The Pschent

The Peschent represented the pharaoh's power over all of unified Egypt.^[2] It bore two animal emblems. An Egyptian cobra, known as the uraeus, ready to strike, which symbolized the Lower Egyptian goddess Wadjet. And an Egyptian vulture representing the Upper Egyptian tutelary goddess Nekhbet. These were fastened to the front of the Pschent and referred to as the Two Ladies. Later, the vulture head sometimes was replaced by a second cobra.

History

The invention of the Peschent is generally attributed to the First Dynasty pharaoh Den, but the first one to wear a Double Crown may have been Djet: a rock inscription shows his Horus wearing it.^[3]

Ring of Ptolemy VI Philometor wearing the Pschent-Double Crown. 3rd to 2nd Century BC.

The king list on the Palermo stone, which begins with the names of Lower Egyptian pharaohs (nowadays thought to have been mythological demi-gods), which it shows wearing the Red Crown, marks the unification of the country by giving the Peschent to all First Dynasty and later pharaohs.^[4] The Cairo fragment, on the other hand, shows these prehistoric rulers wearing the Peschent .^[5]

Archaeology

Just as is the case with the Deshret and the Hedjet Crowns, no Peschent has survived. It is known only from statuary, depictions, and inscriptions.

Mythology

Among the deities sometimes depicted wearing the Double Crown are Horus, ^[6] and Atum, both representing the pharaoh or having a special relationship to the pharaoh.^[7]

<gallery> Image:Egypte louvre 024b.jpg|Horus falcon with Double Crown Image:RamessesIV-SmitingHisEnemiesOnAnOstracon MuseumOfFineArtsBoston.png|Ostracon of Pharaoh, wielding a scimitar-(Ancient Egyptian khopesh).

</gallery>

References

• Françoise Dunand, Christiane Zivie-Coche, Gods and Men in Egypt: 3000 BCE to 395 CE, Cornell University Press 2004
• Francis Llewellyn Griffith, A Collection of Hieroglyphs: A Contribution to the History of Egyptian Writing, the Egypt Exploration Fund 1898
• Toby A. H. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt, Routledge 1999
• John Donnelly Fage, Desmond J. Clark, Roland Anthony Oliver, A. D. Roberts, The Cambridge History of Africa, Cambridge University Press 1975
• Barry John Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy Of A Civilization, Routledge 2006
• Jan Zandee, Studies in Egyptian Religion: Dedicated to Professor Jan Zandee, Brill 1982
• The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. 2005

Footnotes

1. ↑ Griffith, op.cit., p.56
2. ↑ Dunand & Zivie, op.cit., pp.32f.
3. ↑ Wilkinson, op.cit., p.196
4. ↑ Fage et al., op.cit., p.521
5. ↑ Kemp, op.cit., p.92
6. ↑ Zandee, op.cit., p.74
7. ↑ New Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 689

See also

• Deshret
• Hedjet
• Khepresh

bg:????? de:Pschent es:Corona egipcia fr:Pschent nl:Egyptische kronen ja:????? no:Dobbeltkrone pl:Pszent pt:Coroas egípcias