Ramesses II’s temple. This rare honor attests to Pesuir’s
standing.
pet The ancient Egyptian word for the sky, which was
also called hreyet,the petwas supported by four pillars,
called PILLARS OF SHU, depicted in reliefs as mountains or
as women with their arms outstretched. Many texts of
Egyptian religious traditions allude to the four pillars,
which were associated ritually to the solar bark of the god
RÉ. The goddess NUTpersonified the sky also. The Egyp-
tians believed that there was another pet,invisible to the
living. This sky was over the TUAT, the Underworld.
Pete’ese (fl. fifth century B.C.E.)Official petitioner of the
Twenty-seventh Dynasty
An elderly scribe, Pete’ese sent a petition to DARIUS I(r.
521–486 B.C.E.) describing the wrongs suffered by his
family, dating all the way back to the reign of PSAM-
METICHUS I(r. 664–610 B.C.E.) The petition, presenting a
lurid tale of persecution, fraud, and imprisonment sur-
vived, but Darius I’s response did not.
Petosiris(fl. third century B.C.E.) Priestly official of the
early Ptolemaic Period, famed for his tomb decorations
Petosiris probably served in the reign of PTOLEMY I SOTER
(304–284 B.C.E.). He was the high priest of THOTHat HER-
MOPOLIS MAGNA. His tomb had a small temple at TUNA EL-
GEBEL, Hermopolis Magna, and was called “the Great One
of the Five Masters of the Works.” An exquisite version
of the BOOK OF THE DEADwas discovered there as well.
Petosiris’s tomb-temple was fashioned in the Ptole-
maic rectangular style, with a horned altar and a half-
columned portico. His father, Seshu, and his brother,
Djedthutefankh, were also buried with him. The tomb
has a sanctuary with four square columns and a subter-
ranean shaft and depicts the god Kheper. The wall reliefs
indicate Greek influences. Petosiris’s inner coffin was
made of blackened pine, inlaid with glass.
petrified forests These are two territories in which
the trees have been petrified by natural causes over the
centuries. One of the forests is located in the desert, east
of modern Cairo, in the WADI LABBABregion. The second
is east of MA’ADI, south of modern Cairo, in the Wadi
el-Tih.
Peukestas(fl. fourth century B.C.E.)Companion of
Alexander the Great
Called “the son of Markartatos,” Peukestas was given a
portion of Egypt by ALEXANDER III THE GREAT. A docu-
ment called “the Order of Peukestas” was promulgated
for this grant. This text was found in MEMPHISand is
reported by some as the earliest known Greek document
in Egypt.
Phanes of Halicarnassus(fl. sixth century B.C.E.)
Greek mercenary general who aided the Persian invasion of
Egypt
He was originally in the service of PSAMMETICHUS III(r.
526–525 B.C.E.) but defected and advised the Persian
CAMBYSES(r. 525–522 B.C.E.) how to cross the eastern
desert safely. Phanes counseled the Persians to hire
Bedouin guides in order to use the sandy wastes effi-
ciently. His sons had remained in Egypt when Phanes
defected, and they were dragged in front of the Egyptians
and mercenary troops amassed at the battle site so that
Phanes and the Persians could see them just before the
onset of the conflict. Phanes’ two sons were both killed
by having their throats slit, and their blood was drained
into a large bowl. Wine was poured into the bowl, and
the mercenary troops, outraged by Phanes’ betrayal,
sipped the blood to a man. HERODOTUS recorded this
event in his Histories,Book Three.pharaoh It was the name of the rulers of Egypt,
derived from the word peroor pera’a,which designated
the royal residence. The term became associated with the
ruler and was eventually used in cartouches and royal
decrees. The roles of these rulers, along with their spe-
cific titles, evolved slowly after the unification of Upper
and Lower Egypt c. 3000 B.C.E. Dynasties emerged after
that unification, and a state cult was developed to define
the powers of such pharaohs. In time the ruler was
described in the tomb of REKHMIRÉ, serving TUTHMOSIS III
(r. 1479–1425 B.C.E.) in the following terms: “He is a god
by whose dealings one lives, the father and mother of all
men, alone, by himself without an equal.”
The pharaohs were officially titled neter-nefer,which
gave them semidivine status. Netermeant god and nefer
good and beautiful, an adjective that modified the godlike
qualities and limited the pharaonic role and nature. The
royal cults proclaimed this elevated status, beginning in
the earliest dynastic periods, by announcing that the
pharaohs were “the good god,” the incarnation of HORUS,
the son of RÉ. On earth they manifested the divine, and in
death they would become OSIRIS. Through their associa-
tion with these deities, the pharaohs assumed specific
roles connected to the living, to the dead, and to natural
processes. While on the throne, they were expected to
serve as the supreme human, the heroic warrior, the
champion of all rights, the dispenser of equal justice, and
the defender of MA’ATand the nation.
Egypt belonged to each pharaoh, and the nation’s
ideals and destiny were physically present in his person.
His enemies, therefore, were the enemies of the gods
themselves and all things good in nature and in the
divine order. This concept developed slowly, of course,
and pharaohs came to the throne declaring that they were
mandated by the gods “to restore ma’at,” no matter how
illustrious their immediate predecessor had been. Thepharaoh 303