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son of a woman of Nubia, and will be born in [the south].... He
shall assume the crown of Upper Egypt, and lift up the red crown
of the north. He shall unite the double crown.... The people of
the age of the son of man shall rejoice and establish his name for
all eternity. They shall be removed far from evil, and the wicked
shall humble their mouths for fear of him. The Asiatics shall fall
before his blows, and the Libyans before his flame. The wicked
shall wait on his judgments, the rebels on his power. The royal [249]
serpent on his brow shall pacify the revolted. A wall shall be
built, even that of the prince, that the Asiatics may no more enter
into Egypt.”^200
Yet more striking is the belief in the virgin-birth of the god
Pharaoh, which goes back at least to the time of the Eighteenth
Dynasty. On the western wall of one of the chambers in the
southern portion of the temple of Luxor, Champollion first
noticed that the birth of Amon-hotepIII. is portrayed. The
inscriptions and scenes which describe it have since been copied,
and we learn from them that he had no human father; Amon
himself descended from heaven and became the father of the
future king. His mother was still a virgin when the god of Thebes
“incarnated himself,”so that she might“behold him in his divine
form.”And then the hieroglyphic record continues with words
that are put into the mouth of the god.“Amon-hotep,”he is made
to say,“is the name of the son who is in thy womb. He shall
grow up according to the words that proceed out of thy mouth.
He shall exercise sovereignty and righteousness in this land unto
its very end. My soul is in him, (and) he shall wear the twofold
crown of royalty, ruling the two worlds like the sun for ever.”^201 [250]
this land unto its very end. My soul is in him: he shall wear the twofold crown
of royalty, ruling the two lands like the sun for ever.”
(^200) Golénischeff, in theRecueil de Travaux, xv. pp. 88, 89. The passage is
found in Papyrus 1116 of the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. The words“son of
man”are a literal translation of the originalsi-n-sa.
(^201) For the scenes accompanying the text, see Gayet,“Le Temple de Louxor,”
in theMémoires de la Mission archéologique française au Caire, xv. 1, pl.