Hatshepsut and Ancient Egypt's Theology of Kingship



Ancient Egyptian Beliefs About Gods and Kings

By Jone Johnson Lewis

In ancient Egypt, including in the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty and Hatshepsut, the king's role was tied up with theology -- with beliefs about the gods and religion.

By the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the king (pharaoh) was identified with three separate creation myths, all of which featured a male exercising generative creative power. As with many other religions, this identification of the king with generativity was assumed to be the foundation of the generativity of the land. The king's power, in other words, was believed to be at the base of Egypt's survival, thriving, strength, stability, and prosperity.

Ancient Egypt was comfortable with human/divinity duality -- with the idea that someone could be both human and divine. A king had both a human name and a crown name -- not to mention a Horus name, a golden Horus name, and others. Kings "played parts" in the rituals -- but to the Egyptians, the identification of the person and the god was real, not play. Kings took on the identity with different gods at different times, without diminishing the power and truth of the identification within the Egyptian theology.

Religious rituals involving the king were believed to recreate the land. When a king died and the male heir was too young to take the role of the creative male gods in the rituals, the question was opened: whether Egypt could prosper and be stable during this time.

One wonders if the reverse might also be true: if Egypt turned out to be strong and stable and prosperous without those male-king-centered rituals, might not there be questions about whether the king was necessary? Whether the temple and its rituals were necessary?

Hatshepsut began to exercise a co-rulership with her stepson and nephew, Thutmose III. If she were to adequately protect Egypt's strength and power for the time when Thutmose III would be old enough to exercise power on his own, it may have been deemed necessary -- by Hatsepsut? the priests? the court?-- for Hatshepsut to take on these religious roles. It may have been deemed more dangerous to neglect those rites than to have Hatshepsut assume the maleness that was assumed to be needed to perform them properly.

Sources consulted include



•Kara Cooney. Interview, July 3, 2007.

•Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. 2004.

•Zahi Hawass. The Realm of the Pharaoh. 2006.

•John Ray. "Hatshepsut: the Female Pharaoh." History Today. Volume 44 number 5, May 1994.

•Catharine H. Roehrig, editor. Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh. 2005. Article contributors include Ann Macy Roth, James P. Allen, Peter F. Dorman, Cathleen A. Keller, Catharine H. Roehrig, Dieter Arnold, Dorothea Arnold.

•Joyce Tyldesley. Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt. 2006.

•Joyce Tyldesley. Hatchepsut the Female Pharaoh. 1996.

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Taken from: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/hatshepsut/a/king_theology.htm