Pschent

The pschent (/ˈskɛnt/; Greek ψχέντ) was the double crown worn by rulers in ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians generally referred to it as sekhemty (sḫm.ty), the Two Powerful Ones.[1] It combined the White Hedjet Crown of Upper Egypt and the Red Deshret Crown of Lower Egypt.

Pschent, the double crown of Egypt

The Pschent represented the pharaoh's power over all of unified Egypt.[2] It bore two animal emblems: an Egyptian cobra, known as the uraeus, ready to strike, which symbolized the Lower Egyptian goddess Wadjet; and an Egyptian vulture representing the Upper Egyptian tutelary goddess Nekhbet. These were fastened to the front of the Pschent and referred to as the Two Ladies. Later, the vulture head sometimes was replaced by a second cobra.

History
 
Pschent
"Double Crown"
in hieroglyphs

The invention of the Pschent is generally attributed to the First Dynasty pharaoh Menes, but the first one to wear a Double Crown was the First Dynasty pharaoh Djet: a rock inscription shows his Horus wearing it.[3]

The king list on the Palermo Stone, which begins with the names of Lower Egyptian pharaohs (nowadays thought to have been mythological demigods), shown wearing the Red Crown, marks the unification of the country by giving the Pschent to all First Dynasty and later pharaohs.[4] The Cairo fragment, on the other hand, shows these prehistoric rulers wearing the Pschent.[5]

Archaeology

As is the case with the Deshret and the Hedjet Crowns, no Pschent has survived. It is known only from statuary, depictions, inscriptions, and ancient tales.

Mythology

Among the deities sometimes depicted wearing the Double Crown are Horus[6] and Atum or Ra both representing the pharaoh or having a special relationship to the pharaoh.[7]

  • Pharaoh Ptolemy VIII between the goddesses Wadjet (symbolizing lower Egypt) and Nekhbet (symbolizing upper Egypt). Bas-relief on wall of Temple of Edfu, Egypt
  • Ring of Ptolemy VI Philometor wearing the Pschent Double Crown, 3rd to 2nd Century BC. Ptolemaic rulers wore the Pschent in Egypt only and wore the Greek diadem in the other territories
  • Statue head Senusret III wearing a pschent
  • Horus falcon with Double Crown
  • Statue of Amenhotep III wearing a pschent

See also

References
  1. Griffith, Francis Llewellyn, A Collection of Hieroglyphs: A Contribution to the History of Egyptian Writing, the Egypt Exploration Fund 1898, p.56
  2. Dunand, Françoise; Christiane Zivie-Coche, Gods and Men in Egypt: 3000 BCE to 395 CE, Cornell University Press 2004, pp.32f.
  3. Wilkinson, Toby A. H., Early Dynastic Egypt, Routledge 1999, p.196
  4. Trigger, B. G. (1982). "The rise of civilization in Egypt". In Clark, J. Desmond (ed.). The Cambridge History of Africa. Volume 1, From the Earliest Times to c.500 BC. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 521. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521222150.008. ISBN 9781139054553.
  5. Kemp, Barry John, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy Of A Civilization, Routledge 2006, p.92
  6. Zandee, Jan, Studies in Egyptian Religion: Dedicated to Professor Jan Zandee, Brill 1982, p.74
  7. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2005, p. 689
  • Media related to pschent at Wikimedia Commons
  • The dictionary definition of pschent at Wiktionary
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