Cairo Private Tours Online: THE KINGS LIST AT ABYDOS

Thursday, January 20, 2011

THE KINGS LIST AT ABYDOS

In one of the corridors to the rear of the temple is the famous king list of Abydos. This is one of three known king lists and has helped Egyptologists confirm the reigns of the various kings from the predynastic period. Not all monarchs are shown in this list the particular omissions being all of the rulers from the Armana period, which included both Akhenaten as well as Tutankamen.

The list is not by any means complete and it heavily favours the Memphite kings. During the First Intermediate Period there were three rival kingdoms, Memphis, Thebes, and Herakleopolis. None of the Herakleopolitan kings are included in the Abydos list and it is only after the Memphite line ceased to exist and Montuhotep I reunited Egypt that the Theban kings are included.
Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), Tutankhamun and Ay are all omitted because of their association with the Aten (Akhenaten´s semi-monotheistic cult). Hatshepsut and Meryneith are both omitted from the list, but Neterkare is often considered to be Queen Nitocris. It is possible that the list was intended to name only male rulers, and Nitocris slipped in under her throne name.
The highlighted picture shows three famous rulers from the Old Kingdom, Djedfure, the builder of an unfinished pyramid at Abu Roash; Kaffre or Chephren, the builder of the second of the Giza pyramids and Menkaure or Mycerinus the builder of the third of the Giza pyramids. The cartouches ( ) of these kings show the rendition of their names. These can be shown as follows:

	Detail of the wall showing four of the kings names which can just be made out. These include: Djedefre; Khafre; Menkaure and Shepseskaf.
	Highlighted hieroglyphs from three of the above kings.

Djedfure: Can be broken down to the sounds Djed – f – re

Djed

Khafre: Can be broken down to the sounds Kh - a – f – re

Menkaure: Can be broken down to the sounds Men – n – ka – u - re

Men

Re is the name of the supreme god who was sometimes also called Ra. His symbol was the sun, which always appears at the top or first in the cartouche in deference to his supremacy.

The Djed symbol represents the backbone of the god Osiris and the viper snake because it sheds its skin is seen as a symbol of eternal life. So we might translate Djedfure’s name as the “The eternal strength (backbone) of Re”
Khafre's name has a phonetic sound like the ‘ch’ in loch

and is a symbol of the rising sun over the hills at dawn. We might therefore translate his name as ‘The eternal rising Sun of Re.’
Menkaure's name is a little more complex. The ‘men’

hieroglyph means stability or balance. The ‘n’ we have already discussed and here might mean ‘hidden’ or ‘connecting’ resonance. The ka is the name of the spirit form of a living person and could perhaps be equated with the spiritualist concept of the ‘etheric’ double. The ‘u’ makes this plural so we would have to translate this to the ‘spirit forms of Re’. We might therefore translate Menkaure’s name as “The stability that comes from the unseen (hidden) energy of the spirit forms of Re’. This is quite a complex concept captured in a few simple hieroglyphic signs. Such is the beauty of the hieroglyphic language.