10/19/2017 Ka - Oxford Reference

Oxford Reference

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt

Edited by Donald B. Redford

Publisher: Oxford University Press Print Publication Date: 2001

Print ISBN-13: 9780195102345 Published online: 2005
Current Online Version: 2005 eISBN: 9780195187656

Ka.

The complex of ideas concerning the ka is one of the most important in Egyptian religion. Since these ideas have no exact
analogues in European cultures, it is impossible to translate adequately the word k and to identify the ka with more
familiar concepts. Interpretations of the ka are numerous, ambiguous, and usually unsatisfactory, and they range from its
identication with the Latin genius to analogy with mana.

The word ka was expressed by the hieroglyph of two upraised arms, usually considered a symbol of the embrace (or
protection) of a man by his ka, although other interpretations are possible. A distinction should be made between the
internal and external ka, as well as between the royal and the human ka, since these concepts were qualitatively different.

The idea that there was something securing the physical and mental activities of man arose in Egypt and elsewhere in
prehistory. The ka (internal ka) was one of those entities. Its nature is reected in numerous words going back to the same
root: kj (think about, intend), k.t (thought), nkj (think about), kj (speak), k.t (vagina), bk.tj (testicles),
nkj (copulate), nkjkj (fertilize), bk (be pregnant, impregnate), nkk (good condition of esh). Such words as
, .w (magic, magic spells), (enchant, be enchanted), j (sorcerer), and (w) (god Heqa,
personication of magic) reect the supernatural essence of the ka. The reproductive role of the ka is obvious, but its
connection to thought processes is less clear. The mind was usually related to the ba (as in the Dispute of a Man with his
Ba, where confusion of thought is described as a dialogue with that entity), but the word mt (think or to act three
together) leads one to suppose that there was also an idea of thinking as a trilateral process, with the ka playing some
obscure role, along with the ba. Owing to the role of the ka in thinking, k could designate human individuality as a whole,
and in different contexts it could be translated as character, nature, temperament, or disposition. Since character to
a great extent preordains the life of an individual, k also means destiny, or providence. This use of the word
engendered a tradition of interpreting the ka as a kind of universal vital force, but this idea is too abstract, and even the
examples cited above show that the meaning of k was far more concrete in each context.

The ancient mind adopted personications readily. It transformed this inner motor into a certain being. It seems that this
being (the external ka) was primarily associated with the placenta, (the twin of a man), and was born with him.

http://www.oxfordreference.com.libproxy.temple.edu/view/10.1093/acref/9780195102345.001.0001/acref-9780195102345-e-0369?rskey=Wcrt39&result=1&print 1/3
10/19/2017 Ka - Oxford Reference

Supernatural associations of the placenta and the umbilical cord are reported by ethnographers in central Africa, but in
Egypt such notions were forced out early by more elaborate ideas, and only allusions to them can be traced in dynastic
times.

The scenes of the king's birth depict Khnum forming the baby king and his ka on a potter's wheel. In Old Kingdom
pyramid temples, New Kingdom royal tombs, and the temples of the gods, there are many representations of the ka
accompanying the king, either as a personied k sign or as a human form with the k sign on its head. The k hieroglyph
holds the serekh with the Horus name of the king, while the ka itself bears an ostrich feather (the symbol of the world
harmony, or maat) in one hand, and a long staff with a nal shaped like the king's head (mdw-psj) in the other hand. Thus,
the royal ka is related to the Horus name describing the presence of the sky-god in the king. This portrays the dualism of
the king's nature, which combines divine and mortal components: divinity is realized through the ka. In a number of cases
(especially in the Old Kingdom), the nial is arranged at the level of the head of the falcon on the serekh, thus forming a
composition structurally and semantically similar to the statues depicting the king with his head embraced by the falcon's
wings, and demonstrating his double nature. The relation between the royal ka and Horus is apparent in its identication
with Harsiese in the New Kingdom (although it could hardly be originally associated with Osirian ideas).

Another, qualitatively different aspect of the ka can be seen mainly on the monuments of private persons. The Egyptians
were amazed by the fact that depiction can evoke in consciousness an image of the represented. These images were
objectied, turned from a part of the psyche into a part of the medium, and identied with the external ka. As a result, these
representations (at rst statues, but also murals) became the main cult objects in tombs and temples. This is further
supported by the words n k n NN (for the ka of NN), which were almost obligatory in the adjacent offering formulas.
The most common translation of the word k as double is applicable mainly to this external human ka.

Unlike the royal ka, the human ka was never represented as a separate gure, because any representation itself is the ka.
This explains the indifference of Egyptian artists to rendering individual features. They did not reproduce the portrait of an
individual, but that of his ka, who was eternally youthful and in perfect shape.

In an Old Kingdom private tomb, the pictures created an entire world for the ka. It is an exact although incomplete copy of
the earthly world: only people and objects essential for the owner are depicted. Being a reproduction of everyday life, this
doubleworld is surprisingly realistic; nothing supernatural, the gods included, is represented. Every tomb formed its own
Doubleworld, and their total did not merge into an aggregate next world.

The notion of the ka was a dominating concept of the next life in the Old Kingdom. In a less pure form, it lived into the
Middle Kingdom, and lost much of its importance in the New Kingdom, although the ka always remained the recipient of
offerings.

See also AKH; BA; KA-CHAPEL; and NAMES.

Bibliography
Abitz, Friedrich. Knig und Gott Die Gtterszenen in den agyptischen Knigsgrbern con Thutmosis IV bis Ramses III.
gyptologsiche Abhandlungen, 40. Wiesbaden, 1984.
Find this resource:

Bell, Lanny D. Luxor Temple and the Cult of the Royal Ka. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 44 (1985), 251294. The most
inuential modern interpretation of the royal ka.
Find this resource:

http://www.oxfordreference.com.libproxy.temple.edu/view/10.1093/acref/9780195102345.001.0001/acref-9780195102345-e-0369?rskey=Wcrt39&result=1&print 2/3
10/19/2017 Ka - Oxford Reference

Bell, Lanny D. The New Kingdom Divine Temple: The Example of Luxor. In Temples of Ancient Egypt, edited by Byron
D. Schafer, pp. 127184. Ithaca, 1997.
Find this resource:

Bolshakov, Andrey O. Man and His Double in Egyptian Ideology of the Old Kingdom. gypten und Altes Testament, 37.
Wiesbaden, 1997. The most comprehensive study of the human ka, with extensive historiographic study.
Find this resource:

Bolshakov, Audrey O. Royal Portraiture and Horus Name. In L'art de l'Ancien Empire gyptien, edited by Ch. Ziegler,
pp. 311333. Paris, 1999.
Find this resource:

Brunner, Helmut. Die sdlichen Rume des Temples von Luxor. Mainz, 1977.
Find this resource:

Greven, Liselotte. Der Ka in Theologie und Knigskult der gypter des Alten Reichs. gyptologische Forschungen, 17.
Glckstadt, 1954. This and Schweitzer are somewhat out of date but still important.
Find this resource:

Lacau, Pierre, and Henri Chevrier. Une chapelle de Ssostris Ier Karnak. Cairo, 1959.
Find this resource:

Schweitzer, Ursula. Das Wesen des Ka im Diesseits und Jenseits der alten gypter. gyptologische Forschungen, 19.
Glckstadt, 1956.
Find this resource:

ANDREY O. BOLSHAKOV

WAS THIS USEFUL? Yes No

PRINTED FROM OXFORD REFERENCE (www.oxfordreference.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2013. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms o
from a reference work in OR for personal use.

Subscriber: Temple University; date: 19 October 2017

http://www.oxfordreference.com.libproxy.temple.edu/view/10.1093/acref/9780195102345.001.0001/acref-9780195102345-e-0369?rskey=Wcrt39&result=1&print 3/3