The Hyksos Kings

It is probable that during the Hyksos period the Habiru tribesmen enjoyed a higher social status and became more assimilated into city life. Prior to this, the only way for one of these desert herdsmen to improve his lot and enjoy the benefits of city life had been to offer himself as a slave to an Egyptian family. This arrangement was not slavery in the sense that most people today might imagine it; it was more like being a servant with a lifetime contract. Wages may not have been good but the quality of life would have been far higher than the vast majority of people could ever aspire to.

Once the Hyksos kings became settled they started to sponsor the building of temples as well as the production of statues, reliefs, scarabs, general works of art and some of the finest literary and technical works of the time. They appear to have had little cultural heritage of their own and rulers started to write their names in Egyptian hieroglyphics, took the traditional titles of the Egyptian kings and even gave themselves Egyptian personal names. The Hyksos kings at first spread their influence to rule Lower Egypt, the larger and lusher of the two lands, from their newly created city of Avaris where they adopted as their state god a deity which had been especially revered in the area where they had first settled. This god was Set or Seth, who had similarities to their previous Canaanite god Baal. They centred their theology on Set but they also accepted Re as a major god and they honoured him in the throne names that they gave themselves. Later they controlled both the Two Lands from the old capital of Memphis. It is fair to say that there was something of a symbiotic relationship by which the invaders gained culture and theological refinement and the Egyptians new technology such as chariots and other weaponry, including composite bows and bronze swords to replace their simple and ancient designs. They also gained a further important thing from the Hyksos; cynicism. They had been far too open and easygoing for their own good in the past, with little regard for the proactive defence of their country. The experience of the Hyksos period provided a powerful lesson and a new positive outlook emerged that laid the foundation for the resurgence of the Egyptian sprit in what we call the New Kingdom.

Although they had lost control of the old capital, Memphis, elements of the true Egyptian monarchy continued an existence in the Upper Egyptian city of Thebes. From records it is clear that the Thebans acknowledged the sovereignty of their Asiatic overlords, with whom they seem to have been on good terms. As in time the Hyksos kings became absorbed into much of Egyptian culture and religious practices, inevitably a politico-theological problem emerged. The invaders started to want spiritual power as well as physical power. For instance, the Hyksos ruler king Khyan (or Khayana) assumed the Egyptian throne-name of ‘Se-user-en-re’ as well as the titles ‘the Good God’ and ‘the Son of Re’, and in addition created for himself the Horus name ‘Embracer-of Regions’, a title that suggested worldwide domination. This claim by the Hyksos to be ‘the son of god’ must have outraged the Egyptian people at every level.

Here, we believe, is a major issue which has not yet been sufficiently examined by modern Egyptologists. We now know that there was a very special point during the king-making process that made the new Horus unchallengeable; but the would-be Hyksos kings, for all their stately power and their emulation of Egyptian religion, were excluded from this, the ultimate accolade. How could a foreigner simply change his name from Khyan to Seuserenre and style himself Horus without undergoing the highly secret initiation process known only to the real kings of Egypt and their inner sanctum? The simple answer is that he couldn’t. It is completely beyond the bounds of rason to think that the Egyptians would have shared their greatest secrets with these brutish foreigners; but because Khyan desperately wanted this powerful title and had no access to it legitimately, he had little option but to assume the empty title. Superficially relationships between the Egyptians and their new masters were good, but resentment must have been high. Furthermore, despite aping Egyptian styles and customs, the Hyksos remained essentially different. The grafting of the Hyksos onto Egypt was at best superficial. They spoke Egyptian with an amusing accent, wore beards (Egyptians shaved daily unless in mourning), they had a strange dress sense and they transported themselves in wheeled machines they called chariots which were pulled by horse instead of donkeys.

The Hiram Key
By: Chris Knight & Robert Lomas
Pages 162-165

HOTEP! SELAMTA!