in another ancient kingdom, which, in some particulars at least,
may reproduce the Egyptian pageant. “A queen and all her glittering
train defiled from the lofty porches of Babylon the Great, with tramp
of horses and ring of bridle, with steady footfalls of warriors,
curled, bearded, erect and formidable, with ponderous tread of stately
elephants, gorgeous in trappings of scarlet, pearl and gold, with
stealthy gait of meek-eyed camels, plodding patient with their burdens
in the rear. Scouring into the waste before that jewelled troop of wild
asses bruised and broke the shoots of wormwood beneath their flying
hoofs, till the hot air was laden with an aromatic smell, the ostrich
spread her scant and tufted wings to scud before the wind, tall, swift,
ungainly, in a cloud of yellow dust; the fleet gazelle, with beating
heart and head, tucked back, sprang forward like an arrow from the bow,
never to pause nor stint in her terror-stricken flight, till man and
horse, game and hunter were left hopelessly behind—far down beyond the
unbroken level of the horizon. But the monarch of the desert, the grim
and lordly lion, sought no refuge in flight, accepted no compromise of
retreat. Driven from his covert he might move slowly and sullenly away,
but it was to turn in savage wrath on the eager horseman who approached
too near, or the daring archer who ventured to bend his bow within
point-blank distance of such an enemy. Nevertheless, even the fiercest
of their kind must yield before man, the conqueror of beasts, before
woman, the conqueror of man, and on the shaft which drank his life
blood and transfixed the lion from side to side was graven the royal
tiara of a monarch’s mate.”
Amid such scenes sped the wooing, and no doubt in later years passed
many exciting hours. Amenophis or Amenhotep III reared young lions as
pets, and also presented live ones as gifts to the temples, estimating
them as of great value, though we may wonder in what special manner
they could be of profit, service or pleasure there.
The pictures of Queen Tyi, or Tai, in the tombs of the Queens, near
Thebes, and in other places, copied by Champollion and Rosellini show
her with blue eyes, a skin of pinkish hue, like a Northern maiden,
and a pleasing expression. Many of the queens were buried in a valley
behind the temple of Medinet Haboo at Thebes others were laid beside
their lords. Tyi, as has been said, was considered by some to be the
daughter of a Mesopotamian, Asiatic, Dashratta or Tushratta, king of
Mitanni, Maten of the hieroglyphics. Other authorities, from cuneiform
tablets found at Tel-el-amarna, give her paternity as that of a sister
of or daughter of Kalimma Sin, king of Koraduniyash, probably a county
northeast of Syria. Kings and queens of Babylon claimed Amenophis III
as a new kinsman, perhaps as the result of this marriage.
Scarabs were engraved in honor of the union and part of a scarab gives
the record “Amenhetep, prince of Thebes, giver of life and royal
spouse mighty lady Thi, living one—the name of father her (was) Tuaa
or Juaa, the name of mother her (was) Thuau, the wife to wit of the
king powerful. Frontier his South is as far as Kerei, land of Nubia,
frontier North is as far as Netharina (Mesopotamia).” Part of another
reads, “A wonderful thing they brought to Majesty his, life, strength,
health, the daughter of the prince of Mesopotamia, Sotharna. Kirkipa
and the chiefs of women her 300 + 10 + 7.” The mummies of her parents
have been recently found.
Many of these scarabs are preserved in the Museums of Gizeh, Berlin and
other places. An enamelled vase in different colors in the Gizeh Museum
also bears the name of Amenophis III and Tyi, a potsherd, in one of the
older museums gives the coronation date of Amenophis III as “the 13th
day of the month Epiphi,” said to correspond in part to our April and
May, which, without this otherwise valueless fragment we might perhaps
never have known.
Queen Tyi was attended as the scarab notes, by three hundred and
seventeen women, which would of course imply a force of male protectors
as well. A very precious bride. This may recall the story in the Talmud
about Abraham, who on approaching Egypt locked Sarah in a chest to
hide her dangerous beauty. The custom officers asked if he carried
clothes. He answered, “I will pay for clothes.” Then they raised their
demand, “Thou carriest gold?” To this he also agreed and further to
the price of the finest silks and precious stones. Finding they could
name nothing of greater value than he held his treasure they at last
insisted that he should open the box and the tale ends “the whole of
Egypt was illuminated with the lustre of Sarah’s beauty.” Whether Queen
Tyi’s beauty thus surprised and delighted the people of her new home
we can only surmise, but at least she was deemed precious enough to be
well served and guarded.
So the bond was sealed between the royal lovers and away from her
own land journeyed the newly elected queen. A woman with a fair face
and figure, a heart keenly responsive to human affections, with a
deep-seated faith in the religion of her fore-fathers, worshippers of
the sun, and, perhaps even at that early period, a quiet determination
that she would win her husband and his people from what she must have
deemed the error of their ways, their worship of so many gods under the
form of beasts and birds, introduce a purer, simpler religion among
them. Something of the spirit of Joan of Arc may have animated her;
something of the religious fervor of an Ursula and her eleven thousand
virgins (or was it only eleven martyrs, the M being mistaken for a
thousand?) as the one girded herself for battle and the other took up
her pious pilgrimage.
We know less of the formalities necessary for the conclusion of a royal
marriage among the Egyptians than we do of their funeral rites and
ceremonies. The latter as ushering them into a new and higher existence
were deemed the more important and of greater concern to both the
present generation and to posterity, especially the latter, and its
records and momentoes tell the story a thousand times, but we may take
for granted that many observances, both civil and religious, marked the
union of man and woman, in particular those of nobles and kings. Some
authorities have questioned Queen Tyi’s claim to royal birth, but the
retinue of attendants and servants that accompanied her leave little
doubt that she was a princess of note.
This bridal train may recall another of later times, that of Henrietta
Maria of France, as she journeyed to meet her future husband, Charles I
of England. She, too, was attended by a large retinue: she, too, held
strongly a different faith and more or less, on that account, awakened
the prejudices of her new subjects, and she, too, was involved in a
revolution, partly religious in character. But here the parallel ends,
for the one remained in possession of her power, while the other was
driven from her throne and became an exile.
Perhaps the new queen was taken at once to her palace, the remains of
which were discovered by Greaut at Malgata, and which, after being
pillaged, were subsequently excavated by Newberry and Titus. Or she
may have watched its erection with interest, after her arrival. The
original edifice is thus described by those who have made a careful
study of the fragmentary remains. “The plan of the palace seems to have
been quite similar to that of the palace which Amenophis IV erected
for himself in Tel-el-Amarna, and which was several years ago explored
by Petrie. In the palace of Amenophis III the rooms were likewise
adorned by beautifully decorated stucco floors, and the roof were
supported by columns. The walls were embellished with stucco work, the
representations, in part, setting forth every-day life. In addition
to staterooms, working rooms, the kitchen with its storage closets,
a faience factory, in which the different amulets and ornaments were
made, can be distinguished. Not far from the palace was found an altar,
built of tile, and at one time probably wainscotted with slabs of
stone. It was quite similar to the one in the temple of Deir-el-Bahri,
and this one was certainly dedicated to the sun-god. As the altars
of ancient Israel most likely also had a similar form, these remains
of the old Egyptian cultus have an especial Biblical interest.” The
columns of the great temple and likely of the palace also, were
sculptured to resemble the buds of the lotus, sometimes called the
Egyptian immortelle, which might also be called the national flower,
so highly was it regarded and so constantly was it used as a model for
architectural designs.
That the foreign daughter-in-law was kindly received by Queen
Maut-a-mua we may well believe from the harmony which seemed to exist
between them later and the union of their two statues with that of
Amenophis III; while in her turn Queen Tyi, when she occupied the same
position, extended a like friendly affection to her son’s wife.
The influence of the new queen was soon perceived in the institution,
by the king, of a religious festival in honor of the sun’s disk. Many
of the people may have been charmed to have anything like another
holiday, with its attendant pageants and observances, added to their
list, but there can be little doubt that it awakened the suspicion of
the priests, who jealously guarded the ancient faith and beheld with
disfavor anything that might involve less devotion to the numerous gods
which they worshipped and of whose interests they were the guardians,
and any change that might minimize their influence or deplete the
resources in the treasuries of the temples.
Queen Tyi seems not to have been popular. She was a foreigner, which
in itself often awakens an antagonistic feeling, amusingly illustrated
in the story of the English laborer who when told that a passer by was
a stranger exclaimed, “Eave alf a brick at im’.” She held a different
faith and in all probability the priests with a consciousness of her
latent or expressed views and principles used their great influence
quietly to set the people against her and this dislike was transferred
to her son.
But to her husband she was ever a first consideration. The records give
an account of an enterprise which he early undertook for her pleasure.
This was the construction of a large artificial lake on which she
might sail or row at will. Again the scarabs chronicle this tribute
of connubial tenderness, and again we see the queen’s religious views
considered. It begins as usual with an ascription to the gods. “Under
the majesty of Horus the golden, mighty of valor, full power, diademed
with law (lord of the North and South) establisher of laws, pacifier of
the two lands. Horus, the golden, mighty of valor, smiter of foreign
lands. Ordered majesty his the oaking of a lake for the royal spouse,
mighty lady Thi. Length its (was) cubits 3000-6000, breadth its cubits
600. Made majesty his festival of the entrance of the waters on month
third of sowing day sixteenth. Sailed majesty in his boat ‘Atenneferu’
‘Disk of beauties’ or ‘the most beautiful disk.’” He sailed across to
inaugurate the opening and perhaps to show her that all was safe and
well and then doubtless the queen held sway over it, permitting only
such as she chose to share the pleasure with her and perhaps making
it a mark of special favor when she did so. The Egyptians held many
of their religious festivals on the Nile and this lake may have been
specially devoted to such religious observances as the queen wished
to hold in honor of the celestial god whom she worshipped. The place
selected for this feat of engineering skill was near the town of
Tarucha.
The remains of a beautiful temple at Sideruga, built by Amenophis III
to or for Queen Tyi, have also been found and an inscription says
Amenhotep “made his monuments for the great and mighty heiress, the
mistress of all lands, Tyi.” A group of the king and Tyi is in the
Summa collection and an inscription reads: “Amen’nekht, princess, prays
with her mother before Amenhotep III, because he praises her beautiful
face and honors her beauty.” A Usheti box in the Berlin Museum bears
the name of Tyi and the monuments of her are numerous. She is by the
colossi of her husband and appears with him in official scenes at
Saleb. The figure sculptured in the tomb of Huy at Tel-el-Amarna, on a
scarab, etc., is shown seated; her name alone appears in a quarry at
the same place, after her husband’s death. And her parents are named as
Yoman and Thuaa.
The additions made by Amenophis III to the long list of Egyptian
temples are among the most noted. He built the oldest part of the
Serapeum at Sakkarah, the temple of Amen-Ra at Karnak and also at Luxor
a sanctuary with surrounding chambers, a pro-naos or hall with four
columns, and another large court (which was evidently used afterwards
as a place of worship by the early Christians), and a noble hypostycle
court with four rows of lofty columns bearing the lotus capital. At
the end nearest the sanctuary on either side are double rows of the
same columns, then a huge pilon, and in front of all, a noble avenue of
fourteen still more massive and lofty columns bearing the lotus-flower
capital. This avenue with the usual pylon appears to have completed the
Temple of Amenophis III. About 1600 B. C. is the date sometimes set for
this work. An avenue of Sphinxes connected the two temples. The temple
of Mut at Karnak was Amenophis’ special work. At el Kab there is also
a beautiful little temple or chapel built by him containing various
pictures of the king making offerings to the gods, etc. Other works
might be named as well as the grand statues already referred to.
As devoted as was Amenophis III to the god Amen, on whose temples he
lavished gifts and to whom he paid special honors, so antagonistic was
his son and successor to the same deity. May it chance that as the
mother taught and impressed upon the youthful minds of her children her
own religious ideas, so the father especially in the case of this son,
forced them to acts of worship to the many gods of Egypt which revolted
them and in the end served only to drive them the further from the old
faith. Such is the perversity of human nature that the very means taken
to win assent to any proposition or principle are often those which
have most influence in causing the pendulum of thought and opinion to
swing to the opposite extreme.
It is said that the striking change in the physiognomy and ideal type
of the upper classes in the latter part of the Eighteenth Dynasty
points to strong foreign infusion. The bold, active faces of earlier
times are replaced by sweetness and delicacy, a gentle smile and small,
gracefully curved nose, this is characteristic of the time of Amenophis
III.
The life of King Amenophis was an active one, less warlike than most
of his predecessors, but leaving behind many memorials. It is possible
that his long and doubtless exposing hunting expeditions may have had
a bad effect upon him, for it was still in his prime probably that his
life ended and his wife seems long to have survived him. His reign,
however, covers a lengthy period, thirty-six years, but he, owing to
his father’s early death, ascended the throne in youth. So, in the
quaint and beautiful language of Scripture, Amenophis III “slept with
his fathers,” and Amenophis IV reigned in his stead.
The tomb of Amenophis III, discovered by the French Expedition, is
in the West Valley of the Tombs of the Kings. Here also his father
and many other Egyptian sovereigns were buried. On the rocky walls
are representations of the king and the gods, some of which were
only partially completed. Amenophis III stands out an attractive
personality among the long list of Egyptian kings. We cannot doubt
that he was mourned by many, especially by the love of his youth and
later years, Queen Tyi. Henceforth her life was bound up with that
of her eldest son. She and Amenophis III had, some say two, some say
four sons, and four or five daughters. The eldest son, who changed his
name, was first called Amenophis IV and his next brother, Tahutmes,
after the grandfather or other ancestor of that name. The daughters
were Isis, Heot-mi-hib Satamon, of whom some memorials remain, and
some say Beckaten, youngest and favorite, but who is elsewhere termed
grand-daughter, rather than daughter, of Tyi.
That Queen Tyi was a faithful mother whose affectionate heart clung to
her children as she had been a loving and devoted wife we cannot doubt.
But her eldest son, the champion of her faith, the earnest disciple
of her teachings, which had sunk into his heart and borne abundant
fruit, must have been especially beloved. With him her after history
is closely associated, and her influence is shown even more strongly
than during the life of her husband and there is little question that
to it is largely due the subsequent course of events. Amenophis III
had deferred to her wishes and shown special marks of favor to her
religious views, but her son accepted them with his whole heart and
spent his life in trying to make them the religion of his native land.
CHAPTER TWELFTH.
TYI (CONTINUED).
As the reign and influence of Queen Hatasu or Hatshepsut included, in
part as those of her father and two brothers, so did that of Queen
Tyi those of husband and son. The fair young girl who had left her
own country with high hopes and aspirations had crystallized into the
determined woman, who bent all the energies of a strong nature to
the accomplishment of her wishes and purposes. The religion of her
fore-fathers was no longer kept in the background. She inspired her
son with the zeal of an apostle or a fanatic, as we may choose to
consider it, and the king devoted his life to upturning the old order
of things and an endeavor to establish the new. His father had shown
much deference to his wife’s religious faith. In the new festival,
instituted in his honor, that of the Solar Disk, on the 16th of Athyr
(October 4th), a prominent place had been assigned in the procession to
the boat of the sun “Aten-ne-fru.” He also put the disk on the head of
his crlo-sphinxes and on the statues of the goddesses Pasht and Sekhet;
but all this was, in a measure, tentative.
It remained for Amenophis IV, who was by early writers numbered among
the Stranger kings, till his true paternity was discovered and now
styled himself “Akhenaten” of “Khu-n-aten,” Worshipper of the (Sun’s
Disk) to proclaim openly his mother’s faith. It has been suggested that
his aim was to provide a god visible to all the people of his extensive
empire, and who could be worshipped in common by all, or jealousy
between the priests of Heliopolis and those of Thebes may have been
another ingredient in the mixed and vexed problem. Beside his father’s
great temple at Luxor he erected a sanctuary of the sun, and in various
places the name of Amon was obliterated.
Whatever the subsequent history of Queen Tyi’s other children, it was
to the eldest son that the mother evidently clung, and we may perhaps
believe that he, chiefly of them all, shared her views and opinions. On
slips from toilette boxes, etc., are found the names of the princesses
Sat-amen, Hent-mer-hab and Ast; there was also a son, with the family
name of Tahutmes. Bekaten is by some believed to be the youngest and
favorite daughter of Tyi, by others to be her grand-daughter, the child
of Amenophis IV, who is thought to have married before his father’s
death. At Somma is a group of the king and Tyi. At Qurneh a funeral
temple north of Ramesseum, rearranged by Amenhotep III for his daughter
Sit-amen, which proves that this child, at least, died before the
father. Another inscription read, “Amen’nekht, princess, prays with
her mother, before Amenhotep III, because he praises her beautiful
face and honors her beauty.” Some of the children probably died young,
some may have married and gone elsewhere, but the eldest, the father’s
successor, had both the will and the power to plant the new faith, and
with him Queen Tyi’s later life seems closely associated.
As the character of this prince has afforded historians much ground
for speculation, so do the presentments that remain of him. No cartoon
in Punch could more ludicrously caricature the human face than do the
pictures that are preserved of King Khu-n-aten. Yet in their ghastly
ugliness they still retain the conventional type. Many writers seem
to consider them as reliable as other likenesses, and attribute the
protruding lips and attenuated mis-shapen proportions to heredity,
some ancestor of negro blood, or the results of ill health. Others
offer no explanation. It seems impossible that any reigning king (and
in no period of Egyptian history does the monarch appear to be more
autocratic than at this time) should have permitted such portraits of
himself to remain to posterity. He was the son of handsome parents. It
is possible that the conventional type was considered so beautiful that
no deviation which yet preserved the general outline could mar it? Or
perchance is there another solution. The king forced upon the country
a religion abhorrent to the priests, to the majority of the people,
and to his successors, who soon returned to the polytheistic faith and
worship of earlier centuries, and who might well have taken pleasure in
caricaturing and handing down to their descendants a garbled picture
of the hated monarch, iconoclast as he seemed to them, reformer as he
doubtless appeared in the eyes of his mother and all the converts to
the worship of the sun. The slanting forehead, the long thin nose, the
protruding, flexible mouth, the serpent-like neck and the ungainly
proportions of the figure are little calculated to attract admiration.
A parallel to this might perhaps be found in the case of Richard III
of England, who, as he was a monster of wickedness, must needs be a
monster of ugliness as well, and whose personal defects have been
exaggerated by limner and scribe until his traditional semblance is
that of a dwarfish fiend.
Says Curtis, “the old Egyptian artist was as sure of his hand and eye
as the French artist who cut his pupil’s paper with his thumb nail to
indicate that the line should run so and not otherwise. The coloring is
rude and inexpressive, the drawing of the human figure conventional,
for the church or the priests ordained how the human form should be
drawn. Later the church and priests ordained how the human form should
be governed. Yet, O sumptuous scarlet queen sitting on seven hills, you
were generous to art, while you were wronging nature.”
Khu-n-aten or Akhenaten married, however, and probably in youth, as
he was the father of quite a large family. His wife is spoken of as
the daughter of Dushratta and may have been the grand-daughter of an
Egyptian king, her mother having married a Syrian prince. Dushratta,
writing to Queen Tyi, before Amenophis IV took up affairs, greets
Tadekhipa, his daughter, Tyi’s daughter-in-law. As seems to have been
the custom, she changed her name on coming to Egypt and is known
as Aten’neferu,’ Nefertiti, or Nefertity. She was always closely
associated with the king and there seems no mention of other wives or
connections of any kind. She doubtless shared or was a convert to his
faith and we may judge its enthusiastic supporter.
Queen Tyi appears to have remained in Thebes while the king and his
wife went to superintend the building of the temple, palaces, etc., of
the new city which Khu-n-aten had resolved to build and make his royal
residence. Angry blood rose between him, his priests and his people,
but he was dictator, he would no longer dwell among them, but in a new
and richly adorned city, worthy of the faith which he held, and whose
building should equal or surpass older monuments. He issued a command
to obliterate from the tombs of his ancestors the names of the god
Amon and the goddess Mut. This fanned the smouldering discontent into
flames and open rebellion broke out. Against Amon the king seemed to
hold a particular spite, and around the shrine of this god priests and
followers mustered their forces.
But although the king abandoned Thebes, he retained his power and was
not overthrown. No council of priests or people brought him to trial,
sent him into exile, or took his life. Nor in turn does he seem to have
been severe or vengeful. No records remain, as is frequently the case
in such instances, of barbarous punishments or cruel executions being
meted out to the offenders. For the time being, if for that only, he
was absolute and carried his point. He could afford to be generous.
The new capital was distant from both Memphis and Thebes, in middle
Egypt, and received the name of Khu-a-ten, or as it is elsewhere given,
Khuteteyn, “the horizon of the sun,” the modern Tel-el-Amarna or
El-Amarna, the extensive ruins of which may yet be seen on both banks
of the Nile. Like Solomon in Scripture, the potentate summoned to his
assistance both artists and artizans, and the work was pressed with all
possible vigor and speed. First the temple, then the palaces and homes
of the nobility, lastly, in the neighborhood, their tombs. It is said
that a revolution in art proceeded side by side with that in religion,
an attempt was made to discard the older traditions and approximate
more nearly to nature, and the specimen of these attempts at realism,
to be found in the tombs, are of great interest. To this fact some
authorities attribute the singular and disagreeable portraits of the
king before referred to.