the Nile. God is then said to have responded to this statement by challenging the Pharaoh over who owns the Nile, as God proceeds to create a disaster by bringing forth frogs from it that consume Egypt's agriculture. In other midrashic texts, Pharaoh asserts himself as the creator of the universe and even of himself.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ulmer |first=Rivka |title=Egyptian Cultural Icons in Midrash |year=2009 |publisher=Walter De Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-022392-7 |series=Studia Judaica |location=Berlin |pages=74–76}}</ref> In the ''[[Tanhuma]]'', in commentary on Ezekiel 29:9, Pharaoh is said to have proclaimed himself as lord of the universe. Pharaoh is represented as a heretical figure who presents himself as divine, and these texts then claim that his claims were exposed when he had to go to the Nile to relieve himself.<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Kalimi |editor-first=Isaac |title=Bridging Between Sister Religions: Studies of Jewish and Christian Scriptures Offered in Honor of Prof. John T. Townsend |year=2016 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-32454-1 |series=The Brill Reference Library of Judaism |location=Leiden |pages=208 |chapter=Egyptian Motifs in Late Antique Mosaics and Rabbinic Texts |last=Ulmer |first=Rivka}}</ref>