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The King as Re | Pharaohs as Egyptian Gods
Although
the Egyptian king became one with Osiris upon death, he was also fused
with the sun god Re. This idea is at least as old as the Osiride
association and is strongly attested from the Pyramid Texts onward. The
situation actually parallels that described between the king and the
netherworld god.
Just as the living monarch was held to be the son of Osiris
but fused with the deity upon death, so the living king known as the
"Son of Re" could fuse with his father Re upon his entry into the
afterlife. Deified queens were also frequently associated with the
goddess Hathor (or later Isis-Hathor) who was seen as the daughter of
Ra.
While the iconography associated with the body of the
deceased king - i.e., the mummy, coffin, and sarcophagus - was
associated primarily with Osiris, the imagery of royal tomb decoration
as seen throughout New Kingdom monuments is primarily linked with the
king's assimilation with the sun god.
This assimilation or
fusion involves the king's cyclic travel with Ra into, through, and out
of the netherworld regions in continuing renewal and rebirth. The
imagery of solar assimilation may be varied, however. On the one hand
the god-king is said to ride alongside Ra in the celestial boat of the
sun god and to act as a judge in the realm of Re while on the other hand
he is clearly said to be one with the solar god. Both are depicted
iconographically, the latter when the name of Ramesses III is written
within a solar image in that king's tomb. In either case, however, the
deceased king's divinity is clear .
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