Daughters of Isis - Joyce Tyldesley

by Daughters of Isis- Women of Ancient Egypt (epub)

  By the 12th Dynasty the more important royal women were allocated their own small pyramids, and the pyramid-complex of Senwosret I at Lisht provides us with a good example of a king providing for the proper burial of important royal females. The major pyramid, a small dummy pyramid which also belonged to the king and part of the main mortuary temple were all surrounded by a stone wall. Nine much smaller pyramids allocated

  Fig. 30 The pyramid-complex of Senwosret I

  to female members of the royal household were built around the outside of this wall, each having its own small mortuary temple, offering chapel and enclosure wall. The whole, together with the entrance to the main mortuary temple and a cloistered court, was enclosed by a substantial mud-brick outer wall. Seven of the female pyramid owners are now nameless, but we know that the two remaining tombs belonged to the principal queen, Neferu, and a princess named Itakayt.

  During the New Kingdom, queens became more visible than they had ever been before, with an increasing emphasis being placed on both the individuality of each queen and the divinity of the role of the queen-consort. Queen Tetisheri, the commoner wife of the 17th Dynasty King Sekenenre Tao I, was the first of a succession of particularly forceful consorts which extended to include the queens of the 18th Dynasty, a remarkable group of women who managed to play a prominent role in the political life of the country at a time of economic and military expansion. These 17th and 18th Dynasty consorts were accorded more titles than their predecessors, becoming more firmly associated with the goddess Hathor in her role as both a divine consort and the mother of a king. At the same time, depictions of Hathor and Isis show them starting to wear the traditional queen’s regalia of uraeus, double feathers and vulture crown, so that the precise distinction between the mortal queens and the immortal goddesses becomes deliberately blurred.

  This increasing prominence encouraged early egyptologists, already heavily influenced by the fallacious theory of a matriarchal origin for the Egyptian state, to speculate about an 18th Dynasty tradition of female royal descent with the right to rule being passed directly along the female line. Under this system it would not be enough that the rightful king should be the son of the previous monarch; he had to reinforce his claim to the throne by marrying the heiress who was ideally a daughter of the previous king and queen-consort and therefore either his full or half-sister. Through this predestined marriage the heiress transmitted the right of kingship to her husband-brother, herself becoming the principal queen. This so-called ‘heiress-princess’ theory neatly explained away all the complexities of 18th Dynasty royal family life, and had the added attraction of providing an explanation for the brother–sister and father–daughter incest which was otherwise both unnatural and abhorrent to early egyptologists. However, it is now largely discredited as being based on incorrect assumptions.14

  We now know that by no means all of the principal queens of the 18th Dynasty were of royal descent, and that the sons of these less exalted unions were not in any obvious way handicapped by their non-royal mothers. Indeed, the consecutive kings Tuthmosis I, Tuthmosis II and Tuthmosis III all had non-royal mothers while Queen Tiy, daughter of the commoners Yuya and Thuyu and ‘Great Wife’ of Amenhotep III, was widely respected both at home and abroad throughout the reigns of both her husband and her son. Nevertheless, all evidence suggests that although a blood-tie with the royal family was not a prerequisite of queenship, it was a relationship which was fully exploited whenever it occurred. Titles such as ‘King’s Daughter’ or ‘King’s Wife’, indicating a close relationship with the ruler, were certainly very important. They had a definite cumulative effect, with a succession of royal titles conveying increasing prestige. Therefore, the woman who started out in life as a mere ‘King’s Daughter’ and progressed to become ‘King’s Sister’, ‘King’s Wife’ and finally ‘King’s Mother’ was undoubtedly a powerful lady. These titles expressed the relationship of the woman with the kingship rather than an actual monarch, so that when the dowager queen Ahmose-Nefertari was described as ‘King’s Daughter’ during the reign of her son (Amenhotep I), the king in question was her royal father.

  … His sister was his guard… The mighty Isis who protected her brother, seeking him without tiring, not resting until she found him… She received his seed and bore his heir, raising their child in solitude in an unknown hiding place…

  New Kingdom hymn to Osiris

  The prevalence of brother–sister marriages within the New Kingdom royal family, a custom in obvious contrast to contemporary non-royal marriage patterns, appears to have been an attempt to reinforce the links between the royal family and the gods who themselves frequently indulged in brother–sister unions. Often, the gods were forced to make their incestuous matches through an undeniable lack of eligible marriage partners; for example, when Geb (the earth) wished to reproduce the only available female was his sister Nut (the sky). Together they produced Isis, Osiris, Nephthys and Seth. Isis and Osiris again had little choice but to mate with each other, while some legends state that Nephthys and Seth also married. Since Osiris had married Isis, albeit for a very practical reason, it was considered highly suitable that the king should follow the divine example and marry his sister. This custom certainly had the additional benefit of restricting entry to the royal family, thereby preserving the purity of the dynastic line, preventing the dissipation of the royal estates and reducing potential squabbles over the succession. It also provided a suitably royal husband for the higher-ranking princesses who, by tradition, were not married into foreign royal families but who may not have wished to marry an Egyptian man of less rarefied descent.

  Four queen-consorts of the 18th Dynasty are worthy of special consideration as powerful women who had a profound influence on the development of the Egyptian state, while two further queens, Hatchepsut and Nefertiti, are discussed in Chapter 7. Queen Ahhotep was the first of these dominant consorts. She was the wife, and possibly the sister, of King Sekenenre Tao II and the mother of Ahmose, the southern warrior who defeated the Hyksos and founded the 18th Dynasty. She appears to have been a clever and courageous woman who had a profound influence on her son; in a curious stela recovered from Karnak Ahmose urged all his people to give due reverence to his mother as she had at one time rallied all the troops of Egypt and so prevented civil unrest from spreading throughout the land. Ahhotep lived to be at least eighty years old, and was given a magnificent burial by Ahmose. Her tomb was excavated at the end of the nineteenth century, and her mummy is now housed in Cairo Museum.

  The succeeding queen-consort, Ahmose Nefertari, ‘King’s Daughter’ and ‘King’s Sister’, was the wife and possibly niece of Ahmose, the mother of the succeeding pharaoh Amenhotep I and the granddaughter of Tetisheri; the mummified bodies of both these ladies show that they shared a family tendency towards unfortunately prominent front teeth. After her death she became the patron goddess of the Theban necropolis, an unprecedented honour reflecting her exalted position. She was eventually worshipped as the ‘Mistress of the Sky’ and ‘Lady of the West’.

  All the words which I have spoken to your father, your mother knows them. No other person knows them, but you can ask your mother, Tiy, about them.

  You know that I lived on friendly terms with your husband, and that your husband lived on friendly terms with me. You know, just as my messenger knows, the words that I have written and spoken to your husband, and the words which he has written back to me. You yourself know best all the words which we have spoken together. No one else knows them.

  Letters of condolence written by King Tushrata of Mittani to the new King Akhenaten and the Dowager Queen Tiy on the death of Amenhotep III

  Queen Tiy – ‘Like Maat following Re, she is in the following of your Majesty’ – was the wife of Amenhotep III and the mother of his successor Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten. She was not herself of royal blood, but came from a prominent and wealthy Egyptian family who lived at Akhmim on the east bank of the River Nile opposite the modern town of So
hag. Despite the suggestions of some early egyptologists, there is no proof at all that Tiy was not a native Egyptian although it is just possible that her father Yuya was of foreign extraction as his name is unusual and does not have a consistent Egyptian spelling. Yuya bore the prestigious titles of ‘God’s Father’, ‘Prophet of Min’ and ‘Overseer of the Horses’ while Tiy’s brother or half-brother Anen was a Second Prophet of Amen and her mother, Thuyu, was a well-respected lady. Both Yuya and Thuyu were eventually buried in a rock-cut tomb in the Valley of the Kings; a very great honour for a non-royal couple.

  Although Amenhotep III maintained a considerable number of women in his harem, including Gilukhepa, Tadukhepa and the daughter of the King of Babylon who were mentioned earlier, Tiy remained a powerful figure throughout her husband’s reign. She had a very high public profile, being the first queen to be regularly depicted with her husband and the first queen whose name was constantly linked with that of her husband on official inscriptions. Her obvious political skills were widely recognized both within and outside Egypt, and Tushrata’s letters of condolence quoted above indicate just how widely the queen’s influence had spread. Throughout her life Tiy collected numerous titles; she was even, uniquely, represented in the tomb of Kheruef as a female sphinx trampling two female enemies (one Nubian and one Asiatic) underfoot. Although the sphinx was not an unusual motif in Egyptian art, this was the first time that a queen-consort had been shown in a typically (male) kingly role, while the depiction of female rather than male enemies is also highly unusual. Tiy, who was always closely identified with Hathor and who was the first queen to adopt the cow horns and sun disc in her headdress, gradually became regarded as the female counterpart of the semi-divine king, until eventually a temple was dedicated to her at Sedeinga in Nubia, the complement to her husband’s temple at nearby Soleb.

  Amenhotep III and Tiy had four daughters – Sitamen, Henuttaneb, Isis and Nebetah – whose images are frequently depicted alongside those of their mother and father. Sitamen is even accorded the title of ‘Great King’s Wife’, and it is possible that she eventually became one of her father’s wives. In contrast the two sons of the marriage, Tuthmosis and Amenhotep, were rarely depicted in association with the king. Tuthmosis, the elder son, died young, and it was Amenhotep IV who succeeded his father to the throne.

  My husband has died and I have no son. But you, so they say, have many sons. If you would give me one of your sons I would make him my husband. I could never select one of my servants and make him my husband.

  Letter written by the widowed Queen Ankhesenamen to King Suppiluliuma of the Hittites

  The last of these remarkable 18th Dynasty queen-consorts was Ankhesenamen, wife and possibly half-sister to the boy-king Tutankhamen. Ankhesenamen, who was originally named Ankhesenpaaten, was the third of the six daughters born to King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti, and therefore a granddaughter of the great Queen Tiy. She appears to have enjoyed a very happy if brief married life, and as a typically loyal Egyptian wife she is shown supporting her husband in several conventional scenes, either watching him vanquishing the traditional enemies of Egypt or handing him arrows as he shoots in the marshes. After Tutankhamen’s untimely death, however, the teenage queen was faced with a constitutional crisis. As she had no children and neither she nor her husband had a living brother, there was no obvious and undisputed legal successor to the throne. Ankhesenamen did not attempt to follow the precedent set by Hatchepsut and rule Egypt alone. Instead, she wrote an extraordinary letter to King Suppiluliuma of the Hittites, explaining her predicament and begging for a suitable husband who would automatically become the next pharaoh. Not surprisingly, Suppiluliuma was highly suspicious of this unprecedented request. However, control of Egypt was too rich a prize to dismiss without further inquiry, and so he despatched an ambassador to ascertain whether or not Ankhesenamen was in earnest. A young prince did eventually set out to be married; unfortunately the groom was murdered on the way to his wedding, provoking a small war between the two countries. The husbandless queen eventually married the commoner Ay, a former general and ‘Overseer of all the Horses of His Majesty’ and sank into relative obscurity. Her new husband became the next pharaoh of Egypt.

  The queens of the succeeding dynasties were far less conspicuous than their 18th Dynasty predecessors, and only the wives of the 19th Dynasty King Ramesses II managed to make any real impact on Egyptian history. Ramesses had many wives, including his younger sister Hentmire, but his chief queen was Nefertari, who is featured on the temple of Hathor built by her husband at Abu Simbel. Although Nefertari was given the title ‘Great Royal Wife’ so was the Lady Istnofret, so we have the very unusual situation of having two major royal consorts at the same time. Nefertari bore Ramesses his eldest son Amen-hir-Khapshef and his daughter Meryt-Amen, while Istnofret produced his second son Ramesses, his elder daughter, Bint-Anath, and his twelfth son Merenptah, who eventually succeeded his father to the throne. Both Nefertari and Istnofret were buried in the Valley of the Queens; Nefertari’s painted tomb is acknowledged to be a particularly fine one.

  Over the years Ramesses’ domestic arrangements grew even more eccentric as his two Great Royal Wives were succeeded by their daughters Meryt-Amen and Bint-Anath; the title ‘Great Royal Wife’ seems to have had a very literal meaning, and we know that Bint-Anath bore her father at least one daughter. A third ‘Great Wife’ was appointed in Year 34 when Maatnefrure, the daughter of the King of the Hittites, was also made a principal wife; at roughly the same time Maatnefrure’s sister married Ramesses II and joined the royal harem. Meryt-Amen either died or fell from grace, and her place was taken by Nebet-Tawy who was yet another of Ramesses’ daughters – this time by an unknown woman – the last of the Princess-Queens.

  *

  The one queen’s title which became very important towards the end of the Dynastic era was that of ‘God’s Wife of Amen’, a title which should not be confused with the less specific accolade of ‘God’s Wife’ which had been used by several royal women during the Middle Kingdom. The god Amen and his influential Theban priesthood first came to national prominence during the Middle Kingdom. At the start of the New Kingdom they managed to consolidate and extended their power, ensuring that the victorious defeat of the Hyksos invaders became attributed to the direct intervention of Amen. It was at this time that the title God’s Wife of Amen was first employed, lasting in popular use for a period of approximately eighty years. The title reflected the mythological idea that the mothers of kings were impregnated by the god Amen; this reinforced the dogma that the king was indeed the son of Amen. The God’s Wife was not originally, as might be supposed, a young virgin dedicated to the service of the state god. Instead, the title was awarded to high-ranking ladies in the royal family – not always women of royal birth but usually the wife, mother or eldest daughter of a king. Its rarity shows that it was regarded as a position of some distinction and, indeed, several queens used it as their only or major title. The first 18th Dynasty holder of the title was Ahmose Nefertari, and contemporary illustrations show her dressed in a distinctive, short, Middle Kingdom-style wig and archaic-looking clothes, performing a range of public religious duties including processing in public with the priests of Amen. In return for her efforts, she received a generous endowment of land. The title slowly declined in popularity at the end of the 18th Dynasty.

  During the troubled Third Intermediate Period Egypt was effectively split into two independent provinces; much of the north was ruled by the royal family living at Tanis in the Nile Delta while the south remained under the control of the influential High Priests of Amen based at Thebes. In a repetition of the north–south diplomatic marriages seen during the Archaic Period, it became customary for northern princesses to marry the High Priests of Amen, an arrangement which allowed the northern kings to assert a degree of long-range control over the wealthy and powerful Theban priesthood. The role of God’s Wife of Amen was revived at this time and conferred on an unmarrie
d daughter of such a union who was formally consecrated to the service of the god. The position was now politically very important as the current God’s Wife held theoretical control over all the estates owned by Amen; rather than attempt to remove the powerful priests, the kings had sought to trump their influence by appointing a higher-ranking God’s Wife. Naturally, it was important that such a political figurehead should remain a virgin as the insecure kings could not risk the establishment of a new and powerful dynasty.

  Year 4 of Apries, 4th Month of Shomu, day 4. The God’s Wife of Amen, Niacin, the justified, was raised up to heaven and united with the sun’s disk, the divine flesh being merged with him who made it.

  Stela, Cairo Museum

  Following the breakdown of relations between the north and the south the system of diplomatic marriages was abandoned. The title God’s Wife of Amen was, however, too important to lose, and it was continued and handed down to successive kings’ daughters by adoption, a useful means of ensuring that the position was always held by a politically suitable woman. The most famous God’s Wife of this time was Nitocris, the daughter of the Late Period King Psammeticus I, who held the position for over sixty years, using her influence in the south to help her northern family. By this time the nature of the position had obviously changed. The God’s Wife was now a very powerful figure who dressed in the uraeus and other royal insignia, was accorded regal titles and who even wrote her name in a royal cartouche. With the help of trusted stewards and a large bureaucracy she controlled a political office of immense wealth and prestige, including the ownership of over 2,000 acres (about 810 hectares) of fertile land in both Upper Egypt and the Nile Delta. Indeed, the God’s Wife eventually took over all the duties of the male First Prophet of Amen becoming, under her more popular title of Divine Adoratrice, one of the most influential women in the country. Locally, her influence exceeded that of the king in the north. Ankhnesneferibre, the daughter of Psammeticus II and niece of Nitocris, was adopted as Nitocris’ successor eight years before her death; she was also created ‘First Prophet of Amen’, an honour not accorded to the other God’s ‘Wives’. Unfortunately Ankhnesneferibre proved to be the very last God’s Wife of Amen, as the tradition was discontinued during the period of Persian rule which started during her ‘reign’.