In ancient Egypt, kingship was closely linked with the world of the gods. A number of different gods could be called the father of the ruling king. The god Amun, in particular, played a prominent role in this respect throughout a large part of Egyptian history. In addition, the king was also the son of the sun god Re, as evidenced by the preamble to one of the five names every king bore - the "Son of Re" name. Several texts describing the divine birth of a king have survived. The king is also often called the "good god", sometimes even the "great god". As the son of a god and his successor in the earthly office, which was itself divine, the king was primarily linked with the god Horus. He was the earthly manifestation of this god. Two of the five names of the king refer to him as Horus - the "Horus"name and the "Golden Horus" name. The fourth royal name emphasizes his links with the land, represented by the protective goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt - the "Two Ladies" name. The last part of the five-part titulary, usually translated as the "King of Upper and Lower Egypt" but literally meaning "He of the plant (of Upper Egypt) and of the bee (of Lower Egypt)", indicates that within himself the king united the extremes of the immutable kingship and the individual, mortal occupancy of that office. The Egyptians always drew a sharp distinction between these two aspects, the divine and the mortal. The link with his deceased predecessors was thus also important for the king. The office, at least in theory, was passed from father to son. Just as the living king was regarded to be Horus, Horus's father Osiris was associated with the dead predecessor. The king's most important duty was to preserve balance and harmony in the created world, personified in the concept of Maat. This not only concerned the struggle against the forces of chaos, but also, for example, the safeguarding of the journey of the sun across the sky and through the underworld by means of ritual and thus also of time and history (the passage of time was perceived by the Egyptians to be the return and repetition of what remained the same). Everything that was in conflict with the normal state of affairs was regarded as the influence of the forces of chaos, even the death of the king. Only once his successor had ascended the throne as Horus was the situation regarded as a new beginning, comparable with the situation immediately after creation, called in Egyptian texts "the first occasion". Accession to the throne was the establishment of Maat; the deeds of the king, on both the religious and the political plane, were regarded as maintaining this situation. Examples of this are the reunification of the two lands and making conquests in other countries - "expanding the boundaries of Egypt". The king not only represented the divine world on earth, but also Egyptian society and united its central functions in his person. He was the one who offered the products of the land to the gods in exchange for their blessing on Egypt. In his central position he was, theoretically at least, the only one who could or was allowed to maintain contact with the gods. In practice the king delegated this task to the priests in the numerous temples in the country.