ABSTRACT
AS far as we have been able to tell from the Pyramid Texts, Egypt was governed, about 2500 b.c., by an absolute monarchy by right divine. The King based his de facto power on the theory that he was the god Horus among men, 1 the heir of Osiris, and, at the same time, the son of Ra. Pharaoh concentrated in his person the whole authority, which was religious in essence. Alive, he was worshipped like Horus and Ra; dead, he became Osiris in Amenti and Ra in the sky. Between gods and men he alone was the Intermediary, the Intercessor, he who knew and performed rites (ir ikhet), he who knew how to pray (dua) to the gods, he who held “all the secrets of magic ”. 2 The result, in practice, was that the King held all the highest offices; he was priest, judge, and army commander. Moreover, he had become the owner of all the land in Egypt. This is proved by the transformation of the “census ”, which was still held every two years. Under the Thinite Kings, the census included fields and gold, landed and movable property; under the Kings of the IVth, Vth, and Vlth Dynasties it only applied to livestock, large and small. “Landed property was, therefore, no longer a taxable thing, either because it belonged to Pharaoh himself, or because the soil had become free property in the hands of landed proprietors, or of the gods.” 3
