Two Ladies
In
After the unification, the image of Nekhbet joined Wadjet on the
Usage in epithets
The holiest of deities in the
An example of the use of this term in text references may be found in the following commemoration of a military campaign under pharaoh
Regnal Year 5, third month of Inundation, day 2. ...appearing in truth, [the] Two Ladies, Who [establish] laws and [pacify] the Two Lands... [to the] King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Nebmaatra, heir of Ra, Son of Ra, [Amenhotep, ruler of Thebes]... came to tell [the pharaoh], "The fallen one of vile Kush has plotted rebellion in his heart." [The pharaoh] led on to victory; he completed it in his first campaign of victory. [The pharaoh] reached them like the wing stroke of a falcon... Ikheny, the boaster in the midst of the army, did not know the lion that was before him. Nebmaatra was the fierce-eyed lion whose claws seized vile Kush, who trampled down all its chiefs in their valleys, they being cast down in their blood, one on top of the other[2]
The references about fierce-eyed lions is another epithet, related to the war deity,
These three deities were the strongest patrons of Ancient Egypt. They never were displaced by deities who rose and declined in importance to the Egyptians when the pharaohs chose a special personal patron, a temple became extremely powerful, or the capitals changed. The use of the image of the two patron goddesses on the uraeus was retained even during the rule of Akhenaten, who may have suppressed the worship of deities other than his own personally chosen favorite, Aten. His Hebty, or Nebty name was derived from a root with the Two Ladies as well, as seen in the hierographic image of Akhenaten's Hebty name, Wernesytemakhetaten, displayed in the information box at his article and should be translated as, He of the Two Ladies, Great of kingship in Akhetaten. In this way he differed from no other pharaoh and the importance of these traditional deities persisted subtly throughout his reign, when he tried to break the power of the temple of Amun. As soon as his reign ended, the ancient religious traditions were restored fully and even, later embraced by the subsequent foreign rulers of Egypt until the collapse of the Roman Empire.
On the central portion of the Menat necklace displayed above, the Two Ladies flank a statue of Sekhmet, who is being propitiated by the pharaoh in a temple ceremony. The placement of them alongside her in the temple of the lioness goddess, demonstrates the authority with which she always was associated, and the importance of an association with the Two Ladies.
Nebty name
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The nebty name, literally meaning "Two Ladies", is one of the titles of an Egyptian pharaoh, following the standard naming convention used by the Ancient Egyptians. The name was associated with the patron goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt:
- Nekhbet, patron deity of Upper Egypt, was represented as a griffon vulture, and
- Wadjet, patron deity of Lower Egypt, was represented as an Egyptian cobra.
- Nekhbet, patron deity of Upper Egypt, was represented as a
The first time the nebty name is used definitively,
Typically, this name is not framed by a
Anthropomorphic Ptolemaic representation
In the relief on the temple, the two goddesses are shown crowning a Ptolemaic pharaoh with the double crown derived from the combination of their separate crowns. The Two Ladies are represented wholly as women, in the same way as some other Ancient Egyptian goddesses, without any of the
The headdresses of the goddesses in the relief imagery also are inconsistent with traditions. A vulture is displayed as the base of both headdresses. The vulture never was related to both, only to Nekhbet, and the cobra representing Wadjet is missing from what is represented as her headdress. This tiny detail is a subtle indicator of the lack of understanding of the ancient cultural traditions by foreign rulers who, nonetheless, preferred to be seen as a cultural continuation.
These Greek rulers embraced the Ancient Egyptian traditions, albeit with their own differing interpretations and styles and, at times introducing concepts that the Ancient Egyptians would not have represented, that were based upon parallels made to their Greek traditions and concepts. Greek and Roman religious beliefs were significantly less zoomorphic than those of Ancient Egyptians. In indigenous Egyptian traditions, these goddesses might have been portrayed as women with the heads of the respective animals more typically representing the deities when not represented as only the animals associated with them.
Notes
- ^ Wilkinson, Toby A. H. (1999). Early Dynastic Egypt. Routledge. p. 292.
- ^ Urk. IV 1665-66
- ^ "two ladies". www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
- ISBN 978-0199740116. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
References
- Allen, James P. (1999). ISBN 0-521-77483-7.
- Dodson, Aidan Mark & Dyan Hilton (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Cairo, London, and New York: The American University in Cairo Press and Thames and Hudson. ISBN 977-424-878-3.
- Gardiner, Alan Henderson (1957). Egyptian Grammar; Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs (3rd ed.). Oxford: Griffith Institute.
- Quirke, Stephen G. J. (1990). Who Were the Pharaohs? A History of Their Names with a List of Cartouches. London: British Museum Publications Limited.
- Schneider, Thomas (1993). "Zur Etymologie der Bezeichnung 'König von Ober- und Unterägypten'". Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde. 120 (2): 166–181. S2CID 193377499.
- von Beckerath, Jürgen (1999). Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen (2nd ed.). Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.