Osiris and Horus |
THE GIFT OF THE NILE |
Osiris and Horus |
The "Palette of Narmer." Both sides are shown in the phot below. Originally a palatte for the mixing of cosmetics, this important artifact depicts the political fusion of Upper and Lower Egypt. |
Ma'at personified as a winged goddess in New Kingdom art. |
Three different depictions of Judgement Day for the ancient Egyptian. The jackel-headed deity performing the weighing of the soul is Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead. The container on one side of the scale is a funeary jar, which literally contained the heart of the deceased. A feather of Ma'at is on the other side of the scale. Crouching nearby is the "Eater of Souls" The ibis-headed deity with a tablet and a stylus is Thoth, the record-keeper of the gods. In the figures on the left, the seated figures above are the judges of the dead. |
Ikhnaton, Nofretete, and their six daughters making sacrifices to Aton |
Ikhnaton. |
Mask taken from the coffin of Tutankhamen |
Herodotus, a Greek historian who is frequently designated 'The Father of History,' wrote the following concerning the ancient Egyptians: "The Egyptians live in a peculiar climate, on the banks of a river which is unlike every other river, and they have adopted customs and manners different in nearly every respect from those of other men." He went on to call Egypt itself the "Gift of the Nile," and in doing do he has given us a remarkably accurate summary of Egyptian Civilization. The Nile river begins some four thousand miles from the Mediterranean, deep in the African interior. The last six hundred and seventy-five miles constitute the land of Egypt, and of this, the first five hundred miles or so the Nile is nothing more than a channel, at its greatest measurement some twelve miles wide, cut through the Sahara desert. Then suddenly, in the area of Memphis, the Nile broadens into the delta, which becomes sixty miles wide at the Mediterranean seaboard. Since the Nile flows from the south to the north the area of the delta is called Lower Egypt, and the narrow, five-hundred mile stretch from the first cataract at Aswan to the delta is known as Upper Egypt. So marked is the contrast that the ancient Egyptians referred to their country as the "Two Lands." The reason the Nile is, in the words of Herodotus "unlike every other river," and the reason it has been so critical in the formation of the Egyptian way of life and style of civilization is found in the annual flood which regularly pours life into a parched and dying land. There is seldom any rain in Egypt, and by May the river is at its lowest point. The soil is dry and cracking, and the desert threatens to swallow the population who crowd around the receding waters of the Nile. Then, in June, every June, an annual miracle occurs. Four thousand miles away, unknown to the ancient Egyptians, spring rains and melting snow have gorged the Nile and its tributaries. As if appointed by the gods, a green wave bearing untold tons of decaying vegetation, pours into the Two Lands, and this is followed a month later by a second wave bearing a rich humus, full of minerals and potash. In October the waters begin to recede, and the soil on either side of the river and across the delta is covered with fertile, black, life-giving richness from which two or three crops may be gathered every year. The threat of being swallowed by the desert has been repelled for another year. This event is so thoroughly engraved in the Egyptian consciousness that the cycle of the Nile has been personified in Egyptian mythology with the stories of Osiris, a legendary Pharaoh, who represents the river. Osiris is slain by his uncle, Set, who represents the desert, only to be brought back to life by the efforts of his wife, Isis, who represents the priesthood, and his son, Horus, who represents the Pharaoh. Horus then slays Set, which represents the marvelous work of the Pharaohs in the creation of an extensive irrigation network. SOTHIS CYCLE Equal to, if not greater than the Nile in the formation of Egyptian thought, was the Sun. The lack of rain and the absence of clouds insured that the solar disk was seldom obscured. The steady brilliance of the sunlight lent a sense of stability to everything upon which it fell. II. THE EGYPTIAN WORLD VIEW From the Nile the Egyptians gained a sense of the predictability and general benevolence of the world, and from the sun they gained a sense of permanence. These two factors created within the Egyptians a remarkably optimistic consciousness that enabled them to avoid the sense of anxiety that characterized the Mesopotamians, who had had a rather different experience with their rivers, and create an imposing civilization that would remain relatively unchanged for more than a thousand years. To the Egyptian, their civilization seemed to be the best of all possible worlds, and they were obsessed with perpetuating it. Change was undesirable. For the most part, the Egyptians hoped that the future would be simply an eternal extension of the present. For years I had thought that the Egyptian culture remained static simply because of a fear of death. All of their energies were taken up in a desire to overwhelm this inevitable foe. More recently I have come to the conclusion that the Egyptians simply loved life, and even in the afterlife they sought no paradise, only an extension of that which they knew and loved. A central premise of the Egyptian world-view is that the universe is both orderly and benevolent. To express this concept, the Egyptians use the term Ma'at, which can be translated as Justice, Balance, Truth, or Harmony. In contrast to the position of man and the arbitrariness of the gods in Mesopotamia, the Egyptians maintained that they were the favorites of the gods rather than their slaves. The gods cared for the Egyptian people. Pharaoh himself was a god, and the land was his estate. There was no written code of law, as Hammurabi produced, for the law was the word of Pharaoh, and since he was a god himself, everything that he spoke was an expression of the harmony of the cosmos. He was Ma'at incarnate. III. THE PHARAOH DIVINITY According to one version of Egyptian mythology, after the creation of the world the land of Egypt was ruled by the gods themselves. The first king was the sun god Ra, and he was then followed by other members of his family. The kingship eventually passed to Osirus, whom we mentioned earlier. After Osirus was slain by his uncle, Set, he was avenged by his son, the falcon-headed god Horus, and at the end of his life Horus bequeathed the throne of Egypt to the first Pharaoh, Menes, who in turn assumed divinity. The fact that Egypt existed in such isolation meant that the godhood of the Pharaoh went unchallenged for more than five hundred years, until intercourse with other cultures demonstrated that the Pharaoh was simply one king among many. ARTWORK In artwork the pharaoh is depicted wearing a number of crowns. There is a tall, conical, white crown which signifies overlordship of Upper Egypt, and a red, flat-topped crown with a projection at the back and a long, curling feather toward the front, which signifies the overlordship of Lower Egypt. Often, these two crowns are combined into a Great Double Crown. Around both these crowns was curled the Uraeus, or the sacred cobra, symbolizing the divine authority undergirding his rule over the two lands. The pharaoh is also frequently represented holding a shepherd's crook in one hand and a flail in the other. This is a symbolic manifestation of the dual nature of the Pharaoh's power. He could persuade, but he could also compel. This dual nature is also represented in verse: He is exultant, a crusher of foreheads, so that none can come close to him. He is a master of graciousness, rich in sweetness, conquering by love. The title "Crusher of Foreheads," and this became a common title to attach to the names of later kings. For three thousand years the victorious pharaoh is represented in art grasping the forelock of a conquered enemy with his left hand and with his right swinging back the mace with which he will smash in the forehead of his foe. THE MARRIAGE OF THE PHARAOH In terms of marriage, the young Pharaoh was given in childhood to a sister or a cousin. The practice of social inbreeding, known as endogamy, is not uncommon among royal houses; to a lesser degree it is practiced among royalty today. The original reason for such practices was that it greatly reduces the chances of external claims upon the throne or upon royal property. In the case of the Egyptian royal house, however, the practice was carried to the extreme, and frequently included the marriage of the pharaoh to his own daughters. In Egypt, at least, the practice seems to have stemmed from a motive more noble than simply the preservation of property. The Egyptian priesthood was determined that the divine bloodline of Horus should remain pure in the royal house. Corruption could not be tolerated and several Pharaohs who compromised the blood died from mysterious causes. There was also a religious precedent: Osiris was married to his sister, Isis, and the product of that union was Horus, the alleged ancestor of the Pharaoh. Certainly the ability to claim direct blood descent from a god enhanced the pharaoh's prestige, but in all probability the ruse was simply a mechanism employed by the priesthood to insure the stability of their own position. Though there is little conclusive genetic evidence, contrary to expectations the eighteenth dynasty was sustained for two and a half centuries by incestuous marriages, and the products of those marriages seem to have possessed unusual physical and mental health. GOVERNMENT Egypt was divided into 42 administrative districts, called nomes. Each nome was controlled by a chieftain and worshiped a patron deity. 20 of these districts were found in Lower Egypt and 22 were located in Upper Egypt. HISTORY Though there were several significant Egyptian "King Lists," the only one that has been historically significant to-date is that composed by Manetho, a priest during the reign of Ptolomy II (285-247 BC). Manetho divided all Egyptian history from the beginning through the conquests of Alexander the Great into thirty dynasties. Manetho lacked the tools of a modern historian, so his chronology is saturated with inconsistancies. Several of the dynasties recorded by the scribe ran concurrently (the Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-fifth), and it is reasonably certain that a few ( The Seventh Dynasty, for instance, consisted of seventy kings who ruled for seventy days) never existed at all. There is extensive variance in the lengths of the dynasties, as well. The Twenty-eighth Dynasty consisted of one king who reigned for six years, while the Eighteenth dynasty consisted of fourteen kings who ruled for two hundred and sixty years. In spite of the shortcomings of Manetho's system, modern Egyptologists still find the old scribe's framework useful, maintaining the familiarity with the list and its inconsistencies will minimize historical fumbling. For the sake of simplification, however, an alternative framework has been provided. Archaic (also known as the Proto-dynastic Period) Old Kingdom First Intermediate Period Middle Kingdom Second Intermediate Period New Kingdom ARCHAIC PERIOD The oldest surviving name of a king of that of Sekhen, or King Scorpion, who ruled upper Egypt during the end of the fourth Millenia B.C., around 3050. Little is known of King Scorpion, though the artifacts that have been preserved indicate that he was an extremely brutal ruler. Far more significant is the belief that he was the father of Narmer. Narmer, also known as Menes, was a king of upper Egypt who gathered the forces of the south and led them north to conquer lower Egypt around 3000 B.C. He then ruled the united upper and lower Egypt from his capital at Memphis. Narmer's reign marked the beginning of the first Egyptian dynasty, or line of rulers from one family. According to Manetho, from 3300 until 332 B.C. a series of 30 dynasties ruled Egypt. Menes established his capital at his home city of Memphis, a city well known for its Pottery. Quite naturally, the craftsmen of Memphis worshipped Khnum, a ram-headed god of pottery. When Menes assumed the throne the role of Khnum expanded. He became the creator of the universe, which he brought forth from his potter's wheel, and for a time Khnum replaced the sun god Ra as the head of the Egyptian pantheon. From 3100 until 2600 BC, little is recorded but a great deal was happening in Egypt. The hereditary dynastic system was developed that would govern Egypt until the coming of Alexander the Great, and a solar calender came into being that was far more accurate than the lunar calender of the Mesopotamians. Hieroglyphic writing was developed and the monumental architecture for which the Egyptians were so well known was well underway. By 2600 BC the Egyptian civilization had reached maturity. It was also during this period that the priesthood became entrenched. The divine blood of Horus that ran in the veins of the Royal Family had to be protected, and in the process, power accrued to the Priesthood of Ra. By the end of the Archaic Period the Priesthood formed virtually a shadow government in Egypt, a fact understood, but greatly resented by the Royal House. THE OLD KINGDOM (2600-2150 BC) The next four hundred and fifty years were a period of remarkable stability and confidence. The first pharaoh of the Old Kingdom, Zoser (in whose honor the first pyramid is believed to have been constructed), had the remarkable good fortune of retaining the services of perhaps the greatest genius in Egyptian history, the physician, architect, poet, and wizard: Imhotep. It was Imhotep who designed the Pyramid of Zoser at Sakkarra. His brilliance later led to his assimilation into the pantheon of Memphis as a son of the creator god Ptah and the goddess of the sky, Nut. His name means "He who comes in Peace," and he is depicted as a god of healing and wisdom. He was later assimilated into the Greek pantheon as Asclepius, and the last request of Socrates as he lay dying was that one of his friends fulfill a sacrificial vow to the god that he had made, but neglected. The symbol of Imhotep was a winged staff entwined by serpents; known as the caduceus, this symbol is still used by members of the medical profession today. More recently, Imhotep has been fictionalized into the lead character of The Mummy movies. During this period, the authority as well as the divinity of the Pharaoh was unquestioned, and this is illustrated by the magnificent tombs that were constructed. The largest pyramids were built during the fourth dynasty (2550-2400 BC). The largest of these, the Great Pyramid of Cheops, covers thirteen acres and contains more than six million tons of stone fitted together with the precision of a watchmaker. The cost in human labor was staggering. These structures were built without block and tackle, without pulleys, even without wheels. These monuments, however, were not simply the careless constructions of ego-maniaical kings. The Pharaoh, as a god-king, was the center of Egyptian religious thought. Such monuments were required by ma'at, and were necessary to the continued prosperity of the land. In spite of the efforts on the part of the priesthood to maintain the absolute authority of the pharaoh, during the latter years of the Old Kingdom it began to decline. It was inevitable that a pharaoh would eventually challenge the authority of the priests, and that challenge finally came when Pharaoh Shepseskaf refused to add the name of the Sun God Ra to his throne name, preferring instead the name of his own patron deity, Set. He then committed the cardinal royal sin by marrying his daughter to a palace official rather than a blood relative. The priesthood was quick to act, and Shepseskaf remained on the throne of the Two Lands only four short years. His disruptive behavior, however, did signal the beginning of the Old Kingdom's decline. The final Pharaoh of the Old Kingdom was Pepi II. Pepi II came to the throne at the age of six, and for a decade or so Egypt was in turmoil as his regents attempted to bring their own policies into play. The young king was kept entertained by dwarves that were brought in from the African interior. Pepi, however, soon came into his own, and his reign was the longest in Egyptian history (Pepi was over 100 at the time of his death). While the king remained in his strength, Egypt experienced a time of unprecedented prosperity. During his mid-sixties, however, a combination of senility and religious fervor set in. The nobility and the priesthood were quick to take advantage of this weakness, and as a result, extensive grants of land and privileges were made by the aging pharaoh. When Pepi finally died, the office of pharaoh had declined to such an extent that it was no longer possible to maintain any form of centralized government. Two and a half centuries of social chaos followed. THE FIRST INTERMEDIATE PERIOD (2150-2040 BC) As the Old Kingdom drew to a close the authority of the Pharaoh began to deteriorate. In all likelihood the expense of maintaining the divinity of the king began to grow heavy on the population. As the authority of the pharaoh began to wane, however, the authority of the priesthood and the old nomes began to re-assert itself. The leaders of the nomes, or nomarchs, became increasing autonomous. Soon the royal power collapsed altogether and the nomarchs became the real masters of the land. The reaction to this collapse was twofold. On the one hand there were those who believed that ma'at had gone out of the world and the universe would shortly deteriorate back into chaos. One text from the period consists of an argument an individual had with himself over the desirability of suicide, anticipating Camus by several millenia. A second text, entitled Admonitions of a Sage relates the extent that Egyptian society deteriorated during the First Intermediate Period: The rabble is elated, and from every city goes up the cry: "Come! let us throw out the aristocrats!" The land is full of rioters. When the ploughman goes to work he takes a shield with him. The Inundation is disregarded. Agriculture is at a standstill. The cattle roam wild. Everywhere the crops rot. Men lack clothing, spices, and oil. Everything is filthy: there is no such thing as clean linen these days. The dead are thrown into the river. People abandon the cites and live in tents. Buildings are set on fire, though the palace still remains. But pharaoh has been kidnaped by a mob. The poor have become rich. The man who went barefoot now owns a fortune. The woman who used to study her complexion in the pool now possesses a bronze mirror. Slaves wear ornaments of gold, lapis lazuli, silver, malachite and carnelian. Luxury is rampant, but th ladies of the nobility exclaim: "If only we had something to eat!" They are ashamed of being seen in rags. They are embarrassed when someone greets them. They are forced to prostitute their daughters. They are reduced to sleeping with men who were once too badly off to take a woman. Today there is no trading with Byblus. No one can get pine wood for coffins, funerary materials, or the oils for embalming which were once brought from as far afield as Crete. There is a gold shortage, and raw materials for proper burial are exhausted. Nowadays it seems very important that the oasis dwellers should bring in caravans of their once despised produce. Others, however, began to look in the other direction. Prior to this time eternal life belonged only to the royal family. Only the Pharaoh and his immediate followers could offer the necessary sacrifices to Ra, the sun-god, and insure their ongoing existence. During the First Intermediate Period the religious life of Egypt underwent a radical transformation with the emergence of the cult of Osirus. Initially, Osirus had been understood as personification of the Nile. With the passage of centuries he transformed into the guardian of the dead, and then the judge of the dead. Egyptian religion during the First Intermediate Period, was therefore bifurcated: A devotion to the solar deities that prevailed among the nobility and priesthood, and a popular religious movement that swiftly began to challenge the more ancient beliefs. The worshipper of Osirus was required to commit certain passages from the Book of the Dead to memory. At the moment of death, the worshipper appeared before Osirus, and was required to recite an extensive negative confession. Just a few examples: I have committed no sin against the people. I have not done evil in the place of truth. I did not report evil of the servant to his master. I allowed no one to hunger. I did not commit adultery. I did not take milk from the mouth of the child. I did not tamper with the irrigation system. Unlike the Christian at confession or the Jew on Yom Kippur, there is no confession of sin, no asking of forgiveness. The Egyptian is arguing his case before a court of law. Finally, his soul (heart) is weighed in the scale of justice. By this point in ancient Egyptian History, Ma'at has been personified as a winged goddess Balanced against his soul is a single feather, which represents Ma'at, the universal law of harmony. Should the feather prove heavier, his heart is just, and he is allowed to pass on to Osiris. On the other hand, should the heart prove heavier, the individual is thrown to the "Eater of Souls," a crocodile-like deity sitting nearby. Since the religion of Osiris made eternal life contingent upon an upright life rather than heredity it quickly attracted a large following. In a very real sense religion had become democratized. The impact of this upon Egyptian thought was tremendous. One text from this period has the creator god assert: I made the four winds that everyone might breathe of them. I made the great flood that the poor might have rights therein like the great. I made everyone like his fellow. For the first time in history the concept of human dignity and the worth of the individual was becoming apparent. THE MIDDLE KINGDOM (2040-1650 BC) Only in the area surrounding Thebes did political stability remain, and it was a Thebean general, MENTUHETEP II, who eventually revived the authority of the Pharaoh and brought the chaos of the First Intermediate Period to a close. The capital was moved from Memphis to Thebes and the old materialism soon returned, though the social consciousness that the Egyptian population had acquired prevented the exploitation of the masses that had occurred during the Old Kingdom. Unfortunately, as the Middle Kingdom began to prosper the emphasis on the dignity of the individual began to deteriorate, and ultimately disappeared. A new alliance between the royal house and the priesthood took place, primarily in order to combat the overwhelming popularity of the Osiris cult. Amon, the solar deity of Thebes, was fused with the ancient cult of Ra, and the authority of the pharaoh insured that the cult of Amon-Ra would be the national religion of all Egypt during the Middle Kingdom. Commerce created widening disparities between the classes and the religion that was originally an egalitarian force ennobling all men soon became a refuge for the poor. THE SECOND INTERMEDIATE PERIOD (1650-1567 BC) Manetho wrote that toward the end of the Middle Kingdom "God was displeased with us and there came up unexpectedly fro the East men of ignoble race who had the audacity to invade our land." These "men of ignoble race" were the Hyksos or "Shepherd Kings.". Though they were largely Semitic in language and culture, their exact origin is unknown. In all probability they were Syrian nomads who had been displaced by the emerging Indo-Europeans. In the course of their travels, however, they had adopted military strategies unknown to the Egyptians, such as the horse drawn chariot and superior bronze weapons. Seizing upon the internal disorder that was now plaguing the middle kingdom the Hyksos took over the Egyptian government and maintained their sovereignty for more than a century. Though the influence of the Hyksos on Egyptian society was limited primarily to the collection of tribute, the illusion of isolation and the belief of the Egyptians that they were a special people, chosen by the gods, was shattered. Anxiety replaced confidence in the minds and hearts of the Egyptian people. THE NEW KINGDOM (1567-1069 BC) Soon the Egyptians learned the lessons of their conquerors, and the chariots with which they had been beaten into submission were turned against their oppressors. Again, it was a nomarch of Thebes, SEKENENRA, that led the way and threw the initial challenge to the Hyksos overlords. Sekenenra, however, was killed in the ensuing conflict (a fact verified by the numerous wounds found on his mummy). His son, KAMES, continued the fight, but the Semitic invaders were not completely driven out of Egypt until AHMOSIS, the founder of the Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty and the successor of Kames, drove them back into hither Asia. Ahmosis realized that the desert and the sea no longer afforded protection, and rather than fortifying their own land the Egyptians in turn became aggressors. The New Kingdom would be an imperial kingdom, and Ahmosis quickly launched military expeditions into Palestine and Syria. THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY The Eighteenth Dynasty was certainly the most interesting in Egypt's long history. Ahmosis, in a series of campaigns, brought Nubia and Palestine under Egyptian control, establishing buffer states to the south and the north. In the process, the wealthy and strategic Phoenician ports on the eastern Mediterranean were also annexed. Due to the consolidation of power by the priesthood of Amon-Ra, the capital of Egypt remained at Thebes. Ahmosis followed the traditional practice and married his sister, Nefertari, the first of several significant women during the Eighteenth Dynasty. Known for her kindness and compassion, Nefertari was respected by other members of the Royal House and loved by her subjects. The son of Ahmosis and Nefertari was Amenhotep I (the names Amenhotep and Amenophis are frequently interchanged). Of this king we know little, but we can conjecture that he continued to press the Egyptian advantage to the north. His successor, Tuthmosis I, remarked at the beginning of his reign that the frontier of Egypt was the Euphrates River, implying that a substantial amount of Mesopotamian territory was added to the Egyptian Empire during the reign of his predecessor. Tuthmosis I and his wife, Aahmes, were both of the royal house, and produced two sons and a daughter. The daughter, Hatshepsut, was certainly their favorite. When both of the princes died, Hatshepsut was situated to assume the throne herself, but the question of gender brought such aspirations to a quick end. Tuthmosis II, the son of Tuthmosis I by the commoner, Moutnofrit, ascended the throne. Of his reign we know little. The records indicate that he was occupied with consolidating the gains of his predecessors, and there are accounts of Tuthmosis II being forced to deal with armed revolts in both Syrian and Nubia. Rather than allow power to slip from her hands, Hatshepsut became the wife of Tuthmosis II and remained the invisible hand behind the throne. Tuthmosis II held the kingship only three or four years. From the condition of his mummy, archaeologists have concluded that he died of a fatal skin condition. Tuthmosis II and Hatshepsut had produced no children (Nefrure, the daughter of Hatshepsut, was most likely the child of her lover Senmut). Tuthmosis II, however, had sired a son through the commoner, Isis. This son, Tuthmose III, succeeded his father to the throne. Due to the fact that he was but six years of age, however, Hatshepsut remained in power as queen dowager. This proved to be the opportunity Hatshepsut had waited for. She was the only surviving child of an extremely popular Pharaoh, she had been the wife and chief counselor to his successor, and she had no intentions of allowing the overlordship of the Two Lands to slip through her fingers again. Soon after the death of her husband, Tuthmosis III,, her stepson and nephew, was pushed to one side, and Hatshepsut took upon all the trappings of the Pharaoh. Most significant was her assumption of a Horus-Name. She subsequently led Egypt for the next fifteen years or so, certainly the first prominent female world-leader in history. In order to solidify the legitimacy of her claim, Hatshepsut took two rather radical steps. First, she sought to minimize the impact of her gender on her office. In the statuary that was produced of her, she insisted that she be depicted as a male. When she went out among the population, she always wore a fake plaited beard, the same as any other pharaoh. Interestingly, her time as the ruler of the Two Lands was uncommonly peaceful, with an emphasis on commerce rather than conquest. She then had a mythology customized to meet her needs. In a temple constructed in the Valley of the Kings, and in that temple are found numerous inscriptions that portray her as the daughter of the Sun-god, Amon-Ra. In one of these, the creator-god Khnum attests to her divine parentage: I will make you to be the first of all living creatures, You will rise as king of Upper and of Lower Egypt, As your father Amon, who loves you, did ordain. On the wall of her tomb is an inscription detailing the night of her conception: Amon took the form of the noble King Tuthmose, And found the queen sleeping in her room. When the pleasant odours that proceeded from him announced his presence she woke. He gave her his heart and showed himself in his godlike splendour. When he approached the queen she wept for joy At his strength and beauty and he gave her his love... It was an inspired bit of propaganda, and it worked well to solidify Hatshepsut's position. Tuthmose III, however, was no longer a child. He had grown into the finest military mind Egypt had ever produced. For a while he was content to lead battles and consolidate the Egyptian Empire, but he resented his step-mother's authority at home. Additionally, he detested Senmut, his step-father, as well as his father-in-law. Senmut had designed Hatshepsut's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and it had been his intention to be interred with her. For some reason, he was interred in a separate tomb. Additionally, shortly after his death, his sarcophagus was destroyed (the coffin had been broken into some 1,200 pieces, and proved to be a monumental task of restoration) and his body was taken. Hatshepsut's mummy was also stolen and her tomb destroyed. Only one of the canopic jars has been found, that which contained her liver. The reasonable assumption is that Tuthmosis III finally found Hatshepsut's presumption unbearable and had her, as well as her lover, executed. We do know that he ordered the systematic erasure of her name from any monument she had built, including the walls of her own Tuthmosis III then assumed sole power. Though physically a small man, without doubt he was the finest soldier ever to become Pharaoh of Egypt. It was Tuthmosis III that authorized the construction of two magnificent granite obelisks; popularly known as "Cleopatra's needles." One of these stands in Central Park, New York, while the other rests on the banks of the Thames river outside of London. At the end of his reign, Egypt was economically prosperous, nationally secure, and the future of the throne was in the hands of Tuthmosis III's powerful son, Amenhotep II. Like his father, Amenhotep II was a soldier. Unlike his father, he stood head and shoulders above most other Egyptians. A physical giant, it was said that no one else in Egypt could bend his bow. Also unlike his predecessors, Amenhotep II frequently sacrificed his enemies alive in front of the Statue of Amon-Ra. By this time Egypt had reached the apex of her power as a great nation. Amenhotep III (grandson of Amenhotep II) was perhaps the greatest pharaoh of the New Kingdom. He was, as are all great rulers, a wilful man, driven, and full of energy. He realized the potential of his position, set few limits to his behavior, and seldom worried about the consequences of his actions. Amenhotep III came to the throne of Egypt as a young man, though unlike other young rulers he was strong enough to hold such absolute power securely in his hands. From the beginning Amenhotep III asserted his independence from custom. As mentioned earlier, Egyptian tradition maintained that the divine blood of Horus, which flowed through the veins of the pharaoh, could not be diluted and defiled by impure blood. Two years after he came to the throne Amenhotep III shattered this tradition by taking as his principle wife the daughter of a Syrian nobleman. Unlike other politically expediate marriages, Amenhotep III exhibited intense love for this woman. It was only natural that he would desire that the son of their union should be his successor. More than the choice of his queen, Amenhotep's failure to recognize tradition in his selection of a successor set him on a collision course with the entrenched heirarchy. After all, within his harem he had a number of concubines taken from the finest families in all Egypt, several of whom were princesses in their own right. If he were to procede according to custom and select a son he had fathered on one of these women as his heir, the religious concerns of the priesthood would be satisfied. Amenhotep's devotion to his wife, however, would not. In order to get around this dilemma Amenhotep again defied precedent by making the eldest son of his marriage co-regent with himself while he was still in the full strength of his manhood. Egypt was a land of many gods, but since the capital was located at Thebes, Amon-Ra, the god of Thebes had risen to a position of pre-eminence. During the earlier dynasties Egypt possessed at least four solar divinities. Atum was worshipped at Heliopolis, and it was believed that he was the principle of creation that preceded all things. It was he that had tamed the primeval chaos, thereby creating the world. When the work of creation was completed, Atum appeared in the sky as the sun and took the name of Ra, so from earliest times the two gods have been identified. The sun is Ra when it is overhead and Atum after it sets and before it rises. A third solar deity, Amon, was worshipped at Thebes. Amon is usually portrayed with the head of a ram, and when the pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty established Thebes as the capital of New Kingdom around 1570 BC, Amon replaced Atum as the principle god of all Egypt. The pharaohs of Thebes began to incorporate the name of Amon into the names that they assumed at their corronation. The name Amenhotep, with which we are presently concerned, means "Amon is Satisfied." As a consequence, over the centuries, the priesthood of Amon-Ra had become a force to be reckoned with. Two centuries after the New Kingdom had been established the priesthood had begun to rival the power of the pharaoh himself. In order to diminish the power of the priesthood, Amenhotep III ceased the traditional practice of appointing members of the priesthood to higher secular offices, such as the prime minister and chief vizer. Though he did not decrease the amount of money that had previously flowed freely to the priests of Amon, Amenhotep III significantly increased the funds from the royal treasury that were to be given to the cult of Aton. Now Aton was the fourth of Egypt's principal solar deities and he differed significantly from the others. First, there were no statues of Aton. He is always represented in paintings and relief carvings as a great disk from which extend numerous rays. These rays are tipped with hands which are either taking offerings from the alter or presenting to the pharaoh and his family various hieroglyphs bestowing life and strength. The pharaoh was the only priest of Aton. Additionally, the hymns to Aton proclaimed was not simply the god of the pharaoh, or even of the Egyptians. Rather, he was a deity who bestowed his benevolence upon all men, and was worthy of the worship of all men. The situation began to escalate when Amenhotep III realized that his son tended to focus entirely upon the worship of Aton to the neglect of the other Egyptian gods, a situation .probably instigated by his Syrian mother. Further complicating the situation, Amenhotep IV had been married at a young age to Nofretete, a daughter of Mittani royal house, and as his father had done before him, the young pharaoh loved his foreign queen intensely. As they matured together, so did their obsession with the worship of Aton. This soon began to trouble Amenhotep III, for he was a pragmatic pharoah, and he knew that religious tolerance was an unspoken necessity if a ruler wished to effectively govern a land as theologically diverse as Egypt. His son, however, had become so fiercely attached to Aton that other gods had ceased to be of significance. It must have given the old pharoah a sense of relief when his son accepted the suggestion that he he establish a city, far from the populated centers of Egypt, halfway between Memphis and Thebes, that was dedicated to the worship of Aton. Amenhotep IV named his city Akhet-Aton, which means 'The Horizon of Aton. Today the site is known as Tell El-Amarna. From the perspective of the father, the establishment of this city gave the prince his own private kingdom, which he could rule and in which he could practice his unusual religion until his heart was content. The remainder of Egypt could carry on as usual. Amenhotep III would rule the country from Thebes while his son pursued his peculiarities elsewhere. This, however, intensified rather than diminished Amenhotep IV's fanaticism, and he soon broke his ties with Thebes, in the process changing his name from Amenhotep, which means 'Amen is Satisfied,' to the name by which he would be known to history; Ikhnaton which means 'Spirit of Aton.' (varient spellings Akhenaton, Akhnaton, etc.) Life in the new city of Akhet-Aton seemed to be both prosperous and content. Deterioration in the arts, which was characteristic of the imperialistic New Kingdom, was temporarily suspended at Akhet-Aton. In an unprecedented fashion, the pharoah allowed his private life to be portrayed by the artists. Numerous reliefs exist that show Ikhnaton at worship with his wife, mother, and daughters. On relief shows the king sharing an intimate embrace with his queen, certainly the first such artwork in history. Another shows Ikhnaton with one of his daughters in his lap, kissing her on the forehead. Still another shows Ikhnaton leading his mother to a place in the shade, holding her hand. There are numerous depictions of the royal family enjoying an evening meal. Perhaps the most stunning art of the period is a bust of the queen, Nofretete. This sculpture is certainly the most well-known, non-monumental artwork to have been produced by the Egyptians. It is made of limestone and portrays a stunningly beautiful, delicate woman. The temple of the city was also unusual. Most Egyptian temples were enclosed, dark, and full of representations of the deity to which they were dedicated. In contrast, the temple of Aton was open to the sky. Worship was held at dawn in the courtyard, which usually included the singing of hymns and the offering of fruits and grain. Since the Egyptians looked to the pharoah as the source of all blessing, for them to behold the royal family so united and at peace would have created unparalleled reassurance within the population of Akhet-Aton. Amenhotep III soon died, and after a short regency in which the royal authority was held by the Queen, Ikhnaton ascended to the throne of Egypt. His religious beliefs were now mature. There was only one god, the Aton, and the worship of other deities was consequently forbidden. Ikhnaton began his work like an overzealous missionary and soon had crews working throughout Egypt, instructed to strike the name of all other gods from every monument and inscription in the land of Egypt. His father's name was frequently erased, because it contained the name of Amon. This campaign against all religious beliefs except his own soon began to generate intense hostility, particularly in Thebes. This hostility, however, was not Ikhnaton's primary source of trouble. Ikhnaton had hoped to govern Egypt with an idealistic vision that was great and noble enough to to conquer the minds and hearts of other nations, rather than their armies. Unfortunately, the idealist is seldom a realist. The reality was that Egypt was an empire, and though an empire may be administered with benevolence, it must be maintained and defended with force. With the king of Egypt occupied with his religious concerns the Hittites moved in and conquered Syria, and the Amorites moved against the Palestinian provinces. In a poor show of diplomacy Ikhnaton sent envoys to the Amorite king allowing him to remain in Palestine as the governor. Unfortunately the King of the Amorites had his own plans, and was a constant source of trouble to Ikhnaton until the Hittites moved into Palestine, and provided Ikhnaton with a far more troubling source of irritation. Numerous letters have been found in which the governors sent frantic requests for help, but none was to be found. Ikhnaton found that with his governors deposed and his treasuries, which had been built primarily through tribute, empty, that he was powerless abroad and friendless at home. Ikhnaton had lost an empire without a fight. Ikhnaton was also forced to deal with his failure to provide a heir to the throne. Nofretete had given her husband at least seven daughters, but the royal couple had failed to produce a son. In lieu of a heir Ikhnaton appointed the husband of his eldest daughter to rule jointly with him. Of the next few years little is known. Apparently both Ikhnaton and his co-ruler died within a short space of time, for the next ruler to be declared pharoah was the boy-husband of his second daughter, Tutankhaton. The combined forces of interior deterioration and external attack eventually led to the end of the New Kingdom. Thereafter, though the title of Pharaoh persisted, Egypt was ruled by foreign dynasties and foreign people; first the Libyans, then Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and finally Romans held the land of the Nile. |
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