Son of Ra

Son of Ra

The title “Son of Ra” is written as 𓅭𓇳 sȝ-rˤ. It is one of the “great five names”. These are explained as many royal titles of the same king, but they are typically listed with different personal names, which would point to several persons. In some cases, even one title is already listed with different names.

All of these titles are in their official sense either unexplained or nonsensical. The title “Son of Ra” is supposed to emphasize the king’s role as a “representative of the solar god Ra”. But what exactly is this role? And why would it need a separate name as well? And why don’t all the other Egyptian gods have a representative role?

Personal name (nomen)

𓅭𓇳 

This was the name given at birth. The name itself was preceded by the title “Son of Ra”, written with the hieroglyph of a duck (za), a homonym for the word meaning “son” (za), adjacent to an image of the sun, a hieroglyph for the chief solar deity Ra. It was first introduced to the set of royal titles in the Fourth Dynasty and emphasizes the king’s role as a representative of the solar god Ra. For women who became pharaoh, the preceding title was interpreted as “daughter” also.

Wikipedia: Ancient Egyptian royal titulary

At least Wikipedia admits that the title is not about ducks. Rather, the duck is a homonym for the word for “son”. This is how multiliteral hieroglyphs worked.

I’m not yet fully sure about the “great five names”, but I’ll present a possible solution here.

“Son of Ra” as pun with “deception for the nobility”

The god Ra is written rˤ, which puns with r-ˤȝ “for the nobility”. The word sȝ “son” puns with shȝ “deception”. So sȝ-rˤ “Son of Ra” could be a pun with shȝ-r-ˤȝ “a deception for the nobility”.

In its simplest sense, this might mean that the stories about the king being a god and making the sun go up were always invented, and the aristocrats themselves never believed them. In the wider sense it probably even means that there was no singular king, as an empire the size of Egypt cannot be ruled by a single person. Then as now, such empires were likely ruled by backroom councils of elderly powermongers, and the guy on the throne was always only a frontman. In Egypt’s case, the most important decisionmakers may have shared the role of the king, using a different royal title for each impersonation.

“Son of Ra” as a guardian title

My previous guess for the Son of Ra was that it may have been a title for a guardian function of sorts, as sȝ for “son” is close to sȝw for “guardian”, which is sometimes even written with the same duck glyph.

This may still be valid. All royal titles pun with “deception”, but since they all use different puns, the choice of words could perhaps be hint as to a specific function of the title bearer.

Other royal titles

The meaning of “deception for the nobility” would be in line with all the other royal titles, as they all pun with similar phrases:

• 𓅃 ḥr “Horus” name ≈ ḥr “facade” (this name is always framed by a building facade!)
• 𓅉 ḥr-nbw “Golden Horus” name ≈ ḥr-nbw “mask of the lords”
• 𓅭𓇳 sȝ-rˤ “Son of Ra” name ≈ shȝ-r-ˤȝ “deception for the nobility”
• 𓆥 nsw-bjtj “Sedge & Bee” name ≈ nsw-jȝbwt “royal outward appearance”
• 𓅒 nḫbt-wȝḏt-nbtj “Nekhbet & Wadjet Ladies” name ≈ nhp-ḏȝyt-nbt “shield & cloak for lordship”
• 𓉐𓉻 pr-ˤȝ “Pharaoh” (not a traditional title) ≈ prj-ˤȝ “appearance of the nobility” (or “great show”)

In addition, some or all of these titles may have secondary puns pointing to a specific function that the person or persons had behind the scenes.