The Eighteenth Dynasty—Queen Hatasu and Thothmes III.
(_Circa_ 1600-1400 B.C.)
On the east bank of the river, about 50 miles from Thebes, there stood
in ancient times a strong fortified city, surrounded by massive walls
of such thickness, that chariots might have been driven abreast upon
them. Of the city itself nothing survives save ruins; but in the valley
that lies eastward, behind the hills, are still to be seen long rows of
tombs and memorial sanctuaries, where were laid to rest the heroes of
the great war of liberation.
The whole district was ruled by native governors, tributaries of the
Hyksos, throughout the whole period of the foreign supremacy, and
the daily course of Egyptian life seems to have gone on with but
little interruption. The tombs just mentioned belonged chiefly to one
family, and the walls are adorned as usual with inscriptions and
representations of scenes and events from daily life. Baba-Abana, head
of the family, tells us that he was the parent of 52 children, and was
able to provide abundant food and every necessary comfort for them all.
‘If any one supposes I am jesting,’ he adds, ‘I invoke the god Munt to
witness that I am speaking the truth.’ Baba-Abana was an officer under
Taa III. (the Victorious), and was no doubt actively engaged in helping
forward the construction of the Egyptian flotilla. He tells us further
of a famine that ‘lasted for many years,’ and that he provided corn for
his city each year of the famine. This must have been the same famine
that is mentioned in Genesis, when Joseph, at the court of the Hyksos
Pharaoh, was providing corn for the land—the famine which led to the
establishment of the Hebrew colony in the Goshen district of the Delta.
Their presence there would be welcome, as they were no doubt of kindred
race with those who then bore rule.
One of the numerous family of Baba-Abana, named Aahmes (like the king),
did good service in the fleet during all the closing scenes of the
war. He has left us an account of his doings, which opens thus:—‘The
Chief of the fleet, Aahmes, son of Abana (the Blessed), speaketh to
you all, ye people, that you may know the honours that have fallen
to his lot.’ He was born, he tells us, in the city of Nek-heb (the
Greek Eileithyia), and as a lad he served King Aahmes on board a ship
called the ‘_Calf_.’ He married, and set up a house, after which he
was promoted, ‘because of his strength,’ to another vessel called
the ‘_North_.’ And when the king went out in his chariot, it was the
duty of the young captain to follow him on foot. In the siege of the
Hyksos stronghold, Avaris, he fought bravely on foot in presence of his
majesty. During the siege he was further promoted to the vessel called
‘_Going up into Memphis_.’
Hard fighting went on around Avaris, and Aahmes tells us of the
trophies of the dead[30] he brought in, as well as of his living
prisoners. One of the latter he had much difficulty in securing, for
he had to drag him some distance with a firm grasp through the water
to avoid the road to the town. His prisoners were assigned to him as
slaves, and many rewards and golden gifts were presented him for his
services. Avaris was taken at length, and the Hyksos driven beyond the
frontier, the king pursuing them as far as Sherohan, in Canaan, which
town he also captured in the sixth year of his reign.
This was the final act of the long-protracted struggle in the north,
but the mountaineers of Nubia were still in arms. There was sharp
fighting in the south before the naval captain could record that his
majesty ‘had taken possession of the land, both of the north and of
the south.’ Aahmes received a gift of some acres of cultivated land
in his native district. Later on we find him, as a veteran warrior,
accompanying the two succeeding sovereigns on campaigns in the south,
where he fought as admiral, at the head of the fleet. His final
exploits were performed on a more distant field of battle—the ‘land of
the two rivers’—Naharina (Mesopotamia). There he captured a chariot,
with its horses and charioteers, for which deed he received for the
seventh time a gift in gold. He concludes his story thus:—‘Now I have
passed many days, and reached a grey old age. I too shall pass away to
Amenti, and I shall rest in the tomb which I have prepared for myself.’
And there may still be seen a portrait of the old sailor and of his
wife. He is a ‘bluff, resolute-looking man, not handsome; a short
snub nose, and low solid brow—a short beard curling upwards from his
chin.’[31]
The three monarchs under whom this distinguished officer served in
succession, Aahmes, Amenhotep I., and Thothmes I., were the first three
kings of the eighteenth dynasty. Aahmes inherited the throne by right
of his mother’s descent from Mena, but he strengthened his position
further by himself marrying a princess of the royal line, Nefertari,
who was greatly revered by succeeding generations, both as heiress in
her own right, and as mother and ancestress of an illustrious dynasty.
The first twenty-two years of the reign of Aahmes were passed in
unremitting warfare. After the capture of Sherohan, he followed his
foes no farther, but contented himself with erecting fortresses to
protect the frontier. He would not feel his supremacy sufficiently
assured over the numerous princes and chieftains who had gladly
followed his victorious banner against the common foe, but would not
have been quite ready when success had been achieved to resign their
independent authority. At length, however, the king was able to lay
aside his sword, and to turn his attention to the much needed work of
restoring and renovating the temples of the gods. Again the limestone
quarries were opened, and there are representations now to be seen in
the sculptures of the huge blocks drawn along upon rollers by twelve or
more oxen on the way to Memphis.
Aahmes left an infant son as heir to the crown, and the royal mother
acted as regent until he was of age to reign. Amenhotep I. died young,
and did not accomplish much; we learn, however, that during his reign
Ta-Khent (Nubia) was mastered—‘the land in its complete extent lay at
the feet of the king.’
In the great discovery of coffins and royal mummies, made not far from
Thebes in 1881, were brought to light the bodies of Taa the Victorious
(the last of the brave Sekenen-Ras), of Aahmes, and of his son
Amenhotep I. The conqueror of the Hyksos is enwreathed in garlands and
festoons, his young son is swathed in lotus leaves and flowers—amongst
them is a perfectly preserved wasp, that must have been accidentally
shut in when the coffin-lid was closed more than 3000 years ago. This
coffin and its case are in very good preservation; on the lid is an
effigy of the young king, which is evidently a portrait. The coffin of
Thothmes I. was found, but the mummy was missing.
When Thothmes I. became king, the internal dissensions of Egypt had
quieted down, and, after one campaign in the south, the king proceeded
to ‘cool his heart’ by undertaking the war on which the mind of the
Egyptians was set—a war of retribution and of conquest. In this distant
expedition (already alluded to in the memoirs of Aahmes), Thothmes
rapidly pushed his way as far as Naharina (Mesopotamia), and returned
home laden with treasures and spoil, having exacted a promise of
annual tribute from many tribes in many regions. In the memorial chapel
of the Thothmes family a sculpture is still remaining to tell of his
triumphant home-coming. ‘The soldiers holding branches in their hands,
as emblems of peace, step out briskly as they approach their native
land, and are met by a deputation of citizens, who slay fat oxen and
sheep to feed them with. In the procession figure a couple of tigers,
led along by their keepers,’[32] and apparently tame.
The king employed both his prisoners and his gold in continuing the
construction of the great temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes. Its foundation
had been laid by Amenemhat I. many centuries before, but the building
had been hindered, or had altogether stopped, during the long years of
foreign rule.
When Thothmes I. died, he left behind him one daughter and two sons,
each of whom bore the same name as his father, but the younger of the
brothers was only a little child. Their sister Hatasu was a proud
ambitious woman, and had already been, to some extent, associated
with her father during his reign. When Thothmes II. succeeded, she
was formally associated with him in the government. We read but little
about this king; his reign was brief, and he was probably outshone by
the energetic partner of his throne. Hatasu, in fact, could ill brook
even the slight restraint imposed by his co-regency, and no sooner
was he dead than the proud queen, ‘throwing aside her womanly veil,
appeared in all the splendour of a Pharaoh—like a born king.’[33] She
assumed man’s attire, and was seen on state occasions in the dress and
regalia of an Egyptian king—even to the plaited beard. She revered her
father, and paid homage to his memory, but on the unfortunate Thothmes
II. she hastened to avenge herself for the wrong he had done her in
wearing a crown that was his own; she obliterated every trace of his
existence to the best of her ability, and, vindictively erasing his
name, she substituted her own. Hatasu also succeeded in having her name
inscribed by the priests on the roll of Egyptian sovereigns.
Meantime the boy Thothmes, the rightful king, was sent by order of his
imperious sister to the almost inaccessible marshes of the Delta, where
he was doomed to wear out the years of his dreary boyhood, cherishing,
there can be little doubt, the most vindictive feelings towards the
sister who, having usurped his place, was ruling Egypt with splendour
and renown.
No reign was more distinguished than that of Hatasu for art and
architecture. She completed the magnificent temple begun during her
joint reign with her brother. An avenue of sphinxes led up to the gate
towers and the obelisks, which were 97 feet in height, and made of red
granite capped with gold. The temple itself stood upon four broad and
stately terraces, which rose one above another until they touched the
dazzling marble-like limestone cliff against which they rested; the
terraces were covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions and carvings in
bas-relief. In the limestone rock above were excavated vast funeral
chambers, and here were buried the queen’s father and mother, a sister
who died young, and Thothmes II. Here also Hatasu herself and Thothmes
III. were laid in due time, but none of these royal mummies have been
suffered to remain in peace. To avoid violation and plunder, it became
customary some centuries later to examine and to report upon the state
of royal tombs and coffins from time to time, and to remove them
occasionally to securer resting-places. Thus it came to pass in the
great discovery of 1881, the empty coffin of Thothmes I. was found,
together with the coffin and mummy of his son and successor, Thothmes
II.
To the architect Semnut, who so successfully carried out the grand
conception of the terraced temple, his royal mistress raised a
memorial—a statue in black granite in a sitting attitude of calm
repose; on his shoulder is the inscription—‘His ancestors were not
found in writing,’ _i.e._ they were unknown men, a not unfrequent
phrase in Egyptian inscriptions. Semnut is represented as saying, ‘I
loved _him_, and gained the admiration of the _lord_ of the country.
_He_ made me great, and I have become first of the first, clerk of
the works above all clerks. I lived during the reign of _King_
Ma-Ka-Ra;[34] may _he_ live for ever!’ No doubt it was the general
custom thus to flatter the foible of their sovereign, who was, in fact,
designated by a name signifying ‘Lady-King.’
Under the queen’s rule, however, there was an entire cessation of
military enterprises, for Hatasu did not so far assume the character of
a Pharaoh as to put on armour and lead her troops to the battle-field.
Egypt therefore enjoyed unbroken tranquillity during her peaceful and
brilliant reign—a reign not only distinguished for the splendour of its
architecture, but memorable also for an expedition to the land of Punt.
This expedition is portrayed in curious and interesting detail upon
the stages of the terraced temple. Long ago we know that the Egyptian
imagination had been stirred by the supposed marvels of that ‘sacred
land’ of dream and legend. And in the days of Hatasu the expedition
sent thither by King Sankhkara, centuries before, would not have been
forgotten. By the queen’s command an embassy was despatched to its
shores. Princes and lords were intrusted with rich and royal gifts for
the purpose of conciliating the people of that land over which the
Lady-King desired to establish a supremacy, although not at the sword’s
point.
The expedition arrived in safety, and found the people inhabiting
little dome-shaped dwellings, supported on piles and approached by
ladders, under the shade of their cocoa-nut and incense-trees. The
Egyptians, with their strong turn for natural history, were much
interested by the novelties they beheld around them, the unfamiliar
plants and trees, the strange birds and animals not known in Egypt.
All went well. Gifts were exchanged, and the natives promised to
acknowledge the supremacy of Egypt, and to send an annual tribute
thither. The king of the country appeared on the scene accompanied, say
the hieroglyphs, ‘by his enormously fat wife ... an ass serves the fat
wife to ride on.’ This lady, the queen of the fairyland of Egyptian
fancy, is in truth a painful object to behold; not merely fat but
bloated, and swollen in such an extraordinary manner as to render it
probable that, although the ‘Queen of Punt,’ she ‘was a leper.’
Soon began the work of packing and of lading the transport vessels
with the rare and beautiful products of the land. The busy scene is
delineated upon the walls of the temple, and the inscriptions relate
how the ‘ships were laden to the uttermost with all the wonderful
products of the land of Punt, with the precious woods of the divine
land, with heaps of the resin of incense and fresh incense-trees; with
ebony and objects carved in ivory and inlaid with gold, with sweet
woods and paint for the eyes, with dog-headed apes and long-tailed
monkeys, with greyhounds and with leopards, besides some of the natives
and their children.’ The Egyptians, on the voyage home, were evidently
much taken by the antics of the monkeys, as they sprang about amongst
the sails, up and down the rigging. The fresh incense-trees, thirty-one
in number, were carefully planted in tubs, and six men were assigned
for the transport of each of them to the vessel which was to carry it
north for transplantation into another soil.
Several of the princes and chief men of Punt accompanied the
expedition on its return, and were received in state by the queen in
her male attire. It is a pity we have no records that might convey the
impression made by the wonders of Egypt upon the visitors in their
turn. The rich treasures they had brought were offered by Hatasu to the
god Amen-Ra with gladness and national rejoicings. The queen appeared
in royal pomp; the priests carried in solemn procession ‘the sacred
bark’ of the deity, before which the youthful Thothmes offered incense;
the warriors of Hatasu’s guard followed, bearing branches in their
hands as signs of peace, and tumultuous cries of joy rent the air on
all sides.
The appearance of Thothmes on the scene proves that the time had come
when his claims could no longer be ignored nor he himself be detained
amid the distant and dreary marshes of the Delta by the jealous fears
of the queen. The sight of the brave and handsome youth who had been
King of Egypt by right for fifteen years could hardly fail to win
the people’s hearts, and his imperious sister found herself at last
compelled to let him take his place at her side, with what long
suppressed feelings of rancour and ill-will may be readily imagined.
The coronation of Thothmes III. was celebrated with all fitting
splendour and state, and, for a short time at any rate, the brother and
sister ruled jointly. But Hatasu must have felt that her day was over,
and after a little while her name silently disappears from the historic
records. Of the close of her life we know nothing, but we know that
Thothmes, with vindictive satisfaction, chiselled out her name wherever
he could find it, and that he always dated the years of his own reign
from the time of his brother’s death, ignoring Hatasu’s sovereignty as
a usurpation.
The reign of Thothmes, thus reckoned, was a very long one, close upon
54 years, and much of it was passed by the warlike sovereign in other
lands and upon distant battle-fields.
Nubia was by this time really an Egyptian province, and was governed by
a viceroy, who was often one of the king’s sons. In the gold-yielding
districts a miserable population—prisoners, slaves, and criminals,
were toiling beneath the scorching sun, extracting the gold from the
stubborn stone; which had first to be hewn out, then crushed, and
finally the grains of the precious metals to be washed out. Elsewhere
the province was peopled by an active race, grouped around the temples,
fortresses, and garrison towns, where they found employment, and
received abundant supplies of food for their sustenance from Egypt;
others were engaged in the navigation of the dangerous cataracts.
The natives had grown accustomed to Egyptian rule, and were rapidly
adopting Egyptian religion and civilisation. Their chief city Napata
was indeed destined to become one day the seat of a strong Egyptian
dynasty, and a stronghold of the worship of Amen-Ra.
There was therefore no cause for anxiety concerning the south, and the
eyes of the young sovereign turned eagerly to the regions where his
father had made his rapid campaign, and acquired military renown and
abundant spoil. The policy of ‘extending the frontiers of Egypt’ was no
doubt partly dictated by the desire of rendering the country safe from
any further invasion, by subduing the neighbouring lands; but it is
certain that the vision of establishing an Egyptian empire fascinated
the imagination of Thothmes III., and he was able to realise the dream.
The course of Egyptian history had flowed on century after century,
for 2000 or 3000 years, in a sort of majestic solitude, like its own
mighty river, which for 1800 miles of its course receives no tributary
stream. The people might be said to have ‘dwelt alone.’ The position of
the land was isolated and secluded, its people had an innate dislike of
the sea, and possessed no sea-going ships; they were perfectly content
within the bounds of their own luxuriant domains, and knew and cared
very little about the world that lay beyond. The frontiers were well
guarded and no foe had crossed them, nor had any vision of conquest or
wide-spread empire arisen to dazzle the imagination of the early kings.
The coming of the Hyksos had wrought a great change, and had broken
down the barriers of isolation. And the mighty wave of national energy,
which, gathering strength as it rose, swept away the foe, did not
thus spend all its force. A longing arose for retribution, conquest,
empire; the avenging campaign of Thothmes I. had stimulated rather than
satisfied a national craving for glory and for wealth. The Pharaohs
now emerge from the seclusion of the valley of the Nile, and enter
that blood-stained arena—the battle-field of the nations—the Syrian
and Mesopotamian lands. But the brilliant successes and far-reaching
supremacy of the Egyptian arms ended at last in disaster and decline,
from which there was no power of recovery.
Far enough, however, were any such gloomy forebodings from the thoughts
of King Thothmes III., when he mounted his war-chariot and assembled
his troops upon the field of Zoan. The tributes promised to his father
by the conquered princes had for a long time ceased to be paid. They
knew that a female sovereign held the sceptre, and the tribes that
had acknowledged the father’s supremacy cast off all fealty to the
daughter. The town of Gaza alone had remained faithful to the Egyptian
allegiance. Here Thothmes took up his quarters for the night on the
twenty-third anniversary of his accession (dating _i.e._ from his
brother’s death). Next morning he left the city, ‘full of power and
strength, to conquer the miserable enemy, and to extend the frontiers
of Egypt, as his father Amen-Ra had promised him.’
The country known to us as Palestine or Syria was then, as at a later
date, divided into several petty kingdoms, each with a fortified
capital of its own. The general name by which its inhabitants were
known to the Egyptians was that of the Rutennu, and at this moment
their various tribes were allied against Egypt under the leadership of
the King of Kadesh, and, encamped within and around Megiddo, they were
waiting the attack of King Thothmes.
There was a choice of roads before the invading host. One broad highway
led along the Mediterranean coast, keeping the sea in sight, until it
turned in an easterly direction, and opened out finally upon the wide
plain of Kadesh. Another way led along the banks of the Jordan, but it
was a dangerous route, often very narrow and amongst thickets, where a
foe might easily lurk unseen. After leaving the Jordan it went through
the narrow valley of the Orontes until it also reached the capital of
the King of Kadesh. Thothmes addressed his army, and told them of the
information he had just received concerning the position of the enemy,
who had said, ‘I will withstand the King of Egypt at Megiddo.’ ‘And
now,’ said the king, ‘tell me the way by which we shall go to break
into the city.’ The army with one accord entreated to be led by any way
but that which wound along by the Jordan. ‘It has been told us,’ they
said, ‘that the foe lies there in ambush, and the way is impassable for
a great host; one horse cannot stand there beside another, nor can one
man find room by another. The army would be blocked, and be helpless
before the enemy. There is a broad way that starts from Aluna, and
it offers no opportunity for an attack. Whithersoever our victorious
leader goes we will follow him, only we pray that he will not take
us by the impassable way.’ Thothmes decided on the broad road, and
made the soldiers take an oath that they would not go on in advance
of the king with any idea of protecting his person, but would let him
take the place of danger at their head. Dismounting from his chariot,
he advanced on foot in the forefront of the army. ‘He went forward,’
says the story; ‘his divine father Amen-Ra was before him, and
Horus-Hormakhu was at his side.’
In a few days the camp was pitched opposite Megiddo. ‘Keep yourselves
ready,’ said the king, ‘look to your arms, for we shall meet the enemy
in battle early to-morrow morning.’ And they set the watch, saying,
‘Be of good courage; watch, watch—watch over the life in the king’s
tent.’ Next morning the assault was made, but the Canaanites were
unable to make a stand against the disciplined valour of the Egyptian
troops; they fled at the first onset ‘with terror on their faces.’ The
dead ‘lay on the ground like fishes,’ and the fugitives in their haste
left behind them their horses and their chariots of gold and silver,
and ‘were drawn up by their clothes as by ropes into the fortress.’
The king’s own tent was captured on the field, amidst shouts of joy
and of thanks to Amen-Ra. Megiddo itself was taken, and the victor
entrenched himself there to await the submission and the tribute of the
confederated princes. Then the chiefs of the land came to do homage to
the king, and, though the civilisation of the Canaanitish tribes may
not have been high, yet there was no lack, at any rate, of a certain
splendour at their kings’ courts. They were graciously received by the
young conqueror, and laid rich gifts at his feet, gold, silver, and
_lapis lazuli_—wheat, wine, and wool,—besides many suits of brazen
armour and chariots plated with gold.
The capture of Megiddo opened the way to the more distant field of
Mesopotamia. In former ages that country had been the seat of civilised
and highly cultivated states,[35] but these kingdoms had fallen,
probably before some foreign conquerors, about the time that the
twelfth dynasty was ruling in Egypt. About the period of the Hyksos
supremacy there seems to have been an empire established at Babylon
which included Assyria as a province; but this again had passed away,
and the country was broken up into a number of petty principalities,
which it was no hard task for Thothmes to subdue and reduce to some
sort of vassalage. Among the Asiatic princes who brought him tribute
are named those of _Assur_ and of _Babilu_.
The supremacy of the Egyptian crown may thus be said to have been
acknowledged in some sort over the ‘known world;’ for the Egyptian
horizon did not extend beyond the Mediterranean Sea, the Euphrates, and
the range of Mount Taurus in Armenia. ‘I have placed the boundaries of
Egypt at the horizon,’ said Thothmes III., ‘and I have set Egypt at
the head of all nations, because its people are united with me in the
worship of Amen.’
These Asiatic campaigns were often renewed during this long reign;
thirteen or fourteen such are recorded. Each was followed by a longer
or shorter interval of peace. The principal episodes of the wars were
sculptured in bas-relief upon the walls of the great temple at Karnak,
where also was inscribed a careful geographical enumeration of the
conquered peoples, and a record of the tributes they respectively paid.
Full accounts were also preserved in the libraries attached to the
temples; but the Egyptian archives have perished, and Egyptian history
with them, except so far as it was carved on the enduring stone, or
written in the few papyri that have survived the general wreck.
There is an inscription on the tomb of a valiant captain of Thothmes,
named Amenemhib, in which he tells us of the campaigns he was engaged
in by his master’s side. ‘I never left him,’ he says; ‘great was the
valour of his arm.’ Then he records his own deeds, and describes the
rich rewards assigned him. Twice he saved the king’s life when in
imminent peril. ‘I saw the lord of the two countries in the land of Ni;
he was hunting 120 elephants for the sake of their tusks. The largest
one of the herd rushed upon his majesty, but I cut his trunk, and
escaped through the water between the rocks.’ Another time the King of
Kadesh had started a wild horse to run upon the king. ‘I followed him
as he dashed among the warriors, and I slew him with my sword, and cut
off his tail, which I presented to the king as a trophy.’ In the siege
of Kadesh he led the party that stormed the walls. ‘I broke them open;
I led all the valiant. None other went before me.’
The return of the king and his army from these distant expeditions was
a sort of triumphal procession. No presage or foreboding of future
ill troubled the Egyptians as they looked out for the appearance of
their hero king and welcomed him with rapturous acclamations. In his
train came princes and princesses of Canaan, prisoners of war, and
slaves. Slaves formed a portion of the tribute imposed upon the subject
countries. Then came horses (amongst them snow-white and bay), wild
goats and asses, zebras or humped buffaloes, together with wilder
animals of rarer species—tigers, the cinnamon-coloured bear of Mount
Taurus, and occasionally a young elephant. The wealth brought home by
the conquerors was incalculable. From the fruitful land of Palestine,
corn, oil olive, and honey; Phœnicia sent her merchandise gathered in
from many lands—gold, silver, and gems; turquoise, ruby, and coral;
copper and lead, besides cedar and other fragrant woods. Nor were there
wanting specimens of skilled and splendid artistic workmanship. There
were chariots richly adorned with silver and gold, costly stuffs and
embroidery, and ‘goodly Babylonish garments;’ gold vases from North
Palestine are especially mentioned, inlaid with precious stones;
flowers were carved upon the rim, and the handles made in the shape
of some animal. In addition there was the tribute that flowed in
regularly from the South. The friendly inhabitants of Punt sent, in
recognition of the Egyptian supremacy, gums and fragrant spices in
abundance. Kush was now ruled by an Egyptian viceroy, who took care
that the contributions should never fail—negro slaves, long-horned
oxen, bloodhounds, apes, panther skins, ostrich eggs, ivory, ebony,
and rare trees. The last-named item possessed a special interest for
the Egyptians, who had a strong love for natural history. An artist
has depicted some wonderful plants, cactuses and water-lilies from the
southern lands, and underneath is the inscription:—
‘Here are all sorts of plants and flowers from Ta-nuter. The king
speaks thus, “I swear by Ra, I call Amen-Ra to witness that everything
is plain truth. What the splendid soil brings forth I have portrayed,
to offer it to my father Amen-Ra, in his great temple as a memorial for
all time.”’ It is also recorded of Thothmes, at the close of one of
his campaigns, that four new species of birds that were brought to him
‘pleased the king more than all the rest.’
As might be expected, Thothmes did not neglect to immortalise his name
by erecting or adorning the temples of the gods. His greatest work
was the Hall of Columns, which he added to the great Temple of Amen,
begun by Amenemhat I., and still incomplete. He appointed ‘feasts of
victory’ to be celebrated on the festivals of Amen, thus linking his
own name very closely with that of his god, and he enriched the temple
with enormous donations, the mere enumeration of which would fill
pages. Neither gold nor silver, cedar wood or precious stones, need
be spared now when all that the world could offer of rich and rare
was flowing in a constant stream to add to the ‘treasures in Egypt.’
Special mention is made, amongst countless other gifts, of a beautiful
harp of silver and gold and precious stones, to sing the praises of
Amen upon his splendid festival days. We read too of a great barge of
cedar wood inlaid with gold[36] for the purpose of receiving the god
when conducted in solemn procession down the river. Obelisks were also
erected by Thothmes, which were ‘reflected with their splendour on the
surface of the sacred lakes like stars upon the bosom of Nut.’ One of
them is now standing forlornly on the Thames embankment.
Not only did Thothmes confer these numberless and costly gifts upon
the temples, but he endowed them munificently. Gardens and arable
lands were assigned them, and a fixed system of contributions for
their support was established. He also appointed many of his foreign
prisoners to the service of the temples and their gardens. Besides
these, there were great numbers that he could employ upon the public
works, whilst year by year the slaves who formed a part of the annual
tributes came to add to the multitude of poor captives. The service was
rigorous, and there can be little doubt that their lives were ‘made
bitter.’ There is a representation still existing of a number of these
bondmen engaged in brick-making. Their faces are of the Asiatic type,
and the following words are added by way of explanation:—‘They work at
the building with dexterous fingers; their overseers show themselves
in sight. They obey the words of the great skilful lord who directs
them. They are rewarded with wine, and all kinds of good things. They
are building a sanctuary for the god. The overseer says thus to the
labourers: “The stick is in my hand: be not idle.”’
Severe oversight, tempered by free access to the ‘flesh-pots of Egypt’
was then, as at a later date, the portion of those to whom the land of
Egypt was the ‘house of bondage.’
[Illustration: Amenhotep presented to Amen-Ra by Horus.]
There can be little doubt that the waste of life upon distant
battle-fields, the employment of foreign slave labour, and the luxury
born of immense accession of wealth, all combined to produce a
demoralisation and a weakening of the Egyptian people in due course
of time. For the present, however, all was joy and exultation. The
king was never weary of extolling the gods who had shown him such
distinguished favour, and their goodwill and his devotion are depicted
in every possible way. On one obelisk (the obelisk of the Lateran),
we see, _e.g._ the king kneeling and offering wine to Amen-Ra seated
on a throne, or adoring the sacred hawk, symbol of Horus, to which he
offers flowers, incense, and cakes of white bread. Again, Amen-Ra is
seen taking him by the hand in token of his favour and protection,
and at a memorial chapel in Nubia, the goddess Isis is represented as
about to kiss the Egyptian monarch, whilst in another picture he is
seen standing face to face with Sefek, the ‘Lady of Writings.’[37] It
is evident, therefore, that it had become customary and familiar to
represent the deities, who are but seldom delineated in the pictures
and sculptures belonging to the earlier dynasties. They are depicted in
various ways. Sometimes it is in human form with some symbol or emblem
attached or held in the hand, but very often the head of the deity is
represented by that of the animal which, for some reason or other, was
his symbol. Thus Horus is seen with a hawk’s head, Thoth with that of
an ibis. Isis is delineated not only as a woman, but as a cow, and
sometimes as a woman with a cow’s head. The Egyptians never appear
to have even attempted to embody the divine majesty or beauty in any
statue or picture. But certain objects, animate and inanimate, were
regarded as symbolic, and as such were attached to the figures of the
gods.[38] Of course they were not intended to be in any sense works of
art, which such strange unnatural objects could never be; nor were they
regarded as actually representative of the deities, which would have
been simply absurd and profane, but they were emblematic signs of the
divine attributes and nature, and were understood and recognised as
such.
In one tablet at Karnak, Thothmes III. is depicted offering wine and
incense to his father Amen-Ra, and the accompanying inscription is an
heroic poem or hymn which must have been composed towards the close of
his victorious reign. In it the god himself recounts all that he has
brought to pass on behalf of his ‘son.’
‘Come to me,’ he says, ‘and rejoice in beholding my favour towards
thee, O my son Men-kheper-Ra,[39] thou who livest for evermore! I
am glorified by the vows thou renderest; my heart is glad when thou
drawest near to my temple; dear unto me is the piety that has set up
mine image within my sanctuary.
‘Lo! I do reward thee—in that I give thee power and victory over all
nations, for it is through me that the fear of thee resteth upon the
whole earth and extendeth unto the pillars of heaven.
‘I stretch forth my hand—for thee do I gather together the Annu by tens
of thousands, and the northern people in myriads. By me have thine
enemies been overthrown under thy feet. Thou hast penetrated into every
land, but none has dared to set foot within thy borders, though I have
protected thy steps when thou wast within their boundaries. Thou hast
passed over the broad rivers of Mesopotamia; thy war-cry has re-echoed
within the caverns of their hiding-places. I have bereft their nostrils
of the breath of life.
‘I am come and I have given thee to smite the princes of Tahi (Syria);
I have made them behold thee like the star that flameth and that
sendeth down the evening dew.
‘I am come, and I have given thee to smite the Western lands; I have
made them behold thee like a young bull valiant in his might—he hath
sharpened his horns—none may resist him.
‘I am come, and I have given thee to smite all lands; I have made them
behold thee as it were a crocodile: terrible is he exceedingly, and
lord of the waters—none dare approach him.
‘I am come, and I have given thee to smite the Tahennu in their
islands; I have made them behold thee as a lion in his wrath—he lieth
down upon the bodies of his prey and taketh his rest in the valleys.
‘I am come, and I have given thee to smite the dwellers by the
water-side that they who abide by the great sea may be subdued beneath
thy feet; I have made them behold thee even like the king of birds who
marketh his prey from on high, and seizeth upon whatsoever he listeth.
‘I am come, and I have given thee to smite the dwellers in the waste;
the Herusha are led captive; I have made them behold thee as it were
the jackal of the South—he hunteth throughout the land, and he hideth
his path in the darkness.
[Illustration: Vincent Brooks-Day & Son, Lith.
AMENHOTEP ON THE LAP OF A GODDESS.]
‘I am he that hath watched over thee—oh my son beloved! Horus crowned
in Thebes!’
Thothmes III. reigned very nearly 54 years. His faithful attendant
Amenemhib, whose prowess had saved his master from the elephant and the
wild horse, lived long enough to record that master’s end.
‘So after many years of victory and power,’ he says, ‘the King ended
his course. He took his flight upwards into heaven and was joined unto
the company of Ra. When the morning broke and the sky grew bright then
was King Amenhotep (may he live for ever!) seated upon his father’s
throne; crowned like Horus, son of Isis, he took possession of Khemi.’
The magnificent terraced temple of Hatasu formed the mausoleum of the
Thothmes family; but, like his predecessors, Thothmes the Great has not
been suffered to remain undisquieted in the tomb. It was not far off
from Hatasu’s temple that his mummy also was discovered. The coffin
was much injured, and the mummy itself broken into three pieces—the
mutilated remains of this mighty Pharaoh are lying in the Museum at
Boulak.
After the death of their conqueror, the kings of Canaan and the princes
of Mesopotamia threw off the foreign yoke. Amenhotep II. overran the
country and reduced its inhabitants once more to subjection. It is
recorded of him that he smote down and slew seven of the Canaanitish
chiefs with his battle-axe, and brought them back with him to Egypt.
‘Six of these enemies,’ says the story, ‘were hung upon the walls of
Thebes, and their hands were hung up in the same way;’ the other enemy
was brought up the river to Nubia, and hung upon the walls of the town
of Napata ‘to show to the people of the land of the negroes for all
time the victories of the king over his enemies.’ This is the chief
event recorded of the reign of Amenhotep II., who was succeeded by
Thothmes IV.
FOOTNOTES:
[30] These were the hands of the slain, which were cut off and counted
to ascertain the number of the fallen.
[31] See _Nile Gleanings_, by Villiers Stuart.
[32] _Nile Gleanings._
[33] Brugsch, _History of Egypt_.
[34] Honorific or crown name which Hatasu, like other Egyptian
sovereigns, assumed at her accession, and which was distinct from the
personal or family name.
[35] The literature and traditions of these early Chaldean states were
preserved and highly prized by the Assyrians, who appear to have had
none of their own.
[36] This barge was presented in the reign of Thothmes IV.
[37] These two pictures are given in _Nile Gleanings_.
[38] It is comparatively easy to understand the choice of certain
animals as symbolic (see on p. 198), but it is impossible to comprehend
how an ostrich feather came to be the emblem of Ma, goddess of
truth, or a shuttle the sign of Neith, goddess of wisdom. A certain
resemblance in name seems sometimes to have suggested the symbol.
[39] Honorific or crown name of Thothmes III.