from the time of rameses ii to that of the ptolemy period no queen seems to make a marked impression on the passing centuries. we have here and there a name, here and there an anecdote; but no figure, with salient points, stands out, about which cluster vitalizing incidents, or upon whom we may drape a robe of woven romance. nor were there many, even among the kings, who have the bold outlines of some of their predecessors.
seck-net or seti-nekht was first of the twentieth dynasty, is believed to have reigned seven years, and united with himself, and was succeeded by, his son rameses iii. he seems to have made no special mark upon his time, was neither a great ruler nor a great builder, and we know little of him. there is a picture of him and rameses iii kneeling on either side of the sun’s disk, and he appropriated and enlarged the tomb of queen tausert for himself, covering the figures and name of the queen with stucco.
rameses iii was a builder of temples, a rich, magnificent and splendor-loving monarch, a warrior and conqueror. his hobrus names were[266] “mighty bull, great one of kings,” and “mighty bull, beloved of maat, establisher of the lands.” but, even at a period, whose moral point of view was so different from the christian, it is claimed that this was a court distinguished for its licentiousness. his queen’s name is given as ast, or ise, also as hemalczotha, which seems to suggest that she was a foreigner, possibly a khitan or assyrian princess. her father is spoken of as hebuansozanath. often the space beside the king’s name is left vacant, as if she could not or would not appear in his company. from her tomb also her name is obliterated, while that of her husband and son remain.
the walls of the temples and palaces built by rameses iii are adorned with the story of his life. there are naval engagements, the ships with embroidered sails, and the king is seen as a conqueror, of the libyans and others, carried in state above the heads of the people, surrounded by priests and followed by warriors and captives, while in other processions the queen also appears, following. the great harris papyrus, too, of the thirty-second year of his reign, found near the temple of medinet-abou or haboo, gives much information concerning him and a long list of gifts which he presented to the temples.
among the other pictures on the walls we see rameses iii enjoying himself in the midst of, some say his daughters, but more probably the members or slaves of his harem. others, again, believe them to be intended for goddesses or mythological characters. sylph-like figures attend upon[267] the king. to quote from a previous article upon the subject, “one plays draughts with him, another holds a lotus blossom to his nose (a favorite attention in egypt), others offer him wine and refreshments. the queen, as a chief figure, nowhere appears. the costumes approach that of the garden of eden, a necklace and light sandals. we are reminded of the description of a japanese family: ‘the summer costume of a middle class japanese consists of a queue, a breechcloth and a pair of sandals; that of his son and heir the same minus the queue, the cloth and the sandals, while that of his spouse is a little, and only a little more elaborate.’”
it is impossible, naively and gravely, remarks one critic, rather than from the standpoint of the twentieth century, than the twentieth dynasty, that respectable families should so have conducted themselves, therefore the garments must have evaporated in the course of years. but it was so near the garden of eden, the climate was so warm, and the little creatures seem so at ease in their airy nothings, that it is almost appears as if “beauty unadorned was adorned the most.” some of the pictures are too obscene for reproduction.
it is of interest to note how very ancient are certain games, such as chess, draughts or checkers, and others which still hold a place among our modern amusements. other pictures, discovered years ago in the mastabas or grave chambers, of still earlier date, 5200 b. c., give also the[268] game of chess, the invention of which has been attributed both to india and china.
extensive insurrection and disturbances, it is evident, had prevailed in the kingdom, and that rameses iii had brought order out of the chaos. he described himself as “the darling of amen, the victory-bringing horus.” after his conquests he turned his attention to building, commerce, digging of reservoirs and planting of trees; nevertheless a general decline of egypt is said to have begun in his reign.
but if the king had restored order in the land, not so well had he kept his own household in check. records remain of a conspiracy which arose in his harem, headed by the lady ti, thi, or tey, said to be the mother of a certain pentaur or pen-ta-urt, whom she wished to put upon the throne. she probably hated the “royal wife, the great lady, the lady of two lands, ast.” in exactly what way the lady ti was related to the king is not specified. in both the museums of paris and turin there is some account of this cause celebre. the steward, pal-bak-amen, was her chief co-adjutor, also a certain penhuiban or hui, a cattle inspector, who indulged in “black art,” made amulets and images of wax for ladies, and had books containing directions how to strike people blind and to make figures in effigy to bring trouble upon any one who was hated. melting wax figures and sticking pins in them to harm an enemy we think of as belonging to the age of queen elizabeth, and lo, it was known and practiced in egypt thousands of years before!
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on the other hand, may it not have been also possible that queen ise or ast had some share in the plot, or at least sympathized with it, thus giving another reason for the non-appearance of her name beside the king’s. one of the ladies concerned wrote to her brother, commanding the army in ethiopia, and ordered or entreated him to fight against the king. but whether he did as was desired or not, the revolt was unsuccessful. it was crushed with some severity, and it is said forty men and six women were compelled to commit suicide, and a mummy, thought to be that of pentaur, and showing signs of death by poison, has been found.
rameses iii reigned thirty-seven years, and there is a list of his sons, several of whom succeeded him. he was buried in the tombs of the kings, doubtless with all the honors of state, but his body was not allowed to rest in peace, it was included in the general upheaval caused by robbers, before described. his mummy was found in the large coffin of nefertari-aames, and on being unrolled fell to dust. his features were said to be softer, finer and more intelligent than some of his predecessors, his figure less straight and vigorous and his shoulders narrower. his red granite sarcophagus is in the louvre and the lid in the fitz-william museum at cambridge. his tomb is sometimes called “the harpers,” from the figure of two harpers in a scene on one side, also “bruce’s tomb” from the name of the modern discoverer. among the treasures found in this[270] tomb were two golden baskets. his period is given as 1200 b. c.
rameses iii was succeeded by his sons or connections of the same name, who followed him, as one writer has said, with “ominous rapidity,” from number one to number thirteen. they seem to have been a faineant race, and the proud name of rameses degenerated from reign to reign. here and there in the tombs of the kings, or in other spots, we find their last resting places.
among them, perhaps, rameses iv was one of the most conspicuous; and his queen, given as isis-ast, was buried in the tombs of the queens. the tombs of rameses iv and vi are decorated with astronomical designs; the sun appears in his chariot as horus-ra, and that of rameses iv has pictures of the resurrection. the seventh son is given as ramessu meritum, son of queen muf-nofer-ari.
a papyrus of the time of rameses ix gives an account of the violation of the royal tombs by robbers, which was then discovered; and this abbott papyrus contains a list of the tombs inspected, hence the mummies were removed at different periods from place to place for greater safety. a woman called “little cat” confessed that she had been in the tomb of queen ast, wife of rameses iii, and purloined various articles.
the line of priest-kings, of whom her-hor was the first, chose a common place of sepulture, and thither were at last carried many of the earlier royal remains. the discovery of these in the cave at deir-el-bahari made a world-wide sensation[271] and has already been referred to. there were three kings of the thothmes name, two rameses and seti i, as well as the later kings of the priestly line, pinotem or pinozem i and ii.
here, too, we learn the little we know of some of the queens. there was queen ansera, of the seventeenth dynasty, queen aames nofritari, hatimoohoo, and sitha of the eighteenth, and queens notem-maut, hathor-houtta-ni, ma-ka-ra, and isem-kheb, and a queen hest-em-seket, as well as princess nesi-khonsu, and a number of princesses and priestesses, called “singers of amen.”
some of the coffins of this period show, on a yellow ground, a picture of the dead piercing a serpent with a lance. among the tombs of the queens are a few of the eighteenth, but more of the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties. here was placed the wife of rameses iii, with name no longer legible. here queen ti, or titi, wife of the earlier king amenophis iii, with her blue eyes and fair skin, pictured as making offerings to the gods. here bint-antha, favorite daughter of rameses ii. one tomb has the name obliterated and tuattent-apt written upon it in red ink. here is isis-ast, wife of rameses iv, queen sitra of the twentieth dynasty, and many others.
there is an interesting story of a queen, by some authorities said to be the wife of rameses xiii, by others of rameses xii, and by some queen of rameses ii or iii, claiming that rameses xii was never in mesopotamia, while mariette believes it to have been merely a legend invented[272] by the priests to do honor to the god chonsu or khonsu. this king, whatever his place in the royal line, was, like his great predecessor, amenophis iii, fond of hunting. he also went abroad to collect tribute from subjugated peoples, and in mesopotamia among those who came to pay was a certain chief or prince, who brought with him a beautiful daughter, with whom the egyptian king at once fell in love and bore her home to share his life and throne. this princess of bakhten took the name of ra-neferu, “the glories of the sun,” and evidently had much influence with her husband. for later came messengers from her native country, saying that her sister, bentresh, was ill, and begging for the loan of the ark of the god khonsu, which was sure to cure her. we can hardly imagine the king willing to part with such a treasure, except to pleasure the queen. to her wishes, therefore, he yielded, and the ark, with a proper escort, was sent away, and accomplished a miraculous cure, as had been anticipated. naturally, those who were benefited clung to the same, and years passed without the return of the borrowed treasure. but finally the king, or prince, of bakhtan, “dreamed a dream,” like the pharaoh of scriptures, in which a golden hawk came out of the ark and flew to egypt. possibly the king of egypt had demanded its return before, or perhaps the queen’s influence had been used to induce him to leave it, for the benefit of her family, as long as possible. the explanation is not given, but at last the conscience of the delinquent[273] was pricked, and the ark, with royal honors, was returned to its native land.
queen ra-neferu is variously spoken of as mesopotamian, bakhtan or lidyan. from this story we may infer that she was young and beautiful at the period of her marriage, that she had great influence with the king, and possessed near relatives to whom she was warmly attached. but this, so far as we know it, is the whole of her history, and other queens than she of this same general period make no figure among the records.
for some time the priests had been gaining in power and influence, and rameses xiii seems to have been set aside and her-hor, priest of amen, the third who had directed affairs of state, seized the reins of government. he is described as of a “pleasing countenance,” with features that were delicate and good, and expression that was mild and agreeable. the priest-kings were the chief rulers, but a few descendants of previous pharaohs held sway in a portion of the kingdom, as japan was once divided between the mikado of the old regime and the shogun, the military and political chief.
of these monarchs and such of their consorts as are mentioned we now give a brief summary, chiefly following the guidance of the well known egyptologist, professor wallis budge.
nes-ba-tettet is called the first king of the twenty-first dynasty of tanis. from the time of this king to that of rsammetichus ii, third king of the twenty-sixth dynasty, the dates are given as from about 1100 to 600 b. c. egypt[274] declined in power and influence, and its tributaries recovered their independence. with the close of the twenty-fifth dynasty the new empire came to an end, and the period of egyptian renaissance began. the feeble kingdoms of the south and north were again united, under shashang i, and a libyan reigned. the worship of the cat-headed goddess bast increased, and that of amen-ra declined, while his priests were forced to seek refuge in napata, nubia. esarhaddon, king of asyria, sacked thebes, and ruled by governors.
nes-ba-tettet, the smendes of manetho, possibly a descendant of rameses ii, reigned at tanis, while the priest king her-hor reigned at thebes. the name of the former’s queen, thent-amen, is about all we know of her, and is thought to suggest her having the true claim to the throne. king nes-ba-tettet reigned twenty-nine years, making no such mark in history as did his great predecessors. this king is also called nessu ba-neb-tet.
next came pasebkhanut i, second of the tanite kings, who was called the “mighty bull,” and reigned forty-one years. the statues of the nile, north and south, in the cairo museum, are said to belong to this period.
long and uneventful seem to have been the reigns of these kings, for amen-em-apt, “amen in karnak,” a descendant of nes-ba-tettet, reigned forty-nine years, and our chief knowledge of him seems to be derived from a stele at cairo, making offerings to isis, his favorite goddess.
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possibly this king was succeeded by one or two others, with short reigns. authorities do not seem decided on this point. a king, sa-sa-amen, is believed to have reigned sixteen years; his greatest work was the restoration of the pylons of the temple of rameses iii at tanis. gold and porcelain tablets have also been found, engraved with his name, and he added it also to the two obelisks taken from heliopolis to alexandria, and thence in modern times to london and new york, thereby proving he had authority in heliopolis.
pasebkhanut ii added heru to his name, thus distinguishing himself from pasebkhanut i. he was the last king of the tanite, twenty-first dynasty, and his daughter is said to have married solomon. we read in i kings: “and solomon made affinity with pharaoh, king of egypt, and took pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of david.” thus, in the so usual fashion, he strengthened his political connection by marriage. and the bible further says: “pharaoh, king of egypt, had gone up and taken gezer and burnt it with fire, and slain the canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, solomon’s wife.” pasebkhanut ii reigned, it is said, twelve years, and another daughter married osorkon i, the first king of the twenty-second dynasty.
we now turn again to the priest-kings in thebes, also called the twenty-first dynasty. of the first of them, her-heru, or her-hor, we have already spoken. a common title of his was “living,[276] beautiful god, son of amen, lord of the two lands, lord of diadems,” and he wore the royal uraeus on his forehead. queen notem-mut, notimit, or netchemet, was either mother or wife of king her-hor—authorities differ as to which relation she held to him. by some she was believed to be a princess of rammeside blood, as her name is found encircled by a royal cartouch, while that of the king was not so decorated until the fifth year of his reign. another says she was called “great royal consort,” but not king’s daughter or princess. there is a finely executed but dilapidated statue of this queen, inlaid with glass, and her head is also on a sphinx. a papyrus belonging to her, illustrated with medallion heads, or portrait vignettes of her husband, or son, her-hor, still exists, part being in the louvre, part in the british museum, and part in the possession of a lady in berlin. it was the sale of some of these fragments that led to the discovery of the royal mummies at deir-el-bahari. the canopic boxes of queen notem-mut represented, according to custom, a little chapel, placed on a sledge, a small jackal in black wood, mounted on the cover. many were found, like the mummies themselves, in coffins not belonging to them, but their inscriptions tell who were the rightful owners. miss edwards discovers a likeness between one of the carved masks of rameses ii and the vignettes of her-hor, and thinks the mummy case may have been made in the time of the twenty-first dynasty and given the likeness of the reigning king, rather than the person[277] for whom it was intended. her-hor repaired and preserved many of the mummies of the more ancient kings.
he was succeeded, apparently, not by his son piankhi, or pianchi (who perhaps died before him or whose reign was too short or insignificant to be dwelt upon), but by his grandson, pinotem, pinozem, or pai-netchem i, who is said to have married a princess of the old line, a daughter of pa-seb-kha-nut i, king of tanis, and who is variously termed maat-ka-ra, ra-ma-ka, or rahama. he was both high priest and king, which has caused some confusion to the chronologists. his horus name was “he who satisfieth the gods, he who performeth glorious things for their doubles.” he had a long reign, some say twenty-one years. queen maat-ka-ra is called on one of her coffins, “divine wife, a priestess of amen, in the apts, lady of the two lands.” in the same coffin was the tiny mummy of her infant daughter, mutem-hat. mother and child evidently died soon after the birth of the latter. a box with two compartments accompanied them, filled with funeral statuettes for the two queens, for the baby, though she died and was embalmed in infancy, is called queen maut-em-hat. an accompanying papyrus gives the royal cartouch, around the name of maat-ka-ra, but to the child also, strangely enough, the title of “royal wife,” etc. another wife of the same king was called henttaui, daughter of nebseni, and thent-amen, and mother of the high priest of amen, men-keper-ra. her mummy, with[278] double coffin, was found at deir-el-bahari. great efforts had been made to preserve the lifelike aspect, red was put on the lips and cheeks, and the eyes were treated with eye-paint. she wore a much becurled wig, and even the furrows made by mummification were filled with paste. pai-netchem i had also been removed to deir-el-bahari, and the upper part of the body was found rifled of amulets, but the lower part was intact, the book of the dead between the legs. he had repaired and found places of safety for royal mummies, amen-hetep ii, thothmes ii, rameses ii and rameses iii.
the priest kings made thebes their residence while the old line dwelt at tanis or san. one writer says that the papyri of the princes and princesses of the family of pai-netchem or pi-nozem show the best traditions of art to have been yet in force in the time of the twenty-first dynasty. the ushabti, little figures which so often were placed in the tombs with the mummies, came into general use in the eighteenth dynasty. they were made of painted limestone, hard stone, steatite, wood, etc. at the end of the dynasty they began to be made of porcelain, and were glazed with such colors as mauve, yellow, chocolate and blue. in the nineteenth dynasty blue was the universal color, and figures were made like living people, in every-day clothes, rather than, as previously, to resemble mummies. this continued through the twentieth dynasty and is found sporadically under the twenty-second, while in the twenty-first, as a general[279] rule, they had returned to the mummy form and had a brilliant blue glaze with black inscriptions. in the “book of the dead,” in the eighteenth dynasty, the vignettes were sometimes colored, sometimes plain, later coarser and more representative of modern things.
masaherth and men-kheper-ra, sons of pai-netchem i, seem to have been priests rather than kings. the latter married ast-em-khebit, and became the father of pai-netchem ii, hent-taui, and others. ast-em-khebit or ist-em-khebit is sometimes spoken of as queen, and probably belonged to the royal line. authorities differ much as to this period, and it is difficult to give a perfectly clear account of the succession. many of this lady’s belongings were found among those of the royal mummies so often referred to. that she died before her husband is proved by his seals remaining unbroken upon the hamper of mummified food accompanying the body. she was evidently much beloved, and buried, like others of her family, with special care, in three coffins, elaborately decorated and swathed in the finest of linen, in long plaits. the usual shabti, or “little servants,” accompanied her, as well as beautiful vases in blue glass, inscribed with funerary legends. baskets of food, boxes with wigs, and many other articles, the reproductions of those used in daily life, were included in her burial outfit. a pet gazelle was also mummified and buried with her, a pathetic suggestion of her tenderness of heart. while crumbled and cast aside was her funeral tent, with an inscription[280] wishing her “a happy repose,” among the first articles found when the modern discoverers entered these long hidden places of sepulture.
pai-netchem ii, son of ast-em-khebit, married nes-su-khensu, who seems sometimes to be regarded as a queen, and is the last of the line of whom we have record. her husband, too, appears rather as a high priest and commander of soldiers than a king, and again the claim to higher descent may have been on the lady’s side. there were several children of this marriage, but they are not specially noteworthy.
the priests apparently did little for the enlargement or aggrandizement of egypt. they ruled about a hundred and twenty-five years, preserved generally friendly relations with the more ancient royal line, seem to have been less oppressive and despotic than some of the earlier kings, and contented themselves with repairing the temples and the royal mummies, and have left behind many interesting funeral remains and papyri, said to form a highly important class of literature.