IFAO

The deification of Amenhotep III has often been considered as a means of enhancing the king’s status and legitimacy. The present study analyses his deification as a social phenomenon linked to the general evolution of religious concepts and attitudes of the mid-XVIIIth dynasty. The available documentation (without Nubia) is classified according to its origin, stemming either from the sphere of official state religion and traditional royal ideology, or from private initiative within the emerging display of individual religiosity. These two spheres merge mainly through the activity of the elite. Images of the king as representative of a deity, in human or animal form and often of colossal size, were made accessible to the entire society and were approached as a means of direct contact with the divine. Very humble documents attest to the veneration of the king as saviour, healer and personal protector. People of higher social status combine the expression of piety with the display of loyalty. Rather modest funerary stelae represent the identification of the king with Horus – son of Isis. None of these documents shows any clear chronological or ideological relation to Amenhotep’s sed-festivals. Many aspects find close parallels during the reign of Ramesses II.