The Power of the Pharaoh

As we have discussed in class the power that a Pharaoh had to the ability to use was staggering. However, in our discussion we only had the time to scrape the surface of all the things that the Pharaoh had the ability to command. I am astonished every time I read of these so called "God-Kings" and what their people submit to or believed and put themselves through underneath the reign of the Pharaoh. The power of the Pharaoh as a political leader is almost unrivaled through out time.

The original Pharaohs in recorded had the same names as some Egyptian Gods and it is still not known today weather or not these were actually people who lived. The Pharaoh was considered to be a direct descendant of the Gods, meaning that Egyptians believed that a God took the form of the Pharaohs father and impregnated his wife. Meaning that the people of Egypt thought that the Pharaoh had a divine purpose to rule the land and help powers such as the annual flooding of the Nile river every year. Also, the Pharaoh was responsible for mingling with the gods and keeping their kingdom free of chaos which did not always work in the favor of the pharaoh.

Kings and Pharaohs were the figure that the whole administrative government rested on. All decisions made in the Kingdom were made by the Pharaoh. For example they commanded what was done with the harvest, the army and every other aspect within the Kingdom. The amount of resources and power the Pharaoh controlled was astonishing. One of the best examples of this is the great pyramids. The amount of riches and treasure in terms of, gold jewelry and other things, let alone the amount of manpower and labor it took to build a pyramid is still hard to comprehend today.

What I found most interesting is that from inscriptions being studied today, the almighty Pharaohs had a very difficult time making friends and many people did not like the Pharaoh. Even when this ruler commanded the respect of all the people within his kingdom he or she had a difficult time viewing anyone as equal and lived a somewhat lonely life. I do not mean lonely in sense that the Pharaoh dint have anyone around, being surrounded by advisers and priests, but never having someone that they could relate to.

For more information about Pharaohs and Kings of Egypt this website provided a good resource. http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/administration/pharaoh.htm. Another valuable resource that can give a basic knowledge of pharaohs: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/pharaohs.htm.