Ren

Ren in hieroglyphs
(rn)

Ren (Old Egyptian: "name") had a special meaning in ancient Egypt. At birth, children were usually given two names: only the mother knew the first name (it was the actual name of a person). The second name was used to call the child and the later adult. If a spell was cast on a person, it was only effective if it contained the "real" name. The goddess Isis was also called "She who knows all names" - no one could escape her magic. The name, like the shadow, belonged to the being of a human being and was thus also one of the components of the mortuary cult. Ren was seen in close relation to the Ka, the etheric body of the human being, which is also the carrier of memory. "Whose name is pronounced, he lives", according to ancient Egyptian belief. On the other hand, those whose names were erased from the inscriptions were to be prevented from living on in the afterlife, as in the case of Hatshepsut and Echnaton (Akhenaten). This "erasure of the memory" was later called damnatio memoriae in Latin.

Weblinks

• nefertiti.iwebland.com
• chamasin.de (German)