Khafre
"Re, he has appeared"

Menkaure
"The Kas of Re are established"

Refs:

http://www.ancient-egypt.org/kings/0402_kheops/titulary.html
http://www.ancient-egypt.org/kings/0404_khefren/titulary.html
http://www.ancient-egypt.org/kings/0406_mykerinos/titulary.html

Idle thought: is each pyramid at Giza conceptually one of the Kas (plural of ka, pron. "kha") of Re?

If so, what is a Ka of Re?

Need to look up other reference for the translations of the names, it was the Menkaure one that initially drew my attention. It seemed a fitting name for the pyramid that completed the project.

There doesn't seem to be a concept of "appeared" in the glyphs in Khafre's prenomen - to my mind Khafre should be something like "Re, his ka" (the 'f' following Kha (ka) means "belonging to him").

The translation for Khufu is even less satisfactory to me - where does this concept of protectors come from? Time to dig out Gardiner again....

Oh, and the thing that triggered this off? The relative sizes of Venus, Earth and Mars, and the colours of the stone that used to clad the respective pyramids.

--
simon