Pharaoh's Socio-Political Religion

Pharaoh: Religious Politics

     If pharaoh, embodiment of a god and originator of life’s order, falls, all collapses. Disintegration of central government after the Old Kingdom led to complete governance by local leaders who took on roles similar to a pharaoh’s. With the reestablishment of a central government for the whole country, local centers retained some religious power, and eternal afterlife extended to include high government officials as well as pharaoh and his family. With the collapse of the Middle Kingdom and the first successful foreign invasion, Egyptians invigorated their loyalty to local deities, especially in Upper Egypt, and, with the establishment of the New Kingdom, returned Egyptian religion to its last zenith of political dominance. In the New Kingdom, eternal afterlife extended to every caste of society though happiness and grandeur remained a luxury for the rich. This encouraged closer religious following by individuals as a whole and the continued expansion of temple complexes along the Nile.
     Much of the king’s power stemmed from his ancestral connection with the gods. The New Kingdom especially emphasized the divine conception of pharaoh. The official process of divine conception began with a council of the major gods to determine the necessary character of the new king. Amun proceeded to rape the queen while Khnum, the creator of mankind, created the soul. Several goddesses acted as midwives to nurse the baby who became pharaoh. Old Kingdom pharaohs concentrated the most power of any time and were actually seen as a gods by the masses; these later adaptations to pharaonic ceremony, however, resulted from a net loss in the king’s power. Pharaoh, meaning “great house,” originally derived from the Egyptian word for palace but widespread use is found from the eighteenth dynasty on. The Egyptian term for gods is “herdsman of mankind” while the word for man means “cattle of the gods.” Pharaoh, an intermediary between these two, offered the security of a stable home to man and the praise and worship of a priest to the gods. For these reasons the religious prevalence of Egyptian life infected even their term for king.
     While the king was divine by birth, the coronation ceremony elevated the king to the status of a god by absorbing the royal ka, a divine soul. To visualize these facts, early pyramids represented the physical body of the king which were intended to last forever. Another technique used specific names of the kings themselves to emphasize divine heritage. Amenhotep III used connections with Amun and Re to enforce his rule.
     Once definitively divine, the pharaohs controlled the distribution of wealth and the level of prestige to bestow upon favored gods. Thebes rose to prominence at the end of the First Intermediate Period around 2100 BC from the favoritism Theban-pharaohs placed with Amun, a lesser god who quickly spread kingdom-wide and was solidly installed by the twelfth dynasty. The gods showed favor back by blessing the king’s reign and ensuring an ally in the afterlife.
     The idea that the dead continued to exist and needed to be supplied with food and drink turned funerary rites into ceremonial banquets. Sacrifices to both gods and kings called for a meal to be served to the statues of the represented entity. Cults of kings dated in each dynasty mark the importance that worship and offering provided sustenance for the dead. While living, pharaoh acted as Horus then went on to assume the position of Osiris as King of the Dead. His son, the new pharaoh, would become the new Horus and repeat the cycle. Osiris, god of the underworld, eventually absorbed king cults since pharaoh became Osiris in the afterlife.
     Wealth regulation kept social structure largely intact since distribution of taxes, almost entirely consistent of grain, ensured loyalty retention of the masses to the god-king. Pharaohs granted lands and herds to temples of important gods. Warrior gods received grants before and after battles while fertility gods retained focus at pivotal agricultural times. Despite these dedications, funerary monuments remained the largest industry of the Old Kingdom, and pharaoh gained loyalty by providing tombs for his workers.
     Maintaining widespread worker support limited pharaohs after the early pyramid age. Funerary monuments, mastabas, low, flat, brick tomb structures, and pyramids, declined in size while associated temples grew larger and absorbed more land. As time progressed and Egypt continued to prosper, it looked externally for sources of income, largely Nubia to the south and Syria to the northeast. This outward focus kept the populous wealthy while exerting internal frustrations outward, transforming Egypt into an empire.
     Change is part of human society. Pharaoh’s power waxed and waned until its final collapse in the Late Period. Egyptian life, for all its resilience, changed as well. Old Kingdom religion restricted blessings in the afterlife to pharaoh and his immediate family. By the Middle Kingdom eternal life could be achieved by or rewarded to the upper class; burial rites evolved into a privilege, “a boon which the king gives.” At the closing of the New Kingdom, any citizen wealthy enough to purchase the Book of the Dead to aid in navigating the netherworld, Duat, could live in the world of the gods.
     Just as the Egyptian concept of “heaven” became inclusive, literature and art, which was strictest in the Old Kingdom, loosened over time. Time loosened the safeguards of social change, and in the pharaohs’ closing millennium, tomb paintings worshipped gods to safeguard the eternal soul. Religion no longer sought to paint a life of ease even for kings. Funerary texts aid in recording these transitions. From 3000 BC to 2000 BC the only text to guard and guide the deceased was carved into the tomb walls. Pyramid Texts covered all the possibilities and treated every god as friend and enemy. With the expansion of burial rites, coffin texts rose in popularity. From 1500 BC through the end of Egyptian devoutness nearly two thousand years later, the Book of the Dead, elaborately detailed scrolls, accompanied the body into the tomb. The scrolls contained spells to call gods to assist, quiet the heart from revealing its sins in the final judgment, and give food for the soul as it existed in the other realm.1 That is not to say that everyone entered the world of the gods. The poor, unable to afford any writings at all, remained doomed unless attached to a wealthy patron and buried near his grave. Some wealthy members were expected to fall short in the final judgment and cease to exist.
     Pharaohs retained power throughout these shifts with gaps never exceeding 250 years. After the First Intermediary Period, Theban kings gained power via religious support and named officials to power with loyalty to Thebes in distant towns once reunited with Upper Egypt. Amenemhat I stabilized the Middle Kingdom and brought it to maturity by maximizing the government’s centralization around pharaoh’s center in religious spheres in accordance with Ma’at.

Development and Modifications of Afterlife Beliefs

     Afterlife from the Old Kingdom onward required sustenance of the spirit and preservation of the body. Pre-dynastic rulers were believed to function in their tombs for eternity, and third dynasty kings went to live in the sky with Osiris forever after judgment via the weighing of their heart.2 Like Osiris, Pharaoh underwent his resurrection in the darkness and silence of his tomb. His body was fitted back together and reanimated by Nut, and he would then leave the tomb by a ladder, in falcon form, or take hold of Nut’s hand and ascend into the sky.3 The king was expected to aid Re in his daily journey and defeat Apophis in the underworld. However, with the expansion of burial beliefs, focus shifted away from aiding the gods’ duty of maintaining the world’s order toward self-service and pleasure. The end result was that, from the Late Period onward, people lost confidence in eternal life because of its purposeless since no real status changes occurred from their physical life, just prolonged existence. With these changes, the Egyptian Late Period holds aspects of individual sin, humility, and awareness of divine mercy.

     With the shift in religious interpretations, favored gods rose and ebbed. While in the Old Kingdom Re and Osiris both served as gods of the dead, Re increased in official and cult literature. By the second millennium BC, reference was regularly made to Re, not Osiris, as father of Horus and the king despite the mythology placing Osiris in that position. This change may have occurred because Osiris became accessible to commoners as his realm of the dead opened to them, and Amun became increasingly associated with Re. Continuing this trend, as native pharaohs lost control of Egyptian land, dynastic affinities to gods other than Amun and Re became more common as revealed by kings’ names of the Third Intermediate Period; other gods became readily associated with dynastic families such as the early Ramesside Era’s Set. Dynasty of Ramesses did not reject the sun god. In fact, Ramesses means “Re is enduring in strength.” Nonetheless, “the epithets 'son of Isis' or 'son of Bastet' frequently appeared in royal names during the later Third Intermediate Period, in or following the nomen or 'son of Re' cartouche. The pattern of use of these epithets suggests that they may have indicated dynastic affiliation, at least during the portion of the Third Intermediate Period when the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties coexisted.” Bastet, popular during the Later Intermediate Period’s animal cult worship, is the root of such pharaoh’s names as Pedubast and Iuput. Each pharaoh usually remained dedicated to his chosen god throughout his reign. Under Ramesses III, Amun clearly represented the wealthiest cult, though classic gods such at Ptah and Atum faired well. The only notable god whose favor fell sharply after the New Kingdom was Set because of his mythological opposition to Horus and, thus, the pharaoh.

Fall of Pharaonic Power

     The Kingdom of Kush on Egypt’s southern border invaded the country in the Third Intermediate Period and resolved to restore the historic form of religion and culture. Kushites relied on military might and moral absolutism to restore their corrupted subjects. Restoration included temple repairs and a return to archaic ritual techniques and ancient writing styles.4 Kush rule even reestablished Memphis as the capital to harken back to Old Kingdom rule before the dominance of Thebes.
     The priesthood was normally named by close association with the throne. One of the alternative translations of Hem Neteru, “priest,” is “friend of the king,” which links both the religious office of pharaoh to religion as well as emphasizes the king’s power in selecting those that ran the temple. However, religion restricted the potential for alternative families to be accepted by commoners because of the lack of their divine heritage. The Hyksos, the first foreign rulers in Egypt, claimed to be step-sons of Re in order to affirm their rule’s legitimacy. This strategy became more evident with the collapse of Egyptian self-rule as Persian, Greek, and Roman rulers controlled Egypt for over a millennium, resulting in the fall of pharaoh.
     Ineffectiveness of pharaohs during the Ramesside Era caused permanent loss of Syrian and Canaanite influences as the high priest of Amun in Thebes eroded royal authority. By 1100 BC, Ramesses XI held little real power because of a combination of the high priests, a series of Libyan invasions, and prolonged drought and famine. Civil war erupted in Thebes between the army and a besieged high priest in Amun’s temple. The general retreated south into Nubia, and Ramesses XI lost access to the gold mines of Central Africa. This resulted in a split in Egyptian lands and ended the New Kingdom. When Kush invaded Egypt, its rulers and officials adopted names from the Old Kingdom and awarded archaic titles simply for antiquity. Even with these attempts at returning Egypt to its past glory, Kushite rule was not popular. Egypt consistently resented foreign rule and constantly rebelled against its “oppressors.” While most nations quickly succumb to oppression by conquerors, Egypt successfully rebelled against Persia. A later Egyptian rebellion lasted over a century against the Roman Empire. Conversely, internal rule by native pharaohs rarely incited rebellion.
     By the eighteenth dynasty viziers controlled everything since the expansion of the empire required an enlarged bureaucracy with two viziers, further reducing the powers of pharaoh. Imposters to the throne, usually at the beginning of a new dynasty, had to prove their ancestry to the Egyptian gods to justify claims to the throne. Logic and religious verbiage needed merely to convince the illiterate masses, but the arguments not have to be coherent with past records. Herodotus wisely recognized that Egyptians will serve whoever can justify himself as pharaoh. Divine birth, although invented in the Old Kingdom to cement justification of pharaonic rule, became widely used by New Kingdom pharaohs. Divine intervention, the gods’ placement a non-familial male on the throne, established claims of usurper pharaohs to explain dynastic changes. Alternatively, to gain legitimacy, Libyan rulers of the Third Intermediate Period vested the powers of kingship in Amun-Re himself, thus making the king his first servant, not his son. The high priest in Thebes adopted kingly titles soon after and seceded.

Pharaonic Influence

     Once a pharaoh had justified his claims to the throne, he functioned as high priest to every god. Service in the temple was supposed to dominate a pharaoh’s daily tasks, but few pharaohs are known to have fulfilled that obligation, delegating worship to high priests. The formalized worship service would run as follows: “The king came in procession to the House of Re and entered the temple with loud acclaim, the chief lector praising the god and repelling those hostile to the king. The rite of the temple was performed, and the vestment was fastened on, and the king was purified with incense and cool water.” Over time, a small number of non-pharaohs, such as Imhotep, a sixth dynasty medicine man, and Amenhotep of Hapi, an eighteenth dynasty vizier, came to be worshipped as gods. None of these cults ever achieved large followings.
     An excellent case study and the most obvious example of pharaoh’s power over his religion’s will and influence is that of Amenhotep IV, also known as Akhenaten, of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Amenhotep IV in the eighteenth dynasty attempted to create a new religion and subvert much of the power that the temples had accumulated back to the pharaoh via the establishment of Aten as the supreme deity. Aten had long been recognized as the name for the evening body of the sun, but Akhenaten made it first a prominent god and then the only god that could be legally worshipped. Purification of Egyptian religion for Aten was undergone by proscription of the “ritual murder” of other deities, especially Amun. This persecution of other gods gives the most conclusive evidence of Aten’s monotheism.
     This restructuring of religion affected every aspect of society. Akhenaten constructed a new capital city, art forms changed drastically, and several temples were destroyed, an unprecedented move. The Egyptians believed that all deities possessed two names: one for every day use and a true name, the “Ren.” If the Ren was obliterated, the soul died, killing the god. While the gods’ true names were only known to high priests because of the responsibility of and ability to control the gods’ powers, complete annihilation of the name irrevocably destroyed the god eternally.
     Art forms changed as well. Instead of depicting the royal family as the perfection of humanity, Akhenaten’s family is known for the decrepit appearance portrayed in sculpture. This alteration changed post-Amarna period art as well; while pharaohs retained an ideal form, many exhibited enlarged abdomens revealing their excessive wealth and power . Ultimately, Akhenaten’s plans backfired with strong backlash occurring after his death. The temples, especially Amun-Re’s, accelerated their accumulation of power and land, further undermining pharaoh’s control.
     Tutankhamun, Akehnaten’s son, renounced Aten for Amun and destroyed Aten’s temples and city. The next pharaoh, Horemheb, further restored Egypt to its religious polytheism. He also tried to destroy all evidence of Akhenaten’s name, thereby destroying the god in his eternal resting place. From the time of his death onward, Akhenaten is referred to only as “the Enemy” in all Egyptian records.
     Around this time in the mid-eighteenth dynasty, Amun-Re became “king of gods,” “the creator,” and “the sole one.”5 After Akhenaten, the later eighteenth dynasty stationed in Thebes brought Amun-Re to prominence with the elaborate expansion of the temple in Karnak. Thus, after the Amarna period, Amun-Re became extremely powerful as pharaohs gave more and more land and power to restore the damage Akhenaten had done. All temples, especially Amun-Re’s, accelerated their accumulation of power and land, further undermining the pharaohs. This escalation occurred at such a rate that by the end of the New Kingdom empire, priests owed the king, as a manifestation of god, their submission. Priests had become as powerful as kings. Shortly thereafter in the Third Intermediate Period, the High Priest of Amun-Re in Thebes robbed Akhenaton’s grave in the Valley of Kings, demolishing most of the remaining evidence of the heretic.
     Though the eighteenth dynasty represented the high water mark of the New Kingdom, the nineteenth dynasty by and large transformed Egyptian religion into a competing force against invading peoples by individualizing it to the worshipper. This individualism allowed Egypt to be transformed into a series of interconnected cults with worshippers shared between the gods. New Kingdom religion captured emotion within religious celebration, adding a new element that stood until Christian times.
     While Egyptian religion continued to develop throughout its practice, change usually crept so slow that differences can only be distinguished by different dynasties often several centuries apart. Akhenaten’s experiment is notable for its uniqueness. The resulting consequences of his enforcement sped many of the later changes in the religion, mostly centered around the rise of Amun-Re as the most powerful deity, eventually the equivalent to Zeus.

1  The Book of Coming Forth by Day or the Book of the Dead is a scroll filled with the secrets for guidance through the underworld Duat. The scrolls provided the dead navigator with maps, passwords, spells to summon minor gods for assistance, and other magical instructions to aid the dead on their journey to the afterlife. The Book of the Dead gains widespread use in the New Kingdom which continues into the Roman era. Largely available to the wealthiest classes, cheaper, less effective scrolls have been found buried with the lower classes because the hope for eternal life it provided.

2 The actual location of Osiris’s world is debated since the Egyptian texts change over time. Old Kingdom texts hold to the deceased kings going to the North sky to dwell with the ikhemu seku, “imperishable ones.” New Kingdom texts involve a more intimate relationship with Nut, the sky goddess, who’s body is the entrance to the underworld on the western horizon.

3  Nut is involved in the afterlife because her body led to the heavens. As the sky, the goddess is associated with rebirth because of sunrise represents life on the eastern horizon and death because of sunset represents death on the western horizon leading to the underworld.

4  The Third Intermediate Period Kushite writing so perfectly held to Old Kingdom spelling and grammar that Egyptologists initially thought many of the tablets dated back to the Old Kingdom. The resolution came about only with recognition of anachronistic dates and references.

5  Egyptians held vowels sacred and never wrote them in hieroglyphs; thus, Egyptologists are unaware of how Egyptian actually sounded. More importantly, the lack of vowels gives several alternative spellings of names because of the omitted letters in the original texts. The spelling of Amun-Re in this paper is taken from the most common form of the name.

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Agatha Tyche

Ancient Egyptian Religion

     No mention of Egyptian life can be made without reference to the Nile. This river, a focus for all life in the otherwise desert landscape, has allowed civilization to prosper for more than five thousand years. The ancient Egyptians depended on the annual inundation to give regularity to life, agriculture, transportation, and religion. By 3000 BC civilization and ancient Egyptian culture prospered. The stability of the Nile’s water permitted consistent agricultural production which stabilized the Egyptian lifestyle. With the beginning of civilization along the Nile, the establishment of religion also became foundational to the Egyptian way of life culturally, socially, and politically. Pharaonic government derived its power from the uniform understanding of Egyptian beliefs, and religion from the Upper and Lower regions of Egypt further consolidated under the unification of a pharaoh with the establishment of the Old Kingdom.
     Egyptian life revolved around the Nile, the base of its economic prosperity and understanding of the world. Coinciding with this river’s pervasive presence, religion dominated all aspects of life. Though distinct, Egypt, a land of fertility, celebrated the life that its river provided. In contrast to this, the desert encouraged a determined preparation for the afterlife. These dichotomous views are fundamental to how Egyptians interacted politically and religiously over three millennia.

     The origin of a united Egypt dates back beyond the memory of later Egyptians who themselves were not entirely sure of how their civilization was established. Mythical history went back to the “Time of Re” when the gods ruled before traveling to the Underworld for eternal youth, leaving the world to man. Despite its shrouded origin, the unification of the Egyptian Old Kingdom is now roughly understood since the uncovering of the Great Hierakonpolis Palette. This discovery attributes Narmer as the first king of the first dynasty who worshiped a falcon god symbolized by nobility and strength. The king’s association with a falcon god eventually morphed into the Horus cult associated with the divine right of rule. Egyptian religion played an absolute role in the lives of Egyptians from the foundation of the Old Kingdom (3000 BC) through the collapse of the pharaonic system and into the Christian era. Part of Egypt’s religious success came from the isolation from other cultural hubs which allowed firm traditions to be established unquestioningly for over one thousand years. Culture and religion pervaded life and landmarks. The ancient Greek, Herodotus, who explored Egypt in the early fifth century BC, marveled at the devoutness and ingenuity of the Egyptian people: “In their reverence for the gods, they are excessive, more than any others in the world.”

Egypt’s Religion

     The plethora of gods did little to inhibit devoutness. Indeed, local deities strengthened the case of major state gods by lending power and attributes to enhance the status of the greater god. 

For instance, several of the local divinities were identified with the sun-god. Now the king in one aspect was regarded as the son of the sun-god; he was therefore regarded as the son of the gods identified with the sun-god . . . The king was also the high-priest of the sun-god [Re], and he became high-priest of the local divinities by the same process as that by which he came to be regarded as their son. The local high-priesthoods also . . . devolved upon the Pharaoh as the supreme head of the centralized government of Egypt, in whom were united all the political and religious functions that once belonged to the local chiefs’. As their son and high-priest [Pharaoh], or his [vizier], would naturally have performed the same rite on behalf of the local divinities as in the first instance on behalf of the sun-god.1     

     The Nile seems to have lent support for the creation of numerous gods since each town had distinct deities, but overlap in worship allowed cohesive fusion.
     The annual inundation forced the regulation of the agricultural period and through agricultural regularity the entirety of life, including festivals, taxes, and worship. Just as the river structured annual events, religion ordered the way of life. Herodotus writes that only certain animals could be hunted because gods held them sacred; sacrifices had strict adherence with violations resulting in death. Ma’at, the system of governance that brought balance to the universe, required the equality of man as servants to the gods. As an integral part in the reproduction of mankind and to keep this universal balance, women were nearly socially equal with men.2
     Foundational to the Egyptian civilization, agriculture’s consistence from the Nile allowed Egypt to remain strong. Agricultural and economic success translated into religious influence.
     Foreigners readily assimilated into Egyptian culture since a people as thoroughly blessed as the Egyptians must satisfy their gods. One of the ways the gods were satisfied was celebration. Festivals revolved around the planting cycles which linked religion, agriculture, and society. All classes were involved in public worship, and the pharaoh orchestrated the main attraction of several events to emphasize his position as a god among men.
     Pharaoh was the center of life itself. He embodied the gods on earth, and all land, animals, and possessions belonged to him. Every social function centered around pharaoh’s divinity, and as the king’s powers waned through the millennium, control over the masses required contriving alternative religious explanations to justify pharaoh’s reign. While fluctuation and instability occurred, once Egypt unified religious ideology changed little over the next three thousand years as the importance and necessity of the king, Ma’at, and dualism, prevailed. Pyramids and temple complexes symbolized pharaoh’s greatness on earth and provided an eternal resting place for his body. The design of pyramids and obelisks, sloped sides meeting at a point, had religious significance to the Egyptians. This pyramidal shape mirrored the Ben-Ben, “spring of all life,” the primordial mud from which the gods emerged at creation. While pharaoh represented the gods, he remained man until death and sought to behave towards the gods like an obedient and respectful son. The combination of godhood, symbolism of creation, and the temple complexes that took an entire lifetime to build encouraged cult worship of deceased kings that often went unabated until the temple’s ruinous status turned worshippers elsewhere.

Social Organization

     Society’s organization by caste system according to skill sets and political appointment allowed pharaoh to retain sole dominance. Gradually, however, pharaoh released his powers by delegation, and larger portions of society grew powerful, especially in later periods as evidenced by the expansion of religious afterlife and the independence of temple complexes in later periods. Governors of nomes, state-like districts, acted as mini-kings that oversaw the collection of taxes, construction of public works, and enforcement of the law though their authority came from the king. Religious proclamations encouraged worship of pharaoh and recognition of his divine status. As translated from annals of the Old Kingdom, a stele commanded, “Honor the crown of Lower Egypt, worship the crown of Upper Egypt, exalt him who wears the double crown. Do this; it will be beneficial to your persons and you will derive benefit from it forever more.”
     As defender of Ma’at, pharaoh justified his claims of tax and worship through political protection internally by the righteous enforcement of the law but also externally from foreign invaders. While a large portion of the Egyptian army consisted of mercenaries working for influential Egyptian gold, the pharaoh owned all people just as he owned all land. Native Egyptians feared dying outside the homeland because improper burial eliminated the chance of immortality in the afterlife which further encouraged a mercenary army. Delegation of militaristic power necessitated the authority of local governors to acquire forces to protect immediate borders against nomads, though full-scale war operated under the king himself. To further emphasize the superiority of their gods to any others, Egyptians set a day to engage in battle and would delay if the enemy was not ready. Ensuring that both sides had a fair chance allowed the gods to determine the victor.
     The delegation of power turned upon its source after the twelfth dynasty’s succession crisis, and officials used their united power to begin appointing kings. This shift in power structure resulted in the collapse of the Middle Kingdom around 1750 BC. In this tumultuous time officials and wealthy merchants elevated their status, though no mobility is known for the lower classes. Not until the New Kingdom in 1550 BC were lower classes permitted to obtain security in the afterlife. This transformation occurred largely because of the cheapness of native soldiers; eternal security negated previous objections. At this time high priests served the dual role of army leaders to carry the blessings of the gods with them into battle.
     The most obvious evidence for religion’s voraciousness is the temples. Temples began dominating the Egyptian landscape with the establishment of kings and originally surrounded Old Kingdom pyramids to encourage worship to the dedicated pharaoh. Huge tracks of land were allotted to chief gods as early as the fifth dynasty, and by the New Kingdom, temples controlled over ten percent of Egyptian land and largely functioned independently of pharaoh. Small towns rose up for the construction and successive worship of state-endorsed temples though workers also retained dedication to personal gods. In the new capital city of Amarna, dedicated to the sole god of Egypt under Akhenaten, workers built personal alters to outlawed gods within their homes with such marked regularity that several dozen still exist. Pharaoh functioned as the high priest to every god, but physical limitations forced delegation of most of his roles to god-specific localized high priests.

Alterations to Social Order

     Since pharaoh owned all of Egypt, the population served corvée in the winter, a tax paid through manual labor on public works. Negation of an off season, which most ancient cultures enormously boosted the economy, especially in the Old and New Kingdoms with large temple complexes under construction.
     The combination of delegation of power and land distribution resulted in the first collapse of the Egyptian pharaonic system in 2160 BC.3 Hereditary nomarch positions coupled with tax exemption of temple lands diminished royal influence and funds. Every Old Kingdom ruler increased the number of public officials and temple land grants which resulted in the first collapse of centralized government after over eight hundred years.
     Despite the eventual downfall of the Old Kingdom, pharaohs remained foundational to the functioning of the religious system because they represented the pinnacle of mankind as an intermediary figure between the gods and man. One of the great successes of Egyptian religion was the complacency of the priests at large because of their self-sufficiency. This allowed the religion to be flexible and cater to people at a local level. Strong regional connections constrained a god’s influence from abroad while retaining utter control in Egypt for three thousand years. Although pharaonic power had waned greatly after its establishment in the Old Kingdom, it remained considerable since it derived its power from the gods. Since the Egyptian religion remained almost perfectly intact while native pharaohs ruled, subjugation of the masses required little effort, exceptions resulting in the fall of the kingdom.

1 Aylward M. Blackman, “The House of the Morning,” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 5, no. 3 (1918), 151.

2 In Egyptian sociology Ma’at is the order of the universe that balances out the chaos and emptiness of Nun. Maintenance of Ma’at was essential for life to continue. The gods, maintainers of order, tasked pharaoh, as son of the gods, with enforcing order, justice, and truth in the world to counteract the chaos, emptiness, and destruction of Nun, the dualist counterpoint of Ma’at.

3 Beginning in the Old Kingdom, pharaohs distributed land and titles to gain and retain loyalty from regional governors. As this tradition continued over the centuries, the pharaohs deprived themselves of sufficient power to rule definitely. This power structure remained until upset by other circumstances, usually prolonged famines and wars. Each major kingdom in Egyptian history repeats this cycle though intermediate times and external forces vary.

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Agatha Tyche

Seed of Hope

     Invasive species are a side effect of intercontinental trade that override native ecosystem species and generate a population explosion that disrupts normal biological interactions. Most invasive species invigorate preservative and restorative environmental efforts to prevent long term or significant damage, but certain species fill ecosystem niches that prevent complete extraction. The kudzu vine, lion fish, and brown marinated stink bug are prevalent examples of invasive species currently expanding in the United States of America, but one of the first known invaders came from China at the beginning of the twentieth century. A scourge that destroyed huge portions of native American woodland and decimated lumber began in 1904 in New York City.
     The American chestnut was one of the most exceptional species of hardwood trees native to American woodlands. It provided a steady supply of nuts and lumber. Spread through the Appalachian Mountains, the American Chestnut consisted of one-third of all hardwoods in Eastern North American woodlands. The prevalence of the trees created a reliance on the mast (nut) production in early summer months that provided an off set to the autumn mast of most oak trees. Chestnut wood is also unusually resistant to rot and was useful for fence posts and shipbuilding and served as a key component to the expansion and quality of the British navy in the eighteenth century.
     Brought over by trade, the American Chestnut Blight swept through the eastern scoreboard in the first few decades of the twentieth century with the prevalence of the tree only contributing to its spread and infection. By the onset of World War II, chestnuts were ecologically extinct and were replaced by oak and maple in the woodlands of America. The tree joined the list of species negatively impacted by the spread of trade and disease. The prior importance of the chestnut to the culture of America brought the public's attention to the destroy of the native foliage and helped establish the American Park System and market hunting restrictions.

   
     After half a century of rotten stumps scattered through the new growth forests of the United States, a coalition of people interested in restoring the "king of trees" to the American woodland established the American Chestnut Foundation. Immediately they began a resistance breeding program that involved crossing the surviving American saplings with the resistant Chinese chestnut species. After more than a two decades of back-cross breeding to check for resistance to the blight, and the ACF began introducing breeding orchards to chapter houses along the chestnut's native range.
     With the documentation of the extinction of the dodo in the 1700s, the impact of humanity on the world became clear to the modern mind. By the early 1900s the impact of industrial exploitation of nature and the spread of disease through trade forced countermeasures to the unrestricted growth of capitalism. Since that time, mankind has striven to reverse some of his impacts and restore the areas of his destruction. As the most powerful, capable species on this planet, our decisions and commitments have great effect from the tiniest fungal spore to the reintroduction of the pride of the American forest, the king of trees, the mighty American Chestnut.

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Agatha Tyche

Demigod Or Demon

     The nature of history is loss. Records, memory, technologies, treasures, and empires all erode from the persistent wearing of time. Through most of history the insights and experiences of the common people are virtually unknown aside from the laws they lived under and the pottery they discarded. With the language and culture of victorious empires prevailing to spread their perspectives, the loser silently slips from consciousness until only faded words on dusty manuscripts recall the men and their deeds. Certain men can shine through the fog of history with the power of titans. The glow surrounding them illuminates the effects of their actions for a time. Charlemagne's educational reforms provide nearly all the knowledge of his era while the Roman emperors and their armies still impact laws and beliefs today.
     Unfortunately, the brilliance of an individual can overcome the other components that enable it as with Alexander the Great and his generals Parmenion, Cleitus, and Hephastion. Napoleon Bonaparte rose through the ranks of the French artillery during the chaos of the Revolution to eventually establish a short-lived empire that permanently altered the Western World. He rose because of his charisma and capability, but his continued success must be recognized from the ability of his generals and the determination of the French people. One man that sought to make France great but not for the glory of the new emperor was Thomas-Alexandre Dumas.
     A mulatto born in present-day Dominican Republic to an enslaved black woman and lower French nobleman, Dumas was the only one of his siblings to reach Europe. After business disagreements with his brother terminated his sugar plantation investments, Dumas's father sold all of his slave-born children to pay for his return to France. Four years later, his father bought back only Dumas and freed him in France in 1776.
     Forced to sell some of his estates because of his failed enterprises shortly before Alexandre's arrival in Europe, his father spoiled him with the best education and noble hobbies. However, ten years later, in 1786, his father married a French woman and cut off Dumas's allowance. Free but black, Dumas sought employment in the military, but because his skin forced him to enlist in the infantry, his father refused him his noble surname. Disowned and penniless, Thomas-Alexandre abandoned his noble heritage and enlisted in the French army under the surname of his slave-mother, Dumas.
     Courageous, brutally strong, charismatic, and strategically intelligent, Dumas enjoyed enormous success in all of his military endeavors. Proven in the skirmishes along the French border and as a riot policeman in Paris, Dumas was recruited as Second in Command into the "Black Legion," composed of free Frenchmen of color from the Americas. Thus, after eight years in the service, he was a general and led 53,000 men along the French border to defend against Italian and Austrian forces.
     Along this border on March 23, 1797, at Clausen along the Eisack River, a French battalion was pinned down and unable to cross the river by Austrian forces. Leading a small group of twenty-five or so light cavalry, including eye-witness Dermoncourt, the small assault succeeded in pushing the Austrians off the bridge. Every man was injured from bullets or sabre wounds. After the initial charge that pushed past the barricades, the French were pinned down and sought cover behind the bodies of the dead. Dumas, employing his strength, wielded his sword and engaged the Austrian enemy gallantly and alone. He struck down all that came at him until relieved by reinforcements.

     Having taken several severe wounds while succeeding in taking the bridge, Dumas earned the nickname "the Black Devil" from the terrified Austrians. His success inspired the interest of Napoleon who sent him a letter to compliment his achievement and comparedal him to the Roman hero Horatius Cocles.
     The next year Dumas accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, but division between the two emerged. While Napoleon sought his own glory, Dumas wanted French security and disproved of Napoleon's pride. With his impressive size and physique, Dumas towered over Napoleon and was mistaken by enemies as the leader of the French force. These insults burned hatred into Napoleon against Dumas culminating in signing orders for Dumas to leave Egypt for France.
     Dumas's return ship was damaged and forced to dock in Italy where he was captured and imprisoned for two years. Eventually his wife, who he has married in 1792, succeeded in petitioning his release and return to France. Upon Dumas's arrival home, Napoleon was emperor and refused to re-instate Dumas into the military and back-pay for the years of imprisonment. Seeking legal recourse as his health and finances diminished, Alexandre Dumas died of cancer in 1806.
     Napoleon's treatment of Dumas has been blamed on racism, fear, and jealousy, but regardless of the cause, his actions robbed France of a dauntless Republican general whose love for France outshone his love for his own life. Even as a general, dark-skinned Dumas suffered the effects of racism and had a unique perspective: the highest military honors and the lowest social tolerance.
     Isaac Newton credited his achievements to "standing on the shoulders of Giants." Napoleon is granted the remembrance and fascination of history, but his success came through the strength and ferocity of the French people, those fierce, loyal patriots that conquered Europe and that rushed at death with sabre and musket.
     Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, the Black Devil, lived a rough life from slavery to military glory and political betrayal. Bold, daring, and strong, he breathed for France. That fervor distilled in his son, Alexandre Dumas, who became one of the great French writers as well as one of the most influential men in modern world literature. In the spirit and darring-do of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte-Cristo, Alexndre Dumas never surrendered.

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Agatha Tyche

Journey of Whys: From Blood To Blood

     The Angles, a Germanic tribe, are the namesake of the English. The current English monarchy inherited the throne while rulers in Hanover, Germany. Rooted in the Hanseatic League of the high medieval period connecting London to prosperous merchant guilds in Germany and the Baltic and continuing with merchants, mercenaries, and marriages from the northern Germanic region through the early modern period, England and Germany shared strong ties through much of Europe's tumultuous history, but the two largest wars in world history saw the might of their empires contest for supremacy. What ruptured the six centuries of good will and intermarriage to destroy one of the most steadfast political friendships of European history?
     Prussia, the main precursor to Germany, played a pivotal role in defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and was considered the weakest of the Great Powers of Europe at the Concert of Vienna in 1816, but after clever diplomatic maneuverings and two wars, Bismarck, Moltke, and Wilhelm I unified the German state around the Prussian core.
     Because France and Russia were Britain's main rivals in the 1870s, Queen Victoria passively allowed the formation of the German state hoping to create a strong ally against France and Russia on the European continent. With strong family, cultural, and economic ties to Prussia, the British enjoyed the rise of the Germans, especially the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
     Bismarck's ability to politically isolate an enemy before striking prevented the entire continent becoming involved during the unification wars, but his system of multiple alliances for every front eventually led to a complex political weaving that formed a web around every empire in the world. Despite never formalizing an alliance, Great Britain and Germany enjoyed cordial relations both before and after Germany's unification in 1871.
     Since Germany focused on consolidation instead of expansion during the colonial period at the end of the century, Anglo-German interests rarely interfered, but with the coronation of Wilhelm II, the German empires focus shifted. Bismark was removed from his diplomatic position, overseas colonies were more readily established, and Prusso-German militarism shifted from the army to the navy.
     Anglo-French relations, though tense through much of the nineteenth century, improved from 1901 onward and culminated in the 1904 Entente Cordiale which positioned England and France against Germany in the case of an aggressive war. Though descended from a heavily influenced German line, Edward VII favored France at the expense of his nephew and German emperor, Wilhelm II.
     Inept and grandiose, Emperor Wilhelm II obsessively adored British culture and sought to imitate it. With the coffers of a rapidly industrializing empire, Wilhelm II urged the growth and development of the German navy to match the British Imperial Fleet. Since Britain relied on its naval prowess to secure its trade and security, the German naval race rapidly deteriorated relations between the two nations. Wilhelm II furthered the decline by his poorly timed, unconscionable comments in public statements. It was said that Wilhelm II, "approached every question with an open mouth."
     Though widely popular in Britain when Queen Victoria died in his arms and in constant contact with Edward VII, Wilhelm's open-mouthed approach to publicity incited papers to rally against him, especially when his naval build-up pressured the British to out produce the Germans. The attention seeking of Wilhelm II coincided with his staff's duel desires of imitating the British and securing a German empire to match.

     The increasing steel production and industrial capacity of Germany in the first decade of the twentieth century, pushed the British away for fear of de-stabilizing Europe and furthered the fears of Russia and France who signed alliances with one another. As Germany's military, economic, and industrial strength increased, it became further isolated except for the Triple Alliance with Italy and Austria. Internal fractures over land disputes between Austria and Italy eventually left Germany's only ally as the bankrupt, decrepit Austrian Empire.
     In the decade of preparation before the War to End All Wars, Germany isolated itself politically just as it had its own enemies in the wars leading to its unification. Otto Von Bismark's deft political handling of affairs accelerated Germany's unification, but the mismanagement of the same process escalated its disunion. The lengthy history of Europe is well known for its complex intricacy between families, nations, and empires. Though not always the most powerful or influential members involved, three nations are at the heart of what made Europe: England, France, and Germany.
     So it was that Britain forsook her blood ties in Germany and turned to France. So it was that Germany's creation led to its collapse. So it was that the largest empires of Europe fought the largest wars of history. From the blood of kin to the blood of the killed, Britain befriended France at Germany's provocation, ending centuries of friendship with one to end centuries of animosity with the other. So it was that history was made.

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Agatha Tyche

History of "Europe"

     A continent is a large landmass that has a distinct land border, distinct culture, and self-recognizes as a continent. Though there are alterations, expansions, and more restrictive definitions, the delineation for those geographical borders have become entrenched in the accepted knowledge of the world. One of the oldest questions of the Western World is: Where are the boundaries of Europe? From arguments in the European Union's acceptance of Turkey to the Greece's scorn of the Illyrians on their western coast, "Europe" has one of the most complicated definitions of political geography.
     According to Herodotus, Europe's eastern boundary stopped at the River Phasis - but some said the River Don. The Romans also decided that Europe stopped at the Don River. Since ancient times, the boundary of Europe has oscillated between a series of rivers but has stayed within the Greater Caucasus watershed that flows through the Turkish straits, Black Sea, along the Ural Sea through the Ural mountains, into the Ural River. Though disputed by several alternatives, the Ural River and Mountains are the most widely accepted border because they are the largest geographical features and most decidedly divide people groups.
     While the Dardanelles that separate the two halves of Constantinople are the accepted modern boundary for two continents, the ancient Greek's definitions for the true European peoples did not align to its borders and shifted regularly through history.
     Greeks resided in Greece and along the Anatolian coast. Some identified all Greeks as European while others divided the city-states as European and Asiatic. The Greek empires following the Macedonian conquest of the Persian Empire intermingled the economies, political boundaries, and identities of the crossroads of continents. Despite the eastern overlap, ancient Greeks did not see the uncivilized Germanic tribes to the north or west as European.
     Rome's boundaries overlapped the continental divide well into the Middle East and maintained the fluid definitions of the Greeks. Rome's expansion into Gaul and Germania brought Greek ideas to the tribes; thus the Roman civilization that connected the northern Mediterranean expanded the cultural inclusions of Europe.
     After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire Charles "The Hammer" Martel's defeat of the Muslims at the Battle of Tours in 732 cemented the European identity of Franks with Martel's triumph declaration that Christianity was safe in Europe. The defense against further Muslim advance combined with the Christianization of northern and eastern Germanic tribes coalesced to form a cultural-religious distinction of Europe that has endured. Charlemagne rose from the Frankish kings to gain considerable control over modern France, Germany, the Low Countries, and Northern Italy. His borders combined with the recent memories of Rome's glory incited a fervor within the later leaders of the kingdoms of Europe to form a grand, united empire. The Holy Roman Empire sought to maintain its control from modern Denmark to Rome but often failed in enforcing those borders. Aside from those attempts at a vast European empire a century after Charlemagne, the kingdoms of Europe focused on survival and expansion.
     With the division of Charlemagne's Empire and the Norse invasions, Europe became introverted. Aside from the Holy Land Crusades from about 1000-1400, Europe focused internally and warred amongst itself. This secluded development allowed Europe to strengthen its own identities, particularly with the development of the monarchy-based nation-state. Though a continent united by religious values, Europe remained divided into spheres of influence for the greater powers even with the colonization and settlement of the New World by the rising global powers of Portugal, Spain, France, and England.
     The shift of power away from the ancient empires of Greece and Rome into the iron-rich regions of England, France, and the Germanic states again redefined Europe to mean Christianized peoples of Latin and Germanic descent and began excluding a Greece that remained part of the Middle Eastern-focused Byzantine Empire despite that the Byzantine Empire was descended from the same Roman Empire that inspired Charlamagne's European unification.
     Though certain monarchs had European ambitions through the late medieval and early modern periods, notably Spain's control of the Netherlands, it was not until Napoleon Bonaparte's rise from the French Revolution that a serious, ambitious attempt to conquer all of Europe was undertaken. Napoleon's development of total war spread nationalism, ruptured the antiquated governance of the German states, and empowered British overseas developments. Despite the insubstantial attention his efforts to permanently unify Europe, his near-success inspired a re-invigoration of the unification concept in intellectual hopefuls. The Germans responded by creating a coalition parliament, and Prussia developed the Zollverein. Three decades after Napoleon's defeat and in lieu of the 1848 revolutions, author Victor Hugo gained public attention for his suggestions of unifying Europe as a coalition of states. However, the desired balance of Great Powers in the nineteenth century superseded all inter-European interests and ignored the desires of idealists.

     After the carnage of World War I, intellectuals and some government officials proposed a unification of Europe, but the bitterness created by the Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depressioin, and the development of competition between fascist and democratic states negated any efforts. Nonetheless, Hilter's solidification of Fortress Europe during World War II combined with the devastation and collapse of global empires facilitated an environment of cooperation. The Treaty of Rome, effective in 1958, was, essentially, an extension of the Zollverein that permitted free trade on steel and other materials within co-signer nations. The success of the European Economic Community (EEC) encouraged non-founder states to seek participation and led to the basis of the European Union which formed as a result of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993.
     As the European Union has grown and continued the post-world wars peace in Europe, the borderlands of Europe have sought acceptance into this profitable economic partnership. Greece gained admittance in 1981 despite questionable financial stability because of its history, trade, Christian religion and values, and involvement with both World Wars. Other Balkan states have since applied to join the EU as well but inconsistent economies and human rights records have delayed acceptance.
     Turkey, the main descendant of the power of the Ottoman Empire, applied to join the European Union first in 1987 but did not receive candidate status until 1999. It officially applied in 2005 and negations have continued through 2016 having been delayed by the global financial crisis of 2008, the Greek financial crisis, and the Syrian refugee crisis.
     Europe has been self-identified for centuries as Christian peoples of Germanic, Slavic, and Caucasian decent with strong Roman-Latin influences. Turkey is overwhelmingly Muslim, but has many of the values, economic strengths, and military alliances as its European counterparts. Turkey is the grey area, the dotted-line on the border between Europe and the Middle East. Many eurocentric diplomats campaign against Turkey's admittance into the EU, but a hundred years ago, Turkey controlled significant interests in the Balkans and was referred to as the "sick man of Europe." As religiously distinct as Turkey is, the history of the Greco-Roman period, Byzantine, and early modern periods indisputably tie Turkey into the squabbles of the European powers. If it has suffered through the same alliances, world and cold wars, and the changing of empires, should it not also share in the economic prosperity of the European Union?
     The boundaries of Europe have been dynamic since their creation and fluid in their definition, but it is the decision of the modern claimants to the continent as to whether or not they will safeguard the Hellespont against the Asia of the ancient Greeks or extend a hand of welcome to the Europe of the Imperial monarchs.


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Agatha Tyche

Blown Out of Proportion

     Henry VIII's decision to remove England from the Catholic world and control of the pope set his kingdom against the most powerful empires of Europe. Spain and France, Catholic bastions that resisted the Reformation that divided the Holy Roman Empire, sought to pit their New World resources against the English for their blasphemous beliefs. Domestic support for the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church wavered for a several decades as every other ruler changed the official religion of the land. The protestant "virgin queen" Elizabeth I's support of the Netherland's rebellion against Spain combined with the strong religious disagreements of the two monarchs, saw the Spanish rouse an entire fleet to wipe out the English annoyance to Spanish and papal power.
     Philip II gathered 130 ships with the blessing of the pope to invade England and place whoever Philip II liked upon the throne. The Armada named "the Great and Most Fortunate Navy" sailed through the English Channel to connect with the Spanish armies posted in the Netherlands before staging an invasion on England.
     Before the Spanish could reach the Netherlands, the smaller English navy met the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Gravelines in the late summer of 1588. The English avoided a massacre by keeping their distance and aiming their guns just below the waterline of the Spanish ships. This strategy was developed to avoid the viscous Spanish boarding attacks that won them other historic battles. By forcing a draw instead of catastrophic defeat, as predicted by the Spanish, they were unable to make landfall at the Netherlands. The successful British precision fighting style at Gravelines prevented the Spanish from regrouping, attempting to invade England, and prevented a Spanish return through the English Channel. Instead, the Spanish were forced out to sea to sail around the British Isles through the North Sea and return to Spain by sailing around the west coast of Ireland.

     Because of the lengthy journey and the disrepair of many ships from the numerous, harrying battles, the Spanish Fleet was ill prepared for the devastating hurricane that smashed into the Armada as it sailed past Ireland. The strong winds combined with the loss of many ship's anchors during the battles smashed the ships onto the Irish coast. The survivors were finished off by English forces, and the ships raided by Irish locals.
     Only sixty-seven of the initial 130 Armadan ships returned to Spain. Many more men died as the ships waited in harbor from disease, injury, or sickness from exposure. This defeat definitely led to the slow decline of the Spanish Empire as it enable British settlements in the New World that developed into a rival empire.
     The successful defeat of the Armada both by battle and wind boosted English morale and the reputation of Elizabeth I. The fighting tactics of the English demonstrated the strength of cannon over boarding battles and changed naval warfare. Because of this pivotal shift in naval tactics, English quickly became the most powerful fleet in the Atlantic because of their quick adaptions and daring strategists.
     Additionally, the battle, and more importantly, the hurricane's destruction of the Spanish ships indicated to the Protestants of England and Europe that God had favored them. A providential view of events infused the histories and became a keystone to English identity as their New World colonies were settled. This strike against Protestant England by Catholic Spain failed, but two more attempts were made to invade in 1596 and 1597. Both of those fleets were also dispelled by storms, though not as disastrously.
     England's new naval tactics and the hurricane-wrought obliteration of the great Spanish Armada changed the development of European religion and the settlement of the New World. Despite the military and economic might of Philip II's Spain, the Protestant movement of Europe perceived an intervention by God. England triumphed when "He blew with His winds, and they were scattered." God saved the Virgin Queen.


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Agatha Tyche