was U-ah-ab-Ra, and he is spoken of as Pharaoh Hophra in the Bible, of
whom, though he reigned from nineteen to twenty-five years, we know
little, and his wife is not mentioned. He was overthrown by his own
general, Amasis, or Aames II, who became king, and apparently lived in
peace with his predecessor for some years, but slew him, or permitted
him to be slain, when Apries endeavored to regain his lost authority.
Amasis II took unto himself several wives, and welcomed and favored
the settlement of Greek colonies in Egypt. He took the Horus name of
Smen-Maat, “Stablisher of Law,” and was apparently good-natured and
affable when not fighting. His wives are given as the lady Shent-kheta,
daughter of Peta-Nit, and the queen, Takanath, daughter of Psammetichus
I. She had been chosen heiress of Nitocris or Nit-a-quert, and it was
doubtless to legalize his claim to the throne that Amasis II contracted
the marriage. The female pieces in this regal game of chess were of
immense value. What share the ladies had in the disposal of their
hands we do not learn, but in most cases it could hardly have been
an important one. Amasis II was a builder and restorer of temples,
and his name is found in many places. At the end of his forty-fourth
year to power he died and was buried at Sais. Queens Shep-an-apt and
Nitocris, who were priestesses of Amen, were buried at el Aso-fif, and
laid, as were other ladies of royal blood, in tombs with finely worked
ante-chambers and inscriptions, and with false doors.
Psamthek or Psammetichus III, who reigned only six months, succeeded
to Amasis II, and is sometimes omitted from the list of kings. He was
the son of the Lady Thent-kheta, and some reliefs of him are found in a
small temple near the temple of Amasis II and Nitocris, where there are
pictures of these queens; and with him ends the Twenty-sixth Dynasty,
and we come to the consideration of the Persian rule, numbered, though
of entirely different blood, as the Twenty-seventh Dynasty.
CHAPTER TWENTIETH.
DAILY LIFE.
“How lived, how loved, how died she?” are questions that rise in the
mind in thinking of these royal ladies of the past. Of their individual
lives but few records remain, and it is from inscriptions and paintings
on the tombs, especially of those of less prominence than the kings, we
may gather something of the daily life of the queens.
“No nation of the earth has shown so much zeal and ingenuity, so
much method and regularity in recording the details of private life
as the Egyptians,” says Brugsch. The kings’ tombs chiefly celebrated
their victories, the king riding forth in his chariot, or with his
captives by the hair, in the act of slaying them, or the king—sometimes
accompanied by the queen—making offerings to the gods, these are the
favorite subjects for the artist’s pencil, but for the details of
female life we must look elsewhere.
From the tomb of Ti, of the Fifth Dynasty sometimes called the Pepys
of that period, and from the sepulchres at Beni Hassen, much has been
learned of the domestic life. Ti was a favorite subject of the king’s,
an official of high rank, and his wife a lady of noble birth, of kin to
the royal house. So we have pictures of all the household arrangements,
the feeding and preparing of animals for food, the tenants, male and
female, bringing of the fruits of the earth to their master, and he
himself, after the Egyptian manner, painted of larger size than his
inferiors, going forth to fish and to hunt. Sometimes, but rarely, the
women also accompanied their husbands on these expeditions.
A statue of Ti bears the same likeness as the figure in the tomb. It is
that of a fine young man, with regular features, and the statue of his
wife Nofre-hoteps, grand-daughter of a Pharaoh, was also found.
As has been said before, the women in Egypt had no such separate and
secluded life as those in the Eastern countries, they appear to have
mingled freely with their male relatives, and the queens acted as
regents during the absence of their husbands, or the minority of their
sons, or sometimes ruled in their own right, from the earliest times.
There were the apartments of the women or the king’s harem, but not in
such an exclusive sense as in many other Eastern countries, nor was the
chief official in charge invariably an eunuch.
The seat of government changed from time to time under the different
dynasties, so that some of the queens lived chiefly in Memphis, some in
Thebes, some in Tanis, and, among the later rulers, in Sais and Napata.
The palaces were not many stories in height, and had, sometimes, pylons
and columns in front, the rooms were built round a succession of open
courtyards, which were shaded by palm, orange, olive, fig and other
trees, and they also had large and beautiful gardens with fountains,
especially in the royal country villas. On the flat roofs the people
passed many hours, and disported themselves under awnings, and slept
there on rugs and mats. In the country the houses and grounds were
usually surrounded by high walls. Large mansions stood detached and
had doors opening on various sides, and before the columns or colossi,
at the entrance, hung ribbons or banners, especially on festival
occasions. Sometimes a portico had a double row of columns, with
statues between, these were also colored, and, when not of stone, were
stained to represent it. The walls and ceilings of the palaces were
brilliantly painted. They were also at times inlaid or adorned with
lapis-lazuli, which was a favorite stone, amber and malachite. In the
royal establishments there were porticoes and vestibules, constructed
with great splendor, numerous columns, walls glittering with jewels,
and curtains of gold tissue.
Floors were of stone or composition, roofs with rafters of date palm,
and transverse beams of larger palm. Stone arches have been found both
of the time of Rameses III and Psamettichus. Rare woods were imported,
and also demanded as tribute from foreign nations, conquered by the
Egyptians, as well as gold, silver, precious stones and slaves.
After passing through the servants’ offices one came to the
store-rooms, the great dining hall, the sleeping rooms, and the
kitchens, and at the further end of a piece of ground two buildings,
turned back to back, and separated by small gardens, were the women’s
apartments, which often had shutters closed with valves to keep out the
heat.
The lady is spoken of as “Mistress of the House,” or “Lady of the
House,” and seemed to have full rule over it—there is even a story that
her husband himself was bound to obey her indoors, but this is hardly
likely.
They had low stools for tables, flat baskets for dinner plates, and
pretty Syrian maidens were favorite slaves. Couches, chairs, stools and
tables were of wood, bronze and silver, the feet were often of lions’
claws, and the top of the tables were upheld by figures of captives and
slaves. The furniture was carved with serpents, lotus flowers and other
designs, and the back of a couch or chair was sometimes a hawk with
outspread wings, and the ends of the couch terminated in the head of a
lion or other beast. Sometimes the couches were used for beds and made
ornamental in the day time. The Egyptians had alabaster or wooden head
rests, like the Japanese, though the manner of hair dressing did not
seem to require it to the same extent. The ladies’ dressing tables were
covered with boxes for ointment, bottles for cosmetics, perfumes, and
oils, and they used small metal mirrors, often with the figure of the
god Bes as a handle.
The costumes, adapted to the climate, were light, especially in the
earlier times, and the chief part was of fine linen. Later there
seems to have been more elaboration and heavier and richer materials
used. Wigs protected the head of both male and female from the sun,
as did the turbans and veils of other countries. The vulture, with
outspread wings, emblem of the goddess Mut, formed part of the queen’s
head-dress, as did the royal asp, raised in act to strike.
Thoth was the god of learning, called “the baboon with shining hair and
amiable face,” the “letter writer for the gods.” Children and youth
were expected to study and exhorted, even as far back as the time of
King Pepys, “Give thy heart to learning and love her like a mother.”
And there is also a touch of kinship with more modern times in the
statement that the boy scholar be not allowed to oversleep and that
children left school “shouting for joy.” Severity was sometimes used,
as we read, “The youth has a back, he attends when it is beaten.” And
again, “The ears of the young are placed in the back, and he hears
when he is flogged.” Copy books of 1700 B. C. have been found, and we
possess the school exercises of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties.
Such examples in mental arithmetic as “There were seven men, each had
seven cats, each cat had eaten seven mice, each mouse had eaten seven
grains of barley. How much barley had been lost in this way?” etc., etc.
But neither were the pleasures and amusements of the little ones
overlooked, and there have been preserved little wooden soldiers, in
the dress of ancient times, dolls, balls and many other things that
still delight the child of to-day; such as tops, boats, etc.
An olive branch was hung at the door on the birth of a boy and a strip
of woolen cloth at that of a girl. If a new born babe cried “Ny!”
it would live, but if it cried “Nibe!” it would die. Mothers nursed
their children for three years, and upon daughters more than upon
sons was laid the obligation of looking after their parents in old
age. The royal children had also, when they were old enough, quarters
of their own, where they were under the charge of a tutor who was
called a nurse. Those of the higher orders, dressed like grown people,
as in the present day the children of Holland are often the amusing
reproductions, in miniature, of their parents. The children of the
lower orders dispensed in great part, or entirely, with any sort of
covering.
Women were mistresses in their own house, came and went freely and so
much so that we have an amusing story that among the lower classes the
husbands sometimes hid their wives’ shoes to keep them at home, and
this before the days of female clubs! But in spite of her privileges
child bearing and work soon aged this class of women.
Among the moral precepts of the Egyptians in a papyrus now in the
Louvre is one that says, “Ill treat not thy wife, whose strength is
less than thine. Be thou her protector,” showing that it was no slavish
relation that was expected to exist between man and wife. And again in
another place we have a father who exhorts his son to have regard for
his mother. “It is God Himself who gave her to thee, and now that thou
art grown up and hast a wife and house in thy turn, remember always
thine helpless infancy and the care thy mother lavished upon thee, so
that she may never have occasion to reproach thee, nor to raise her
hands to heaven against thee, for God would fulfill her curse.”
At the door of a house where there was a bride, flowers were hung, and
a vessel of water was placed where there was a death. Fragments of
impassioned love songs have come down to us, and though we know little
of their marriage customs, compared to their funerals, the freedom of
intercourse between the sexes and the greater opportunity for personal
acquaintance than was usually afforded in Eastern countries, leads to
the supposition that real love matches were not infrequent. Like the
Japanese, they compared the beloved object to blossoms and flowers; nor
were the ladies apparently behind the gentlemen in the free expression
of ardent feeling.
“Thou beautiful one my wish is to be with thee as thy wife,” says
or sings the enthusiastic maiden, and Miss Edwards and others give
instances where each strophe begins with an invocation to a flower,
thus curiously resembling the stornelli of the Tuscan peasantry, of
which every verse begins and ends with a similar invocation to some
familiar blossom or tree.
“O flower of henna,
My heart stands still in thy presence.
I have made mine eyes brilliant for thee with kohl,
When I behold thee, I fly to thee, oh, my beloved!
Oh, lord of my heart, sweet is this hour.
An hour passed with thee is worth an hour of eternity!”
…
“Oh, flower of marjoram!
Fair would I be to thee as the garden in which I
Have planted flowers and sweet-smelling shrubs!
The garden watered by pleasant rivulets, and
Refreshed by the north breeze!
Here let us walk, oh, my beloved, hand in hand, our
Hearts filled with joy. Better than food, better
Than drink, is it to behold thee.
To behold thee, and to behold thee again!”
This shows clearly the freedom of intercourse permitted, and with what
naivete and frankness it is written! No effort at dissimulation in
acknowledging the artificial enhancement of her charms. Rather perhaps
did she feel herself worthy of commendation for the pains she had
taken. It reminds one of the Southern girl who remarked casually to a
party of friends, of both sexes: “How chilly it is this morning! Oh,
now I know why; I forgot to pencil my eyebrows!”
In their feasts and amusements men and women met together and scenes
in the tombs of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties show ladies
discussing their earrings and jewelry, as they might be doing to-day.
To perform toilettes together, put on necklets and exchange flowers was
part of the entertainment, and talking, eating and dressing all went on
to the sound of music. Birthdays and many other festivals, religious
and social, were celebrated, and there were lucky and unlucky days
for music, as well as for many other things. It was especially to be
avoided on the fourteenth Tybi. Pollard mentions “a musical at-home”
among the pictures on the walls of the tombs at Beni-Hassan, where two
harpists, a sistrum player and others are helping to entertain the
visitors.
The guests sat on chairs, or on the floor, and did not recline
at table, as was the custom of many other Eastern nations. Their
entertainment consisted of meat, chiefly beef and kid, geese, fish,
vegetables, of which leeks and onions formed a large part; fruit,
bread, cakes, which the bakers made in various shapes, and wine. This
was freely used and the pictures sometimes show over indulgence on the
part of the women as well as that of the men. Sometimes there were
separate tables for men and women, sometimes they sat together, and
frequently dipped into a common dish. They had spoons for fluids with
various designs for handles, but the use of fingers was general for
most purposes, hence the necessity of frequent washing of the hands.
Of the use of leeks and onions Story says, speaking of an Italian: “Nor
is he without authority for his devotion to those twin saints, Apollo
(or is it Cipollo) and Aglio. There is an odor of sanctity about them,
turn up our noses as we may. The ancient Egyptian offered them as first
fruits, upon the altars of their gods, and employed them also in the
service of the dead, and such was their attachment to them that the
followers of Moses hankered after them, despite the manna, and longed
for ‘the leeks and the onions and the garlic, which they did eat in
Egypt freely.’ Nay the fastidious Greeks not only used them as a charm
against the ‘evil eye,’ but ate them with delight—there is a certain
specific against them—eat them yourself—you will smell them no longer.”
The host and hostess sat together, flowers were abundant, and a special
token of regard was a wreath placed around the neck of the guest. Women
were attended by women slaves who offered them ointment and other
toilette articles. Oil poured upon the head is an attention which would
fail of appreciation in these modern times, but was then considered so
agreeable that a ball was sometimes soaked in oil and placed on the
head of the master of the feast, so that it might trickle down into his
hair. At the close of the banquet a mummy in miniature, richly gilded,
was carried round to remind them of their latter end, or may it not
have been to suggest that happy as they were, they could be happier
still in another world?
We can imagine the olfactories of the Egyptians to have been abnormally
developed, so constantly were they smelling flowers and holding them
under each others noses—even the sacred nose of royalty.
“Smell of my lotus!” “How charming, how delicious!” We can almost hear
the echo. Statues often show husband and wife sitting with hand on
knees, or across the breast, or sometimes on the same chair with arms
around each other’s waist or neck. Doubtless they offered each other
what we may call the tribute of the lotus, or the lotus courtesy,
murmuring, “My dearest, how lovely you are looking.” Chiefly to the
lady, of course, etc., etc.
In the earliest times musical instruments seem to have been played
chiefly by men, and women sang without accompaniment. But later,
female, as well as male, voices combined with all sorts of instruments.
There were kettle-drums, round and square, harps, lyres, guitars,
flutes or pipes, and lastly, specially Egyptian, the sistrum,
not melodious in sound we may judge, but used chiefly, though
not invariably in, the service of the gods. Wilkinson gives many
illustrations of these various instruments, and the picture of a lady
with a guitar is in the Berlin museum. The flute, so easily handled,
has always seemed to be reserved for male performers. Perhaps it takes
too much breath from the ladies, or perhaps Minerva, having discovered
that it was unbecoming, they have all resolved to shun it.
Pollard speaks of a harp inlaid with gold, silver and gems, which
had been presented by a royal personage to the temple of Amen-Ra and
was kept near the sanctuary, and of the hymns sung to the deity to
the accompaniment of this precious instrument. We also have the song
of a harper found on the wall of the tomb of a certain Nefer-hotep,
who lived under King Horus, of the Eighteenth Dynasty. It is called
“the word of the harper, who tarries in the tomb of Osiris,” etc.
“Celebrate the great day, O prophet. Well is to thee fragrant resin
and ointments are laid before thee. Here are wreaths and flowers for
the vases and shoulders of thy sister, who is pleasant to thy heart,
as she rests beside thee. Let us then sing and strike the harp in thy
presence. Leave all cares behind and think of the joys, until the day
of the voyage comes when man casts anchor on the land which delights in
silence.”
To rejoice and to dance were synonymous terms, and the royal ladies had
dancing women to perform before them as well as gymnasts. They played
draughts and checkers sitting on the ground, while dice belonged to the
subsequent Roman period.
Dwarfs and deformed persons formed, occasionally, part of the king’s
or queen’s household. As a rule dancing seems to have been rather
for princesses to look upon than share in, unless they danced in the
temples before the gods.
Female dancers wore short skirts, necklets, anklets, ribbons round
their bodies and wreaths of flowers, with plain wigs that made them
look like children, and they sometimes dressed their hair to look
like a crown. Ball playing was considered a variety of dancing. The
dances of the older period were more quiet and measured than in later
times, but none appear to have been objectionable, according to modern
standards, to the extent of some now practiced in the East.
The maids of honor and princesses carried fans, which they held over
the queen, and bore the title of “dearest friend.” When the queen and
royal ladies drove forth, it was in chariots, sometimes of gold, and
drawn by a pair of horses (after the introduction into Egypt of that
valuable animal, of which there is no representation on the monuments
of the very earliest times), adorned with plumes, while an umbrella was
occasionally fixed to the chariot to protect them from the sun.
But the queen’s highest position was as priestess, concubine, daughter,
wife, of the god. Egyptian queens or princesses held the service of
Amon or Jove and the queen followed in the king playing on the sistrum
and making offerings. No queen held the highest priestly office,
but they were called “singers of Amon,” and “wives of the god.”
Occasionally the mummy of the daughter will be found among the priests,
the mother among the royalties.
The queen was “Neter-Hemt, prophetess,” “Neter-hemet, divine wife,” or
“Neter-tut, divine handmaid.” The sistrum was from eight to eighteen
inches in length, Hathor-headed, cow-eared, and sometimes inlaid with
silver or gilt and the noise was supposed to frighten away Typho, the
spirit of evil. The action of shaking was called “Art Ses.” A sistrum
in either hand standing before the altar of the god, the queen had
reached the highest pinnacle of human greatness or human ambition.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST.
PERSIAN QUEENS.
With the conquests of Cambyses Egypt became subject to a new set of
rulers, by whom its manners and customs were, in a degree, changed or
modified. Yet such are its inherent characteristics that it has been
often said of Egypt, as of Greece, that she rather impressed herself
upon her masters, than was impressed by them. Through the Persian
period, to that of the Ptolemies, women retired into the background,
and no one name comes into prominence, at least in an official
character. It is in connection with Persia rather than with Egypt
that we learn of the queens, some, perhaps most of whom, remained in
their own land, while their husbands were absent, engaged in wars and
conquests. The kings, distracted by wars in all directions, often made
hurried visits to their conquered territories, leaving satraps and
deputies to rule in their absence. The legal queen, we may believe,
tarried at home, while the warriors left their women behind or were
accompanied by their concubines, to whom no formal honors were paid.
Hence it is more than possible that although nominally queens of Egypt
but few of them ever resided in the country, those of the kings who
reigned longest, of course, being most likely to do so. The Persian
kings usually chose their wives from among their own nobility, the
concubines were of varied nationality.
In thinking of these royal ladies we seem to see a veiled figure, with
beautiful shining eyes, wandering among the gardens of the palaces,
which gardens were said to be less formally laid out than those of the
native Egyptians, but she is silent. Or behind palace walls we hear the
echo of distant music, and perchance the sound of soft singing, to the
accompaniment of a lute, or some other instrument. If she looked forth
from her windows it was from behind curtains and lattice work, and if
she appeared in public it was with a veiled countenance, only the eyes
showing.
The ruins at Persepolis, Ecbatana, the capital of Media, and Suza
acquaint us with the construction of Persian palaces, which differ
somewhat from the Egyptian. When in Egypt the Persian kings probably
accepted, to a considerable extent, the architecture and general
arrangements of that country. Madame Ragozin gives us, from an earlier
source, an account of the palace built by Darius, at Persepolis. “A
central hall flanked by two sets of apartments, of four rooms each,
with a front entrance, composed of a door and four windows, opening on
a porch, supported by four columns, and forming at the same time the
landing between the two flights of stairs,” such the ruins disclose.
“The throne and audience hall, the reception and banqueting hall,
was two hundred and twenty-seven feet every way, with cedar and
cypress beams upborne by a hundred columns ten rows of ten, tall and
slender, they rested lightly on their inverted flower base, carrying
the raftered ceilings proudly and with ease on the strong, bent necks
of the animals which adorned their capitals, of that peculiarly and
matchless fanciful type which is the most distinctive feature of
Akhaemenian architecture.”
The king’s throne was supported by rows of warriors and he wore the
flowing Median garb, or the tight-fitting Persian doublet and hose.
The master of ceremonies kept his hand before his mouth, and all
who approached kept their hands hidden in their sleeves in token of
peaceful intentions. The remains of the palace of Xerxes, the Ahasuerus
of the Bible, have also been found, similar to, but not so fine as,
those of Darius. The buildings were usually of one story and set on a
terrace or platform, sometimes made of columns. Of the Great Hall of
Xerxes Mr. Fergusson says: “We have no cathedral in England that at all
comes near it in dimensions; nor indeed in France and Germany is there
one that covers so much ground. Cologne comes nearest.”
Of the women’s appointed place we read: