were concerned we may well conceive. The great enterprise was the
development of her heart’s desire and every aid in her power she must
have lent to the king’s assistance. Remaining in the old city she could
no doubt expedite the sending of all sorts of supplies and materials
required for the buildings and the private needs of her beloved son and
his family.
Architecture and sculpture were ever important in the eyes of the
Egyptian kings, and even the queens had their own sculptors and
overseers of such work. Timber was scarce, quarries of sandstone and
limestone numerous, hence the more enduring was the commoner material,
which has preserved to posterity much that, had the ancient world been
constructed of our more perishable wood and brick, in all probability
would have utterly passed away. Some of the temples, as many of the
tombs, of which those at Beni Hassan are an example, were in grottoes
and caves, others stood alone in majestic grandeur; in all columns were
used and the lotus was the prevailing ornament. Says Kendric, “As the
columns of Beni Hassan gave rise to the Doric, so those which imitate
plants and flowers appear to be the origin of the Corinthian. The
Ionian volute is found in the columns of Persepolis, but in no Egyptian
monument. It was probably of Assyrian origin, as it has been found in
the remains of Nineveh.”
An inscription at Telel-Amarna reads, “And for the first time the king
gave the command to call together all the masons from the Island of
Elephantine to the town of Samud (special name for Migdol in Lower
Egypt) and the chiefs and the leaders of the people to open a great
quarry of the hard stone for the erection of the great obelisk of
Har-makhu, by his name, as the god of light, who is (worshipped) as
the sun’s disk in Thebes. Thither came the great and noble lords and
the chief of the fan-bearers, to superintend the cutting and shipping
of the stone.” Brugsch tells us that the stone quarry of Assoan and
the cliffs of Silsilis on each side of the river furnished, the former
rose and black granite, and the latter hard brown sandstone for this
work. He also thinks that King Khu-n-aten designed to build in Thebes a
gigantic pyramid of this same stone to the honor of his god.
Not far from the Nile, in the new city, rose the great temple of the
sun. It was on a wide plain, the mountains rising behind it as says the
same author, “like an encompassing wall.” The king also bestowed great
honor upon his chief overseers and helpers, who accepted the new faith
and entered into the work with real or assumed enthusiasm.
One named Meri-ra or Mery-Re “dear to the sun” was high-priest
or prophet, the Pharaoh bestowing upon him words of praise and
commendation and investing him with that special kingly reward,
a golden necklace. His tomb at Tel el Amarna is one of the most
interesting and largest that have been found. It is supported by
columns and on its walls are depicted many scenes giving portraits
of the deceased and his wife, the king and queen making offerings to
the sun, the princesses and others. And it is here that is found the
picture of the bestowal of the golden necklace.
A certain Aahmes, one of the many, for this seems long to have been a
favorite name in Egypt, was another highly valued assistant and among
the sepulchral inscriptions found at Tel-el-Amarna was a prayer to the
son written by him. Beginning with ascription, it reads, “Beautiful is
thy setting thou son’s disk of life, thou lord of lords and king of
worlds,” and ending with professions of devotion to the king, as his
“divine benefactor,” who had raised him to greatness, which naturally
perhaps appears to have produced a very pleasing state of mind, for
he concludes “the servant of the prince rejoices and is in a festive
disposition every day.”
At this time there were at least several grandchildren of Queen Tyi, as
special houses were prepared for them in connection with the palace.
We can therefore imagine the impatience with which the dowager queen
awaited the time for her journey to the new city and rejoining her
loved ones, and couriers were doubtless busy, passing back and forth,
with orders and directions from the king, as well as messages of
affection to his mother, which were returned in full measure. It seems
almost as if it might be at his special desire that she remained in
Thebes, to lend him, as before said, all the aid in her power towards
the completion of his work and that he might have the satisfaction of
welcoming her to his new capital in a nearly completed state. She may
also have acted to some extent as regent in his absence.
Her time of anticipation therefore must have endured for some years,
since the erection of buildings of such magnitude could not have been
accomplished in a very short period, no matter what the expedition used
for the purpose. This second journey may well have reminded Queen Tyi
of an earlier one she had taken in her youth, from her far native land,
as the wife or the affianced bride of Amenophis III. That had been the
seed-time, the sowing of which had produced such great fruits. Again
she went forward attended by a large retinue, but now it was not to a
land of promise, but one of fulfilment.
The king and his wife met the dowager queen after their long separation
with all honor and affection, and themselves conducted her into the
new temple. A picture of this scene, which remains, is thus inscribed,
“Introduction of the queen mother to behold her sun shadow,” and very
happy she must have felt in thus viewing the visible tokens of the
realization of the dreams, hopes and prayers of many years. She must
inspect the temple, the palaces of the king, queen and the various
princesses, as well as the dwelling prepared for herself, and no
doubt be made acquainted with the chief overseers and artists whom
“the king delighted to honor,” and under whose charge the work had
so prospered. The private houses were probably varied in color and
frequently decorated on the outside with pictures of the occupations or
professions of the owners. Beyond, some such scene as this, an immense
meadow cut through with a blue stream, north and south, white walls
of towns, on the horizons rim the reddish sands of the desert. The
myth they believed in was this, “Osiris fell in love with this strip
of land in the midst of deserts. He covered it with plants and living
creatures, so as to have from them profit. Then the kindly god took a
human form and became the first pharaoh. When he felt that his body
was withering he left it and entered into his son and later into his
son’s son. The lord has extended like a mighty tree. All the pharaohs
are his roots, the nomarks and priests his larger branches, the nobles
the smaller branches. The visible god sits on the throne of the earth
and receives the income which belongs to him from Egypt; the invisible
god receives offerings in his temples and declares his will through the
lips of the priesthood.”
It was a joyful reunion, this of the elder queen with her son and his
family, an occasion never to be forgotten in their domestic annals,
and we may imagine how the story was handed down from generation to
generation. The day when grandmother, or great-grandmother came and
saw the new temple and new city. Loved and honored Queen Tyi probably
settled down with or near her son and his wife, enjoying to the full
the kindly family life and seeing as had her mother-in-law before her
the grandchildren gather around. Perhaps she regretted that no son was
born to succeed his father, for King Khu-n-aten had daughters only,
but her life had been a full and happy one and she had enjoyed the
blessing, accorded to but few, of seeing her heart’s dearest wishes
fulfilled. What more could she ask?
Whether she passed away in Khu-aten, or Tel-el-Amarna, we do not know,
but if the former was the case a long mourning procession, attended
with every honor, must have borne her inanimate form preserved in the
highest style of the embalmer’s art, back to Thebes, for there in the
Tombs of the Queens her last resting place has been found. These tombs
are at the end of a valley, which extends for nearly a mile to the west
of the temple of Medinet Habu, that of Tyi is said to be among the
most perfect. The valley which leads to the tombs has bare and lofty
limestone cliffs on either side, which are covered with inscriptions;
it is not so familiar as some other places in Egypt, not being very
easy of access. More than twenty tombs in various stages of completion
have been discovered, some of them mere caves with their records often
made not in the solid stone, but in plaster. Queen Tyi’s tomb consists
of an ante-chamber, passages, a chapel, and small chambers, all more
or less decorated with paintings. At the entrance, on either side, is
Maat, the goddess of Truth, with extended wings, to protect those who
come in. There are various pictures of the gods and of Queen Tyi, in
one of which she prays to them, seated at a banquet table.
Of these tombs Curtis says, “The sculpture and paintings are gracious
and simple. They are not graceful, but suggest the grace and repose
which the ideal of female life requires. In the graceful largeness and
simplicity of the character of the decoration it seems as if the secret
or reverence for womanly character and influence, which was to be later
revealed was instinctively suggested by those who knew them not. The
cheerful yellow hues of the walls and their exposure to the day, the
warm silence of the hills, seclusion, and the rich luminous landscape
in the vista of the steep valley, make these tombs pleasant pavilions
of memory.”
CHAPTER THIRTEENTH.
NEFERTITI.
Before the death of Amenophis III he seems to have adopted the frequent
Egyptian habit of associating his son with him on the throne, though
the latter was probably young, as Queen Tyi appears to have acted as
regent after her husband’s death. Also, at the time of his death, the
father was negotiating for a marriage between his heir and a Mitannian
princess, the same country from which had come Queen Tyi herself, and
the wife of Thothmes IV. That the existing relationship gave the new
queen some title to the throne is proved by her being spoken of as “the
great heiress, princess of all women,” and “the princess of South and
North, the lady of both lands,” which imply hereditary rights, possibly
through the mother.
She was the daughter of Dushratta, King of Mitanni, and it may have
been that her father was Queen Tyi’s brother and she herself the
cousin of Amenophis IV, but the matter is not absolutely clear. A
certain Dushratta, not satisfied about the safety of his sister, who
had married Amenophis III, had sent to Egypt to inquire after her, but
the repetition or duplication of a name often makes it difficult to
decide upon the exact relationship. From the letters found on tablets
in the ruins of Tel-el-Amarna, many of which of course are broken and
imperfect, we have chiefly derived the information we possess of these
transactions. Queen Tyi seems also to have held the power for a brief
period at Tel-el-Amarna, but exactly when this was the case has not
been discovered.
In her own country the bride-elect bore the name of Tadukipa, but
in Egypt she became Nefert-Thi, Nefertity, or Nefertiti, her full
name being known as Aten’nefer’ neferu’nefertiti. After the death of
Amenophis III Queen Tyi sent word of this event to the Babylonish
prince, and some correspondence took place between them before matters
were finally settled and Amenophis IV or Napkhurruiya, as he is
called in the letters, was married and assumed full control of his
own affairs. There was, of course, an exchange of presents, gold,
slaves, etc., as was usual on such occasions, and no failure on either
side of a satisfactory pecuniary showing seems to have interfered
with the prospects of the youthful pair, such as had been known, not
unfrequently, in other cases.
The beautiful, deserving or undeserving, are apt to win favor. By this
rule therefore the pictures of King Khu-n-aten or Aten’ nefer’neferu
and Queen Nefertiti are sufficiently ugly to prejudice the most casual
observer. One is tempted to see in these hideous effigies rather the
work of a defamer than a true portrait. Early pictures of the king are
handsome and not unlike some of Rameses II, the change is attributed by
late writers to the new style of art to be seen in his reign. Certainly
the king sacrificed himself nobly to the cause of Truth, if he was a
consenting party to his own portraiture.
It is believed that the accession of Khu-n-aten took place in the
thirty-first year of his father’s reign, in the month Pakhons, or
February, and that his marriage occurred in the month Epiphi, or May,
four years later. In his sixth year he abandoned the god Amon, or Amen,
and adopted the Aten worship. In his sixth year also, after the birth
of his second daughter, came the change of name and facial type at
Thebes, Maat only of the old divinities seems to have been retained.
The pictures of this period show rays of sunbeams terminating in tiny
hands which support the bodies, crowns, etc., of the royal pair.
From first to last the queen is closely associated with her husband,
constantly pictured with him, a true companion and helpmate, a faithful
guardian of his children, and a devoted daughter to his mother,
possibly her aunt, whose name, in part, she seems to have taken. As
Kidijah upheld and supported Mahomet in the promulgation of his newly
received revelation, so did Nefertiti accept and lend her wifely aid to
the faith of her husband and his mother.
A prayer or address to the rising sun is attributed to her and shows
the religious fervor with which she was penetrated.
“Thou disk of the sun, thou living god! there is none other beside
thee! Thou givest health to the eyes through thy beams, creator of all
beings. Thou goest up on the eastern horizon of the heavens to dispense
life to all whom thou hast created; to man, to four-footed beasts,
birds and all manner of creeping things on the earth, when they live.
Thus they behold thee and they go to sleep when thou settest.
“Grant to thy son who loves thee life in truth to the Lord of the land
that he may live united with thee in eternity.
“Behold his wife the queen Nefert-i-Thi, may she live forevermore and
eternally by his side, well pleasing to thee she admires what thou
hast created day by day. He (the king) rejoices at the sight of thy
benefits. Grant him a long existence as king of the land.”
At Heliopolis the sun-god Ra had been specially worshipped. He was
pictured hawk-headed, surmounted by disk and uraeus, hence with
priests at Heliopolis the king may have been in greater sympathy than
with those at other points, where the various gods were worshipped.
It is possible, too, that they were less antagonistic to him than
the others, or may even have supported him. Be that as it may, at
Heliopolis Khu-n-aten built a temple. The shrine received gifts from
Pharaoh after Pharaoh and was very wealthy. It also had at one time an
immense library. “The city,” says Strabo, who came to it shortly after
the Christian Era, “is situated upon a large mound. It contains the
Temple of the Sun,” probably a later one than that of Amenophis IV,
“and the Ox Mnevis, which is kept in a sanctuary, and is regarded by
the inhabitants as a god.” Says Pollard, “The temple had three courts,
each one probably adorned with obelisks, which were so numerous that
one was called ‘The City of Obelisks.’ Pharaohs of different dynasties
erected a pair of obelisks in the temple of the Sun as an offering and
a memorial. After the third court came the Naos, with its outer chamber
or holy place and its inner or holy of holies, in which was the shrine
with the symbol of the deity. Strabo tells us that the ox Mnevis was
kept in the sanctuary.”
Six daughters, one after another, enlarged the family circle of the
palace “a garland of princesses,” as they have been poetically called.
They constantly appear in the pictures with their parents and even
attended their father in his expeditions in his chariot. Their names
are given as Mi-aten or Mut-aten, Mak-aten, Anknes-aten, Nofru-aten, or
Nofrura, Ta-shera, Satem-en-ra and Bek-aten, some doubt seems to exist
as to whether the last was daughter or grand-daughter of Queen Tyi. A
standing figure of this princess, at which the artists are still seen
chiselling from life, under the eye of the queen’s overseer, Putha, by
name, is among the various wall paintings. Perhaps she was an especial
darling, this youngest child, or she may have had a particularly
beautiful face and form; but the temple walls were said to have been
nearly covered with the pictures of the king, queen and princess.
Aten-en-aten or Khu-n-aten’s feelings towards his family were tinged
with all a lover’s enthusiasm. His words have a poetic cast.
“The beams of the sun’s disk shone over him with a pure light so as to
make young his body daily.
“Therefore King Khu-n-aten swore an oath to his father thus: Sweet love
fills my heart for the queen, for her young children. Grant a great
age to the queen Nofrit-Thi in long years; may she keep the hand of
Pharaoh. Grant a great age to the royal daughter Meri-aten and to the
royal daughter Mak-aten and to their children, may they keep the hand
of the queen their mother eternally and forever.
“What I swear is a true avowal of what my heart says to me. Never
is there falsehood in what I say,” and he ends a long inscription,
relative to the setting up of various memorial tablets with, “These
memorial tablets which were placed in the midst had fallen down. I will
have them raised up afresh and have them placed again in the situation
in which they were (previously). This I swear to do in the 8th year,
in the month Tybi, on the 9th day the king was in Khuaten and Pharaoh
mounted on his court chariot of polished copper to behold the memorial
tablets of the disk of the sun which are on the hills of the territory
to the south-east of Khu-aten.” And perhaps the queen and the eldest
daughters followed him to make this investigation. Brugsch says the
inscriptions on these tablets were first found and published by Prisse
d’Avennes.
The series of tablets discovered at Tel-el-Amarna in 1888 are chiefly
in the museums of London, Berlin, Paris and St. Petersburgh, with a few
at Gizeh. One letter is from a lady who styles herself “the handmaid”
of the king and others relate to the exchange of presents and slaves,
men and girls.
Another beloved member of this amiable family was the princess
Notem-Mut, younger sister of the queen, who seems quite to have been
counted in. She, too, had a special palace built for her, and married
Horem-heb or Ho-rem-hib, not of royal birth, but who eventually became
the last king of this, the Eighteenth Dynasty. He may have had two
wives, or else Notem-mut changed her name, as we read also of a queen
Ese as his spouse.
The temples and palaces were of a somewhat different style of
architecture from the usual Egyptian form, but they were beautiful,
with their open courts, and calculated for the needs of those who
were to occupy them, as well as for the character of the country and
climate. The names of the artists and architects are preserved, which
is not usually the case, and their talent seems to have descended in
the family, for we learn that a certain Bek, overseer, artist and
teacher of the king, was a grandson of Hor-amoo, who had served in the
same office under Amenophis III.
“The tombstone of the artist, Bek,” says Brugsch, “was put up for
sale some years ago in the open market place in Cairo. My respected
friend, Mr. L. Vassali, bought it, and was good enough to give me an
exact drawing of the carving upon it and a paper impression of the
inscription.”
The wall pictures that were found in the tombs present the king and
queen seated on a balcony with their eldest children, the baby in the
mother’s lap, enduring certain officials with the necklace of honor
and casting down presents to the crowd. A pleasant sport, enjoyed in
common by the whole family party. Queen Tyi, the chief of the women’s
department, named Hai, the steward, the treasurer and other members of
the court, also shared in the fun.
Another picture gives the king and queen worshipping the sun,
accompanied by two of their daughters, showing clearly that all the
duties and pleasures of life were shared in this amiable family. A
touch of Nature makes us all kin, and this recalls the picture one
often sees of domestic life among the Germans, where father, mother and
children go off for a picnic or a frolic together, while the Frenchman
perhaps is in the café alone.
The Egyptians were highly skilled in pottery and faience; fine glazing
on pottery, stone and in enamels on goldsmith work is shown at the
beginning of the New Empire. Tel-el-Amarna seems to have been quite
celebrated for its pottery and the fabrication of delicate enamels, of
which many specimens, in a great variety of colors, have been found.
The vase of Queen Tyi, preserved in the Boulak Museum, is grey and
blue. Olive-shaped amulets of the kings and princesses of this family
show delicate blue hieroglyphics on a mauve ground, while the potters
of the time of Amenophis III are said to have been particularly fond of
violets and greys.
Less warlike than the majority of his predecessors, we still read of
some fighting during Aten-aten’s or Khu-n-aten’s reign and victories
over the Syrians and other nations, which the king, though probably
not taking the field himself, celebrated with the customary festival.
He appears in “the full Pharaonic attire, adorned with the insignia of
his rank, on his lion throne, carried on the shoulders of his warriors.
At his side walk servants, who, with long fans, wave the cool air
upon their heated lord.” This was in the twelfth year of his reign,
on the 18th day of the month Mekhir, December. The crook, whip, and
sickle-shaped sword were emblems of royalty, while of the New Empire
was a canopy raised on wooden pillars, colored and ornamented, with
a thick carpet on seat, footstool and floor. On ordinary occasions
the king was probably carried in a sort of Sedan chair of splendid
appearance.
Later occurred the marriages of some of the daughters, and as no
son was born, two at least of the sons-in-law seem to have ruled in
succession, and it is pleasant to be able to believe that this was
peacefully accomplished, without the family jars and broils so often
coincident with the dividing of a heritage. In modern parlance the
ladies do not seem to have made very brilliant matches. No foreign
prince or monarch is recorded as being an accepted suitor. “Home
talent” was strictly patronized, and the sons of high officials were
deemed suitable parties, who by right of their wives it would seem,
succeeded each other as king. Their reigns were short enough for each
to have a turn as the pleasant task of ruling.
Several of his daughters, as well as his wife, waited on Khu-n-aten in
his last illness; Nefertiti survived him and may have lived till the
time of Horem-heb, or even to that of Sety I. The tomb of the king was
seven miles from the river in one of the great valleys which open on
the plain of Tel-el-Amarna, the situation resembling that of Amenophis
III at Thebes. That he was mourned deeply, at least by those nearest
and dearest to him, there can be little doubt, yet his children soon
turned from the religion he had tried to establish, to the earlier
worship, in its form of devotion to many gods, under the semblance of
various animals. The slabs found at Memphis, the stele at Sakkarah,
and the remains of the great temple at Tel-el-Amarna, twenty-five feet
square, the enclosure nearly half a mile long, all speak of this king.
Statues of him, his wife and Queen Tyi have been found, a beautiful and
perfect one of the king is in the Louvre, and there is a death mask,
which, among his various names, speaks of him as the “lord of the sweet
wind.” Fragments of the stele with which his palace was decorated are
to be seen in some of the museums in Europe, also in the museum of the
University of Pennsylvania, and perhaps at other points in this country.