After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

Episode Summary: "Who Was Ancient Egypt's Most Evil Pharaoh?"

Date: September 25, 2025
Hosts: Anthony Delaney (A), Maddy Pelling (B)
Guest: Dr. Campbell Price (C), Egyptologist at the University of Liverpool & Curator at the Manchester Museum

Overview

This episode ventures into the sinister shadows of Ancient Egypt, seeking to answer the provocative question: Who was the most "evil" Pharaoh in Egyptian history? Through dramatic narrative, rich discussion, and expert insight from Dr. Campbell Price, the hosts dissect notorious royal reputations, myth, religious authority, brutal displays of power, and the transformation of kingship across three millennia. The episode focuses in detail on several rulers: Khufu, Amenhotep II, and Akhenaten, all figures variously painted as megalomaniacs, tyrants, or heretics. The conversation also grapples with the difficulties of separating historical reality from propaganda and later mythmaking.

Ancient Egypt's Power Structures: How Pharaohs Rose and Ruled

Uniting Upper and Lower Egypt

• The concept of "pharaoh" only emerges after the unification of Egypt around 3000 BCE, when two rival regions (Upper/South and Lower/North Egypt) were consolidated, probably after violent conflict.
• Dr. Campbell Price: "The guy who's in charge of the south beats up the guy who's in charge of the north...by Egypt's own description, the first united kingdom." (07:18)
• Terms like "Upper" and "Lower" Egypt are modern; Egyptians used "narrow" and "wide" referencing the Nile's breadth (07:02).

Pharaoh as More Than King—The Divine Connection

• The Pharaoh is depicted as both man and god, often shown as physically larger than others in official art, or as animal-human hybrids (e.g., Sphinx, falcon).
• Egyptians genuinely believed in the magical/divine abilities of the king, accepting the possibility of "shape-shifting" or hybrid existence (11:33).
• "If I could ask an ancient Egyptian, do you think a sphinx is real to them? Of course." (11:33)

Evolving Authority and Control

• Egyptologists split between seeing pharaohs as heroic god-kings or as ruthless tyrants. Dr. Price argues reality was likely in between, with considerable brutality normalized as royal propaganda (06:11).
• The pharaonic system convinced later generations and even most subjects that the entire, vast population of Egypt was unified under elite beliefs and practices—but in reality, only the court truly participated in this ideology (15:03).

Notorious Pharaohs: Tyrants, Warriors, and Heretics

Khufu: Builder of the Great Pyramid and Alleged Tyrant

• Key points (15:44–24:14):
  • Monumental builder: responsible for the Great Pyramid of Giza, tallest building in the world for millennia.
  • Troubling legacy: Virtually no contemporary evidence or biographical detail survives, yet later tales paint him as cruel and excessive.
  • Brutal reputation:
    • In a later Egyptian fairy tale (Papyrus Westcar, about 1,000 years after Khufu's reign), the king is depicted as callous—wanting to behead a prisoner in a magic trick before being dissuaded, suggesting a casual attitude toward life and death.
    • Herodotus, the Greek historian, claims Khufu prostituted his own daughter to fund his pyramid (likely apocryphal and Greek anti-Egyptian propaganda).
      • "For every client, she got a block for the pyramid." (22:52)
    • Conditions for pyramid workers were arduous, though not the "slave labor" of popular imagination; graffiti indicates some camaraderie and pride among teams ("Friends of Khufu," "the drunkards").
  • Khufu's reputation contrasts starkly with his father (Sneferu) and son (Menkaure), who are remembered as more benevolent rulers.

Amenhotep II: The Warrior King

• Key points (25:02–32:08):
  • Known for hands-on, brutal displays of power—led military campaigns, documented as personally executing and mutilating enemy leaders.
  • "On a tiny object...fear is part of his brand invoked perhaps." (25:50)
  • Amenhotep II's inscriptions boast of hanging the bodies of vanquished chiefs on his ship and on temple walls as warnings to his people and enemies (27:04).
  • Royal propaganda extols his physical prowess and violence; part of a wider context where warfare was savage, and pharaonic legitimacy depended on success and dominance.
  • Religion and power: Pharaohs saw themselves (and were seen by others) as intermediaries with the gods; even so, they feared "black magic" and metaphysical threats, particularly from subjugated peoples (29:03).
    • Example: Amenhotep II warning his officials about the "magicians" among the Nubians.

Akhenaten: The Heretic King

• Key points (38:09–53:27):
  • Father of Tutankhamun; initially called Amenhotep IV, he radically overhauled Egypt's religious and political system, earning the moniker "Heretic King."
  • Moved the capital to a new, purpose-built city on previously untouched land; "I will not leave the boundary I have defined here. Nor will the Queen Nefertiti..." (38:09)
  • Imposed monotheistic worship of the Aten (sun disk), effacing the names and images of traditional gods—even targeting his own father's memory.
  • Artistic revolution: royal family depicted in intimate, natural scenes; physical portrayals as androgynous, with close, emotive family groupings, very unlike previous pharaonic art (45:08–47:32).
    • "The space left in the gap, the absence of the gods, is filled by the royal family." (49:20)
  • Built his city using small, easily managed stone blocks called "talatat," resulting in extreme physical toll on workers; skeletal remains show the horror of construction.
  • After Akhenaten's death, there was a sweeping counter-revolution: his monuments defaced, his name erased, and his reign condemned as "that criminal who turned his back on Egypt and abandoned the gods" (52:00).
    • "He was left out. Of all the later kings lists, he was the most embarrassing. Acutely dark to an ancient Egyptian." (53:27)

Unique Aspects of Egyptian Kingship

The Pharaoh’s Everyday Presence and Peripatetic Court

• Unlike modern monarchies, pharaohs (especially in earlier periods) spent significant time traveling through their realm, reinforcing power through religious pageantry and direct presence.
• "The palace staff are saying, let's get ready, cause the king is coming. So we need food, drink, dust everywhere. Come on, get on it. Because we need to have a party." (36:01)
• Royal displays, including the parading of mutilated enemies' corpses, were tools of psychological control (28:15).

The Fluid End of Pharaonic Power

• The system gradually declined after the conquest by Rome; subsequently, Roman emperors became "pharaohs" in name, but the tradition lost meaning as hieroglyphs and temples faded (54:38).
  • "The word pharaoh comes in quite late then?... It means great house... It's like referring to the White House or Buckingham Palace." (56:36)
• Christianity and eastern empires finally erased what remained of the ancient system, though echoes linger in the idea of the "pharaoh" into the modern era.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the psychological power of royal brutality:

  • "Imagine walking into a palace of worship and seeing the sun blackened corpses of your king's enemies dangling from the pillars. This wasn't just war. It was a theater of dominance played out on sacred ground." – Maddy (02:19)

• On myth versus reality:

  • "The truth must be somewhere between the two." – Campbell Price, on the polarized views of pharaohs as either godly or evil (06:11)

• On ancient worldviews:

  • "If I could ask an ancient Egyptian, do you think a sphinx is real to them? Of course." – Campbell Price (11:33)

• On constructing Khufu’s pyramid:

  • "He had high expectations. We can’t say he was a tyrant." – Campbell Price, on whether Khufu was truly cruel or merely ambitious (22:19)
  • "Herodotus... says he sold his daughter into prostitution. And for every client, she got a block for the pyramid." (22:51)

• On Akhenaten’s heresy and aftermath:

  • "He was left out. Of all the later kings lists, he was the most embarrassing. Acutely dark to an ancient Egyptian—dark period." – Campbell Price (53:27)
  • "The absence of other gods, the fact that the children are shown. But I emphasize the children are female. No male children are shown. So Tutankhamun may be a brother or a half brother of these girls... But he is not shown. There’s a ritual role played by female children towards their father..." (50:14)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:48] - Introduction to topic; how did Egyptian kingship & the "pharaoh" come to be?
• [13:31] - Overview of Egyptian chronology and dynasties
• [15:44] - Khufu: The Pyramid Builder’s Harsher Myths
• [25:02] - Amenhotep II: Warrior Pharaoh and Propagandist of Fear
• [38:09] - Akhenaten: The Heretic King’s Religious Revolution and Brutal Labor Projects
• [45:08] - Art of the Amarna Period: The First Family Portrait?
• [54:38] - The End of the Pharaohs and the Transition to Roman and Christian Egypt
• [57:13] - Dr. Price’s Favourite Pharaoh and Why

Final Thoughts & Recommendations

• Dr. Price nominates Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh, as the most appealing ruler under whom to live: "She’s just so dynamic and she does great things and she seems to really captain this kind of ambitious golden age." (57:17)
• Pharaohs' reputations—especially the label "evil"—are layered, produced by propaganda, later myth, and sometimes ancient "spin."
• The episode encourages listeners to think beyond golden masks and towering pyramids and to remember: the darker side of power and divinity often ruled Ancient Egypt’s mighty halls as surely as ceremony or splendor.