have “refined features and a proud and energetic expression. The oval
of the face is elongated, cheeks a little hollow, eyes deep set under
arch of brows, lips thin and tightly closed.” Many little statuettes,
headless statues, etc., exist in various places. The temple of Deir el
Bahri was approached by an avenue of sphinxes, each figure head being
a portrait of the queen, two of which are preserved at Berlin. One,
brought from Thebes and thought to be done in comparatively recent
years with brows and eyes inlaid, is in the Metropolitan Museum. Her
Ka statue was in her temple in the shape of a small bearded man, which
was probably taken at the period when she wore male attire. It has the
Ka arms and the Ka name of the queen, grasps the ankh and feather of Ma
in its right hand, and a human headed staff, also like the queen, in
its left. Her cartouch is on the shoulder of the previously mentioned
statue and the father and daughter are often united in a double
cartouch.
Hatshepsut has been called the Semiramis, the Catharine, and the
Elizabeth of Egyptian history. Bold and clever, no ideal womanly soul
was this, but the masculine grasp, the masculine intellect was hers.
Strong but centered on a few her love was probably not given to the
many; her attachment to her father cannot be doubted. Her ambition and
determination to keep the royal power is evident, but it was not the
ambition of the soldier and the conqueror. She loved power, she wished
to rule, but the belongings of others did not excite her cupidity. Her
desire was to build up her own kingdom, and the way to that was not,
in her eyes, through annexation and conquest. No claims of posterity,
no pleas for “the cause of humanity” stained her pathway with blood.
One of her boasts was that she had imported and caused to grow a great
variety of trees. Some philosopher has said that he who can make two
blades of grass grow where one grew before is the greatest benefactor
of his race, and some such credit as this seems rightfully to belong to
Queen Hatshepsut.
The early historians, whose mistakes later discoveries have corrected,
combined Hatshepsut and Nitocris, calling this composite figure
Amen-Nitocris, and said that she was the last of the Memphite
sovereigns and by a marriage with Thothmes united the crowns of Upper
and Lower Egypt. That she was handsome among women and brave among
men, that she governed with splendor, added to the temple of Karnak
and built the smallest of the pyramids. But the patient research of
scholars has disentangled the two stories and given to each her own
meed of fame.
The mummy of Tahutmes I was among those found at Deir el Bahri and the
body showed him to have been a man of vigor, with a fine form. His
coffin and other relics, bricks with his name, etc., were also found.
Of his mother Sensenb there was a picture on the walls of the temple
at Deir el Bahri as of Hatshepsut’s mother, Queen Aahmes, wearing the
royal asp and head-dress. In these the conventional form is of course
strictly preserved and yet there is a certain individuality. Pictures
(reproductions of them) may be seen in Petrie’s and Mahaffy’s history
of Egypt, as in other places. An ivory wand of Queen Aahmes, scarabs,
etc., remain. Queen Mut’nefert appears to have been another wife of
Tahutmes I and mother of Tahutmes II. She was said to have been a
daughter of Amenhotep and appears on the statue of her son Tahutmes II
at Karnak as “royal daughter, royal wife.” “A fine statue of her,” says
Petrie, “made of sandstone, was found in the chapel of Uazmes and bears
the inscription ‘The good god, lord of both lands, Aa’kheperren’ra
(Tahutmes II) made by him his monuments of his mother; royal wife,
royal mother, Mut’nefert, makheru.’” These relics seem to give proof of
the respect and affection of the children for their parents, but beyond
our limited knowledge of the bare facts of their relationships the two
queens are but mere names and we turn to the more clearly defined and
striking figure of the great queen Hatshepsut.
In the latter part of his reign Tahutmes I associated his daughter
with him in the imperial power, as he had probably taken her into his
counsel previously in matters of state policy and shared with her all
the pleasures of his daily life. Their mutual devotion and his high
appreciation of her great abilities is evident, even after the lapse of
centuries.
The two half-brothers of Hatshepsut were Tahutmes II and Tahutmes III,
or as later authorities say Tahutmes III was son of Tahutmes II, the
latter proved to be a ruler of great ability, but neither seemed to
hold the place in the father’s regard that she did, and being much
younger were naturally not equally companionable to him. The limestone
statue of Queen Mut-nefert, mother of Tahutmes II, before referred to,
was found at Thebes in 1886 and is now at Gizeh. Her son had it carved
and it was in the ruins of a little temple. She is seated, in a long
white robe, which shows the form and the flesh is colored yellow. The
whole is refined and well proportioned, and despite the mutilation of
the nose one notices the sweetness of expression, lightened by large
eyes. To this day one sees the type near Thebes. The mother of Tahutmes
III was more truly a concubine and was called the Lady As’t, she was a
royal mother but not a royal wife.
Shortly before her father’s death, according to the Egyptian custom,
Hatshepsut married her brother Tahutmes II, who shared the throne with
her or she with him, but it is evident she was the ruling spirit. There
is little doubt that she was the elder of the two; it is estimated
that at this time she was about twenty-four and Tahutmes seventeen. A
somewhat similar instance to this is narrated by the African traveller,
Captain A. St. H. Gibbons, who describes an ancient custom which he
found prevailing at Nalolo, whereby the eldest surviving sister of the
ruling king was invested with the prerogatives of a queen, without
whose advice and consent her brother could not arrange matters of
state. She was absolute in her own district, held the power of life and
death over her subjects and wedded or deposed a husband at will.
A statue of Tahutmes II exists at Gizeh, which bears some resemblance
to the ancient King Chafre. He is not of large size, has fine pathetic
eyes, a gentle expression and perhaps resembles his mother. That no
love was lost between the consorts is evident from the fact that
Hatsheput conferred such special marks of favor upon her architect
Semut, and after the death of Tahutmes II (in which old historians,
some of them, though perhaps unfairly, were disposed to implicate her)
she erased his name from many of the monuments, giving all honor,
where possible, to her father or keeping it for herself, to the great
bewilderment of later day students. She is said to have detained
Tahutmes II, in his younger days, in Buto, away from her palace and
the seat of power, and doubtless relegated him to the background
wherever she could. No more than Queen Elizabeth perhaps had custom
and conventionality permitted her to stand quite alone, would she have
accepted a consort.
Dress, which had for many reigns and centuries remained unchanged,
began somewhat to alter at the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty and more
rapidly later. The highest orders of women wore petticoats or gowns
secured at the waist by a colored sash, or a strap over the shoulder
and over this a large loose robe of the finest linen and tied in front
and under the breast, the right arm was left exposed at religious
ceremonies and funerals. Another description says that the long tunic,
called a basui, was suspended by straps or bracers over the shoulders
or a short petticoat with the body strapped over the shoulder and a
loose upper garment, which exposed the breast and which could be easily
laid aside. There also came changes in the patterns of beads, mode of
glazing, hair dressing, furniture and the painting of tombs. The net
work of beads was of course largely used for the decoration of mummies.
The admixture of blood with Syrian and other captives, as wives and
concubines, seemed to introduce a new ideal type, with small features
and fascinating, graceful figures. The ends of the braided hair were
fringed during the Middle Empire, and during the New the face was
framed with wonderful plaits and short tresses, which were secured with
combs. Or, more naturally, it hung loose or was bound with a fillet.
Female servants wore their hair fastened at the back of the head with
loops or plaits. They had a plain garment with short sleeves, but
threw off the upper part when working. In the earliest times, as has
before been said, men seemed to care for dress more than women. From
the queen to the peasant female attire was similar, and from the Fourth
to the Eighteenth Dynasty there was little change. About the time of
Hatshepsut it assumed a new character, and the upper part of the body
was also clothed. At one period color and pattern had been almost
excluded and the higher classes wore linen so fine that the figure
showed through. Bands woven or embroidered were later added, but their
neighbors, the Syrians, always wore more elaborate embroidery than
the Egyptians. Shend’ot was the name of the royal dress under the Old
Empire. Men wore a short skirt round the hips, and a second was added
during the Middle Empire; in one century this was short and narrow,
in another wide and shapeless, and in a third, peculiarly folded; the
breast was also covered, and the apron, now chiefly a female appanage,
was then exclusively the property of men.
Costumes differed with classes, yet, as with us, a fashion initiated
by uppertendom would sometimes descend and spread. The lords and the
priests and priestesses in offering sacrifices bore a panther skin
thrown over the shoulder, the small head and forepaws hanging down.
To the hindpaws long ribbons were attached, which were drawn forward,
and it was the fashion to play with them when sitting idle. Perhaps it
was an aid to conversation thus to trifle, as with Madame de Stael’s
well-known sprig of poplar. Soldiers and merchants wore white garments
bordered with colored fringes. Policemen carried staves, and priests
went about in long white robes with aprons and jewelled collars.
The woman’s short petticoat under the tunic, called a basni, was white,
red, yellow and sometimes, in the Middle Empire, green. The higher
orders sometimes secured the petticoat at the waist with a colored
sash. Occasionally there was only one sleeve for the left arm. The
cloak of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties fell over the arms with
a short sleeve added and at the end of the Twentieth Dynasty there was
a thick underdress. The bare foot of the earliest times, as has been
shown, was later sandalled and shod.
As time went on the tendency seemed to be more and more to vary
from the fashions of the Garden of Eden and to add to the amount
of clothing. The more civilized the nation the more elaborate the
covering. The primitive Egyptian thought more of painting and rouging
the face and oiling the limbs, of both living and dead, than he did of
dress. Two colors were chiefly used, green, with which under the Old
Empire they put a line below the eye, and black for brows and lids, to
make the eyes look larger and more brilliant. The eyelids were dyed
with mestem, the finger nails made red with henna. For this, of course,
many kohl pots and mirrors were needed. The latter were of burnished
metal, chiefly of copper, round, with wooden or ivory handles and
ornamented with carved lotus buds. Necklaces and bracelets on the upper
arm and wrist were worn by both men and women, but the latter only
used anklets. Earrings were round, single loops of gold, and rings,
especially on the third finder and thumb, were numerous.
Of the daily life of a queen we have no detailed account, but various
pictures and inscriptions make a sort of outline which study and
imagination may fill up and not be utterly astray. One writer has
sketched some such programme as this, of course that of a queen
who was herself regent, or ruled in her own right. After the first
meal of the day the queen would go to the throne room and listen to
reports, petitions, etc., doubtless attended by scribes, who were more
ubiquitous than even the modern reporter, to note down everything and
extol her majesty’s power, clemency and charm. Before the heat grew
excessive she might walk in the garden or among the colonnades of the
palace or ride out to take the air and view the public works which were
in process of building.
Neither horses nor camels are represented on the monuments in the
earliest times. Persons of distinction were borne in chariots or
chairs carried by bands of slaves, and the ass or mule was the beast
of burden. A royal chariot was sometimes adorned by a burnished shield
rising above the back, carved with open work and lined with silk.
It had two wheels, and a pair of horses were attached to the car by
a single trace, their heads held up by a bridle made fast to a hook
in front of the saddle. The long reins passed through a loop at the
side; the horses’ heads were adorned with plumes, and the harness and
housings ornamented with the royal devices in gold, silver and brass.
Sometimes for ladies there was a seat, one in each chariot, but the
usual rule was not to have any, a man stood. Says one writer, “When the
queen rides she stands on a dais borne at speed by six horses abreast,
and looks like a flying goddess.” Thus perhaps our fancy may paint
Queen Hatshepsut.
Later came the mid-day dinner, usual in Egypt, then doubtless a rest
during the hottest hours, after which the reception of ambassadors and
court dignitaries and an evening given more to pleasures, such as music
and watching the acrobatic sports and juggling of trained performers
and the dancing of female slaves. The guest whom the queen delighted to
honor had a special place assigned him at table, portions sent to him
from the royal dishes and sometimes, as a particular mark of favor, had
a gold chain placed about his neck by the monarch’s own hand.
The throne room was probably a magnificent apartment of immense size
with a polished floor, on which were laid the skins of beasts. Enormous
statues of the gods, chief among them, Osiris and Isis, were ranged
on either side, between tall granite columns with lotus capitals,
looking like a forest of great trees. The throne of ivory stood on a
raised platform, to which one ascended by steps, guarded on either
side by carven figures of sphinxes and crouching animals. Behind were
again immense statues of Justice and Truth. The steps were of valuable
marbles, and the throne itself inlaid with jewels, all the numbers
and designs were symbolic, the footstool was of precious marbles, in
a gold frame, and above the throne was a canopy of silk upheld by
slender white and gold columns and embroidered with the stars and
constellations. Bands of soldiers and officers, richly attired, waited
upon the queen. She, on all solemn occasions, wore the double crown of
Egypt, which one writer describes as a graceful conical bonnet of white
silk, ending in a knob like a pomegranite, the color white, of Upper,
as the outer band of gold lined with red silk, was of Lower Egypt, the
vulture wings and the raised asp. Her garments were of finest linen
with silk robe of white and green and a girdle adorned with diamonds
and precious stones. With these or similar surroundings we imagine
Queen Hatshepsut.
There is a picture in Erman of King “Tuet-anch-amun” giving audience
to a governor of Ethiopia. The king wears his war helmet and carries a
whip and sceptre, while the governor bears a sceptre and fan as sign
of rank. The king is called “Lord of Hermothis.” Sceptre and whip
doubtless Hatshepsut could wield right royally, but the war bonnet
she probably had little occasion for. Some writers claim that it
was her father’s conquests which gave her immunity from warfare and
that it was her peaceful reign and neglect to keep the wild tribes
in orderly submission that paved the way for the career of bloodshed
which distinguished her great successor, Tahutmes III, so that on this
question, as on most, there will always remain a wide difference of
opinion. But that a peaceful reign is in many respects a great blessing
and a justifiable cause of pride to its successful promoter, and that
peace and not war is the ideal state, cannot be denied.
The coronation of Hatshepsut, the building of her great temple at Deir
el Bahri and the expedition to Punt are events of such moment that they
deserve a volume rather than the narrow space of a single chapter to do
them justice.
CHAPTER NINTH.
HATSHEPSUT (CONCLUDED).
An inscription in the temple of Karnak reads thus, it is as it were the
deed of gift of the royal father Tahutmes I to his favorite child, and
addressed to the god Amen: “I bestow the Black Land and the Red Land
upon my daughter, the queen of Lower and Upper Egypt Ma-Ka-ra, living
eternally. Thou hast transmitted the world into her power, thou hast
chosen her as king.” Hatshepsut claimed divine origin in that the god
Amen had taken upon him the person of her father and in an especial
manner considered herself the daughter of the god. Hatshepset spelled
with the e means “the first among the favorite women,” but the queen
changed the e to u and later called herself Hatshepsut, which signifies
“the first among the great and honorable nobles of the kingdom,” which
she considered more befitting her exalted position.
The Eighteenth Dynasty is included in the Golden Age of Egyptian
history, and in no period was its power more widely felt, its
individual monarchs more remarkable or its architectural and literary
remains grander or more impressive.
Before his death Tahutmes I seems to have had celebrated the marriage
of his two children, his daughter of twenty-four and his son of
seventeen. All things combined to put Hatshepsut in the first place,
her more royal heritage, by the mother’s side, her father’s devotion
to her, her superiority in years and her more striking talents, while
Tahutmes II was perhaps both physically and mentally her inferior.
Death at last had severed the tie which bound father and daughter
together, but no such tender feeling seems to have existed between the
two now occupying the throne, hers was the dominant will, hers is the
prominent figure. After this she frequently wore male attire and the
dress and ornaments belonging to a king, and doubtless, had it been a
matter of choice, she would have been a man.
She styles herself “King Horus abounding in divine gifts, mistress of
diadems, rich in years (not a claim the modern lady is ever anxious to
establish) the golden Horus, goddess of diadems, queen of Upper and
Lower Egypt, daughter of the sun, consort of Ammon, daughter of Ammon,
living forever and dwelling in his breast.” Another inscription reads,
speaking of her by her name Cheremtamun, “He has created (her) in order
to exalt his splendor. She who creates beings like the god Chefr’a. She
whose diadems shine like those of the god of the horizon.”
She used both the male and female sign and the title, “daughter of
the sun.” As the sphinx bore sometimes a male, sometimes a female
head, so this strange and wonderful woman assumed now the one, now
the other character. A curious life this old Egyptian history brings
before us, so permeated as it was with the constant thought of death
and its belief, real or assumed, in the actual intercourse with a
race of superior beings, gods, and yet set forth in the lowest images
of the brute creation. To the poor and uneducated doubtless as in
all idolatrous countries, the semblance seemed the reality and their
thought did not pierce beyond the image before them, but the more
intellectual and spiritual minds must have rent the veil of sense and
stretched out longingly to the infinite beyond, if peradventure they
might “feel after and find” the truly godlike.
Hatshepsut did not at once set to work, like the early kings, to build
a pyramid in which she might herself be interred. Mundane subjects at
first occupied her, and later she built a memorial to her father in the
form of an obelisk which described his powers and virtues, and temples
for the worship and to the glory of the gods.
Probably the regulation of the country and the administration of
internal affairs occupied the earliest years of Hatshepsut’s rule,
after the death of Tahutmes I, but in them she was also preparing for
the expedition which was one of the great features of her reign and
took place in its ninth year. Punt, a country on the eastern bank of
the Red Sea, had been, to some extent, known to the Egyptians in the
earliest times, those of Chafre’ of the Fourth Dynasty. “Under the name
of Punt,” says one writer, “the old inhabitants of Kemi meant a distant
land washed by the great ocean, full of valleys and hills, abounding in
ebony and other rich woods, balsams, spices, precious metals and stones
and of animals, hunting-leopards, panthers, dog-headed apes, etc.” It
was the Ophir of the Egyptians, the present coast of Somali, perhaps
the land in sight of Arabia, but separated by the Red Sea.
Old traditions said that it was the original seat of the gods, and
from it had travelled the holy ones to the Nile valley, at their head
Amen, called Kak, as king of Punt, Horus and Hathor. This last was the
queen and ruler of Punt, Hor, the holy morning star, which rose to
the west of the land. The god Bes also was peculiarly associated with
the country. Under the last king of the Eleventh Dynasty is said to
have taken place the first journey to Ophir and Punt, and the envoys
sent were attended by three thousand men and brought back spices
and precious stones. After that it seemed to relapse in the popular
imagination into a sort of fairyland which was inhabited by strange
serpents.
Like a new Columbus the great queen decided to attempt the rediscovery
and exploration of these distant shores. Amen of Thebes, the lord of
gods, it is said, had suggested the thought to her, “because he held
this ruler so dear, dearer than any other king who had been in this
country.” Pictures and accounts of this expedition were afterwards
placed in illustration on the walls of the temple of Deir-el-Bahari,
built by the queen, and the inscription concludes with the statement
that nothing like it had been done under any king before. “And,” says
an authority on these subjects, “it speaks the truth. Hatasu showed
her people the way to the land whose products were later to fill the
treasuries not only of the Pharaohs, but also of the Phoenicians and
the Jews.”
It was a peaceful expedition, perhaps the only one that had ever been
sent forth, this voyage of discovery, nearly sixteen hundred years
before the Christian Era; but of course great preparations and even
some military ones had to be made that in case of unexpected attack
they might be prepared. Ships were built for the expedition, and
doubtless years passed between the time of the first conception of the
enterprise and its execution.
An inscription by the picture of the squadron thus describes it.
“Departure of the squadron of the Lord of the two Worlds, traversing
the great sea on the Good Way to the Land of the gods, in obedience to
the will of the King of the gods, Amen of Thebes. He commanded that
there should be brought to him the marvellous products of the Land of
Punt, for he loveth the Queen Hatasu above all other kings that have
ruled this land.”
A canal connecting the Nile with the Red Sea which has been attributed
to Seti I Miss Edwards claims as an engineering feat of Hatasu, as it
would shorten the length of the voyage rather than to take the almost
inconceivably long trip around the west coast of Africa, the Cape of
Good Hope, the Mosambique Channel and the coast of Zanzibar.