Abstract
Among other motifs, the Pyramid and the Coffin Texts reflect ideas connected to divine authority of the king and the creative power of gods. Both phenomena were closely interconnected and could be interpreted as references to a single double-sided concept of a royal-divine authority and power.
Main aspects of this topic will be analysed in this paper using two seemingly unrelated texts: a) the so-called Creation Myth (as attested in several passages of the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts), and b) the so-called Cannibal Hymn (attested in the Pyramid Texts Spells 273-274, §393-414). In the Old Kingdom, the first text occurs only in hints or brief allusions of few Pyramid Texts utterances.
Its detailed version, however, comes from the Coffin Texts. Even though the latter has often been considered to represent a typical Middle Kingdom textual corpus, in recent years, several scholars suggested that its origins could be re-dated to the Old Kingdom (Baines 2004; Smith 2009; Hays 2011).
The Cannibal Hymn, on the other hand, has been one of the most debated religious texts from ancient Egypt (e.g., Faulkner 1924; Barta 1979 and 1991; Kammerzell 2000; Eyre 2002; Goebs 2004; Goedicke 2011). Although several translations and various interpretations exist, the real meaning of the text has not yet been fully comprehended.
On the basis of latest research it seems that the Hymn reflected on final acceptance of absolute power of the king, and thus also on the accomplishment of the process of his divination. Although these two texts seem to be unrelated, some similarities and crucial interconnections can be observed: both reflect distinct power of the sun, its uniqueness on the diurnal sky, or its life-giving force.
Hence, the present paper aims to (re-)define the concept of divine authority and the mutual relationship between the royal and the divine within the two religious texts focusing on the shared topic of solar supremacy.