A right royal disappointment!

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Pharaoh: King of Egypt

By Margaret Maitland

Ambitious claims are made for the aims of this book on the flyleaf, including, ‘the three main roles of the pharaoh – as head of state, as chief priest and as commander of he army’. Yet the book is structured into five chapters, each chapter purporting to address ‘a different aspect of the pharaoh’s idealized image and the responsibilities of the king’, which does not obviously correspond with the three roles. It further claims to examine the ideals of Egyptian kingship, the mythology of divine rule and the image pharaohs sought to present to their subjects. All of which would be thoroughly laudable but hardly achievable in a book of this size and given the paucity of text (around 800 words per chapter). This lack of focus and sensationalist approach is reflected throughout the book, which inevitably fails to deliver.

This is very disappointing in a book from The British Museum Press and I sincerely hope it does not reflect a change towards ‘dumbing down’, which is all too prevalent. I have a number of similar format publications by BMP and have always found them informative, instructive and appropriately illustrated. This book is certainly beautifully illustrated, which is the strongest point in its favour, but there is little logic in the order of the images or rationale in their inclusion in the different ‘chapters’. The captions ought to tie each image to the theme of the ‘chapter’ where they appear – but don’t. For example, the Hellenistic head of Alexander the Great from Libya on page 25 does not appear to be connected to the text on pages 18 and 19, and the caption doesn’t really clarify the connection – its all too ‘bitty’. In effect, we are presented with a series of facts, loosely connected to one of the five themes and lacking cohesion.

Another example concerns the rule of ma’at – an essential concept for Egyptian kingship, which is explained in the Introduction. Ma’at encapsulates order, balance, justice and, most importantly, truth – of which there is no mention. The very first line of the negative confession that the deceased had to make in front of the court of Osiris in the afterlife is: ‘I have not done any falsehood against men’, which illustrates the importance of truth. Furthermore, no explanation is given that the personification of ma’at is a goddess who wears on her head the feather of truth. This is the feather that is put in one scale when your heart is weighed in the other to determine if you are justified. Oddly there is an image of ma’at in the ‘chapter’ Lord of the Two Lands – no mention of truth in the caption or an explanation of the feather on her head – which would certainly confuse anyone who didn’t know what it was!

The concept of kingship in Ancient Egypt is an extremely important one and is central to an understanding of this fascinating culture. It is a complex topic that requires – and deserves – a clear and erudite explanation. It certainly does not require sensationalist treatment – it is itself sensational enough. Consequently use of hyperbole to engage the reader is unnecessary – and misleading. For example: ‘Numerous pharaohs did not fit the Egyptian ideal – many woman, usurpers and foreigners sat on the throne’; to the uninitiated this implies that many women were pharaohs, which is not the case – only one woman (Hatshepsut) was, as far as we know, crowned pharaoh. The interchanging of ‘ruler’ and ‘pharaoh’ is continued in the same page with ‘female rulers such as Sobeknefru and Hatshepsut’ and ‘powerful female pharaohs’. Little is known about Sobeknefru, who seems to have been the last ruler of the 12th dynasty but there is no evidence she was a pharaoh – indeed, the king list presented here lists her as Queen. A number of royal women were indeed rulers (for instance, it was not unusual for a royal woman to act as regent) but this is not the same thing as being pharaoh – a mistake that this book ought to correct not commit!

There are numerous other examples of misleading hyperbole, ‘Deceased kings were worshipped, and some were even treated like saints’ – saints in Ancient Egypt? I must stop here. Suffice it to say that, most regrettably, I was not impressed. This is too serious, and fascinating, a subject to be treated in such a sloppy and cursory manner. I expect BMP publications to instruct – not mislead. Ultimately it does not do ‘what it says on the can’, which is a pity because that would be a book worth reading.

Pharaoh: King of Egypt by Margaret Maitland is published by the British Museum Press, 2012. £9.99. ISBN: 978-0-7141-1998-4