Given the omnipresence of magic in ancient Egyptian society, it should come as little surprise that feats of magic are commonplace in Egyptian literature. Their stories are filled with wise lector priests who can reattach severed heads, part the Nile, or send animated wax figures into Nubia to beat up a local chieftain. But there is one person in Egyptian literature who never seems to work magic: the pharaoh. In fact, in a number of stories the king is actually rescued from death or humiliation by the skills of a crafty lector priest. This strikes me as odd.
Many of you have probably heard that Egyptian pharaohs were considered living gods. But while Egyptian texts are quite clear that the king becomes fully divine after death, the nature of his divinity while alive is much harder to pin down. The waters are muddied even further by the fact that kings such as Amenhotep III and Ramesses II seem to have been deified within their own lifetime and are in fact depicted making offerings to themselves.
Even if the Egyptians believed that their kings’ earthly divinity was strictly limited, that still doesn’t explain why he’s depicted as magically powerless in literature. Lector priests aren’t in any way divine, yet they’re capable of working great feats of magic so it’s hard to see why the king couldn’t do so as well, even if his divinity doesn’t really manifest itself until after he’s dead.
It could be that this is all an accident of preservation. After all, the existing corpus of Egyptian literature is doubtlessly just the tiniest fraction of what was originally produced. Unfortunately, this fragmentation also makes it difficult for us to draw meaningful conclusions. *Sigh* On the plus side, it does mean that, as a writer, I have a lot of leeway when it comes to making up my own explanation. 😀
Codex Lochianus 