Women in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds

OBJECTIVES:

1. Be able to discuss the concept and scope of pharaonic power in ancient Egypt.

2. Be able to discuss examples of females holding pharaonic power, and to analyze the evidence for and against the claim that there were female pharaohs.

3. Be able to discuss the life of Hatshepsut and her co-regency with her stepson and nephew Thutmosis III.

4. Be able to discuss the possible co-regency of Nefertiti, and to discuss its implications for the scope of her power.

5. Be able to discuss and to analyze the androgynous gender models of the reign of Akhenaton.

6. Be able to analyze the evidence surrounding the Areign@ of Meryt-Neith, and to discuss its implications for the scope of her power.

7. Be able to analyze the evidence of the reign of Nitocris, and to discuss its implications for the scope of her power.

8. Be able to evidence for the reign of Sobeknofru, and to discuss its implications for the scope of her power.

9. Be able to discuss the reign of Twosret.

FAMOUS QUOTATIONS

"...the Egyptians themselves, in most of their manners and customs, exactly reverse the common practices of mankind. For example, the women attend markets and trade, while the men sit at home and weave at the loom....The women likewise carry burdens upon their shoulders while the men carry them on their heads ... Sons need not support their parents unless they chose, but daughters must, whether they chose or not..."

Herodotus on Egyptian Women

ANitocris was the beautiful and virtuous wife and sister of King Metesouphis II, and Old Kingdom monarch who had ascended to the throne at the end of the 6th dynasty but who had been savagely murdered by his subjects soon afterwards. Nitocris then became the sole ruler of Egypt and determined to avenge the death of her beloved husband-brother. She gave orders for the secret construction of a huge underground hall connected to the river Nile by a hidden channel. When this chamber was complete she threw a splendid inaugural banquet, inviting as guests all those whom she held personally responsible for the death of the king. While the unsuspecting guests were feasting she commanded that the secret conduit be opened and. As the Nile waters flooded in, all the traitors were drowned. In order to escape the vengeance of the Egyptian people she then committed suicide by throwing herself into a great chamber filled with hot ashes and suffocating.@

Herodotus, Historia

"[Nitocris was]... braver than all the men of her time, the most beautiful of all the women." Manetho of Sebennytos, Aegyptiaca

"Then we saw the vast pyramids at the end of the avenue, ghoulish with a dim avatistical menace which I had not seemed to notice in the daytime. Even the smallest of them held a hint of the ghastly -- for was it not in this that they had buried Queen Nitocris alive in the Sixth Dynasty; subtle Queen Nitocris, who once invited all her enemies to a feast in a temple below the Nile, and drowned them by opening the water-gates? I recalled that the Arabs whisper things about Nitocris, and shun the Third Pyramid at certain phases of the moon."

H.P. Lovecraft, Imprisoned with the Pharaohs

AThen his majesty said to them, AThis daughter of mine ... I have appointed as successor upon my throne. She shall sit on this marvelous dais. She shall direct the commons in every sphere of the palace. It si she who will lead you. Obey her words and unite yourselves at her command.@

Text on wall of Hatshepsut's mortuary temple

AAmon, Lord of Throne of the Two Lands caused me to rule the Red Land and the Black Land as a reward. No one rebels against me in all my lands ... I am his daughter in very truth, she who serves him and knows what he ordains. My reward from my father is life-stability-dominion on the Horus-throne of all the living, like Re forever.@

Obelisk inscription of Queen Hatshepsut

AThe boats were heavily loaded with the marvels of the land of Punt, all the beautiful plants of Ta-Netjer, heaps of gum of myrrh, with trees of flourishing myrrh, with ebony and pure ivory, with green gold of Amu, with a tishepes-tree and khesit -spice, with ihemet-myrrh, incense and black eye-paint, with baboons, long-tail monkeys and dogs, with skins of southern panthers and with servants, along with their children. Never was brought the likeness of this to any king who has existed, since the primaeval times.@ Description of Hatshepsut's expedition to Punt on the walls of Deir-el-Bahri

OUTLINE

I. Introduction

A. Could women be pharaohs?

B. Binothris of the second Dynasty and women

C. only 6 English queens in over 500 years

D. 3 queens in Egypt

E. 3 who ruled as regents

F. these women bore no sons

G. most took power in periods of chaos

II. The Women Who Ruled as Kings

A.. Queen Meryt -Neith

I. first dynasty

ii. no proof she ever ruled

iii. not included on king's lists

iv. ruled in early historic period

v. Petrie's excavations

vi. funeral stele

vii. no Horus cartouche

viii. name means "beloved of Neith"

ix. Saqqarah tomb

A.solar boat

x. Why two tombs?

Xi. Lower Egypt: Capital

xii. Upper Egypt: Origins of the Royal Family

xiii. 40 attendants at Saqqarah

xiv. buried with models of their trade

xv. 77 at Abydos

xvi. Only woman to have been buried this way

xvii. suggests co-regency

B. The beautiful Nitocris

i. 6th Dynasty

ii. First woman to reign as Pharaoh

iii. listed on Turin canon

A. written during reign of Ramses II

iv. More legends than fact

v. Records of her life

A. Herodotus

B. Manetho

vi. no archaeological evidence

A. no tomb

B. no monuments

vii. followed Pepi II

viii. reigned 2 years, 1 month, and 1 day

ix. Manetho's Errors

A. "the loveliest woman of her day"

B. rosy cheeked

C. fair complexion

D. confused her with wife of Menkaure

E. her full name: Queen Menkare-Nitocris

F. He thought she completed the pyramid of Menkaure

i. that she was buried there

G. that she reigned 12 years?

H. vs. Eretosthenes, 6 years

x. Legends

A. She haunts the pyramids

B. Her rosy cheeks: rhodophis

i. The 26th dynasty courtesan Rhodophis or Dorchia

C. Herodotus

C. Queen Sobeknafru

i. 12th dynasty

ii. Prosperity and longevity of pharaonic line

iii. 200 years of prosperity and peace

iv. last ruler of the 12th dynasty: 1789 BCE

v. Manetho: a royal princess

Vi. sister of King Amenemhat IV

Vii. daughter of King Amenemhat III

A. stone block at Hawara

B. Was she Queen Tanefru, her brother's wife?

C. he reigned alone after their father's death

viii. How did she come to power?

A. a rebellion?

B. no males?

C. Appears on king's lists

D. reign unchallenged

ix. death of natural causes

x. pyramid at Mazghuna

D. Hatshepsut

i. 18th dynasty

ii. Wealth and Prosperity

iii. shortage of male heirs

iv. Thutmosis I 1512 -1500 B.C.

v. conquests

vi. his mother: king's mother

vii. Ahmenhotep I

viii. marriage to Ahmose

ix. co-regency

ix. Thutmosis and Ahmose

A. no sons

B. Thutmosis II, son of concubine Mutnofret

C. Did the concubine have royal blood?

D. Was she a half-sister of Ahmose?

E. Marriage of Thutmosis II to Hatshepsut, his half sister

F. Who really became co-regent with Thutmosis I?

xi. The Queen Consort of Thutmosis II

A. "The King=s daughter, King=s sister, God's wife and King's Great Wife"

B. Two daughters

C. no sons

D. Isis, concubine of Thutmosis II

E. Thutmosis III's description of her

i. No evidence to support this description

F. Hatshepsut as co-regent

i. first year

ii. second year

iii. seventh year: proclaims herself pharaoh

iv. The construction of her mortuary temple at Deir -el-Bahri

v. portrayals of her as pharaoh

G. How did she do it?

i. Thutmosis had no power to object?

ii. Or he accepted it without question?

iii. Out of respect he waited until her death?

iv. He was clearly not weak

H. Myth of her Divine birth

I. Senenmut

i. a commoner

ii. remained a bachelor

iii. tutor to her daughter

iv. his titles and rise to prominence

v. her architect?

vi. obelisk at Thebes

vii. his tomb

viii. his death?

ix. his memory erased

J. Trade

i. Expedition to Punt

K. Expedition to Nubia

L. Her death

i. A 23 year long reign

ii. natural causes

iii. her monuments defaced

iv. erased from King's lists

v. When?

vi. Why?

vii. Only Manetho listed her as Amensis

viii. The 5th ruler of the 18th Dynasty

M. Reign of Thutmosis III (1490-1436 B.C.)

i. 17 campaigns to Palestine and Syria

ii. colossal portraits

iii. The Napoleon of his era

E. Nefertiti and Akhenaton

i. evaluation of Akhenaton's reign

ii. physical attributes

iii. possible explanations for his failures as pharaoh

iv. Nefertiti

A. meaning of her name

B. their marriage

C. their six daughters

D. speculations about paternity

v. Monotheism

A. Corruption of cult of Amon Re

B. The God Aton

C. change of name from Ahmenhotep (Amon is content)

to Akhenaton (servant of Aton)

vi. Unisex roles

A. Unisex robes

B. Nerfertiti wore blue pharaonic cap

C. no longer were women portrayed as different in color

D. women wore male wigs after the Nubian customs

E. gender blurring

vii. A New capital for a New Age

A. capitol to Tel-el-Amarna or Akhetaton (horizon of Aton)

viii. Naturalism and Beauty

A. the embrace of the sun

B. realistic portraits of the pharaoh

C. Akhenaton as image of beauty

ix. Absence of slave labor

x. End of the Revolution

A. conflict with priests of Amon Re

B. even Nefertiti moves to other side of town

C. the death of their child, Meketaten, in childbirth

D. her disappearance

E. his chosen successor Smenkaure?

F. images now shown to be Nefertiti

G. his son-in-law Tutankhaton

H. ascension to the throne as Tutankhamen

I. was he assassinated?

J. the rise of powerful generals

K. overturn of the Amarna revolution

F. Nefertari, wife of Ramses II

G. Twosret