The Tale of Sinuhe: and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems 1940-1640 B.C.

The king’s place in the Egyptian political and social hierarchy reflects the belief that order is best maintained by a centralized authority, imbuing the king with the will of divine beings. Parkinson notes, “The king was regarded as a god and his power united individual bodies into a single prosperous society” (235). It is the responsibility of rulers “to impose order on a complex and chaos-ridden world” (215). As the king was the apex of the social order, granted his position by the gods, rebellion against the king, as Khety says in his teaching, is a revolt against heaven itself (225).

The king’s divine birthright was communicated through associating him with the creator god, the sun god, and thus the sun is often used as imagery to represent the king. “The ‘Loyalist’ Teaching” refers to the king as a sun god “by whose rays one sees” (238). In “The Tale of Neferti,” the sun god and the person of the king are conflated. Neferti prophecies that the sun god will return and Ameny will come and unite the kingdoms, slaughtering enemies, building a fortress; thus “Truth will return to its proper place / with Chaos driven outside” (139).