Probably years after Queen Tyi, or Tuaa, wife of Amenophis III and mother of the heretic King Khu-n-aten, was laid in her grave, her grand-daughter and namesake became the consort of the reigning monarch. The Eighteenth Dynasty had passed away and a new race held sway. They seem to have had no hereditary title to the crown, but may have claimed Hyksos ancestry. Might, however, often makes right, and they were a noted and powerful succession of monarchs. After King Horem-hib and Queen Notem-Mut came in Rameses I, of the Nineteenth Dynasty, of whose wife we at present know nothing, though future discoveries may reveal her identity. After a short reign the king was succeeded by his son Seti, or Sety I, called Merenptah or Mereptah, “Son of Ptah,” who strengthened his position by marrying a descendant of the preceding royal line. She brought him as her dower, in addition to whatever else she might have been mistress of, the valuable possession of the true “blue blood,” which she conferred upon her son, Rameses II, “born of Ra,” and thus made his claim to the crown indisputable.
Queen Ti, Thy, Tyi, Tui, or Tuaa, as her name is variously spelled, did not have so romantic a love story as did her great ancestress, but neither would it be quite fair to set down her marriage with Set I as purely one of convenience, no matter how much each might have gained by the union. Their opportunities of meeting, since Egyptian women are not so cloistered as other Eastern nations, may have been frequent, and it is possible the connection may have been one of feeling, as well as of state policy. Of her early life, however, we know nothing, nor are we assured of the name of her parents. In marrying her Seti I conformed to the usual but not invariable custom of these monarchs, in uniting themselves with a princess of Egyptian lineage.
The priests acknowledged the new queen as of the blood royal, the true Theban line, hence there could be no dispute as to the rights of her children. Her experiences were different from those of her great predecessor of the name; she did not journey from a far country to meet her husband, in all probability, as did her great-grandmother, nor did she share with him as did her grandmother, in the effort to promulgate a new religion, constantly pictured beside him in all his occupations. She was both the wife and mother of a warrior, and life must of necessity have passed much a part from them.
To us Queen Tuaa is but a shadowy form, chiefly known as the mother of perhaps the greatest king in the long Egyptian line. Some of her traits of character, some of her features, mayhave descended to this haughty scion of the race, but they are now beyond our power of specification. He did not show her, apparently, the devotion the first Tyi received from her son, and in his attention to his father’s tomb there is no record of any special care of his mother’s, though doubtless it was not neglected. “On the walls of one of the temples,” says one traveler, “the youthful Rameses is being suckled by the goddesses; on the one side by Anek (or Anouka) ‘his divine mother, Lady of Elephantine’; on the other by Hathor, with a similar inscription, the features are so much alike that they probably represent those of his own mother.” As a child even Rameses must have been freed, in great measure, from his mother’s guidance, since, to establish himself more firmly on the throne, Seti made his son co-ruler with himself, and, to some extent, a sharer in the cares of state and knowledge of warfare.
It is said that Queen Tuaa acted as regent for husband or son during a Syrian campaign. She must have been proud of her talented and precious child, but state etiquette doubtless separated her much from him, and there may have been more outlet for motherly care and tenderness among her other children; of these we do not find much record, save one brother, to whom Rameses was greatly attached. This brother was called Khamus. Tuaa is not recorded as having shared her queenly honors or her husband’s affection with other wives, at any rate, she was the legal consort.
Lady Duff Gordon speaks of Egypt as “the palimpsest in which the Bible is written over Herodotus, and the Koran over that.” At this period it was in the middle stage of this classification. The modern Copt most resembles the ancient Egyptian; the nose and eyes are the same as in the profiles in the tombs and temples. The fellah woman of the present, it is said, walks around the ancient statues in order to have children, and the customs at birth and burial are the same as in ancient times. Of marriage customs of the past less is known, as we have to bear in mind, than of their funeral ceremonies. The genuine Egyptian had a bronze colored skin, recognizing a brother countryman at a glance and despising black, yellow and even white skins; the queen herself, being of ancient race, may have indulged this feeling; certainly it was most apparent in her haughty son.
Was Queen Tuaa beautiful, good looks being usually thought an important part of the claims of a royal bride to her position, a picture, often flattered, being the only means a royal suitor had to judge of his future wife? Curtis thus describes a beautiful Egyptian: “The Greek Venus was sea born, but our Egyptian is sun born. The brown blood of the sun burns along her veins—thesoul of the sun streams shaded from her eyes.” Fascinating are the almond-eyes of Egyptian women, bordered black with the kohl, whose intensity accords with the sumptuous passion that mingles moist and languid with their light; Eastern eyes are full of moonlight. Eastern beauty is a dream of passionate possibility. Was the queen perchance of this temperament: “I am of a silent disposition. I never tell what I see. I spoil not the sweetness of my fruits by vain tattling.” For posterity, at least, she has proved so, for we know little of her.
The chief, if not the only picture of Queen Tuaa, is in the temple of Goornah or El Kurn-neh, which is described as a memorial edifice, like the Medici Chapel in Florence. Begun by Seti I, as a memorial to Rameses I, it was completed by Rameses II. They were handsome men of a Dantesque type, and their mothers and wives probably fair women, the men, especially, different in appearance from the preceding race. Rameses I was the tutelary deity of the shrine. He stands swathed and crowned like Osiris, with the pointed and upturned beard peculiar to the gods, worshipped, in one picture, by his own son, Seti I, and in another by his grandson, Rameses II.
“In Egypt every man,” especially if he were of royal birth, “received, after death, by courtesy, the title of Osiris, because it was hoped he had attained blessedness in the bosom of the god.”
Queen Tuaa stands behind her husband, and Miss Edwards finds in her delicate but slightly angular profile a resemblance to some of the portraits of Queen Elizabeth. In Rameses II she says “the beauty of the race culminates. The artists of the Egyptian Renaissance, always great in profile portraits, are nowhere seen to better advantage than in this series.”
A statue of the Lady Nai, in the Louvre, may give some idea of the dress of this period, the nineteenth dynasty. She wears a long wig, with a band round her head, a tight garment of linen, not unlike the modern chemise, only narrower, and a strip of linen hanging down in front.
This temple of El Kurneh is at the entrance of the valley of the Tombs of the Kings, and the cutting is called by the Arabs Bab-el-Molook, “gate of the Sultan.” The road is narrow and stony, its desert sands dazzling in the brilliant sunshine, leading to a lonely and sepulchral glen, honeycombed with the tombs of past dignitaries, nobles, priests and monarchs.
Here and there, as we study the history of Egypt, is a link with the Bible story, though nothing very definite has yet been discovered. It is believed by some writers that Moses and Aaron lived in the age of Seti I, and that Moses was brought up with the youthful Rameses II. Others make the time somewhat later, and think that the princess who rescued the deliverer of the Israelites from the water was one of the many daughters of the great Sesostris.
Thebes was probably Queen Tuaa’s principal residence, and the palace saw many partings, since with warriors for husband, sons and grandsons, if the queen survived so long, they must have been frequently absent, and she must needs have passed some anxious hours. But so essentially was war the trade of the monarchs of ancient times, and in the lives of their female relatives so much a matter of course, that it would seemas if the feminine heart must have become somewhat hardened. Doubtless the royal lady looked forward to receiving a victor laden with spoils. We almost seem to hear the burden of the refrain, “Have they not sped, have they not divided the prey, to every man a damsel or two, to Sisera a prey of diverse colors of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil?” What matter to the conqueror, or even to his consort, if thousands of lives paid the price?
Seti I was “a man of blood,” and is spoken of as “a jackal which rushes leaping through the land, a grim lion that frequents the more hidden paths of all regions, a powerful bull with a sharpened pair of horns.” His chariot horses were called “Amon gives him strength.” But if, in Scripture language, he chastised the people “with whips,” Rameses II, his son, “chastised them with scorpions.”
Side by side with his father fought the youthful hero, and we are reminded by them of a similar pair in more modern history, Edward III of England and the Black Prince. Chief among the wars was that against Khita, or Hittites, from which, as Queen Tuaa anticipated, Seti I returned victorious. He came laden with rich booty, silver, gold, blue, green, red and other precious stones. At the frontier the priests, nobles and great men met him with gifts and flowers—conqueror, as he was reported to be, of thirteen peoples and many cities. And we cannot doubt that the palace, too, by Queen Tuaa’s orders, was speciallybeautified and decorated with plants and flowers in honor of the victor’s return. Booty and prisoners were dedicated to the god Amon, his wife Mut, and his son Khonsu.
Little, perhaps, did Queen Tuaa then imagine that one of her daughters-in-law, a princess of Khita, would be from among the conquered people. But so it proved, when Rameses II formed an alliance with the King of Khita and took his daughter to wife; but Queen Tuaa may not have lived to see the union, since Rameses II in earlier times had probably already provided himself with a wife.
Queen Tuaa must have viewed with interest, as did Queen Mertytefs of the fourth dynasty, the magnificent architectural works of her husband. In one case a temple of the gods, which yet recorded the king’s own power, and in the other the tomb or monument which should keep before the eyes of all future generations the name of its builder. The temple lies largely in ruins, but the older structure has withstood to a much greater degree the ravages of time and the wanton destruction of man.
The city of Thebes was magnificent with temples and palaces, and was built on both sides of the Nile, the flat plain stretched away to the mountains, and against the blue of the cloudless sky rose its towers and pylons, its colossal columns and statues. Clusters or avenues of palms lent a light but grateful shade from the sun’s unveiled brightness, and added a touch of living green to the azure of the firmament and creamywhiteness of some of the buildings. Others were of different colors, giving a jewel-like effect at a distance in the rays of the brilliant sun. In some instances the trade or profession of the owner was pictured on the front walls. The streets were crowded with people; beasts of burden, heavily laden, made their way slowly along. Vendors of all sorts lined the sides of the street, and a hubbub of voices rose constantly. In the grander objects Nature had furnished the model, the mountain summits suggested the form of the pyramid and the caves of the Nile valley the temples.
The temple of Luxor, or El Uksor, was near the river, but faced from it toward that of Karnak, and a long avenue of sphinxes, a mile in extent, connected the two. What one king began, another added to, and a third, perhaps, finished; thus Seti I, and his, in some respects, greater son, are, in their architectural works, constantly associated, together. The sculpture of Siti, however, is considered the finer. The interiors of the temples were often gloomy and dim, but at the summer solstice the sun penetrated to the inner sanctuary of Karnak.
The grandeur of Karnak dwarfs that of Luxor, and the Hypostyle Hall, built by Seti I for the celebration of religious festivals, in which Queen Tuaa may have taken part, is, even in its ruined state, one of the wonders of the world. In recent times some of the columns have fallen. The temple was one hundred and seventy feet in length, three hundred and twenty-nine in width,and supported by one hundred and thirty-four columns, as large in circumference, though not so high, as the Vendome column in Paris. The central lines are seventy feet in height and twelve in diameter, while those on either side are forty in height and nine in diameter. The effect of the great hall with its forest of columns is awe-inspiring; one writer after another describes himself as empty of words and dumb before it. No matter how familiar one may be with the place from descriptions of it, previously read, this remains true, just as the Taj Mahal, in India, is to the eye of each new gazer a dream of beauty. Says one writer: “Karnak is to Egyptian architecture what the Parthenon is to Greek, the Pantheon to Roman, and Notre Dame in Paris to Medieval; but it is far grander than them all.”
Seti’s battles and Seti’s victories have passed away, but Seti’s temple stands, eternal almost as the mountains. Walls and columns were decorated with sculptures, begun by the father, finished by the son, those of Seti on the north, of Rameses on the south wall. Those of Seti are the finer, and represent the king in his chariot doing battle with his enemies, while on the columns both monarchs are presenting offerings to the gods. The statues and the sacred lakes, which formed part of the temple adjuncts, correspond in size. At the present time this great temple is spoken of as the greatest ruin in the world, the crowning triumph of Egyptian art.
The winged disk, symbolizing the victory of Horus over Typhon, was, by command of thegod Thoth, placed over all entrances. At the gate of the temple of Karnak was a representation of the coronation of Rameses I, father of a celebrated son and more celebrated grandson. The winter of 1897-8 saw the discovery of the tomb of Osiris, and the god kings Horus and Set, remains from the time of Seti I.
The name of the architect of the magnificent Hypostile Hall is preserved, and the Glyptohek in Munich possesses a statute of this Michael Angelo of his time, as Miss Edwards calls him. An old man with a beard, in a loose robe, sitting upon the ground, lost in meditation. High priest and first prophet of Amon under Seti, he became, under Rameses, the chief architect of the Thebaid, and royally commissioned to embellish the temples. He was called Bak-en-Khonsu.
The oldest map in existence is said to be that of a gold mine worked by Seti I, which furnished perhaps some of the means for his great architectural undertakings, but which was worked to still better advantage by his son.
Seti I reigned about twenty-seven years, was buried with great honors, and his memory was kept fresh by the devotion of his son; but Queen Ti, or Tuaa, though described on the monuments as “royal wife, royal mother, and heiress and sharer of the throne,” seems to fade out of sight, perhaps dying before him, and the profile on the wall remains to us the strongest image of her.
Seven hundred ushebti were said to have been buried with Seti, images of slaves who were to accompany and wait upon him in the land ofAmenti. A curious little dialogue between master and servants is preserved. The deceased says, “O ye figures, be ye ever watchful to work, to plough, to sow the fields, to water the canals and to carry sand from the east and from the west.” The figures reply, “Here am I when thou callest.”
Seti’s name is given as “Ra-user-Kheperu-meri-Amen Seb-Ra-Seti-Mer-en-ptah,” His tomb was discovered by Belzoni in 1817, and is one of the most beautiful ever found, the sarcophagus, in which the body was originally placed, being of the finest alabaster, delicately sculptured both outside and within. This was eventually purchased by an Englishman and rests in the Sloan Museum. Seti is spoken of as the “justified,” and hence had successfully passed the great tribunal to which all the departed were subjected.
But the grave afforded no permanent resting-place for the great monarch, warrior and builder. His mummy, his veritable self, with that of his son and many other kings and queens, is in the museum at Gizeh. Even from these withered remains we can judge that Seti was an unusually handsome man. The Louvre contains a full-length portrait of Seti I, cut out bodily from the walls of the sepulchre in the Tombs of the Kings. Placed in a tomb, from which he was removed to that of Queen Ansera, for fear of robbers, it was eventually broken into, and after other like journeys and removals he is now the object of the curious or interested gaze of the passing traveler. The mummy is said to be one of the finestever found, and clearly shows his claim to beauty, even preserving to a certain degree the expression of his face.
There is a figure of Seti I in the British Museum, and smaller memorials of him in other collections, among them the Metropolitan Museum of New York. Of one of the paintings in his tomb, Lady Duff Gordon says: “The face of the goddess of the Western shore Amenti. Athar or Hecate is ravishing, and she welcomes the king to her regions; death was never painted so lovely.” Was it possible that with the artist’s conception of the goddess might mingle a memory of the dead Queen Tuaa, with whom her royal spouse had now joined company; we can but surmise.
Turn we next to the consideration of the wives of that much married man, Rameses II.
With the exception of Cleopatra, one or two Ptolemy queens, Hatasu, and possibly Nitocris, the history of Egypt which has come down to us deals principally with the kings, and not with the queens. The latter are mentioned incidentally, or not at all, though holding a very different place from the female sovereigns of other Eastern nations, and the student explorer who endeavors to vitalize these fragmentary and scattered outlines has not an easy task.
In no case is the above more true than in that of the wife or wives of Rameses II, the Sesostris of the Greeks who waged tedious wars against the Hittites, with whom he made peace in the twenty-first year of his reign, and of whom Herodotus speaks. It is the king whose striking and heroic figure in childhood, youth and manhood, occupies the foreground of the canvas, dwarfing into comparative insignificance all who stand near him, and leaving the details as regards female relationships but as accessories and background.
Nofritari Minimut.
Nofritari Minimut.
Says an ardent Egyptologist, “One of the handsomest of men, we come in time to recognize hisface, with its haughty beauty, just as we do that of Henry VIII or Louis XIV.” Curtis speaks thus on the general subject: “Oriental masculine beauty is so mild and feminine that the men are like statues of men seen in the most mellowing and azure atmosphere. The forms of the face have a surprising grace and perfection. They are not statues and gods so seen, but the budding beauty of the Antinous when he, too, had been in the soft climate, the ripening rounding lip, the arched brow, the heavy, drooping lid, the crushed, closed eye, like a bud bursting with voluptuous beauty, the low broad brow; these I remember at Asyoot and remember forever.”
Much of this, perhaps, constituted the charm of the youthful Rameses face, but to it must be added something of the strength and intellect which were often lacking.
From his mother, Queen Tuaa, Rameses II, of the nineteenth dynasty, received the heritage of royal ancestry; his father, Seti I, belonged to a new family, who, in view of descent, had no claim to the throne. So say most authorities, though some dispute it. As a child, his father made him co-ruler with himself. An inscription of Rameses II reads, “I was a boy in his lap,” referring to his father, “and he spoke thus, ‘I will have him crowned as king, for I desire to behold his grandeur while I am still alive.’” Officers then came forward to place the crown on his head, and Seti said: “Place the royal circlet on his brow.” After this ceremony, however, he was still left in thehouse of the women and royal concubines, but was put in command of a band of Amazons, “maidens who wore a harness of leather.” So that soldier and conqueror though he so early became, his associations from childhood up were constantly with women, and for the sex in general his subsequent conduct may lead us to infer he had a special weakness.
Another inscription reads, “when thou wast a boy with the youth locks of hair, no monument saw the light without thy command, no business was conducted without thy knowledge.” He laid foundation stones even in childhood. Little wonder that no prouder monarch ever held sway and that we associate the idea of unwonted magnificence with him and his queens.
“Rameses the Great, if he was as much like his portraits as they are like each other, must have been one of the handsomest men, not only of his own day, but of all history,” says the enthusiastic Miss Edwards. There is a bas-relief of him during his first campaign as a beautiful youth with “a delicate, Dantesque face.” Some years later we see him at Abydos in the temple of Seti I with a boyish beard. The likeness with which we become most familiar, in the prime of life, is thus described: “The face is oval, the eyes are long, prominent and heavy-lidded, the nose slightly aquiline and characteristically depressed at the tip. The nostrils are open and sensitive, the under lip projects, the chin is short and square.”
It seems likely that it was true of Rameses IIas is said of the sailor, that he had a “sweetheart in every port.” No woman could boast that she alone reigned in his heart. Two, if not three, wives were made his legal consorts, and he had numerous concubines. The king’s name was branded on female slaves that they could not escape undiscovered.
Little or nothing is known of the queen’s previous history; she may be said to have had no childhood or youth as regards our story. As the wife of Rameses II and the mother of his children she first becomes known to us. Queen Nofritari seems to have been his earliest consort, probably his sister or the daughter of some Egyptian noble. One writer, Pollard, gives authority for considering her the princess who rescued Moses, the daughter of the king, whom he subsequently married; but as the king doubtless married in his youth, and she is the first queen of whom we find record, this seems unlikely. Says the same writer, speaking of the temple of Luxor, “Rameses the Great, some two hundred and thirty years afterwards, added another large court, which was surrounded by a double row of columns; between these are gigantic statues of this monarch, more or less perfect. One on the left of the court is very beautiful, in most perfect condition, and represents him as a young man. The expression of the countenance is very pleasing. By his side, her head reaching to his knee, stands the diminutive but beautiful form of his beloved Nefert-ari.”
The queen’s name, as usual, is variously spelled
Nofritari-Minimut, Nefertari, Nofertuit-Meri-en Mut, and Nofruari, and means, as did that of Queen Nefertari-Aahmes, “good or beautiful companion.” She shared her honors with a Khi-tan princess, whose brief story is told in a later chapter, and with another lady, Isis-Nefer.
Rameses II even lies under the suspicion of having married two of his own daughters, Honuttani and Bint-Antha, the latter whom Baedaker speaks of as queen under the title of Bint-Anat, and of a small statue of her standing by the knee of a larger one of Rameses II, of whom he was known to be especially fond. It is this princess who is made the heroine of Ebers’ story of “Uarda,” but she is here provided with a more suitable lover, while Rameses himself is depicted as a more noble character than is perhaps quite warranted by the historical records. So true, however, are Professor Ebers’ stories to the ascertained facts in each case, that, as a rule, they may, serve as admirable historical studies, quite aside from any merit they may possess as artistic works of fiction.
Jewish tradition mentions a certain Princess Moeris (which some writers have believed to be one of Rameses II’s youngest children, the Princess Meri) as the one who rescued Moses in infancy, as above referred to.
Pictures and inscriptions give the number of Rameses II’s children as sixty sons and fifty-nine daughters, and one enumeration even reaches to one hundred and seventy-one children. Some of Rameses’ daughters were Meri Amun, Beken-Mut,Noferari, Nebtani and Isiemkheb, of whom Meri-Amun and Neb-tani, in addition to Houttani, and Bint-Antha are marked as queens in the family list, probably the wives of their brothers or near relatives.
On the walls of the temple at Deir Champollion found an imperfect list of these sons and daughters. As a curiosity one may cite the different dates assigned by historians as the beginning of the reign of Rameses II: Brugsch, B. C. 1407; Mariette, 1405; Lepsius, 1388; Bunson, 1352, and Poole, 1283.
Since his son was of the blood royal, it was the policy of Seti I to unite him with himself, as has been shown, in the government of the kingdom, thus pacifying all adherents to the old regime, and Queen Tuaa, from whom Rameses II derived his “blue blood,” appears in the family group. The attachment between this father and son is an attractive feature of their joint reigns, and reminds one of the similar bond between Thothmes I and his daughter Hatasu. In peace and war Seti and Rameses were ever side by side. Together they governed, together they took their pleasure and rode forth, each in his royal chariot, to fight and to conquer.
At Abydos, Karnak and other places are pictures of the prince; in one of them, adorned with the priestly panther skin, he is pouring libations on the altar in front of him, while his father holds a censor; according to these same representations and many inscriptions in the various temples adorned with his statues, the youthful Ramesesperformed prodigies of valor in the field. In the little temple of Betel-Wali are shown, on the right wall, the victories of Rameses II over the Libyans and Syrians, and on the left, over the Ethiopians. He was a “Black Prince” for whom the hand of fate did not lay out a brief career. The delight of his father’s heart, he lived to assume the full government and to pay royal honors in that beloved parent.
Like his ancestor Amenophis III, Rameses II seems to have had a passion for lions, not so much for the sport of hunting them as to train them for pets or instruments of warfare. Doubtless there was something that specially ministered to the pride of the haughty monarch in these favorites, known as the lion has ever been as “the king of beasts,” the “monarch of the forest,” etc.
Whether the queen shared his partiality we are not told, but since they were his playthings and his companions, she must have accepted them in a measure, if with a trembling heart. His favorite lion lay at the door of the king’s tent and went forth with him to the battlefield, probably at times even set loose to slay and destroy the enemy. The wall paintings show the king’s lions in various places.
There is something both attractive and repellant in this figure of the proud, handsome, vainglorious monarch, in the full vigor of his manhood, accompanied by this dangerous ally and slave. The tale of the lion and the mouse, Esop’s well known fable, is said to be of Egyptian origin, and within the last forty or fifty years many romanticstories and many love tales of the Egyptians have come to light.
A more modern character, Sir Henry Rawlinson, who wrote much on Egypt and also a great authority on Persian inscriptions, shared with this ancient king his taste for barbarous pets. He brought up a young lion who followed him around like a dog and lay at his feet when he wrote and studied. He also made such a pet of a leopard that it knew him after long separation, and displayed pleasure at his presence, when he visited the Zoological Garden in England, to which he had given it. The story goes that he put his hand into the cage when the keeper, who did not know him, exclaimed: “Take your hand out of the cage! The animal is very savage and will bite you!”
“I don’t think he will bite me,” said Sir Henry, “will you Fahad?” and the beast answered with a purr and would hardly let the hand be withdrawn.
Queen Nefritare-Minimut was the first, the chief, and the best beloved, there seems little question, of the wives of Rameses II, since it is her picture that appears with that of the king in various places and she is termed “Beloved Companion.” Maspero gives a picture of her in her chariot, following the king and says, “Still a young woman with delicate, regular features already faded and wrinkled under her powder. Like her husband she wears a long robe, its folds, through the rapid motion, floating behind her.” There is a large escort and every one stands ina chariot driven by a groom. This queen was the mother of a number of children, who, in the temple of Abou Simbel, elsewhere called Ibsamboul, are grouped with her. We may accord her some charm of beauty since the monarch of that time selected his wife, not from a list of foreign princesses of suitable rank, but from among the children of his own nobles, or relatives, with whose attractions he could become more readily acquainted. More than one writer speaks of the queen’s figure being full of grace and her features refined and attractive in her pictures.
There are two temples at Abou Simbel, translated “Father of the Corn” or “Father of the Sickle,” excavated in the solid rock. The larger has statues chiefly of the king, though there are smaller ones of his mother, wife and some of his children. The smaller, of the queen also of equal size with her husband, and smaller ones of some of their sons and daughters. These are the most familiar effigies of Rameses II and Nofritare-Minimut together, the male figure being full of spirit, the female of grace. “Rameses, the Strong in Truth, the beloved of Amen,” says the outer legend, “made this divine abode for his wife, Nefertari, whom he loves.” Within the words are “his royal wife, who loves him, Nefertari, the beloved of Maut, constructed for him this abode in the mountain of Pure Waters.”
Curtis says, “In these faces of Rameses, seven feet long, is a godlike grandeur and beauty which the Greeks never reached—the mind cannot escape the feeling that they were conceivedby colossal minds. Such only cherish the idea of repose so profound—their beauty is steeped in a placid passion that seems passionless. In those earlier days Art was not content with the grace of Nature, but coped with its proportions. Vain attempt, but glorious!”
Miss Edwards was present and took part in the discovery of some portions of this edifice and describes the occurrences and her sensations with her usual picturesqueness and enthusiasm.
On the inner north wall there is a picture, presumably of Queen Nofritari, with a blue head-dress and disk, in her right hand the ankh or life sign and in her left a jackal-headed sceptre. Vases of a blue color stand on a table of offerings near.
It is at this temple that we know Rameses best, fifteen or twenty years later than the pictures of him before described. Here, to quote from the same author, he has “outlived the rage of early youth and become implacable. God-like serenity, superhuman pride, immutable will breathe from the stone. He has learned to believe his power irresistible and himself divine.”
The queen wears the plumes and disk of Hathor and has her daughters with her. She has much sweetness and grace if not positive beauty.
The colossi are difficult to see but the southernmost may be best viewed in profile on a sand slope level with the beard. Even the great cast in the British Museum cannot be well seen. The temple at Abou Simbel has one hall and manylarge chambers. The colossi are placed two to the right and two to left of the door; they are sixty feet high without the platform and measure across the chest twenty-five feet four inches. The figures are sealed, but if standing would be eighty-three feet high. Little dimples giving sweetness to the corners of the mouth and, tiny depressions in the lobe of the ear, are as large as saucers. The most southward statue is best preserved. The next statue is shattered to the waist, the head lying in the sand, at its feet. The third is nearly perfect. The fourth has lost beard, uraeus and arms, and has a hole in front. The heads are worked out, the bodies generalized. The figures are naked to the waist, and clothed below in the usual striped tunic. They wear the double crown, rich collars, no sandals or bracelets, and there are holes in the stone which may have held bronze or gold belts. The cartouches of the king are on his breast, and arm, having been probably tatooed upon his person. The statues are executed in a light vein of rock and were, it is likely, not painted, like those of Siva’s temple in Elephantine, in India. Above the door is a twenty-foot statue of Ra and on either side a portrait of the king in bas relief.
The smaller temple has six statues, three on each side of the door, over thirty feet high, the King and Queen Nofritari. The king is crowned with the pashent, and uraeus and wears a fantastic helmet, adorned with plumes and horns. He has some of his sons, she her daughters with her, ten feet in height, reaching to the knees oftheir parents. The names of the royal consorts appear on every pillar and on every wall, with the statement that affection unites them. The queen is seen on the facade as the mother of six children and adorned with the attributes of a goddess. The king is attended by captives of different nations. The temple seems to have been left unfinished. The larger temple is within twenty-five yards of the brink of the river, the smaller within as many feet. They are of different shades of yellow.
In some of the pictures the figures wear pectoral ornaments and a rich necklace, with alternate vermilion and black drops, and a golden yellow belt, studded with red and black stones. The throne is on a blue platform, painted in stripes, red, blue and white. The platform is decorated with gold colored stars and tan crosses, picked out with red. Amon-Ra, the god whom they worship, is here represented with a blue-black complexion, a corselet of gold chain, armor, and a head-dress of towering plumes. On the altar is a blue lotus with a red stalk, and a vessel with a spout like a coffee pot. There are as many varieties of this god in Egypt as of the Madonna in Italy and Spain.
An earthquake in the time of Rameses II may have accounted for the partial overthrow of the statues on the outside of the temple. The cast of a stele in the Louvre states that Rameses II made artesian wells in the desert.
In one of the pictures of the queen she advances with two sistra, the sacred instrument introducedin the Fourth Dynasty, time of Mertytefs. This consists of a frame, somewhat oval in shape, with bars across, strung with rings, which slipped up and down. We can fancy the music produced to be rather Chinese in character and not such as would appeal to Western ears as charming. The priestess of the god was the “divine wife,” or the “divine handmaid,” a position of great honor, even for the queen. The handle of the sistrum in the oldest times was always cow-eared and ornamented with the head of Hathor, the Egyptian Venus.
One of the goddesses to whom the queen is paying honor is Ta-ur-t, who has the face of a woman on the body of a hippopotamus. She wears a wig, and a robe of state with five capes, described as a cross between that of a Lord Chancellor and a coachman. Behind the goddess stand the gods Thoth and Nut.
Thebes was no doubt the chief residence of Queen Nofritari, Tunis that of the Khitan Princess; the king’s enormous domestic establishments probably being in different places. There is a story, who can tell whether it be founded on fact? that the king and queen, by the treacherous dealing of one of the king’s relatives, were shut up in a certain city which was then set on fire, the intriguer doubtless intending to usurp the throne, and that at the queen’s suggestion some of the king’s sons formed their bodies into a bridge by which he might escape, some of them suffering death in consequence.
The great Thebes is said to have been as largeas London. On the Eastern bank, the Arabian side of the Nile, stand Karnak and Luxor. On the western or Lybian bank, Goornah, the Rameseum and Medinet Haboo. The Rameseum, a palace and temple combined, faces about half way between Karnak and Luxor. Medinet Haboo is further to the south than any building on the east side of the river. Behind the western group is the great Theban Metropolis, along the Lybian range, further back in radiating valleys, are the Tombs of the Kings. Between Karnak and Luxor is a little less than two miles, from Medinet Haboo to Goornah something under four.
The prostrate statue of Rameses II, near Memphis, so long covered with Nile mud, repeats the lineaments of the Abou Simbel statue. This colossus kept vigil at the gate of the temple and is serene and dignified, even in its overthrow; it is of Syenite and probably stood in front of the temple of Ptah, mentioned both by Herodotus and Diodorus. Says a poetic writer, “I fancy the repose of that court in a Theban sunset, the windless stillness of the air, and cloudlessness of the sky. The king enters, thoughtfully pacing by the calm browed statue, that seems the sentinel of heaven. In the presence of the majestic columns, humanly carved, their hands sedately folded upon their breasts—his weary soul is bathed with peace, as a weary body with living water.” This statue is one of the most pleasing of the many likenesses of Rameses II, and a cast of it has been taken. Mariette said “the headmodelled with a grandeur of style which one never tires of admiring, is an authentic portrait of the celebrated conqueror of the Nineteenth Dynasty.”
The pre-nomen of Rameses II was “Ra-usr-mat-setep-en-Ra,” “Sun strong in Truth, approved of the Sun, son of the Sun, Beloved of Amon.” The foot is eleven feet by four feet ten inches, and on the peristyle is inscribed, “I am Osymandies, King of Kings. If any would know how great I am and where I lie, let him excel me in any of my works.”
The passion for building, characteristic of many Egyptian kings, was specially strong in the father and son, Seti I and Rameses II, and the latter completed many structures begun by the former. To Seti I are credited the grand temple of Osiris at Abydos, the temple and palace of Karnak at Thebes, and his tomb, which is said to excel those of the other Theban kings in its sculpture, colored decorations and alabaster sarcophagi. But his Hypostyle Hall at Karnak exceeds them all.
To Rameses II are credited many architectural works along the Nile, from the Delta to the capital of Ethiopia. The list comprises the splendid rock temples at Abou Simbel, in Nubia, just described, the Rammesium or Memnonium, called by Diodorus “the tomb of Osymandius,” on the walls of which are sculptured the story of Rameses’ reign, large portions of the temple palaces of Karnak and Luxor, before which last stands the column whose mate is now in the Place de la Concorde in Paris, a small templeat Abydos, and various works in the Fayum, at Memphis and at Tunis, of which last he was especially fond. In nothing apparently did he take more delight than in erecting gigantic statues of himself.
To accomplish these great architectural designs required an immense army of workmen and no monarch was more ruthless in his expenditure of human life. Some have believed that to this period belongs in large part the slavery of the Hebrews, whose cries reached the very ears of Heaven and it is said that he deported whole tribes to accomplish his purposes. History repeats itself; as in the earlier reigns, during the structure of the pyramids, and Queen Nofritari Minimut, like Queen Mertytefs, must have witnessed much suffering and viewed it perhaps with a like indifference. Proud of her husband’s deeds and accomplishments, what mattered the cost of such monuments. Of little more value than an insect’s life was that of the innumerable slaves that bowed, trembled and toiled at the great monarch’s command. We can believe that the sound of the taskmaster’s whip woke no echo of pity in that haughty breast. Devotion to the gods, exultation in her husband, more or less passionate devotion to her children, these left no room for the consideration of the life and sorrows of a slave.
“By the Nile the sacred riverI can see the captive hordesBend beneath the lash and quiverAt the long papyrus cords;While in granite wrapt and solemnRising over roof and columnAmen-Hotep dreams or Rameses,Lord of Lords.”
“By the Nile the sacred riverI can see the captive hordesBend beneath the lash and quiverAt the long papyrus cords;While in granite wrapt and solemnRising over roof and columnAmen-Hotep dreams or Rameses,Lord of Lords.”
“By the Nile the sacred river
I can see the captive hordes
Bend beneath the lash and quiver
At the long papyrus cords;
While in granite wrapt and solemn
Rising over roof and column
Amen-Hotep dreams or Rameses,
Lord of Lords.”
So the curtain drops over the queen in the zenith of her powers, and we hear the tinkle of her sistrum, faintly, faintly down the centuries. Priestess, queen, wife, mother, statue, shadow—thus she stands smiling stonily, yet sweetly, on succeeding ages. Rich in this world’s goods, beloved of Heaven. Yet did she, too, exclaim with Solomon, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!” Who can tell?
The many wived Rameses II, if so he was, did not adopt Blue Beard’s plan of despatching one before he espoused another, but merely set up separate establishments for each, and so preserved the peace. The king could do no wrong in those days, his divine right never being questioned, and it may be doubted whether the first wife was surprised at, or even objected to, the arrangement. It was an early form of Mormonism and accepted without protest.
While Queen Nofritari-Minimut was, there is little question, first and chief wife, and probably had been so for many years, and also the mother of a number of children, the Keetan princess, and perhaps others, shared the honor of being legal consort.
We know little about the marriage ceremonials of the Egyptians, compared to our very full knowledge of their funeral rites, but a late writer thus describes a wedding which may in part resemble that used by the kings. “At the temple the people remained outside the walls, while the bride and groom, the pharaoh and dignitaries, entered the hall of columns. There Hebron (thebride) burned incense before the veiled statue of Amon, priestesses performed a sacred dance and Tutmosis (the groom) read the following act from a papyrus:
“‘I, Tutmosis, commander of the guard of his holiness Rameses XIII, take thee, Hebron, daughter of Antefa, the monarch of Thebes, to wife, as wife—I give thee now the sum of ten talents, because thou hast consented to marry me. For thy robes I designate to thee three talents yearly, and for household expenses one talent a month. Of the children which we may have the eldest son will be heir to the property, which I possess now, and which I may acquire hereafter, if I should not live with thee, but divorce myself and take another wife, I shall be obliged to pay thee forty talents, which sum I secure with my property. Our son on receiving his estate is to pay thee fifteen talents yearly. Children of another wife are to have no right to the property of our first-born son.’
“The chief judge appeared now and read an act in which the bride promised to give good food and raiment to her husband, to care for his house, family, servants, slaves and cattle, and to entrust to that husband the management of the property which she had received, or would receive, from her father.
“After the facts were read Herhor gave Tutmosis a goblet of wine. The bridegroom drank half, the bride moistened her lips with it, and then both burned incense before the purple curtain.
“Leaving the temple of Amon the young couple and their splendid retinue passed through the avenue of sphinxes, to the pharaoh’s palace. Crowds of people and warriors greeted them with shouts, scattering flowers on their pathway.”
The experience of this same Khitan or Chetan princess, who adopted the name of Ur-maa-nofru-ra, or, as given in other places, Noferura-Urmda and Ra-maa-nofre, “Sun, Truth, Beautiful exceedingly,” reminds one of that of Maria Louisa of Austria, who became the wife of Napoleon First of France. The father of each had to bow the neck to the conqueror, the daughter became in a sense the hostage, she paid the penalty of defeat. There could not but have been a sense of bitterness at such a fate, in which love could have had no share. How far did ambition, the feeling of being the wife of the greatest monarch of the then known world, satisfy the empty heart?
Among Rameses II’s numerous children his favorites are known to have been his son, Khamus, and his daughter, Bint-Antha, both perhaps the children of Nofritari-Minimut, though one writer gives Isemofer, probably not a legal consort, as the mother of Khamus. We do not know the names of the children of the Khitan princess or even if she had any. A picture of a number of his sons and daughters, with names attached, the sons with fans, the daughters with sistra, is between Elephantine and Abou Simbel.
Among the pictures of his children are those of the Ramessium at Thebes, where Khamus, hisfavorite son, is represented in a battle. There are two processions of his children and in one, two princesses. The eldest son of the Pharaoh was called “Prince of Cush,” as the eldest son of the king of England is now called “Prince of Wales.”
“Sutem-hemt” was the royal wife, “Sutem-Mut,” the royal mother, as such in the prime of life we see Queen Nofritari-Minimut. Queen Urm-maa-nofru-ra appears only in her beautiful youth, as the bride; she herself, says one inscription, “knew not the impression her beauty made on the heart of the king.” In a novel founded on this part of Egyptian history a queen is thus described, “her eyes were the color of her hair, a rich sunny brown, like Syriac women of Damascus. On her head the double diadem of Thebes and Memphis, the inner crown a graceful conical bonnet of white silk, terminating in a knob like a pomegranite bud. Outside a rich band of gold and lined with red silk; red, the special color of Lower, as white was of Upper Egypt; this was open at the top and worn over the other. Then a necklace of precious stones, with a clasp of a vulture, his neck encircled by an asp, emblem of the goddess, Maut. She wore a white vestment of gauzy Persian silk, enriched with gold and blue needlework below the waist, and secured by a girdle blazing with diamonds. A long royal robe from the Damascus looms descended to her feet.” Some such outline perhaps conveys an idea of the new queen. Not an exact portrait, but a mere suggestion, helpful in filling in our mosaic.
Beautiful we may believe her to have been, and much the junior of the man she must needs accept for a husband. She was never allowed to forget the cost at which her honors were bought, however; on many walls of temples and perhaps palaces also, the painted record stared her in the face. Yet did the conqueror regard his adversary, Khitazar or Khitasar, king or prince of the Khitans (by some believed to be the Hittites of the Scriptures or, accord to others, the Aramaeans), as no mean foe and the compact of peace between them, which was engraved on a silver tablet, was honorable to both. King Khitazar seems to have inspired Rameses II with more respect than some of his adversaries, on whom he looked down with the utmost contempt. It is said that he refused an offer of marriage for one of his daughters from a Mesopotamian prince or king, stating that he would not give his daughter to a “nobody.”
The vanquished Kitazar offered his daughter to the victor, who accepted this marriage as a means of cementing the alliance between them. Rameses had married Nofritari-Minimut, who is spoken of as the “great princess, of every grace in her heart, the beloved palm, mistress of both lands, beloved of the king and united with the ruler,” before the death of his father, Seti I, Ur-maa-nofru-ra years after. The queen’s establishments were far apart, probably they seldom or never met, but doubtless Queen Nofritari-Minimut held proudly to her position as first consort. Both queens must have had some acquaintancewith the king’s singular and dangerous pet, the lion, who fought with him in his battle against the Khita, one of which is named in the picture in which he accompanied the king, “Smaru-khef-tu-f,” “the tearer in pieces.”
According to most authorities the marriage of Rameses II and Ur-maa-nofru-ra took place in the fifth year of the king’s sole reign. Near the temple of Abou-Simbel there is a passage in the rocks, where there is a picture of Rameses II, sitting under a canopy, between two gods, while before him appears the Khitan princess, followed by her father, Kitazar, in the dress of his country. The princess’ name is enclosed with that of Rameses II in a royal cartouche, which shows her to have been his legal consort. The stele celebrating this event was probably put up in the 34th year of his reign, a number of years after the marriage.
Perhaps the most ancient international treaty in the world, which differs little from those of modern times, is this concordat established between Rameses II and Kitazar, which was intended to put an end to the wars between the Egyptians and Asiatics. On the side wall of the temple of Amon at Karnak it is given in an inscription. It is dated 21st Tybi, in 21st year of Rameses II Miamun, in the town of Tanis and was engraved on a silver tablet and brought by ambassadors of peace. After speaking of the fact that there had been peace between their ancestors at one time, it goes on to say, “Khetasar, prince of the Khita, unites with Rameses Miamun,the mighty king of Egypt, to cause to exist between them good peace and good alliance, from this time on forever. He shall be allied with me, he shall be at peace with me. And I, I shall be allied with him, and I, I shall be at peace with him forever.” Many pictures of the battles which preceded this agreement of peace are also to be seen on the temple walls.
Rameses II’s reign was also something of an Elizabethan age in Egyptian literature. A number of old works on papyrus have been found, left by a galaxy of Theban writers. History, divinity, practical philosophy, poetry and tales are among them. A list of temple scribes is given, naming Bek-en-tah, Qu-ge-bu, Hor Anna, Mer-Em-aput, Amen-em-api, Pan and Pentaur. The victorious campaign of Rameses II against the Ethiopians is described by Herodotus, who perhaps derived his authority from some of these sources. Pentaur, sometimes spoken of as the jovial poet, was easily laureate of this reign. In high, joyful, but martial strains, he celebrated, in heroic verse, the achievements of his master. He glorifies his every deed and makes him a demi-god rather than a man. Again and again Rameses II had Pentaur’s poem, the so-called Iliad of the Egyptians, inscribed on the temple walls. To the east of the southern door, near the great Hall of Columns at Karnak, the poem is to be found. At Abydos, Luxor, Karnak, the Ramessium, on the inner face of the pylon at the Ramessium, and at the Memnonium or tomb of Osymandeus and Abou-Simbel the same familiarscene of Rameses fighting alone is pictured or described. The king is shown in a chariot with prancing horses, and again on a throne with the inscription, “Victory for Thebes.” Four of these copies of the poem are perfect, at Abydos, Luxor and Abou-Simbel, a fifth, without illustration, is on the wall of the temple of Karnak and a fragment at the temple of Deir in Nubia.
“Where art thou, O father Amon!” prays the king, “Does a father forsake his son? Not one of my generals, not one of my captains is with me.” “I hasten to thine aid, O Rameses, my son, beloved of Amon,” answers the god and singly and alone enables him to perform prodigies of valor. “My soldiers have abandoned me, my horsemen have fled,” cries the king. “I am more to thee than hundreds of thousands,” comes the response and again, “the youthful king with his bold hand has not his equal. His arms are powerful, his heart is firm. His courage is like that of the god of war.” Again the king speaks. “The diadem of the royal snake adorns my head. It spits fire and glowing flame in the face of my enemies. They cried out to one another, ‘Take care! Do not fall, for the powerful snake of royalty has placed itself on his horse.’” The great temple of Abou-Simbel is said by some to have been made in honor of his first victory over the Khitans, years before his marriage with the princess. “The freshness of the statues there,” says Curtis, “is startling. It is sublime.”
All these laudations gratified the king’s pride, for the little queen there must have been in it allsomething of a trial. But it was not a time distinguished for consideration of the feelings of others. For her the old life was probably closed; there was not likely to have been much intercourse, merely for her pleasure, between her and her family. For purposes of war, and perhaps for hunting, they went far afield, but we can well believe that few trips to a distance, solely for the pleasure of the ladies, were undertaken.
Innumerable are the pictures and statues of Rameses II. Alone, with Queen Nofritare-Minimut and his sons and daughters, and in one or two places with his wife, the Khitan princess. At Gibel Silsileh, on a tablet, is a picture of the king, Queen Nofritari Minimut, Queen Tuaa or Ti, the king’s mother, and the princess Bint-antha, all appear in a bas-relief. Again the king appears before the gods Ptah and Nefertum. A stele in the third year of the reign of Rameses II gives the route to the gold mines which Rameses had worked. In the rock temple of Gerf Husen the king appears as a founder and god to be worshipped. In the half rock temple of Sebuah is a large statue of him. At the temple of Deir there is another picture of him. On the stele of a certain General Amenti, near Abou-Simbel appears Prince Seti, named, of course, for the father of Rameses II, the king’s mother and the Princess Bint Antha. There are, or were, enormous statues of the king at Karnak, Tanis, and elsewhere.
To the British Museum and other places in Europe some of these statues have been removed,and among those in this country may be named one in the museum of the University of Pennsylvania. In the museum of Gizeh is a red granite figure of Rameses II, life size, as a youth, at eighteen or twenty, crowned with an elaborate Osirian helmet, issuing from a diadem, encircled by uraei; this known as the atef-crown.
The Hebrews, some believe to have been the slaves who built for Rameses II the treasure cities of Pithon and Rameses, the Pa-Tum and Pa-Rameses of the inscriptions, and bricks made with stubble, or no straw, have been found, confirming, it is thought, the Bible record. The Egyptian kings, bent on leaving behind them such mammoth structures, all worked with a reckless expenditure of the lives of their slaves and captives.
Some of the pictures on tombs give representations of conquered peoples, such as the brown and coal black people of the Soudan, their princess in a chariot drawn by oxen and shaded by an umbrella, her attendants with feathers in their hair and a kind of hood, like that worn by some wild tribes in the present day.
Rameses II instituted several festivals, among which may be mentioned that of the Nile and that of Seknet and the goddess Bast at Bubastis, where joyous and licentious festivals, like those of Hathor, at Denderah, were held. At the former festival the king was seated on a throne, borne by twelve nobles, adorned with feathers, the throne having the back and feet of a lion. The king wore a war helmet and carried a staff.Behind were the court officials, warding off the sun’s rays, with the long-handled flabellium, while the lower order of priests, the Kherheb, carried and swung censors of incense. Trains of captives followed and the king was hailed as “Rameses Miamun, who loves the Nile, the father of the gods, his creator.”
As the Nile rose lights were lighted like beacon fires at different points, till the whole country was a blaze of joyful illumination. To the inhabitants the rising of the Nile meant in great degree life, health and happiness. A hymn sung to celebrate this desired event is vouched for by Glovatski, who has evidently made a close study of his subject, as authentic. “Be greeted, O Nile, sacred river, which appearest on this country! Thou comest in peace to give life to Egypt. O hidden deity, who scatterest darkness, who moistenest the fields to bring food to dumb animals, O thou precious one, descending from heaven to give drink to the earth, O friend of bread, thou who gladdenest our cottages! Thou art the master of fishes; when thou art in our fields no bird dares touch the harvest. Thou art the creator of grain and the parent of barley; thou givest rest to the hands of millions of the unfortunate and for ages thou securest the sanctuary.” In some such words as these rose to the blue heavens the praise and acclaim of the grateful people.
In the month Paofi, the second half of July, the waters are rising as much as two hands a day, so that the waves in a continuous murmur may be heard plashing over soil dry in the morning,while the color changes from greenish white to a ruddy tint. Then growing darker, as in the month Hator, including part of August, it has reached half its height, and where men previously walked they now travel in boats from the middle of September to the middle of October, the month Cheoeak, the waters at their height began to fall, while trees blossomed a second time, and fruits were gathered in the gardens. For the next month, Tobi, the waters would continue to fall disclosing more and more of the rich and fructified earth. While the winter season, the most delightful in Egypt, was beginning, the heat rarely going beyond 70 Fahrenheit. As the month Mechir advanced more and more land appeared and flowers of varied hue sprang up amid the emerald green of the fresh grass. By Phaenoth, part of December, and January, the whole land was abloom. No wonder the heavens rang with the acclaim of the people who witnessed this daily miracle.
Bubastis was the goddess Aphrodite of foreigners, represented with the head of a lion or cat. The cat was sacred to this goddess and said to have honorable burial here. Indeed a regular cat cemetery, filled with the remains of mummied felines, has been found. The feast was held at what corresponds to our Christmas time, and Herodotus thus describes it. “When the Egyptians travel to Bubastis they do it in this manner. Men and women sail together and in each boat there are many persons of both sexes. Some of the women make a noise with rattles and someblow pipes during the whole journey, while the other men and women sing and clap their hands. If they pass a town on the way they lay to and some of the women land and shout and mock at the women of the place, while others dance and make a disturbance. They do this at every town that lies on the Nile and when they arrive at Bubastis they begin the festival with great sacrifices and on this occasion more wine is consumed than during the whole of the rest of the year. All the people of both sexes, except children, make a pilgrimage thither, 700,000 persons in all, as the Egyptians assert.” In these festivals both queens probably, separately or together, took a share.
Amen-Ra was the patron deity of Rameses II, but he also paid homage to Sutech in honor probably to his Khitan wife, as this was chiefly confined to Tanis, where we may believe Ur-maa-nofru-ra resided. The god is represented with the head-dress of a Khitan prince. Whatever travelling she may have done, whatever her experiences, Tanis was home to this queen, while the city grew in magnificence and she watched the erection of a grand temple to the god of her fathers, some proof at least that she held a high place in Rameses’ affection and regard.
The name Thebes is of Greek origin, as are many of the Egyptian places, our knowledge of the country being in so large a part derived from the Greeks. Tanis also was so named by the Greeks. This formerly great city, of which now only mounds, ruins, etc., remain, was variouslyknown as Tanis, Zoan, or San, the last of Arab designation. It is believed by some authorities to be the Zoan of the Bible, where the miracles were performed. Its history is now told by broken statues, mounds, tombs and hieroglyphics. Scarcely one stone remains upon another. It is in the Delta of the Nile and is called in some of the inscriptions, “The Place of the Leg,” “The Winged Disk of the North,” and “The Cradle of Lower Egypt.” It was an old city when Rameses II occupied and embellished it. He never hesitated to pull down and use the materials with which his predecessors had builded, nor to smooth out their cartouches and replace them with his own. Why should he, the greatest monarch the world had ever known, as he doubtless thought himself, shrink from taking his full rights or even obliterating the name and fame of some more insignificant ancestor. And devoted as he seemed to have been to his father’s memory, he even did the like occasionally with his father’s signature.
The monumental history of Tanis, it is said, begins with the Twelfth Dynasty, a fine broken statue of Amenemhat I having been found. Then follow memorials of later times. Superb statues of the Hyksos period have also been discovered. Of the work of Rameses II it is quoted that “he found the place given over to the abomination of desolation, he left it one of the most magnificent of Egyptian cities.” For this purpose he laid all Egypt under contribution, red granite and black from Syene, and the Valley of Hammamat,sandstone and limestone from Silsilis and Toorah. His great temples to the gods were but as the parchment on which he inscribed the story of his own victories. It was the spirit of the Pharisee which said, ‘I am not as other men are.’
Wars and fires at different times have done much to obliterate Tanis and its records as well as to destroy all traces of it. Mr. Petrie, who, like many archeologists, spares neither strength nor effort to bring to light the history of the past, with the true lover’s fervency in his favorite pursuit, which is to be a gain not to himself, but to the world, and Miss Edwards, who to a close study of the old ruins and remains, adds a charming power of picturesque description, have both told much of Tanis. We condense their accounts of the city at this past era. The Nile was alive with vessels, the banks bordered with towns and villas, the land beyond occupied by villages. The great temple, which looked like a fortress, was half a mile from the shore, and approached by a fine road, in part bordered by sphinxes and the city entered by a massive gateway. Gigantic statues of the king alternated with sphinxes, the last statue being fourteen times the size of a man. There was a grand avenue bordered by columns, thirty-six feet in height. Pylons, statues, obelisks, a very forest of them—the tribute of the previous centuries, many of them, to the present king. Through these passed many processions, the king, his son and officials, his warriors and his captives. He, with the double crown on hishead, and glittering with jewels, the leopard skin over his shoulders, to be received by the priests, with divine honors, amid the plaudits and adulation of the people. All to the sound of the harp and flute, cimbals and sistrum. The queen doubtless looking, from some gorgeously decorated point of vantage when she did not personally share in the pageant.
This was the home of the young queen, these the magnificent sights to which her eyes were accustomed. Parts of private letters on parchment and on pottery have been found, telling familiarly of the feasts and festivals, the expenses and the daily incidents of the life of this period. And the love stories and other fragments of fiction which have, come down to us also give their share of local color.
The last forty-six years of Rameses II’s long reign (which is said to have lasted sixty-seven) were peaceful, and says one author, “It became his passion and his pride to found new cities, to raise dykes, to dig canals, to build fortresses, to multiply statues, obelisks and inscriptions, and to erect the most costly temples in which man ever worshipped.”
His eldest sons appear to have died before him, or been passed over in the succession, for it was his thirteenth son, Meremptah, who shared his authority and eventually succeeded him. He is believed to have been the Pharaoh of the Exodus, as Rameses II of the oppression of the Israelites.
In strange contrast to the life of Rameses II was the disposition of his body after death; thereis a story told of the mummy of one of the Pharaohs, that in order to obtain entrance into Cairo, with his prize, Bruch Bey was obliged to pay octroi duty on “dead fish,” as the officials refused to admit it free of duty and the register contained no directions as to mummies. Doubtless Rameses II received magnificent burial, but in later reigns many royal tombs were rifled and his among them; the empty tomb now remains, but only filled with rubbish, the body of the king, with those of many others, being removed. Inscriptions record that this occurred more than once. In the sixteenth year of the reign of Pinotem I it was placed in the tomb of Amenophis I, so that even in death sometimes “uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” It is said that in 1880 his mummy was offered for sale to an American gentleman, who, doubting its genuineness, refused to purchase.
In 1881 the wonderful discovery of the shaft containing so many royal mummies was made, and their removal to the museum of Gizeh is thus described, “Already it was known, far and wide, that these kings and queens of ancient times were being conveyed to Cairo, and for more than fifty miles below Thebes the villages turned out en masse, not merely to stare at the piled decks, as the steamer went by, but to show respect to the illustrious dead. Women, running along the banks and shrieking the death wail; men, ranged in solemn silence and firing their guns in the air, greeted the Pharaohs as they passed.”
And so after change of burial place and even of coffin, one of the most celebrated of human monarchs lies in a museum, for the inspection of every careless passerby; a strong commentary on human greatness and human pride.
The mummy was unrolled, by Maspero, June, 1886, and was found to be five feet six inches in length. The head was small and long; the hair, apparently white at the time of death, was made yellow with drugs; the forehead, low and narrow; the eyebrows, arched and bushy; the eyes, small and close to the thin-hooked nose; the temples were hollow, the cheek bones prominent and the ears wearing rings were round. The expression he calls intelligent, but slightly sensual, proud, obstinate and majestic, even in death.
And what of Queen Urmaa-nofrura? As the bride alone, young and fair, she comes before us, and we find no record of her further history, or of her death. Was it in her power, as in that of the fair Queen Esther of Scripture, to do aught for the people of her native land or to influence in any way for good the haughty sovereign to whom she was allied? Perhaps, and perhaps only.