Description
Book SynopsisTutankhamun Knew the Names of the Two Great Gods offers a new interpretation of the terms
Dt and
nHH as fundamental concepts of Pharaonic ideology. The terms
Dt and
nHH have often been treated as synonyms reflecting notions related to the vastness of time. However, from the study of original source material – the texts and iconography compiled over some three millennia and authored by those who surely had complete understanding of their subject matter – it becomes clear that those modern interpretations are somewhat questionable. Clues to the connotations which may be ascribed to
Dt and
nHH are perhaps most clearly apparent in texts and imagery from the reign of Tutankhamun – a time of political upheaval during which it was more than usually important to express traditional mores with clarity to demonstrate a return to the well-established ideology underpinning pharaonic culture prior to the Amarna interlude. Testing those indications against the wider range of extant literary material confirms that
Dt and
nHH were neither synonyms, nor were they entirely temporal in nature, but rather referenced a duality of ontological conditions which together were fundamental to the fabric of pharaonic ideology. The reappraisal of this duality of conditions allows the many texts and iconographic depictions surviving from dynastic Egypt to be considered from a new perspective – one providing deeper insight into the character of pharaonic culture. Moreover, it becomes apparent that the influences of an ideology which evolved during times pre-dating the pyramid builders permeated the philosophical and theological treaties of the scholars of ancient Greece and Rome, and thence into more recent times. At least two great gods may live on.
Table of ContentsIntroduction ;
Chapter 1: Time ;
Notions of
Dt and
nHH as presented in modern Western scholarship ;
The nature of time ;
The metaphysical-physical duality ;
Chapter 2: Reality ;
Eternity and sempiternity: echoes of the
Dt-nHH duality ;
Greeks in Egypt ;
Practitioners in the House of Life ;
Ancient Egyptian influences in the works of Plato ;
Chapter 3: Contexts ;
The principal texts ;
Synonymity ;
Dt and
nHH in the age of the Pyramid Texts ;
For ever and ever again: the reading of the phrase
Dt Dt ;
Dt and
nHH in the age of the Coffin Texts ;
Dt and
nHH as aspects of creation ;
Chapter 4: Graphics ;
The components of
nHH ;
The constituents of
Dt ;
Chapter 5: Ideology ;
The royal epithet ;
The realisation of
ma‘at ;
Horus kingship in relation to
Dt and
nHH ;
The king in time and the ever-present ideal ;
The ritual landscape as a reflection of
Dt in
nHH ;
Chapter 6: Exegeses ;
The
Dt-nHH duality in textual analysis ;
Two Coffin Texts ;
Speos Artemidos ;
The Neskhons document ;
Afterlife ;
Chapter 7: Misdirection ;
The illusion of philosophical dissociation ;
The misconstrual of
Dt and
nHH as Egyptology evolved ;
Religious doctrine and political ideology ;
Epilogue ;
Bibliography ;
Index
