What is a king in Ancient Egypt?
There are several Ancient Egyptian words for king: nswt and ity are perhaps the most common. The Ancient Egyptian word for kingship is nsyt. In Ancient Egyptian lists of words (‘onomastica’), kings are a separate category of beings. The character of kingship doubtless changed considerably over the three thousand years of Ancient Egyptian history, but there are some constant features: • from the First Dynasty to the Roman Period (about 3000BC-AD300), the king of Egypt is called Horus (god of order and celestial power), and has a separate ‘Horus name’, identifying him as a unique manifestation of that god • from the Fourth Dynasty to the Roman Period (about 2600BC-AD300), the king of Egypt is called ‘son of Ra’ – for most of that period, the phrase ‘son of Ra’ is a prominent title placed before the name that the king was given when he was born • the king of Egypt had a special set of names and titles – by the Middle Kingdom (about 2025-1700 BC) there were five: Horus name, name ‘(of) the
