Abstract
When a pharaoh ascended to the throne, specific deities were given prominence. This choice is expressed first and foremost in the titulary, then in the royal texts and monuments produced during the king's reign. Beyond a particular devotion, this choice of deities reveals a political programme, since this selection involves the religious, political and geographical spheres. Politics and religion are inextricably linked in ancient Egypt. The king is a ritualised being (nṯr) and the only one capable of performing rites to the gods (which, in practice, he delegates to the priests); the highlighting of a god is, therefore, a "politico-religious" concept that emanates from the power in place and inevitably privileges one or more clergies. These clergies are geographically based, and their temples are centres of power, with land and workers. The extent and impact of these different choices of deities in Egyptian territory means that there is a reorganisation of the centres of power and influence in the kingdom, between the temples and the capital. While several studies have examined royal propaganda in the New Kingdom (N. Grimal, K. A. Kitchen), or identified some of the deities favoured by the Ramessides (C. J. Manouvrier, J. Yoyotte), none have yet examined the various dimensions of these choices and their overall impact – on religion, religious geography, and politic – which characterise the Ramesside period and seem to indicate a new conception of the Egyptian state and royal power in the 19th dynasty. In addition, there is no in-depth study of the links established between the gods and politics and how they fit into Pharaoh's political programme and royal propaganda. This study will help to fill this gap. This paper, which picks up on my current thesis dissertation, proposes to discover through the rich documentation of the Ramesside period, how these pharaohs chose gods to express their political programme. In order to accomplish this, the study is based on all documents from the royal sphere that mention one or more deities, which I have collected from the K. A. Kitchen Ramesside Inscriptions. The deities mentioned, their role in the discourse and the places from which these texts originated will be analysed and put into perspective with the events of the different reigns to define the religious policy of the Ramessides.