BIBLIOGRAPHY: PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 168. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
In ancient Greek literature, an idol means aneidolon plural: eidola or eidolons. Accordingly, it is an image, apparition, phantom, ghost. It stands either for a spirit-image of a living or dead person or a shade or phantom lookalike a human being. In art, idols are cult figurines with simplified or geometric shapes, mainly female representations made, among others, of wood, clay, ivory, marble or bronze. They appear across the ancient world, mostly from the Paleolithic to Late Antiquity. Nevertheless, the term ‘idols’ is usually applied in relation to the Cycladic culture (ca. 3200–ca. 1050 BC.).
“Eidolon” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/2MzgPEb>. [Accessed on 4th February, 2021].
PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 156. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
It was once believed that only thanks to the Divine Consort – the Queen, the royal power could rest in the hands of the king – her husband (Żylińska 1972-1986:56; see: Noble 2003:79-84). It was also a remnant of matriarchal times that Pharaohs shaved their beard to resemble their feminine consorts; when the king-warrior replaced the divine Queen in the performance of sacred rites, he put on women’s dresses and had his face close shaved (Ibid.:56). At a time when in Egypt the Pharaohs were fully in power, in accordance with the old tradition, they still close shaved, but to emphasize their masculinity – because the patriarchal time had already come – they additionally wore an artificial beard, together with their coronation garments (Ibid.:56-57).
Royal Wife and goddess by birthright
Also, Thutmose the First, the third pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty in the times of the New Kingdom, had his face close shaved (Żylińska 1972-1986:57). He became a Pharaoh thanks to his marriage to his half-sister, in whose veins divine blood flowed and whose offspring also had divine origins (Ibid.:57). For no matter who the queen of Egypt was married to, the god Amon-Re was considered the father of her children (Żylińska 1972-1986:57; see Noble 2003:79-84). The child of the Queen Ahmose and the god Amun-Re was a girl (Żylińska 1972-1986:57). She was given the name Hatshepsut. On the other hand, Thutmose the First had also a son with the concubine, whose name was Thutmose as well (Ibid.:57). Those events possibly took place at the turning of the fifteenth century BC.
Mortuary temples in western Thebes
I was just thinking about the life of an extraordinary Egyptian queen. Jadwiga Żylińska (1972-1986:56-70) tells her story like a fairy tale, which, however, really happened.
We had already landed on the west bank of the Nile. In a few minutes we were to reach Deir el-Bahari, a valley near the famous Valley of the Kings (“Deir el-Bahari” 2020). It is a complex of mortuary temples and a part of the Theban Necropolis in the Upper Egypt (Ibid.). The so-called mortuary temples erected in Western Thebes can be divided into two main groups: terraced temples and temples with a classical arrangement (Lipińska 2008: 160; see: Miracle of the Sun). Among the terraced temples, the oldest and largest is the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (Ibid.:160). It was built under the influence of the construction of the Mortuary Temple of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep the Second, erected during the reign of the Eleventh Dynasty, which ruled at the end of the third millennium BC. (Ibid.:160). In turn, the temple of Queen Hatshepsut was a model for others, later sepulchral edifices (Ibid.:160).
Surviving for eternity
Our bus was rocking on the way to our next destination, and my mind again went back to the Eighteenth Dynasty and Hatshepsut herself. At that time, the capital of Egypt was in Thebes. After the Hyksos were driven out of the land of the Pharaohs (see: The World Ended When Gods Turned against the Minoans), the city returned to its former glory and grew in splendour with each passing year (Żylińska 1972-1986:57). Hatshepsut often sailed from the east bank of the Nile, where the palace was located, to the West Thebes, where the dead reigned (Ibid.:57-58). She wanted to see if the work on the tomb being erected for her earthly father had already progressed (Ibid.:58). It was the only time when the inhabitants of the commercial district and the port could see the tall, long-legged and motionless-faced Pharaoh’s divine daughter (Ibid.:58).
Seeing the tomb erected by the Chief Royal Architect, Ineni, Hatshepsut thought that a mortuary temple should also be built for herself (Żylińska 1972-1986:58). That one would survive for eternity when there was no more trace of her on earth (Ibid.:58).
My thoughts were interrupted by the whistle of the opening doors of the bus. When we got out of it, a long train with six-seat carriages came to take us to the foot of the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut.
Successor of her father
When Hatshepsut turned twenty-four, Thutmose the First announced her as his successor (Żylińska 1972-1986:58). The celebration took place in Karnak, in the temple of Amun-Re (Ibid.:58). It was followed by her marriage to her sick and weak half-brother, Thutmose the Second, who was seven years old (Ibid.:59). Three years later, Thutmose the First died and the new royal couple began reigning together over a united Egypt (Ibid.:59). Yet, although Hatshepsut was just a Great Royal Wife, it was clear that Egypt was ruled mainly by her (Ibid.:59).
Just after starting her reign over Egypt, the Queen immediately began erecting her mortuary temple in the Nile Valley, on the west side of Thebes (Żylińska 1972-1986:59).
The Alley of Sphinxes
The train slowly coiled like a snake just before the road leading to the Temple. By order of the Queen, it was erected directly opposite the district of Amun-Re, on the eastern side of the Nile (Lipińska 2008:160). The Alley of Sphinxes once led to the sanctuary, each with Hatshepsut’s face (Żylińska 1972-1986:66). Now there is no trace of the Alley, except for one or two partially reconstructed sphinxes … (Dr Andrzej Ćwiek in PAP – Nauka w Polsce, Zdziebłowski 2008).
‘The alley of sphinxes was about 500 m, or 1000 Egyptian cubits long. Based on the recorded databases, we assume that there were about 70 sphinxes. The alley was 6 meters wide, and the distance between the statues was about 17 m’, explains Dr Andrzej Ćwiek, a member of Polish-Egyptian archaeological and conservation mission (PAP – Nauka w Polsce, Zdziebłowski 2008).
Senenmut
The creator of the funerary complex of Hatshepsut, Senenmut, designed a building on a monumental scale (Lipińska 2008:160). He was Hatshepsut’s favourite and the chief architect of the Queen’s works in Deir el-Bahari (Żylińska 1972-1986:64; Lipińska 2008:160). Senenmut “first enters the historical record as the ‘Steward of the God’s Wife’ (Hatshepsut) and ‘Steward of the King’s Daughter’ (Neferure). […] After Hatshepsut was crowned Pharaoh, Senenmut was given more prestigious titles and became high steward of the king” (“Senenmut” 2020).
Moreover, some of archaeological evidence supports the idea that he had an emotional connection with the Queen and there was an intimate relationship between them (Quilici 2007). One of the traces supporting this hypothesis is definitely Senenmut tomb, placed just beneath the Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple, and ambiguous representations and writings inside it (Ibid.). Although Senenmut was the government official, he was just of low commoner birth, and so such a relation with the Queen-Pharaoh, who was perceived as an incarnation of gods on earth would be outrageous to the public at that time (Ibid.). Still, there is no decisive evidence that such an affair took place at all (Ibid.).
Prosperity of Egypt in stone
When we were standing in front of the Temple, before our eyes a high sand cliff rose. At its foot, the irregular and jagged shapes of rocks turned into a geometric arrangement of ramps, successive terraces and porticoes, rising and climbing upwards. The temple, although largely reconstructed by archaeologists, is remarkable and still arouses admiration among visitors; It was built of local white limestone beautifully harmonizing with the natural colour of the rocks, and its well-balanced porticoes are supported either on pillars or on polygonal columns of several types (Lipińska 2008:164). A real feast for the eyes!
From the entrance to the courtyard to the main sanctuary in the heart of the complex is 240 meters in a straight line, and the width of the central courtyard exceeds 100 meters (Lipińska 2008:161). The difference in levels between the lower courtyard and the highest storey of the temple is over 15 meters (Ibid.:161). According to the classical temple plan, the temple complex began with the lower temple, also built on terraces, almost completely ruined today (Ibid.:161). A one kilometre long avenue led to it, guarded once by the mentioned sphinxes (Lipińska 2008:161; Żylińska 1972-1986:66). The main temple had no pylons, only a stone gate in a wall of white limestone surrounding the courtyard (Lipińska 2008:161). The entire structure is situated on three successive levels: the lowest one is a courtyard closed on the west side with porticoes, between which a sloping ramp leads to the middle level (Ibid.:161). The northern portico has a badly damaged decoration depicting hunting and fishing, and the southern portico shows a unique scene of the transport of two obelisks ordered by the Queen in Aswan, and floated by a large barge to Thebes (Ibid.:161). One of these obelisks still stands in the Temple of Karnak (Ibid.:161).
‘The Queen also donated to the expansion of the Temple of Karnak itself,’ recalled Menes, our guide (Lipińska 2008:161; Quilici 2007). There, on a granite obelisk covered with a thick layer of electrum (a mixture of gold and silver), she had the following words inscribed (Żylińska 1972-1986:66; Brier 2017).
“I have thought of what people shall say, [when they see the monuments I have founded]. Don’t say my words are exaggerations but say how like her it is, to be true to her father”.
Time Trips (2021).
At that time, for a daughter to be considered as not worse than a son, she had to be twice as good as him (Żylińska 1972-1986:66).
As the Egyptologist, Kara Cooney, states it is well shown in stone that Hatshepsut brought prosperity to the country (Quilici 2007). Not only did she greatly contribute to the growth of the Temple of Amon-Re in Karnak, but also she actually founded Luxor Temple (Ibid.).
She had brought peace and abundance
The reign of Hatshepsut therefore took place in peace, time spent on daily duties and pleasures of common Egyptians, and the growth of the Queen’s power through the foundation of monumental temples and the establishment of and strengthening trade contacts, including such relations with Caphtor (possibly Crete), and with the legendary land of Punt. It is probably thanks to the Queen’s help that the inhabitants of the Nile Delta, fleeing the effects of the volcanic eruption on Thera, found rescue and refuge in Thebes. Yet, it is unknown if the recorded disaster had been caused by the volcano or if it had happened at all at that time, as Hatshepsut’s reign was rather a period of prosperity (see: The World Ended When Gods Turned against the Minoans).
Years later, people got used to such affluence and common wealth, resulting from long-term peace (Żylińska 1972-1986:60). There was no hunger or thirst in any part of the country, livestock multiplied in abundance, the children of Egyptians were born on the Nile, no one lacked grain, oil, or honey (Ibid.:60). Memories of the Pharaohs’ war expeditions faded into oblivion and slowly, like all past events, became legendary (Ibid.:60). Similar stories were also told to little Thutmose, Thutmose the Second’s son, born of a concubine like his father (Ibid.:61). He listened to similar stories with bated breath and burning face, and in his heart a longing for the glory of war and a thirst for conquest was born (Ibid.:61).
Arranged miracles of Amun-Re
At that time, the priests of Amun-Re in Karnak gained more power and influence, including such matters as the appointment to the throne of Egypt (Lipińska 2008:134). The best example illustrating their dominance happened the case of the son of Thutmose the Second (Ibid.:134). Although Thutmose the Third’s father was the Pharaoh, his mother was not the Great Royal Wife but the lesser lady of the Harem (Ibid.:134). So he had no right to the throne, but he was the only male descendant of the king who died, leaving behind only a legitimate daughter, Neferure (Ibid.:134). At first, the priests of Karnak thought that the boy was more suitable to be a ruler, and ‘arranged’ a miracle; during the procession in the pillared hall of the temple of Amon-Re, the god’s statue stopped in front of the boy hiding in the shadows of the pillars and appointed him as the successor of his deceased father (Ibid.:134).
Thutmose the Third took over the throne but it did not prevent the priests from coronating the widow of Thutmose the Second, Hatshepsut, just a few years later (Lipińska 2008:134). To justify the crowning of Hatshepsut, the priests composed a song about her divine origins, according to which the god Amon-Re himself, taking the form of Thutmose the First, visited his holy wife and conceived the daughter (Ibid.:134). When she was born, the god introduced her to all the gods as the future ruler of Egypt (Ibid.:134). The priests of Amun-Re probably understood the Pharaoh did not have to be a man, especially when the Hyksos were eventually defeated and the country needed peace (Żylińska 1972-1986:59). On the whole, there seems to be a trace in this tangled story of the existence of two factions among the priests of the Temple of Amun in Karnak, one supporting Thutmose the Third and the other, Hatshepsut (Lipińska 2008:134-135).
False beard of the Pharaoh-Queen
Hatshepsut had been crowned the Pharaoh at Karnak (Żylińska 1972-1986:61). During the ceremony, she appeared in a ritual outfit, in a diadem with a uraeus, which has always stood for ‘goddess’ and was strongly linked to royalty in Egypt (Żylińska 1972-1986:61; Noble 2003:83-84). In her hands in turn she held a golden whip and a staff, both crossed on her breast (Żylińska 1972-1986:61). According to the repeated ritual, she had a false beard attached to her face, which actually was a double mystification, but she was not aware of it (Ibid.:61). The patriarchy had already left its mark on people’s minds and there was no turning back to the old values. By attaching a false beard, the woman now imitated the man to be honoured and become the Pharaoh, the female incarnation of Horus (Ibid.:61).
On the same base of the obelisk founded by Hatshepsut, the carving also reads (Brier 2017):
“I erected them for my father Amun. They could be seen from the other side of the Nile, their tips gleaming in electrum” (Brier 2017).
It is true that “Hatshepsut used her obelisks as a form of propaganda[?] [Nevertheless, she had never tried to] pass herself off as a man. She calls herself the female Horus—female falcon—meaning she [was] the king, although she [was] female” (Brier 2017).
But Hatshepsut was also the earthly incarnation of Horus’ divine wife, Hathor. The name Hathor means ‘House of Horus’ which embodies the whole idea of a divine wife giving her husband the right to the crown (Lipińska, Marciniak 2006:161; see Noble 2003:79-84). Hathor – the goddess of beauty and love – was often pictured as a cow or a woman with cow horns on her head, between which a solar disk was placed (Lipińska, Marciniak 2006:161-162; see Noble 2003:79-84). Such attributes not only emphasized her role as the mother feeding her nation (cows have always been extremely valuable in this part of the world), but also the fact that she was of extraordinary beauty.
How’s that? Beautiful? Cow ?’, I once asked my Egyptian guide.
‘Have you seen the cow’s eyes? They are large and deep framed with a veil of long lashes’, explained Menes.
I tried to remember a picture of a cow’s head from my childhood, which I spent in the countryside. There were two good lasses, although I never paid much attention to their ‘wonderful’ eyes.
‘When a man says you look like a cow, it will be the biggest compliment,’ promised the guide.
I smiled. I would like to see the expressions of European women hearing similar compliments.
At first people thought that Hatshepsut, that is to say, Horus and Hathor in one person, would be a regent until her daughter Nefrure grew up and married her half-brother Thutmose in due time, who would be thus granted the throne (Żylińska 1972-1986:61). But it soon became apparent that Hatshepsut did not intend to rule in anybody’s name but her own (Ibid.:61). She herself probably planned to prepare her daughter for the future role of the Pharaoh of Egypt (Ibid.:61). Thutmose, on the other hand, was given military training; he was to become a military commander, maybe even a general, but he was to stay away from Thebes and reigning in Egypt (Ibid.:61). Meantime, his divine stepmother strengthened her power and undertook commercial activities, including a prominent expedition to the Land of Punt.
Offerings from Punt
Punt, a legendary land often associated with today’s Somalia, was apparently beyond the fourth Nile cataract and further than Niya (a kingdom in northern Syria), where the foot of an Egyptian soldier never reached (Żylińska 1972-1986:64; Lipińska 2008:163).
A famous expedition of Hatshepsut to the land of Punt was a successive exploration of that land by Egyptian pharaohs (Żylińska 1972-1986:64-65). At the time of the Fifth Dynasty, there was apparently the very first expedition from Egypt reaching Punt, when Egyptian ships entered its distant ports (Żylińska 1972-1986:64; Irwanto 2019:4). Such far-reaching trade journeys had systematically repeated till the Eighteenth Dynasty (Irwanto 2019:4). But Hatshepsut’s expedition was a commercial journey of an even larger propaganda scale and political significance than earlier journeys in the Fifth, Sixth, Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasties of ancient Egypt (Żylińska 1972-1986:61; Irwanto 2019:4).
Punt, a legendary land often associated with today’s Somalia, was apparently beyond the fourth Nile cataract and further than Niya (a kingdom in northern Syria), where the foot of an Egyptian soldier never reached (Żylińska 1972-1986:64; Lipińska 2008:163).
At the time of Hatshepsut, in addition to the sailors, several court scribes and painters were to accompany the queen so that they could describe the whole expedition and depict it in pictures (Ibid.:64). At the rising Moon, five thirty-oar boats left the Red Sea harbour and headed south (Ibid.:64). The expedition lasted two years and returned to Thebes at the time of harvests with unbelievable treasures (Ibid.:64). The Dukes of Punt mistook the Egyptian expedition for the messengers of heavens and fell on their faces before Hatshepsut (Ibid.:65). The Egyptians prudently held the hostages, and then proceeded to exchange goods: piles of fresh incense, precious myrrh trees, ebony, ivory gold, cinnamon leaves, antimony, baboons, vines, dogs and leopard skins (Ibid.:65). In return, the Queen of Egypt offered them innumerable piles of coloured beads, various fabrics, daggers with decorative handles, painted vessels, two chairs and a multitude of hatchets, both suitable for cutting trees and killing cattle and people (Ibid.:64).
The expedition returning from Punt was welcomed in Thebes with excitement and feverish curiosity, and news of the imported riches and wonders of Punt, the divine land from which the Egyptian goddess Hathor hailed, fired the imaginations of residents of the palace as well as the commercial district (Żylińska 1972-1986:65).
But in this general mood of joy, there was no exultation accompanying the return of the victorious army, that incomparable triumphant intoxication aroused by the soldiers riding on the chariots of war and the long columns of prisoners following them (Żylińska 1972-1986:65). Possibly, similar masculine attitudes of contemporary Egyptians led to the times, when the name of the female Pharaoh, Hatshepsut, was soon to be forgotten.
Featured image: Hatshepsut’s temple. Deir el-Bahari with temples of Hatshepsut, Thutmosis III and Mentuhotep II, Luxor, Egypt. Photo by Ian Lloyd – lloydi.com (2006). CC BY-SA 3.0. Colours intensified. Photo source: “Deir el-Bahari” (2020). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
By Joanna Faculties of English Philology, History of Art and Archaeology; University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland; Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, Poland; University College Dublin, Ireland.
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