Roman Emperor in the Guise of the Egyptian Gods: Images and Texts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52575/2687-0967-2024-51-2-297-308Keywords:
imperial cult, Roman Egypt, Anubis, Horus, Amon, Ra, SethAbstract
The author draws his attention to the images of the gods Anubis and Horus in Roman Egypt in this study. These gods could include in their image the iconographic features of the Roman emperor. Horus and Anubis acted as invincible warriors, asserting a fair order in the world, universal deities and civilizers of peoples. These functions corresponded to the image of the Roman emperor, who established the Pax Romana, which made it possible to identify the ruler of Rome and these deities. Giving to Anubis and Horus the iconographic features of the emperor, that was confirmed in papyrus and temple texts, was a consequence of the desire of the inhabitants of the Nile Valley to incorporate the image of the emperor into the religious sphere of Egypt and the result of the adaptation of the religious ideas of the Egyptians to the tastes of the Greco-Roman population of the Nile Valley. At the same time, giving of the Roman features to the Egyptian gods could be a consequence of transferring the sacred status of the king to the deities of the Nile River Valley, although it was not possible for the Egyptians to completely exclude the rulers of Rome from the Egyptian religious system, who, as Egyptian pharaohs, were supposed to ensure a fair order of things («Maat»).
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The work was carried out without external sources of funding.
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