Similarities and Differences between Ancient Greek and Ancient Egyptian Myths about
Kingship
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Similarities and Differences between Ancient Greek and Ancient Egyptian Myths about
Kingship
Mythology greatly influenced the cultures of ancient Greece and Egypt and it formed
much of the starting point for ancient Egyptian religion. It also influenced or inspired many of
ancient Egyptian Religion’s rituals and provided the ideological foundation for kingship. Signs
and symbols from myth appeared in art in amulets, temples, and tombs. It is of note that much of
Egyptian and Greek mythology comprises origin myths that explain the beginnings of different
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ANCIENT GREEK AND ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY: A COMPARISON
elements of the world such as natural phenomena and human institutions (Bremmer 2013, p. 13).
In the ancient Egyptian mythology, kingship is believed to have risen amongst the gods at the
beginning of time and then passed on to the human pharaohs. In essence, divine kingship was a
fundamental tenet in ancient Greece and ancient Egypt. This paper provides a discussion of the
similarities between Ancient Greek and Ancient Egyptian myths regarding kingship. The
differences are also discussed.
Similarities
Kings were considered as living gods in both ancient Egypt and Greek mythology
The majority of known Egyptian myths concern the nature as well as origins of Kingship
as the main topic of interest. Since Egypt had a lot of gods, Egyptians also had many myths.
Some of these myths for instance those surrounding the Sun god, became key to the Egyptian
religion particularly because of their relevance to Kingship (Antonio, Philip & Jane 2013, p.
257). A major similarity is that kings were considered as living gods according to both the
Egyptian and Greek mythology. The ancient people of Egypt actually believed that their kings
were living gods. A solar incarnation, the king of Egypt ruled as the Sun and manifested its
powers. When he passed away, his divine soul rejoined the Sun, whilst the people buried his
transfigured body inside a burial chamber wherein the drama of the sun’s nightly rebirth was
actually reenacted. It is of note that by the time of the New Kingdom from the year 1570 BCE to
1070 BCE, the creed of divine kingship was highly sophisticated (Wilkinson 2007, p. 21).
O’Connor and Silverman (2008, p. 75) stated that since the 2 nd Intermediate Period, the dogma of
the king as god in ancient Egyptian mythology seeks to describe the way that a living being
could actually achieve divine status. This doctrine might have originated in the union of Osiris
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ANCIENT GREEK AND ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY: A COMPARISON
with the dead king, or that of Horus and the living king. Similar to the ancient Egyptians, ancient
Greeks also believed in divine kingship. Inseparable and twinned, both divine and human, the
kings of Sparta were themselves descended from celestial twins (Sahlins 2011, p. 75).
There were two kings on the throne ruling at any one time in ancient Egypt and Greece
The king in Egypt was essentially the corporeal progeny of the Creator by a human
woman – the Mother of God. At any one time, there always 2 kings on the Throne of Horus
ruling simultaneously. There was the king who was mortal, and this king rose to power and ruled
from the throne on behalf of all humankind. As a High Priest, this king made offerings to the
gods for the sake of the people that he ruled (O’Connor & Silverman 2008, p. 77). The second
king was the abstract king. This was essentially a theological conception and political symbol
considered as the living incarnation of the immortal kingship; as both successor and heir to the
gods on earth. This abstract king was the recipient of his own offerings. In general, these 2 facets
of divine kingship were represented in just one god-man, a hybrid being with 2 natures –
perfectly and inimitably suited to be the intermediary between the divine and human worlds
(Antonio, Philip & Jane 2013, p. 257).
There was also dual kingship in ancient Greek mythology just like in Egyptian
mythology. In the Greek mythology, the kings were twinned and inseparable and the Greek kings
were themselves descended from celestial twins. Therefore, the Greek diarchy was an empirical
instantiation of the king’s 2 bodies – the dual kingship as an expression of sovereign twinship
(Bremmer 2013, p. 64). The king of Sparta is believed to be the seed of the demigod son of Zeus.
The dimensions of Spartan dual kingship, which is the Spartan diarchy, has 3 features that stand
out in the descriptions left by Plutarch, Xenophon, Herodotus, and ancillary standard. (i) The
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ANCIENT GREEK AND ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY: A COMPARISON
divinity of the 2 kings: they had exclusive association and identification with Castor, the
Dioscuri, Polydeuces, and the sovereign god Zeus (Bremmer 2013, p. 66). (ii) The twinned or
symmetrical nature of sovereignty: the 2 Spartan kings were merely distinguished by descent
whilst otherwise the same in privilege, and they acted formally together. (iii) The universal
extent of sovereignty: the two kings acted as sacrificial mediators between cosmos and culture,
and their own lives were politically and ritually identified with the society. Their powers were
marked by wealth and comprised sacerdotal and judicial facets, with a special highlighting on the
protective or external-military functions of the Dioscuri and Zeus (Budin 2013, p. 55). The 3
aforementioned aspects of Spartan dual kingship are interconnected, and each of them is actually
testimony to the other. In essence, each of the kings of Sparta is a double being. At every public
feast, the kings were given a twice times more portion of everything. Budin (2013, p. 56) pointed
out that Herodotus differentiated the religious occasions that involve consumption of the
sacrifice, in which kings were served first, and two times as much of every dish as everybody
else.
King represented people before the gods and was link between human world and divine
In both ancient Egypt and ancient Greece, the king represented the people before the
gods, and it is the king who is usually portrayed worshipping the gods whilst crawling, kneeling,
or standing. In making offering to the gods, the Egyptian king has to secure Ma’at or order,
which is mandatory for kings and gods. Moreover, in both Egyptian and Greek mythology, the
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ANCIENT GREEK AND ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY: A COMPARISON
king was considered as the only connection between the human world and the divine, and the
representative of the heavenly gods on the earth (Budin 2013, p. 53).
In ancient Egypt, the king was so significant to the religion of Egypt that he was
supposedly required to head all rites and ceremonies across Egypt simultaneously. The practical
answer to this was that the king promoted members of his imperial family during the Old
Kingdom, as well as nobles of his court so that they may actually represent him. This then
became the Egyptian priesthood that in the end developed its own autonomy and titles in the
New Kingdom (Antonio, Philip & Jane 2013, p. 259). In ancient Greece, the mythology
comprised an array of heroes, monsters, demigods, and deities. These figures were known to
inhabit a realm which stretched beyond the landscape of Greece to the palaces of the gods on
Mount Olympus, and to the dull underworld.
In both, there was intermarriage and mating between members of the royal family to
maintain royal bloodline
O’Connor and Silverman (2008, p. 286) stated that the pharaohs of Egypt were strongly
identified with the divine realm of the gods and they were thought to become divine beings when
they died since they ascended into the sky to merge with the sun god. Nonetheless, in their lives,
they were not always believed to be living gods. Instead, they were initially considered as the
human holders of an office created and sustained by the gods. In essence, while the monarchy
was divine, the monarchs were merely the selected instruments of the gods (Antonio, Philip &
Jane 2013, p. 254). With time, the concept of a special connection with the gods became ever
more closely related to the royal bloodline. The pharaohs came to be seen as semidivine who
were indeed connected with the gods. As such, intermarriages took place amongst members of
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ANCIENT GREEK AND ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY: A COMPARISON
the pharaonic families – sister and brother, niece and uncle, or cousin and cousin – as the
pharaohs wanted their offspring to inherit the semidivine bloodline from both the mother and the
father (Daly & Rengel 2010, p. 65).
Theseus was a well-known king of Athens and was popular for his complex tasks such as
to slay the Minotaur and to win the legendary Amazons in the siege of Athens. Theseus was a
vital hero of the Greeks who combined wisdom, power, and strength, and he was believed to
have had 2 divine origins. In essence, Theseus was Aegeus’ son, the king of Athens, and Aethera
his wife (Ferrara 2012, p. 20). Worried that he had reached a particular age without any children,
Aegeus went to Delphi to consult the Delphic oracle. Instead, he was informed of a prophesy that
he could not comprehend. Therefore, as he returned home, he decided to pass through Troezen
city and ask Pittheus, its king, for advice. Nonetheless, rather than supporting him, King Pittheus
tricked him to impregnate Aethra his daughter so that she can bear him a child. In the same night
however, Aethra had been earlier seduced by Poseidon, the Greek god. In this way, it was
believed that King Theseus actually had 2 divine origins (Sahlins 2011, p. 71). As such, there
was mating between father and daughter just as in Egyptian kingship.
Differences
King seen as inviolable in Greek mythology
Unlike in the ancient Egyptian myth on kingship, the ancient Greek myth on kingship
held that the Spartan king was inviolable. The royal privileges in Greece essentially allude to
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ANCIENT GREEK AND ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY: A COMPARISON
many consequence intimations of Zeus. For instance, during war, the king was accompanied by a
bodyguard that consisted of 100 men; bodyguards who would sooner suffer their own discredit
than let the king be killed. Similarly, it was a greater dishonor for any soldier to fail to sacrifice
himself for the Spartan king than to throw away his arms. Moreover, even the opponent feared to
attack or kill a Spartan king (Budin 2013, p. 19). As such, in Sparta, the king’s person was really
inviolable.
Unlike the ancient Egyptian king, the Greek king was seen as faultless
The body of the Spartan king was theoretically without imperfection. His conduct was
also without fault. It of note that any physical defect in a likely inheritor or successor was a
disqualification (Ferrara 2012, p. 81). The impeccability and perfection of the king was bound up
with his role as sacrifice for the kingdom, therefore with the king’s metonymic link to the god
created via a victim who was similarly without blemish. The ancient Egyptian myths also
differed from the Greek myths on kingship in that most Egyptians expected the king to take his
religious duties very seriously, or else they may suffer disasters such as famine, or they may not
have any chance of an afterlife (Bremmer 2013, p. 15).
References
Antonio J., M, Philip, J, & Jane A., H 2013, ‘8 Egyptian Kingship during the Old Kingdom’,
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology p. 257
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ANCIENT GREEK AND ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY: A COMPARISON
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press Project MUSE, EBSCOhost, viewed 21
October 2014.
Budin, S 2013, Intimate Lives Of The Ancient Greeks, Santa Barbara, California: Praeger, An
Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, Discovery eBooks, EBSCOhost, viewed 21 October
2014.
Bremmer, JN 2013, Interpretations Of Greek Mythology, London: Routledge, Discovery eBooks,
EBSCOhost, viewed 21 October 2014.
Daly, K, & Rengel, M 2010, Greek And Roman Mythology A To Z, New York: Facts On File,
Discovery eBooks, EBSCOhost, viewed 21 October 2014.
Ferrara, A 2012, All About Greek Religion And Mythology, Delhi: University Publications,
Discovery eBooks, EBSCOhost, viewed 21 October 2014.
O’Connor, D, & Silverman, D 2008, ‘Ancient Egyptian Kingship’, The Journal Of The American
Oriental Society, 2, p. p286, Literature Resource Center, EBSCOhost, viewed 21
October 2014.
Sahlins, M 2011, Twin-born with Greatness: the Dual Kingship of Sparta. Journal of
Ethnographic Theory, 1(1): 63-101
Wilkinson, TH 2007, The Egyptian World, London: Routledge, Discovery eBooks, EBSCOhost,
viewed 21 October 2014.
