CHAPTER VI.

QUEENS OF THE XVIIITH DYNASTY DOWN TO

HATSHEPSUT.

XVIIIth Dynasty.

Theban. About 1580 to 1320 B.C.

THIS was in many respects the Golden Age of Egypt. Its buildings, tombs and monuments of every sort are among the finest that the kingdom ever produced. Its arts, crafts, and literature were in the zenith of their glory, and its monarchs were not only the most brilliant personalities of its history, but have so stamped themselves and their times on the countless records of the period, that, even after the lapse of more than thirty centuries, they still seem to live and appear as real human beings. The lives of many of these makers of history are so well known that it is not difficult to reconstruct with a good deal of detail a picture of XVIIIth dynasty days, with their wars and conquests, foreign relations and State policy, home lives, occupations, loves and hates.

At no period of her history was the Egyptian woman more prominent in the affairs of the realm than during this dynasty. The nature and variety of her titles form an important consideration in determining the history of the queens. An exhaustive study of these titles by a competent student would doubtless add much to our present knowledge of the actual powers and status of the royal heiresses of Egypt. An hereditary queen bore as her natural right all of the great titles: "The Royal Daughter," " Royal Sister," "Great Royal Wife," "Lady of Both Lands," "Hereditary Princess," etc., and often added the curious title, "She who

is always obeyed," as well as "Ruler of all Women," and "Great Royal Wife, joined to the Beautiful White Crown."

It is difficult to determine which of these were purely hereditary and indicate an heiress-queen only. "Royal Daughter" and "Royal Sister" in most cases represented an heiress by birth. "Great Royal Wife" indicated not only a queen-consort, but was almost certainly also a title of inheritance, as it is found to have been borne by children as well as by women. The same thing is true of the priestess title, "Divine Wife."

"She who is always obeyed," is a title dating from early times, and would seem to imply an authority belonging to a reigning monarch only. So also would the title "Ruler of all Women," were it not that it is found in one of the Beni Hasan tombs, where Chenemhetep, Governor of the Oryx Nome, records his wife Sat-ap, " Hereditary Princess, Ruler of all Women."2

Neither did the title "Mistress of the Two Lands" belong exclusively to the queens, it also being found in another of the Beni Hasan tombs, that of Amenemhat, a second Governor of the Oryx Nome, whose wife Hetep was a "Priestess of Hathor" and "Mistress of the Two Lands." It is quite possible, however, as these two governors were great feudal princes of the realm in the XIIth dynasty, that they may have married princesses of the royal line who would have had their share of a queenly inheritance. "Lady (or Mistress) of the Two Lands" was, without doubt, a title which could also be given by courtesy, as Senseneb, the low-born mother of Thotmes I., had it.*

"The Great Royal Wife, joined to the Beautiful White Crown," probably indicated an heiress of the Southern part of the kingdom, the emblem of which was the white crown.

1 NAVILLE, Z., 142; SETHE, 36, 143.

2 NEWBERRY, Tombs of Beni Hasan, 82, Tomb No. 14.

1 Ibid., 14, Tomb No. 2.

• Temple of Deir el-Bahari.

A "Royal Mother" was simply the mother of the king's children, and might be queen, or slave, as in the case of Aset, mother of Thotmes III. Finally, nearly all the queenly titles were borne by Thïy, who, not being of royal birth, had no right whatever to them, and certainly held them only as honours conferred upon her by the King Amenhetep III. after her marriage.

There was a wide range of sacerdotal titles, implying an important religious organization, in which as many offices were filled by women as by men. These, with the exception of the highest, were by no means the exclusive property of the crown. The cult of each deity had its own sisterhood of priestesses, deriving incomes from the estates of the temples which they served; these included not only queens and princesses, but also the daughters of nobles and of priests. They were Priestesses of Hathor, Mut, or Khonsu, Chantresses, Great Players with the hand, and of the Sistrum; Great Chantress "on the day of the diurnal birth, in the women's house," etc.

There were several degrees of these religious orders: the coffin of a priest's daughter of the XXIst dynasty is inscribed in the name of "Katsashni, Superior of the 3rd rank of the Recluses of Amen." It is said that all ladies of the court were "Chantresses of Amen," a title also held by children.

Of royal rank were the Divine Wives of Amen and Mothers of the god Khonsu, while the most exalted of all, and the last one of the great titles to make its appearance, was connected with the office of "Neter tuat," or "Divine Worshipper," which carried with it the practically independent crown of Thebes. We possess little information at present on the subject of the real nature of these mysterious religious associations, with their many offices, the functions of which for the most part are unknown.

The actual state in which these ancient princesses lived was one of extraordinary luxury, as evidenced by the vast number of their personal belongings which have come down