Predecessors of Cleopatra (Illustrated Edition) - History of Egyptian Queens: Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Nofutari, Tausert, Ptolemy Queens, Persian Queens

Chapter Second.
The Queen

Egyptian Queens! What a picture their name seems to call up of old time splendors—of the light of Eastern skies, the soft breath of eternal summer—of the great river Nile as a beneficent deity, of monuments and palaces, gardens and waving palm trees—houses with gorgeous coloring, of princes and slaves—all mingled on the tapestry of time!

In an age sometimes called “the Woman’s Era,” when woman has become a subject of analytical study to herself and to man, it may be interesting to turn from the varieties of the “New Woman” to the very old. Even on the borderland of mythology she asserts a strange individuality and is vitalized for us in the pages of history and legend.

The Western woman on the stage of life is ever a prominent figure. The Eastern has held a place in the background, giving glimpses only of her real self, always a veiled form, with dark, shining eyes, merely suggestive of beauty and charm. It may be matter of surprise, therefore, to some, that in the most ancient of lands—or among the most ancient of peoples, Eastern beyond dispute, woman held an almost modern place. In this, in some respects, advanced civilization, religiously, politically and socially she took her share in the world’s work and pleasure, and was deemed, not the ignorant child or inferior of Semitic lands, but the friend, the associate, the equal of man.

The Queen was the companion of her royal spouse, not his mere slave and toy. From the time of the Second Dynasty she frequently ruled, as the king’s guardian in youth, as regent in his absence, or as independent sovereign after his decease, or in right of heredity. The succession was continued on the maternal equally with the paternal side, and it was at times through the female, and not through the male parent, that the king traced his right to the throne.

Among the nobility also the same custom, to a degree, obtained. The son of the eldest daughter was sometimes the heir. Thus we read in the time of Sneferu of his “great legitimate daughter, Nefret-Kari,” and her son was “High Treasurer.” In the hieroglyphic system after female appellations, such as queen, wife, mother, daughter, and the like, the figure of a seated woman appears usually on a modest stool.

On the monuments the queen is always treated as an official personage, she shares the king’s honors and her name, like her husband’s, is enclosed in a cartouch. We know more of her public than of her private life.

As a rule, to which there were exceptions, the king had but one legal wife, of high or royal birth, the daughter of “the god,” as the late king was called, and hence she was in many instances, in the strange Egyptian fashion, her husband’s sister. One needs surely a different standard from the Christian to judge of the morals of Egypt. The marriage of a brother and sister, so abhorrent to our ideas, was frequent in the Royal Family, nor does nature herself, at that period, seem to have set upon it the same mark of disapprobation that one might expect. It began in the heavens with the gods, who, according to Egyptian mythology, did not dwell on earth, and why should not humanity follow their example. Osiris and Isis were both brother and sister, husband and wife. Nor could the gods any more than men get on without magic. Even the statues of the former wore amulets as a protection against evil and death, and used mystic formulae to constrain each other. Isis was above all the mistress of magic and famous in incantations.

To her royal spouse the queen is spoken of as “thy beloved sister who fills the palace with light,” or “thy sister who is in thine heart, who sits near thee at the feast,” or “thy beloved sister with whom thou dost love to speak.” A love song in which the woman seems the wooer is preserved and we give one stanza.

The other ladies of the harem are also occasionally called sisters. “Sutem Mut” was the Royal Mother, “Sutem Hempt,” the Royal Wife. Under the old empire the queen was spoken of as “she who sees the gods, Horus and Set (that is possessor of both halves of the kingdom), the most pleasant, the highly praised, the friend of Horus, the beloved of Ra, who wears the two diadems.” In the New Empire she was designated as “the consort of the god, the mother of the god, the great consort of the king.” She was eligible to all but the highest offices of the priesthood and held forth or played the sacred sistrum to the gods, sometimes dedicating herself to one deity, while her husband served another, and she deemed it the greatest honor to be called “the concubine of the god.”

All women desired the name of Hathor, Isis, the goddess of Love and Fecundity, as in the Middle Ages the name of Mary, the mother of Christ, was specially cherished. Other popular names under the Old Empire signified “Beautiful,” “Strong,” etc. Under the new we also find “Beautiful,” and in addition the names of trees, somewhat in Japanese fashion, with their “Cherry Blossom” and “Plum Blossom,” as “Beautiful Sycamore,” or, hardly admirable in the eyes of the Greeks or ourselves, “Large Headed,” which some of their coiffures and head ornamentations seemed to suggest.

The sons and daughters of the late king were always called the children of the god. The education of both was conducted by the most learned men of the kingdom, frequently priests, and this tutor was spoken of as the “nurse.” The custom of entrusting the royal ladies to such severe training reminds us of the preceptors and studies of Queen Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey. The queen held property in her own right. At one time the revenues from the fisheries of Lake Moeris were appropriated to her. A talent a day, or upwards of 700 pounds a year. Also the returns from certain cities; as, for example, the taxes on wines of the city of Anthylla, were a queen’s dowry for her dress, and this privilege was continued to the queens of Persia after Cambyses conquered Egypt.

After death, at least from the Eighteenth Dynasty, divine honors were frequently paid to the queen, and especially was this the case of Queens Aah-hotep and Nefertari, the ancestresses of the race of kings who drove out and succeeded the Hyksos, the usurping rulers, and restored Egypt to its native sovereigns.

The palaces were usually of brick, as the temples were of stone adorned with gorgeously painted walls and furnished with carpets, rugs of skin and ebony and ivory chairs and couches. The queen was attended by slaves, and some favored maid or official bore beside her a fan of ostrich plumes. She wore in later periods the double crown of Egypt and presided beside the king at feasts, where men and women, with unveiled faces (veiling being an introduction of the Persians), enjoyed themselves together. They decorated each other with flowers, which already in profusion adorned the drinking vessels, listened to music and watched the dancing of female slaves, the feats of jugglers, etc. Monkeys were sometimes trained to act as torchbearers, and we can imagine the confusion occasionally engendered when one or another of them, bursting, so to speak, the bands of conventionality, reverted to his naturally mischievous impulses and cast his flaming torch into the midst of the festivities. Lions, leopards, dogs, and the specially sacred cats were all numbered among the pets.

The cat, it is said, was created in the ark, hence the Garden of Eden, “where the comforts of home were incompletely organized,” lacked that ornament of the domestic hearth. But by the Egyptians she was, above all, valued and adored. They mourned for her as for a dear and familiar friend, and woe to the man who, even by accident, compassed her destruction. She is most pleasingly set forth by one who evidently admired and appreciated her:

Till the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty there was little change in female attire. A fine linen garment, through which the limbs could be plainly seen, extended from below the breast to the ankle, sometimes supported by straps over the shoulders, and sometimes so narrow as to require not even these. Colored robes were used less frequently. To the man was left in those days, as to the male bird, the gayer plumage. The woman contented herself with the use of oils and cosmetics, blackening her brows and eyes, leaving her hair flowing, bound by a fillet, or with braided locks, or a wig, and encircling arms and limbs with innumerable chains and bracelets. The queen wore a royal head-dress, with the asp, emblem of the sun-god Ra, over her forehead, and the vulture, dedicated to Maut, mother of Isis, above. The golden disk is said to be an emblem of the eternal sunshine, the entwining asp of the winding Nile, and the outspread wings of Upper and Lower Egypt, extending along the river.

Mrs. Stevenson mentions innumerable texts which refer to the god as hidden in the disk, whilst a winged goddess makes light with her...