Definition of pharaoh - What is it, Meaning and Concept

The term pharaoh made an etymological journey that began in the Egyptian language and, after going through Hebrew and Greek, arrived in late Latin before arriving at our language .The original meaning aludiates the "big house" , a concept that allowed the designation of the royal residence and, by extension, the monarch.

Pharaohs are known as kings of Ancient Egypt in the time before the conquest of this nation by the Persians.The pharaohs were linked to the god Horus and, throughout history, they also became considered descendants of the god Ra .

Although the pharaohs were placed in a higher plane than the rest of the people, only after their death were they endowed with divinity and they were beginning to be venerated in the temples as new gods .

Near the year 300 BC , in times of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the priest Maneton was commissioned to write the Egyptian history.This religious was the one who compiled the names of the pharaohs and ordered them in dynasties.For Maneton , the first Egyptian pharaoh and founder of the dynasty I was Narmer , also known as Menes .The last pharaoh, meanwhile, was a woman: Cleopatra VII , who reigned until the year 30 BC In the middle, ruled famous pharaohs like Keops , Kefren , Tutankhamun and Ramses II .

The pharaohs held several symbols of power .The crown, the scepter, the throne and the false beard are some of them.Each pharaoh lived next to the Great Royal Wife , whose position was similar to that of a queen.

The queen-pharaoh

As mentioned in an earlier paragraph, not all pharaohs were men.In fact, scholars have determined several reigns in charge of women, in addition to the case of Cleopatra VII.Given the characteristics of Our language and the decisions usually taken by those who mold it, do not speak of "pharaoh" but of "queen-pharaoh" to designate these prominent figures who came to power in Ancient Egypt.

In the three millennia that Ancient Egypt lasted, the tradition was inclined in favor of men to occupy the position of pharaoh, while the woman was destined to take care of her husband and her country, as a protector.the queens were well under the shadow of their husbands, they enjoyed a lot of power and were indispensable figures in the system : no male could become a pharaoh without first getting married to a woman belonging to royalty.

The figure of the queen-pharaoh (whose plural is queens-pharaoh ) appeared to resolve situations such as the lack of a successor faced death of the king, or the fact that the descendant did not have a clear origin that guaranteed his legitimacy within the royal lineage.Another reason why the widow of the pharaoh could assume the mandate was the difficulty in finding candidates of royal blood to marry the heir.

Of course, the queen's own ambition played a fundamental role in her ascension to the throne : the machismo that characterizes us as a species has never completely placated the woman, and it is thanks to those who they refused to live under the shadow of men that there is still hope to achieve an egalitarian reality.

Some of the queens-pharaohs of which there is certainty were Neferusobek (the last power figure of dynasty XII, who ruled from the year 1777 to 1773 BC), Hatshepsut (of whom there is the greatest volume of information, remained in power from 1479 to 1457 BC) and Tausert (according to classical scholars, the last queen -faraon, who reigns from 1188 to 1186 BC).