with hatshepsut, or hatsu, some 1600 b. c., we come to the most celebrated of all the egyptian queens, not perhaps excluding the world-renowned cleopatra, and her reign bears also a noteworthy feature, an especial ornament to a woman’s brow—it was a reign of peace. her father and brothers, especially the younger, were warriors, but she was not. to the male of all species the fighting instinct more particularly and rightfully belongs. no wars of defence, none of aggression and conquest, disturbed the peaceful course of her rule. the arts flourished, and friendly expeditions sought distant shores to gain fresh knowledge of the outer world, to extend the hand of fellowship, and to exchange in the ordinary channels of commerce the products and manufactures of one land for those of the other.
hatasu.
no such lengthened gap exists between hatshepsut and the previous kings as we have noted earlier in our study. she was in direct descent, being the great-grand-daughter of aahmes and nefertari-aahmes, and the grand-daughter of amenhotep or amenophis i. her father was tutmes or tahutmes i, “thut’s child,” and her mother, probably his sister, aahmes, a’mose or[111] amensi, of whom there is a profile portrait in one of maspero’s books. some things suggest that the mother of queen amensi was of different and higher birth than the mother of tahutmes, and this may account for the position which seemed at once accorded to hatshepsut. another legend states that the god amen was hatshepsut’s father, and being of divine origin, a sort of minerva sprung from the brain of jupiter, she took unquestioned the first place; but she was evidently of the blood royal and the arrangement which gave her precedence of her brothers and claim to the crown did not seem to be disputed. every princess at her birth received the title of “royal consort.” a son and daughter of tahutmes, probably older than hatshepsut, died in childhood, the former named uatmes (who by some is believed to be brother rather than son of tahutmes) and a daughter kheb-no-fru-ra or nefer’kebt. tahutmes himself is considered the son of amenhotep i and queen sen-semb.
tahutmes i, like his predecessors, was a warrior. he fought in the north, made conquests in palestine and syria and penetrated into mesopotamia. a stele, erected east of the euphrates, bore record of his victories, but his daughter adopted a different policy. she and her brother regarded many of these conquests as empty possessions, difficult to retain and of no real value to the kingdom, so preferred to abandon them.
hatshepsut rejoiced in the usual wealth of names, in addition to or instead of that by which she is most generally known, hatasu, each[112] writer selecting a different one for his own reasons. these were hatshopsitou, hasheps, hatshepsut, which seems to be generally used by petrie, khnumt-amen, chuemtamun, the throne name ra-ma-ka, maat-ka-ra, etc., as derived from different languages and given by different authorities.
the egyptian’s awe of and respect for his monarch was usually so great that he hesitated to speak of him directly, but used some circumlocution or descriptive phrase. the name of the god ra seems to have been frequently, though not invariably, introduced. this was the principal solar deity of egypt, the “sun-god,” the “father of gods and men,” the chief seat of this very ancient worship being heliopolis. the sun’s disk was his emblem, and he was pictured as hawk-headed.
the tie between tahutmes i and his daughter, admirable wherever seen, was one of close affection, and the former doubtless recognized and took pride in the ability of his gifted child. the male historians, with one or two exceptions, seem rather grudgingly to admit hatasu’s claims, pass somewhat slightingly over her achievements and attribute to her successors what may really be her due. miss edwards, on the contrary, is fired with enthusiasm, encircles this queenly figure with the halo of her own poetic imagination and claims for her certain engineering works which others believe to be the performance of her successors.
there is one familiar portrait bust, a copy of which is in the metropolitan museum in new[113] york and in other places, which has been appropriated by different authorities to different queens. it is a smiling, womanly face, with well-rounded lips and a dimpled chin. mariette calls it queen ti, maspero believes it to be the wife of horemheb, and miss edwards claims it as hatasu. the original, in limestone and of colossal size, is at gizeh. it is a masterpiece of egyptian art and was found in a chamber back of the obelisk of hatasu at karnak, which perhaps gives color to miss edwards’ theory. she says of it, “the eyes laugh, the lips all but speak, and every feature is alive with a vivacious charm which is the rarest achievement in sculpture.” certainly, if it be this queen, beauty and charm were added to mental capacity. a half-mocking smile wreathes the lips and seems to suggest a keen sense of humor.
maspero describes her, probably in later life, and says her portraits 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[114] 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[115] 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.’”[116] 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[117] 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[118] 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,[119] 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[120] 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[121] 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[122] 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.[123] 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,[124] 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.
