Setnakhte

Encyclopedia : S : SE : SET : Setnakhte

Userkhaure-setepenre Setnakhte (also Setnakht) was the first Pharaoh (1186 BC-1183 BC) of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt and the father of Ramesses III. He was originally believed to have enjoyed a reign of only 2 Years based upon his Year 2 Elephantine stela but his Third Regnal Year is now attested in Inscription No.271 on Mount Sinai(see page 201-202 of Von Beckerath's 1997 book, Chronologie des Pharaonischen Ägypten.) Since his theoretical accession date is assumed to be II Shemu 10 based on the date of his Elephantine stela, Setnakhte would have ruled Egypt for at least 2 Years and 11 Months before he died, or nearly 3 Full Years. This date is only 3 months removed from Twosret's Highest known date of Year 8, III Peret 5 and is based upon a calculation of Ramesses III's known Accession date of I Shemu 26.

While his reign was brief, it was just long enough for him to stabilize the political situation in Egypt, and to establish his son, Rameses III onto the throne of Egypt. Setnakhte started work on a tomb, KV11, in the Valley of the Kings, but stopped it when the tombcarvers accidentally broke into the tomb of the Nineteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Amenmesse. Setnakhte then appropriated the tomb of Queen Twosret (KV14) for his own use. Setnakhte's origins are not known, and he may have been a commoner, although some Egyptologists believe that he was related to the previous dynasty, the Nineteenth, through his mother and may thus have been a grand-son of Ramesses II. His son, Ramesses III, is regarded as the last great king of the New Kingdom, was named after Rameses II and took on many of this kings attributes. The beginning of the Great Harris Papyrus or Papyrus Harris I, which documents the reign of Ramesses III, provides some details about Setnakhte's rise to power. An excerpt of Breasted's 1906 translation of this document is provided below:

"The land of Egypt was overthrown from without, and every man was thrown out of his right; they had no "chief mouth" for many years formerly until other times. The land of Egypt was in the hands of chiefs and of rulers of towns; one slew his neighbour, great and small. Other times having come after it, with empty years, Irsu ('a self-made man'), a certain Syrian (Kharu) was with them as chief (wr). He set plundering their(ie: the people's) possessions. They made gods like men, and no offerings were presented in the temples.

"But when the gods inclined themselves to peace, to set the land in its rights according to its accustomed manner, they established their son, who came forth from their limbs, to be ruler, LPH, of every land, upon their great throne, Userkhaure-setepenre-meryamun, LPH, the son of Re, Setnakht-merire-meryamun, LPH. He was Khepri-Set, when he is enraged; he set in order the entire land which had been rebellious; he slew the rebels who were in the land of Egypt; he cleansed the great throne of Egypt; he was ruler of the Two Lands, on the throne of Atum. He gave ready faces to those who had been turned away. Every man knew his brother who had been walled in. He established the temples in possession of divine offerings, to offer to the gods acccording to their customary stipulations."

Significantly, the Harris Papyrus does not say that Setnakhte killed Chancellor Bay who is the only plausible candidate for this Irsu. Rather, Setnakhte is only credited with establishing order after an exaggerated period of chaos and civil war. This detail conforms well with the historical evidence which shows that Bay probably died in Year 5 of Siptah.

Siptah's Stele at Elephantine seems to have referred to these same events, referring to an expulsion of Asiatics, who fled, leaving the gold they looted from Egyptian temples behind. It is unsure the degree to which this inscription referred to contemporary events or rather repeated anti-Asiatic sentiment from the reign of Pharaoh Ahmose. Stnakhte also identified himself with the God Atum or Temu, and built a temple to this God at Per-Atum (Biblical Pithom}

Setnakhte may have been the first Pharaoh mentioned in Greek mythology. Marian LubanLuban, Marianne "Setnakhte and the Classical Memory"http://www.geocities.com/scribelist/setnakht.html quotes Diodorus Siculus: ''"A man of obscure origin was chosen king, whom the Egyptians call 'Ketes', but who among the Greeks is thought to be that Proteus who lived at the time of the war about Ilium." Ketes, from Egyptian Khenti, means the same as Proteios, meaning "first". The Elephantine Stela confirms Diodorus "He was chosen, His Majesty, l.p.h., as the "Khenty-Heh", the "First One of Millions", regardless of countless others being more significant than he."'' In other words, King Setnakht may have been a commoner or a prince of the royal blood somehow connected to the 19th Dynasty.

Sources

James H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Vol No.4,(1906), pp.198-199
Erik Hornung, Untersuchungen zur Chronologie und Geschichte des Neuen Reiches (1964)
J. Von Beckerath, Chronologie des Pharaonischen Ägypten, Philip Von Zabern, (Mainz: 1997), pp.94-98 and pp.201-2-2
Luban, Marianne "Setnakhte and the Classical Memory"http://www.geocities.com/scribelist/setnakht.html

Preceded by:
Twosret

Pharaoh of Egypt
Twentieth Dynasty

Succeeded by:
Ramesses III

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.