ABSTRACT
In the time of the Amarna archive, the Egyptian military presence in the Levant was rather limited. In Egypt the people have something more precise and articulated: the individual parts of the Pharaoh’s body are entrusted with specific functions. In the Amarna letters of Egyptian origin, the intervention of the strong arm of Pharaoh is an effective threat against the rebels, by crushing down or cutting away their head, and in those by the Canaanite kings such an intervention is frequently auspicated, obviously diverted away from themselves, against their own enemies. The privilege of looking at the Pharaoh’s face grants the vassal the reward of ‘life’, a key concept in the relationships between the Pharaoh and his subjects, be they Egyptian or foreigners. The role of ideology was to overturn such a seclusion and demonstrate that Pharaoh was well present in the life of everybody, able and prompt to punish the rebels and reward the loyal servants.
