- Hor-Aha
Pharaoh Infobox | Name=Hor-Aha |
Caption=Faience vessel fragment inscribed with the name of the pharaoh Hor-Aha, on display at theBritish Museum
Reign=Dates unknown
Dynasty=1st Dynasty
Predecessor=Narmer orMenes ?
Successor=Djer |Nebty="men"
Established
Horus="Hor-aha"
The fighting hawk
Father=ProbablyNarmer
Mother=Probably Queen Nithotep
Children=Djer ? with Queen Benerib| Consort=Probably Queen Benerib
Dynasty=1st Dynasty
Alt= Africanus: Athôthis Eusebius: Athôthis, Athothis
Monuments=Temple toNeith atSais Hor-Aha is considered the second
pharaoh of the first dynasty ofAncient Egypt in current Egyptology. He lived around the thirty-first century BC. The twologographic glyphs used to write his name are roughly translated as "Hor", (a reference to the hawk deity,Horus ), and "Aha", meaning "to fight".Around the thirty-second century BC, his father,
Narmer , had unitedUpper Egypt andLower Egypt . Hor-Aha (whose birth name is transliterated as Ity or Iteti, "Hor-Aha" being his "Horus" or throne name) became pharaoh at about the age of thirty and ruled until he was about sixty-two years old.Fact|date=May 2008 Legend had it that he was carried away by ahippopotamus , the embodiment of the deity Seth. Provided that Hor-Aha was the legendary "Menes", another story has it that Hor-Aha was killed by a hippopotamus while hunting.There has been some controversy about Hor-Aha. Some believe him to be the same individual as the legendary
Menes and that he was the one to unify all of Egypt. Others claim he was the son ofNarmer , the pharaoh who unified Egypt. Narmer and Menes may have been one pharaoh, referred to with more than one name. Regardless, considerable historical evidence from the period points to Narmer as the pharaoh who first unified Egypt ("seeNarmer Palette ") and to Hor-Aha as his son and heir.Hor-Aha's queen was most likely "Benerib", whose name was "written alongside his on a number of [historical] pieces, in particular, from tomb B14". [Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (2004), p.46] Tomb B14 is located directly adjacent to Hor-Aha's sepulchre. [Dodson & Hilton, op. cit., p.46]
References
*Toby A. H. Wilkinson, "Early Dynastic Egypt", Routledge, London/New York 1999, ISBN 0-415-18633-1, 70-71
ee also
*
Ancient Egypt
*Pharaoh
*First dynasty of Egypt
*Narmer
*Menes
*History of Egypt
*The Greatest Pharaohs
*List of Pharaohs
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