that daughter of Pankhy,' who married first, Shabaka, and afterwards, Taharqa. It is known that Taharqa was succeeded by a step-son, the child of his wife by a former union with Shabaka. The name of this prince's mother is not given, but as the statement is clear that he was the son of Taharqa's sister, it is probable that she was Taharqa's elder sister and first. queen, Amendukhat. She would thus have been very young at the time of her first marriage, and after her union with Taharqa, several years the senior of her sisterqueen, Shepenapt III. Nothing is known of the life of Amendukhat, but the story of Taharqa's reign suggests that his queen must have passed through some trying scenes. The Egyptian king had great difficulty in holding his own against the Assyrians, who upon one occasion besieged Memphis and took it. At its fall, Taharqa escaped to Ethiopia, leaving behind him his queen, the crown prince Ushanahoru, and several younger sons. The victorious invaders entered Memphis and took captive the queen and her family, as well as such royal children of Taharqa's predecessors as were resident at court. As Amendukhat was Taharqa's royal wife, and mistress of Egypt, she is doubtless the queen who, with her son Ushanahoru, fell into the hands of the Assyrians. Subsequently, Taharqa retook Memphis, although it does not appear what the fate of the queen and her children had been. Eserhaddon, however, unlike other Assyrian kings, usually showed mercy to his captives; it is therefore probable that upon his re-entry into Memphis, Taharqa found his family unharmed. Amendukhat's sister-queen Shepenapt III. links the waning Ethiopian dynasty with the rise of the Saïtic power, 1 M.'s P.E., 362, n. 1; R.P., i, 64. 2 Stela of Ashurbanipal (668 B.C.) M.'s P.E., 373-81. and the sketch of Shepenapt is therefore included in the section on the XXVIth dynasty. The last king of the Ethiopian dominion who has been certainly placed, was Taharqa's step-son, Tanutamen. This prince, as has been seen, was the son of Taharqa's wife. Before his assumption of the crown, Tanutamen had had a dream foretelling his sovereignty of Egypt. This dream he inscribed upon a stela which he set up at Napata,' and upon which he recorded his two queens. QELHATAT, the elder of his sisters, was high priestess of Napata; while GERARHENI was the priestess of Thebes. Both queens accompany the king on his Dream Stela, Gerarheni on his right, bearing the title " Mistress of Egypt," while on his left, Qelhatat appears as "Mistress of Nubia." As these queens were the sisters or half-sisters of Tanutamen, they must have been the daughters of Shabaka, or of Taharqa. No details concerning the two princesses have come to light; Gerarheni, although " Mistress of Egypt," can scarcely have been high priestess of Thebes, since her date coincides with that of Shepenapt III., who was the hereditary Theban Queen; and it is not likely that this position could have been shared by two princesses at the same time. The history of the two queens of Tanutamen was, at all events, a short one, as that king's reign lasted only a few years. MERIT-TAFNOUIT, "Divine Wife, Royal Wife, Royal "Daughter, Royal Sister, Neter Tuat." This princess is an unplaced queen, who probably figured among the great priestess rulers of Thebes. A seal bought by M. Legrain at Luxor contained this hitherto unknown cartouche, written in violet hieroglyphs on a white enamelled ground.2 No record of the princess has yet been found by which she can be definitely placed. 1 From Mt. Barkal. Cairo M.; R.P., iv, 81; B., E.P., 405; M.D., 7, 8. ? LEGRAIN, A.S., V. Before closing the history of the royal women of the Ethiopian dynasty, mention should be made of a certain princess called Mutardus, who, although she was not a queen, has left a charming image stamped on the records of this time by her father's devotion. King Menkheper-Ra, whose exact date is unknown, was probably one of the petty kings who ruled some sections of the country towards the close of the Ethiopian dominion. This king had a daughter, described as a priestess of Mut and Hathor. Her father's poetical tribute to the charms of the princess is as follows: "A sweet of love, the prophetess of Hathor, Mutardus : 66 A sweet of love unto all men, "A lovely one to all women, is this royal daughter; "A sweet of love, the beautiful of women : "A damsel of whom thou hast not seen the like. "Black is her hair, more than the blackness of night, "More than the fruit of the sloe ; "Red is her cheek more than the pebble of jasper, "More than the crushing of henna.”2 Anything like description of personal beauty is so rare among the records of the daughters of Egypt that this picture of Mutardus is especially attractive, although the slight stiff figure of the princess which is graven on the king's stela does not at all suggest the beauty attributed to her in the text. The dominion of the Ethiopian princes in Egypt came to an end about 664 B.C., with the conquest of the sovereign power by Psamtek, founder of the XXVIth dynasty, which had its rise at Saïs in the Delta. 1 P., H.E., iii, 292. 2 Stela in Louvre, No. 100. Pr., M., 4; A.Z., xvii, 53. CHAPTER XVI. XXVITH DYNASTY. Saïs. About 664 to 525 B.C. THE Sovereign rights of the Ethiopians were carried over to the new Saïtic dynasty by the princess who bears the cartouches, Great Queen of Thebes; Divine Worshipper, and Royal Daughter of the Ethiopian king, Pankhy II.1 Her mother, as before noticed, was Amenertas, from whom she inherited the Theban principality. The stela of Psamtek I. proves that she was the half-sister of King Taharqa. She was a child of only seven when he ascended the throne, and she may even have been among the royal children who with Taharqa's queen were made prisoners by Eserhaddon when he captured Memphis. It was not until she was about twenty years of age that, following the custom of her time, the heiress was married to 1 G., H. Coll., 220. 3 Ibid. 4 A.Z., xxxv, 16, 28. P., H.E., iii, table, p. 279. her brother Taharqa, some twenty-two years her senior. The joint reign of Taharqa as king of Egypt, and Shepenapt as hereditary ruler of Thebes, lasted about thirteen years. One child at least, a daughter called Amenertas, was born of this union. The sovereigns signalized their reign by the building of a chapel at Karnak, dedicated to Osiris.' It lies about 200 feet to the north of the great Hypostyle Hall, and consists of two small chambers, the walls of which are sculptured with the inscriptions of Taharqa and his queen. This period of Shepenapt's life was filled with dangers and alarms; menace from a brutal foreign foe; perils to crown, life, and liberty; hurried flights from the palace, when escape meant life or death. A second Assyrian invasion of Egypt, about 668 B.C., put the country at the mercy of a relentless enemy, and Taharqa again fled into Ethiopia, where he died. Meanwhile Shepenapt must have escaped to a place of safety; for the Assyrian forces of Ashur-bani-pal sacked Thebes, burnt its temples, carried away the treasures of Amen, and if the high priestess had been found within its walls, her fate would doubtless have been a tragic one. Instead of which, a few years later, the rise of the Sartic dominion finds Shepenapt still firmly seated on her priestess throne, reigning with Psamtek in harmony and peace. The queen's safety may have been due to the vigilance of the governor of Thebes, who was " the fourth prophet of Amen," Mentuemhat. He was the chief official of this reign, and the active administrator of such affairs of the state as could not be transacted by the priestess-ruler. On the death of Taharqa, the power of Shepenapt may have suffered a temporary eclipse during the short reign of his successor, who had two "Great Queens" of his own; the 1 A.S., iv, 181 ; Rec., xxiv, 209-12. ? M.'s P.E., 385. |