Special Edition - The Coronation of Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra - Part 1

 

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- Special Edition -

The CORONATION 

OF PTOLEMY XIII AND CLEOPATRA 

 

Part 1: THE CEREMONIAL

 

The coronation of the pharaoh was a major ritual in ancient Egypt through which two pharaohs publicly demonstrated the transfer of supreme power between them. Accession to the throne was celebrated with several ceremonies, rites, and lengthy festivals that the king had to complete before being allowed to wear the crown(s) of Egypt. 

 

This is why Egyptologists today describe the year a new pharaoh ascends to the throne as the "coronation year." 

 

 Here are the most important ceremonies: 

 

 - Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt: A ritual depicting a defeated chieftain being struck dead by a victorious king with a ceremonial mace. 

- Circumambulation of the White Walls of Memphis: A ritual procession around the city of Memphis to reinforce the king's right to the throne and to claim the city as the new seat of power. 

- Appearance of the King: This ceremony took place immediately after the coronation to confirm the king's right to rule. 

- Sed Festival: A ceremony marking the beginning of the king's reign, linked to the length of his time on the throne. 

- Sokar Festival: A ceremony involving a ceremonial boat bearing a cult image of the god Sokar, which the King pulls to a sacred lake or to the Nile. 

- Breastfeeding of the young King: Symbolic and represented by small figurines depicting the young Pharaoh seated on the lap of the goddess Isis. 

 

Period of this event: Late 52 to early 51 BCE. Cleopatra VII, then about eighteen years old, was associated with the power of her father, Ptolemy XII. 

A few months later, the will of King Ptolemy XII, who died in 51 BCE, designated Cleopatra and her younger brother, Ptolemy XIII, about ten years her junior, as successors. She was nominally married to him, as, according to Ptolemaic custom, she could not rule alone.

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A bit of history: In 332 BC, Egypt, then under Persian rule, welcomed Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, as a liberator. The hero of Greek antiquity quickly resumed his journey through the Persian Empire. After the assassination of Alexander's posthumous son, one of his generals and most loyal companions inherited the kingdom of Egypt in 305 BC. Ptolemy I (305-282 BC) thus became the first ruler of the Lagid (named after his father Lagos) or Ptolemaic dynasty. 

His successors, who ruled Egypt for three centuries, were astute enough to adopt the customs of the country in order to blend in and gain acceptance: they married their brothers and sisters, appeased the gods, adopted traditional Egyptian attire for major ceremonies, built temples, and were crowned as Pharaohs. They thus appeared, if not as Egyptians, at least as… the most Egyptian of the Greeks. The Ptolemies established this Hellenistic culture, of which they were the heirs, notably through the founding of the Library of Alexandria at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. 

Cleopatra inherited this dual culture. Born around 69 BC, she was the daughter of Ptolemy XII, who reigned over Egypt for thirty years. She ascended the throne at the age of eighteen. As in the Ptolemaic dynasty, a woman could not rule alone, so she married her half-brother, Ptolemy XIII. In Alexandria, violence was constant: to gain the throne, people did not hesitate to commit petty crimes within the family. Cleopatra herself had one of her half-sisters killed, and her husband conveniently drowned after opposing her.