1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pharaoh

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PHARAOH (Parʽoh), the Hebraized title of the king of Egypt (q.v.), in Egyptian Per-ʽo, Pheron in Herodotus represents the same. Its combination with the name of the king, as in Pharaoh-Necho, Pharaoh-Hophra, is in accordance with contemporary native usage: the name of the earlier Pharaoh Shishak (Sheshonk) is rightly given without the title. In hieroglyphic a king bears several names preceded by distinctive titles. In the IVth Dynasty there might be four of the latter:

(1) 
G5

identifying him with the royal god Horus, the name is commonly written in a frame

O33

representing the façade of a building, perhaps a palace or tomb, on which the falcon stands.

(2) 
G16

connecting him with the vulture and uraeus goddesses, Nekhabi and Buto of the south and north.

(3) 
G8

a hawk on the symbol of gold, signifying the victorious Horus.

(4) 
sw
t
L2
t

the old titles of the rulers of the separate kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt, to be read stni, “butcher(?)” and byti, “beekeeper(?)” The personal name of the king followed (4), and was enclosed in a cartouche

V10

apparently symbolizing the circuit of the sun which alone bounded the king’s rule. Before the IVth Dynasty the cartouche is seldom found: the usual title is (1), and (3) does not occur. In the Vth Dynasty the custom began of giving the king at his accession a special name connecting him with the sun this was placed in the cartouche after (4), and a fifth title was added:

(5) 
G39N5
 Si-rē, “son of the Sun-god,”

to precede a cartouche containing the personal name. The king was briefly spoken of by his title stni (see 4), or ḥnm-f, “his service,” or Ity, “liege-lord.” These titles were preserved in the sacred writing down to the latest age. An old term for the royal palace establishment and estate was Per-ʽo, “the Great House,” and this gradually became the personal designation of Pharaoh (cf. the Grand Porte), displacing all others in the popular language.  (F. Ll. G.)