The Mother Goddess and the King: The Origins of the Symbols of Rulership Ideology in Ancient Egypt

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This is the Dissertation for which I received an MA in Egyptology from the University of Manchester. It is an investigation into the origins of the symbols that represented two core concepts forming the bases for rulership ideology in Ancient Egypt, the divine feminine and her son the powerful male ruler. The symbols are traced back to the early origins of art and religion for modern humans in the great transition during the Upper Paleolithic, through the Neolithic Levant and then through the various cultures of Predynastic Egypt. The symbols evolve from female figurines (Venuses) and cave drawings depicting horned powerful males (shamans), and ultimately reaches a stage where the divine feminine is embodied in a celestial mother goddess represented by a cow, and her son a powerful male ruler who is in essence also a divine being represented as a fierce bull. The Dissertation collates the various evidence that confirms a continual link between the revolution of symbols during the Upper Paleolithic, marking the birth of art and religion, and the symbols representing the two core concepts of rulership ideology in Ancient Egypt in their mature form as exemplified in the Menkaure Triads during the 4th Dynasty.