“Lord of Appearances”

I have been highlighting various titles seen commonly because they are a great way to practice reading hieroglyphs 𓊹𓌃𓏪, and I realized that I didn’t talk about one of the titles that appeared in yesterday’s post, so I’m going to talk about it today! Oops!

𓎟𓈍𓏥 – Lord of Appearances another popular title that is seen across many different types of monuments across Egypt 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 and museums around the world. To review: a title is a phrase that appears before a cartouche, which is the oval that encloses the name 𓂋𓈖 of a pharaoh 𓉐𓉻.

The meaning of 𓎟𓈍𓏥 – Lord of Appearances seems to be the one that can confuse people the most and the meaning can kind of be a little subtle/abstract. I always took it to mean that when the pharaoh 𓉐𓉻 arrived or appeared somewhere it was a BIG DEAL; basically a god 𓊹 showed up! Since the pharaoh was a god 𓊹 on Earth𓇾𓇾, his/her arrival needed a whole title to mention it!

Let’s break down the title:

𓎟 – Lord
𓈍𓏥 – Appearances

The hieroglyph 𓊹𓌃 for appear 𓈍 is the sun 𓇳𓏤 rising over the horizon, which is to signify Ra’s 𓇳𓏺𓁛 daily journey across the sky 𓊪𓏏𓇯. The addition of the three strokes 𓏥 makes the word plural, hence why it is translated as “appearances” instead of just “appear.”