Theories
There are several theories regarding his identity. Some argue that, because Egyptian kings of the First Dynasty seem to have had multiple names, Scorpion was the same person as Narmer, simply with an alternative name. Others have identified the king Scorpion with Narmer's predecessor, Ka (or Sekhen); Edwards in 1965 considered Ka's glyph, the outstretched arms of the ka sign, as simply a stylistically different version of a scorpion. The historian Susan Wise Bauer maintains that Scorpion II and Narmer were indeed two separate kings, but that Scorpion II reigned in 3200 BC, a century before Narmer. Because Scorpion II is not attested at Abydos, he could be a contemporary king to Narmer, who eventually lost or bequeathed Nekhen to Narmer.
A British television programme proposed that the macehead was a tribute by Narmer to King Scorpion I (whose tomb at Abydos is known). According to this theory, there was only one protodynastic king Scorpion, rather than two as is commonly maintained.
Read more about this topic: King Scorpion
Famous quotes containing the word theories:
“Whatever practical people may say, this world is, after all, absolutely governed by ideas, and very often by the wildest and most hypothetical ideas. It is a matter of the very greatest importance that our theories of things that seem a long way apart from our daily lives, should be as far as possible true, and as far as possible removed from error.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“The two most far-reaching critical theories at the beginning of the latest phase of industrial society were those of Marx and Freud. Marx showed the moving powers and the conflicts in the social-historical process. Freud aimed at the critical uncovering of the inner conflicts. Both worked for the liberation of man, even though Marx’s concept was more comprehensive and less time-bound than Freud’s.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)
“A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)