Regalia of the Pharaoh
The Regalia of the Pharaoh or Pharaoh's attributes are the symbolic objects of royalty in ancient Egypt. In use between 3150 and 30 BC, these attributes were specific to pharaohs, but also to certain gods such as Atum, Ra, Osiris and Horus. In Egyptian mythology, these powerful gods were considered the original holders of royal power and the first rulers of the Nile Valley.
As successor to the gods, the pharaoh never appeared bareheaded in public, given his sacrosanct function. In Egyptian iconography, royal attributes appeared as early as the dawn of civilization. As early as the First Dynasty, the white crown of Upper Egypt, in the shape of an elongated mitre, was commonly worn by sovereigns. The same is true of the mortar-shaped red crown of Lower Egypt, and the pschent double-crown. The latter was sometimes adapted to the nemes headdress, a pleated, striped cloth. Later, the blue khepresh headdress was quite common in the New Kingdom. A powerful symbol of protection, the snake-uraeus inevitably encircled the royal brow on all occasions.
The scepters were other symbols of domination. The scepter-heqa and the flagellum-nekhekh, with their pastoral aspects, demonstrated that the Pharaoh was the shepherd of his people, guiding and protecting them.
Other attributes include the bull's tail attached to the back of the loincloth, the ceremonial beard, sandals and the mekes case.
Overview
Throughout the history of Pharaonic Egypt, crowns, scepters, canes and other royal accessories such as scarves, sandals, loincloths and ceremonial beards played a dual role of protection and power. Very prosaically, these objects served to distinguish the Pharaoh from other human beings. All these sacred objects also conferred on their bearer civil authority as supreme commander of the state administration, military authority as head of the armies and religious authority as earthly representative of the gods.Each regalia carried its own symbolic significance. Each one was a powerful magical amulet whose role was to protect the pharaoh from all danger and to ward off the hostile forces that haunted the universe.
Some of these objects pre-date the foundation of the Egyptian state, and were already attested in the Predynastic period. Others were added during the First Dynasty. During the Second Dynasty, their functions became more formalized, remaining practically unchanged for the three millennia of Pharaonic kingship.
Crowns
The Pharaoh shared with the major deities the privilege of wearing crowns. These sacred headdresses were many and varied, and some were complex compositions combining horns, high feathers and uraeus. The three royal crowns were the most sober. The white crown was shaped like an elongated mitre, ending in a bulb. The red crown resembled a mortarboard, with the rear part rising to the top and a stem ending in a spiral; the khabet. From the First Dynasty onwards, these two crowns came to represent the royalty of Upper and Lower Egypt respectively. Symbolizing the South and not unrelated to the annual flooding of the Nile, the white crown was worn by the vulture goddess Nekhbet and by Osiris, the murdered god whose lymphs were responsible for the Nile flood. Symbolizing the North and the Nile Delta, the red crown was worn by the serpent goddess Wadjet and the warrior goddess Neith.Nested one inside the other, the white and red crowns form the double crown pa-sekhemty, "the Two Mighty Ones", which the Greeks, by linguistic deformation, called pschent. This double crown symbolized the union of the country, of which the Pharaoh was the guarantor. On a divine level, the pschent was worn by Atum, the creator god, by Mut, Amun's consort, and by the falcon Horus, protector of the double monarchy and archetypal model of the pharaoh.
The origins of the white and red crowns are lost in the mists of prehistory, but both seem to have originated in Upper Egypt alone. The earliest depiction of the red crown appears on pottery found at Naqada and dated to the Naqada I period. The earliest depiction of the white crown is on a censer found at Qustul in Lower Nubia, a locality linked to the Egyptian city of Nekhen from which the unifying will of Egypt originated. As a result, throughout Pharaonic history, the superiority of the white crown over the red one was an established fact. The oldest representation of the pschent -engraved on a rock in the western desert dates back to the reign of Djet. Subsequently, the same crown appears on an ivory label dated to the reign of Den and found at Abydos. According to French Egyptologist Bernadette Menu, archaic documentation suggests that the two crowns, before being geographical markers, were indicators of the two main roles played by the pharaoh. Wearing the white crown, he repelled disorder by massacring his enemies with a mace in hand, while wearing the red crown, he brought prosperity by surveying the fields and taking a census of the herds.
Nicknamed the "blue crown", the khepresh is a late headgear reserved exclusively for pharaohs. It appeared at the end of the Middle Kingdom, but only became common during the 18th and 19th dynasties, when the rulers were in battle. The headdress is relatively tall, bulbous and studded with numerous small circular golden lozenges. For a long time, Egyptologists mistakenly considered this headdress to be an iron war helmet, as the ruler wore it quite frequently in battle scenes, during military parades or at certain religious celebrations such as the Min Festival. It is in fact a distinctive sign of the monarch, a mark of triumph, probably made of fabric or leather.