As Queen Urma-nofru-Ra may be considered the bride of life, so we may call Queen Tausert the bride of the tomb, since it is from her tomb alone that we learn anything of her history, and even there the information is most meagre. Her name is mentioned as Ta-ursr, Tauser, Tausert or Taosiri, and it makes her somewhat distinctive among the various Neferts and Tis. She is called “the great queen and the lady of the land, the princess of Upper and Lower Egypt.”
She is noteworthy chiefly as being of the blood royal and thus conferring dignity upon her husband, Siptah, or Si-Ptah, her name taking precedence of his on the monuments, as did that of Queen Ti, wife of Seti I. Also she was the last queen of the great Nineteenth Dynasty, of which Seti I and Rameses II were such renounced monarchs, and of whose queens Ti, Nofritari Mini-mut and Urma-nofru-Ra we have already given outline sketches. To this Dynasty, called Diospolites, Lepsius gives the date beginning 1443 B. C., and Wilkinson 1340 B. C., and one division makes it the Middle Empire.
The earliest Egyptian monarchs of whom wehave any record built for themselves tombs which seemed destined to last till eternity, the Pyramids, which some one has finely described as “stony tents where innumerable centuries have encamped, which time in vain seeks to drive from the field,” and which seem more like Druidical remains than specimens of architecture.
Says Lady Duff Gordon, in her charming “Letters:” “There is such a curious sight of a crowd of men carrying huge blocks of stone up out of a boat. One sees exactly how the stones were carried in ancient times; they sway their bodies all together like one great lithe animal, with many legs, and hum a low chant to keep time. It is quite unlike carrying heavy weights in Europe.”
Later kings spent their energies differently. They built palaces and temples and chose to be buried in caverns in the natural rocks through which they honeycombed innumerable passages, hewed out great halls, or constructed pits in which their mortal remains could be hidden from the light of day.
Rameses II lived to a ripe old age, his wives perhaps dying before him, as many of his children certainly did. Of their lives we know little, of their death nothing. The sacred books say of one Pharaoh, perhaps of Rameses II, that in heaven he will, at his pleasure, take wives from their husbands, so idolatrous was the worship accorded to these haughty, and often tyrannical kings. Seti I had, as we have seen, in early years united his son, Rameses, with himself inthe government of his kingdom, and Rameses II adopted the same plan, making his thirteenth son, Meremptah, co-ruler, with himself. In the government of the kingdom. The elder sons, of whom Khamus is known to have been an especial favorite of his father (as was Bint-Antha among the daughters), died before him, or there was some other reason which prevented their following in natural succession. The consensus of opinion seems to be that Rameses II was the oppressor of the Hebrews, and Meneptah the monarch from whom they escaped.
The Israelites are believed to have toiled on the temples, palaces and other architectural works at Tanis, and on the treasure city of Paten or Pithom. They are mentioned in a triumphal inscription, found by Petrie, near the temple of Medinet Aboo, opposite Thebes. It was engraved on an old slab, originally polished, inscribed and put in place in a temple, by Amen-hotep III, which Meremptah, with the ruthlessness of many of the kings, took and also inscribed on the back, or rougher side, to glorify himself. Part of it reads, “The Hittites are quieted. Taken is Askelon. The Israelites are
(Transcriber’s Note: A line (or more) seems to be missing here from the original.)
tions, who had invaded Egypt. Petrie also found, among the ruins of a funeral temple at Thebes, a bust of this king, in grey granite, which has “a firm and rather dogged expression, not untinged with melancholy.” The wife of Meremptah is given as Ast-Nefert or Isis Nefert, but of her personal history we know nothing. The mummy of a certain Queen Anhipu, said to belong to theNineteenth Dynasty, was found, but no details of her life.
Amenmesses “Mighty Bull, beloved of Maat,” is, by some authorities, said to have usurped the throne after Meremptah; his mother is given as Taak Taakhat, “divine mother, royal mother, great Lady,” and his wife as “royal spouse, the great one, lady of the two lands.” He built a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and he, with his mother and wife, are buried there. It has three corridors and two chambers, and in one his mother and in another his wife are making offerings to the gods.
Another list commonly given is as follows, Rameses II, then Meremptah, Seti II, his grandson, and Siptah, his great-grandson, perhaps by marriage. Reproductions of the pictures of Seti II and Siptah are given in Petrie’s articles, in Miss Edward’s “Pharaohs, Fellahs and Explorers,” as well doubtless as in other places, and she claims for each of them the distinctive features of the Rammeside family, long heads, long noses, long bodies and long legs. Photographs have been taken of Siptah and others from the bas-reliefs in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, at Thebes. Ebers, in his romance of “Joshua,” mentions Siptah as the nephew of Meremptah and as intriguing to supplant him.
Queen Tausert’s husband is elsewhere spoken of as Meremptah Siptah, the son of an usurper, giving color to the idea that it was she and not he who was the descendant of Rameses II. Among ordinary people the tomb was often preparedfor husband and wife together, and occasionally the mummy of the first who died was kept in the house till the death of the second, a constant suggestion that they might soon be reunited, and in pictures they are often betrayed with the arm of one around the neck or waist of the other, showing that affectionate relations were usual. Death and the future life appear to have occupied so large a share in the thoughts of the ancients that their daily life was a sort of Appian Way, lined with tombs, and we know much more of their funerals than of their marriages and other festivities.
The Egyptians were among the earliest, if not the earliest nation to regard literature, to write books (the inscribed papyrus roll being their printed page, to be handed down to posterity) and to preserve and value them.
The Book of the Dead, of which sections belonging to different periods have been found, was a sort of Bible, for which the Egyptians entertained the most profound respect and whose maxims they seem to have used, both as a guide in life and in their preparation of the dead for the tomb. The papyrus containing the tale of “The Two Brothers,” in which the younger was unjustly accused of wrongdoing towards his elder brother’s wife, bears some resemblance to the Bible story of Joseph’s experiences, and belongs to the period of Seti II.
Diodorus speaks of a sacred library which he said was inscribed “Dispensary of the Mind,” and belonged to the period of Rameses III; someruins believed to have been this building have been found. There was a great hall and several smaller rooms, supported by columns. “On the jamb of one of the smaller rooms,” says Kendrick, “was sculptured Thoth, the inventor of Letters, and the goddess Saf, his companion, with the title of ‘Lady of Letters and President of the Hall of Books,’ accompanied, the former with an emblem of the sense of sight, the latter with that of hearing.”
Treaties with foreign nations were often inscribed, like that of Rameses II and the father of Queen Urma-nofrura, on tablets of silver or other metal, while accounts, letters and more trivial matters, were written on pottery, fragments of which have come down to our own day. In these times, or even earlier, the Greeks made their way into Egypt, and through them, as well as from the monuments, we have derived much of our knowledge of the Egyptians.
A late writer on Egypt, Isaac Meyer, draws a parallel between Christianity and the old Egyptian religion, and advances a theory, more ingenious than reliable, that Christ may have been in Egypt later than in his infancy. The “Book of the Dead,” said to be the great storehouse of Egyptian theology, shows refined and ethical ideas. Horus, the sun-god, the victorious of the resurrection from the dead to eternal life, is found chief among the deities there represented, wearing the Osirian crown, and with an endless serpent, symbolic of eternity. Chapters of this book were found in isolated places, andat different times, “a collection of preceptus and maxims on the conduct of life.” Many had fragments of the revered volume buried beside them or engraved on scarabeii as ornaments and decorations. In later times than those which we are now considering the mummy of a young girl was found, with part of Homer in her coffin, having in life probably been devoted to his poetry.
Some archeologists and students see traces of original monotheism in the religion of the Egyptians, one central idea of deity perhaps under many forms, but the idea is not supported by general testimony. “Deities,” says one writer, “were merged into one another, qualities of one were attributed to another till the pantheon resembled the shifting pictures of the kaleidoscope.”
Some of the Egyptian precepts and maxims are not without their value in modern times, such as “If thou humblest thyself in obeying a superior, thy conduct is wholly good before God. Knowing who ought to obey and who ought to command, lift not thy heart against the latter.” And again, “If thou desirest thy conduct to be good and preserved from evil, keep thyself from attacks of bad temper. It is wrong to fly in a passion with one’s neighbor to the point of not knowing how to manage one’s words.”
Siptah is sometimes spoken of as an anti-king, regarded as an usurper, rather than a rightful heir, and his name is occasionally omitted from the list of kings. His Horus name is said to mean Horus rising in Khebit; he added nothing important to the temples and, though depicted inrelief in Silsila and other places, it is probably only commemorative of small repairs. Buried in his wife’s tomb, he was removed, in the troublous times of the Twentieth Dynasty, to the tomb of Amenhetep II. The original tomb has three or four corridors and several chambers. A picture of the queen, offering gifts to the gods, was plastered over by Sek-nebta, who usurped the tomb. The remains of the funeral temple of the king and queen were excavated by Professor Petrie in 1896. Her temple was between those of Meren-Ptah and Thothmes IV, and his north of the temple of Amenhetep II.
Another suggestion as regards Siptah is that he may have ruled over one part of Egypt—the rightful king over another. But, whatever the ambiguity of his earlier history, it is known that he was buried with his wife in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, Queen Tausert taking her place with her husband, and not among the Tombs of the Queens where so many of the royal ladies were laid.
There were probably revolutions and counter revolutions, till the reins of government were once more finally in the hands of Rameses III. Whether from the ambition of an usurper to be laid with the true line of kings, or from a deep affection, Siptah and Tausert shared their tomb, the queen probably having died first, and the king subsequently, no doubt by special order being laid beside her. The tomb was elaborately painted and inscribed, but much is faded by time and the light and air admitted by explorers. Champoleonbelieved, we are told, that he had discovered a cartouch of Seti-Nekht, engraved above that of Seti II, and the latter above that of Tausert and Siptah; but “there is no visible trace of this superposition which would assign to Siptah a date anterior to Seti II.”
One writer says of Tausert that who the queen was is unknown; she may have been a queen dowager, with special rights as daughter of a Pharaoh, and may have been the widow of Seti I and mother of the Prince of Cush, if so Siptah was her husband’s brother and child’s uncle. She is also spoken of as “hereditary daughter—exalted.”
Belzone made a close investigation of these tombs, discovering various points of interest which had escaped the notice of earlier explorers. The tombs were cut in the face of the limestone rock, with passages, steps and doorways, and a pit at the end, probably to discourage intruders. He broke through a wall which gave a hollow sound when struck, and discovered several more pillared halls and passages. The body, which, by embalming, was converted into a mummy, was, especially in the case of royalty and other distinguished people, most carefully preserved. First placed in a casket of cedar or other wood elaborately painted with figures of the gods, this again in an outer casket of wood, more roughly decorated, and finally in a stone sarcophagus.
Reference has been made before to a sort of court or trial which was held at the entrance tothe grave to decide if the deceased was worthy to enter the presence of Osiris.
In a modern Arab funeral a number of men walk first, chanting a ritual. The bier, with a high peak in front, like the prow of a Nile boat, is carried by friends and comes next, and upon the bier a tin horn is placed if the corpse is a man, a shawl and jewelry and other ornaments, if a woman, and a red shawl indicates youth. A more minute description of this is given by Pollard, in the “Land of the Monuments.” The funerals take place within a few hours of death. Different from the old Egyptian custom, the body in its winding sheet is covered with shawls, and the procession is closed by the chief mourners, followed by friends, sometimes walking hand in hand.
Details as regards the tomb of Tausert and Siptah are to be found in the guide books, but the passing traveller will probably glance hastily at pictures and inscriptions and hurry on; only the student has leisure or inclination for minute or accurate investigation. The tomb represents the royal couple absorbed in religious exercises, offering to the various gods and goddesses their prayers, praises and gifts. The queen stands before Harmachus, “god of the morning,” and Anubis, “the god of the dead,” and Ne-fer-tum-Hor, and again before Ptah, “the Opener,” and Ma, “goddess of Truth.” All representations of this last goddess are said to be “refined, calm and peaceful” in expression and worthy of the character of the goddess of Truth.
Then the king stands before Isis, “the mother,” and Horns, “the son,” and in other pictures the royal consorts are together before some god, perhaps carrying or crowned with flowers. And again the queen before Harmachus, Hathor, the Egyptian Venus, and Nepthys, “lady of the house.” The sarcophagus of Tausert bears her likeness, between Isis and Nepthys, a conventional idea of what a goddess was or should be, setting the pattern.
The tomb has also other pictures of some of the lesser gods, armed with knives, keeping guard over a chapel, to ward off evil ones, Hathor standing in the doorway. Again the king and the high priest, sacrificing to Osiris and the winged goddess Ma in the doorway of a chapel, signifying that only Truth may enter. Here is what is called the act of opening the mouth of the royal likeness in the Hall of Gold. The high priest appears with his staff and panther skin, the Kereb and lower priests, who take part in the ceremony, and the people as “those who come to the tomb,” offering incense. Various rooms are carved and ornamented with pictures of numerous gods, Thoth with the moon upon his head, Ma with outspread wings, serpents, boats and other symbols.
Mrs. Stevenson, who has made an especial study of Egyptian symbols, says that most of the Egyptian goddesses may be said, broadly speaking, to represent either luminous space, or the activity of the god with whom they are associated, and their common attributes make it easyfor the Egyptians to reduce them to one type. Sekhet, “the striker”; Neith, who “shoots”; Hat-Hor, meaning “the home of Horus,” the mother of Horus; one of those designations is “the mighty striker,” son of Hat-Hor, and who, at Dendereh, where she was especially worshipped as the “holy one,” is expressly called Sekhet-Neith, while all are called “Eye of Ra.” “There are,” she continues, “exceptions, such as Maut, who represents abstract truth and justice, Safekh, etc.; and in certain localities where the goddess stood alone, like Neith at Sais, she included all the attributes of divinity, but her place in the local triad is as indicated above.”
But to return to the tomb. One hall with seats seems to suggest that another sarcophagus rested there. So we spell out, read and speculate over these monuments of long ago. This king and queen were doubtless buried with great honors; which was it, love or ambition, that ruled their lives and stamped with its signet even their tomb? Could it be said of them that “they were lovely in their lives and in death they were not divided”? Evidently they did not wish to accept the common lot of man, to pass away and be forgotten.
From the time of Rameses II to that of the Ptolemy period no queen seems to make a marked impression on the passing centuries. We have here and there a name, here and there an anecdote; but no figure, with salient points, stands out, about which cluster vitalizing incidents, or upon whom we may drape a robe of woven romance. Nor were there many, even among the kings, who have the bold outlines of some of their predecessors.
Seck-net or Seti-nekht was first of the Twentieth Dynasty, is believed to have reigned seven years, and united with himself, and was succeeded by, his son Rameses III. He seems to have made no special mark upon his time, was neither a great ruler nor a great builder, and we know little of him. There is a picture of him and Rameses III kneeling on either side of the sun’s disk, and he appropriated and enlarged the tomb of Queen Tausert for himself, covering the figures and name of the queen with stucco.
Rameses III was a builder of temples, a rich, magnificent and splendor-loving monarch, a warrior and conqueror. His Hobrus names were“Mighty bull, great one of kings,” and “Mighty bull, beloved of Maat, establisher of the lands.” But, even at a period, whose moral point of view was so different from the Christian, it is claimed that this was a court distinguished for its licentiousness. His queen’s name is given as Ast, or Ise, also as Hemalczotha, which seems to suggest that she was a foreigner, possibly a Khitan or Assyrian princess. Her father is spoken of as Hebuansozanath. Often the space beside the king’s name is left vacant, as if she could not or would not appear in his company. From her tomb also her name is obliterated, while that of her husband and son remain.
The walls of the temples and palaces built by Rameses III are adorned with the story of his life. There are naval engagements, the ships with embroidered sails, and the king is seen as a conqueror, of the Libyans and others, carried in state above the heads of the people, surrounded by priests and followed by warriors and captives, while in other processions the queen also appears, following. The great Harris papyrus, too, of the thirty-second year of his reign, found near the temple of Medinet-Abou or Haboo, gives much information concerning him and a long list of gifts which he presented to the temples.
Among the other pictures on the walls we see Rameses III enjoying himself in the midst of, some say his daughters, but more probably the members or slaves of his harem. Others, again, believe them to be intended for goddesses or mythological characters. Sylph-like figures attend uponthe king. To quote from a previous article upon the subject, “One plays draughts with him, another holds a lotus blossom to his nose (a favorite attention in Egypt), others offer him wine and refreshments. The queen, as a chief figure, nowhere appears. The costumes approach that of the Garden of Eden, a necklace and light sandals. We are reminded of the description of a Japanese family: ‘The summer costume of a middle class Japanese consists of a queue, a breechcloth and a pair of sandals; that of his son and heir the same minus the queue, the cloth and the sandals, while that of his spouse is a little, and only a little more elaborate.’”
It is impossible, naively and gravely, remarks one critic, rather than from the standpoint of the Twentieth Century, than the Twentieth Dynasty, that respectable families should so have conducted themselves, therefore the garments must have evaporated in the course of years. But it was so near the Garden of Eden, the climate was so warm, and the little creatures seem so at ease in their airy nothings, that it is almost appears as if “beauty unadorned was adorned the most.” Some of the pictures are too obscene for reproduction.
It is of interest to note how very ancient are certain games, such as chess, draughts or checkers, and others which still hold a place among our modern amusements. Other pictures, discovered years ago in the mastabas or grave chambers, of still earlier date, 5200 B. C., give also thegame of chess, the invention of which has been attributed both to India and China.
Extensive insurrection and disturbances, it is evident, had prevailed in the kingdom, and that Rameses III had brought order out of the chaos. He described himself as “the darling of Amen, the victory-bringing Horus.” After his conquests he turned his attention to building, commerce, digging of reservoirs and planting of trees; nevertheless a general decline of Egypt is said to have begun in his reign.
But if the king had restored order in the land, not so well had he kept his own household in check. Records remain of a conspiracy which arose in his harem, headed by the Lady Ti, Thi, or Tey, said to be the mother of a certain Pentaur or Pen-ta-urt, whom she wished to put upon the throne. She probably hated the “royal wife, the great lady, the lady of two lands, Ast.” In exactly what way the Lady Ti was related to the king is not specified. In both the museums of Paris and Turin there is some account of thiscause celebre. The steward, Pal-bak-Amen, was her chief co-adjutor, also a certain Penhuiban or Hui, a cattle inspector, who indulged in “Black Art,” made amulets and images of wax for ladies, and had books containing directions how to strike people blind and to make figures in effigy to bring trouble upon any one who was hated. Melting wax figures and sticking pins in them to harm an enemy we think of as belonging to the age of Queen Elizabeth, and lo, it was known and practiced in Egypt thousands of years before!
On the other hand, may it not have been also possible that Queen Ise or Ast had some share in the plot, or at least sympathized with it, thus giving another reason for the non-appearance of her name beside the king’s. One of the ladies concerned wrote to her brother, commanding the army in Ethiopia, and ordered or entreated him to fight against the king. But whether he did as was desired or not, the revolt was unsuccessful. It was crushed with some severity, and it is said forty men and six women were compelled to commit suicide, and a mummy, thought to be that of Pentaur, and showing signs of death by poison, has been found.
Rameses III reigned thirty-seven years, and there is a list of his sons, several of whom succeeded him. He was buried in the Tombs of the Kings, doubtless with all the honors of state, but his body was not allowed to rest in peace, it was included in the general upheaval caused by robbers, before described. His mummy was found in the large coffin of Nefertari-Aames, and on being unrolled fell to dust. His features were said to be softer, finer and more intelligent than some of his predecessors, his figure less straight and vigorous and his shoulders narrower. His red granite sarcophagus is in the Louvre and the lid in the Fitz-William museum at Cambridge. His tomb is sometimes called “the Harpers,” from the figure of two harpers in a scene on one side, also “Bruce’s tomb” from the name of the modern discoverer. Among the treasures found in thistomb were two golden baskets. His period is given as 1200 B. C.
Rameses III was succeeded by his sons or connections of the same name, who followed him, as one writer has said, with “ominous rapidity,” from number one to number thirteen. They seem to have been a faineant race, and the proud name of Rameses degenerated from reign to reign. Here and there in the Tombs of the Kings, or in other spots, we find their last resting places.
Among them, perhaps, Rameses IV was one of the most conspicuous; and his queen, given as Isis-Ast, was buried in the Tombs of the Queens. The tombs of Rameses IV and VI are decorated with astronomical designs; the sun appears in his chariot as Horus-Ra, and that of Rameses IV has pictures of the resurrection. The seventh son is given as Ramessu Meritum, son of Queen Muf-nofer-ari.
A papyrus of the time of Rameses IX gives an account of the violation of the royal tombs by robbers, which was then discovered; and this Abbott papyrus contains a list of the tombs inspected, hence the mummies were removed at different periods from place to place for greater safety. A woman called “Little Cat” confessed that she had been in the tomb of Queen Ast, wife of Rameses III, and purloined various articles.
The line of priest-kings, of whom Her-Hor was the first, chose a common place of sepulture, and thither were at last carried many of the earlier royal remains. The discovery of these in the cave at Deir-el-Bahari made a world-wide sensationand has already been referred to. There were three kings of the Thothmes name, two Rameses and Seti I, as well as the later kings of the priestly line, Pinotem or Pinozem I and II.
Here, too, we learn the little we know of some of the queens. There was Queen Ansera, of the Seventeenth Dynasty, Queen Aames Nofritari, Hatimoohoo, and Sitha of the Eighteenth, and queens Notem-Maut, Hathor-Houtta-ni, Ma-ka-Ra, and Isem-Kheb, and a queen Hest-em-Seket, as well as Princess Nesi-Khonsu, and a number of princesses and priestesses, called “Singers of Amen.”
Some of the coffins of this period show, on a yellow ground, a picture of the dead piercing a serpent with a lance. Among the Tombs of the Queens are a few of the Eighteenth, but more of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. Here was placed the wife of Rameses III, with name no longer legible. Here Queen Ti, or Titi, wife of the earlier King Amenophis III, with her blue eyes and fair skin, pictured as making offerings to the gods. Here Bint-Antha, favorite daughter of Rameses II. One tomb has the name obliterated and Tuattent-apt written upon it in red ink. Here is Isis-Ast, wife of Rameses IV, Queen Sitra of the Twentieth Dynasty, and many others.
There is an interesting story of a queen, by some authorities said to be the wife of Rameses XIII, by others of Rameses XII, and by some queen of Rameses II or III, claiming that Rameses XII was never in Mesopotamia, while Mariette believes it to have been merely a legend inventedby the priests to do honor to the god Chonsu or Khonsu. This king, whatever his place in the royal line, was, like his great predecessor, Amenophis III, fond of hunting. He also went abroad to collect tribute from subjugated peoples, and in Mesopotamia among those who came to pay was a certain chief or prince, who brought with him a beautiful daughter, with whom the Egyptian king at once fell in love and bore her home to share his life and throne. This princess of Bakhten took the name of Ra-neferu, “the glories of the sun,” and evidently had much influence with her husband. For later came messengers from her native country, saying that her sister, Bentresh, was ill, and begging for the loan of the ark of the god Khonsu, which was sure to cure her. We can hardly imagine the king willing to part with such a treasure, except to pleasure the queen. To her wishes, therefore, he yielded, and the ark, with a proper escort, was sent away, and accomplished a miraculous cure, as had been anticipated. Naturally, those who were benefited clung to the same, and years passed without the return of the borrowed treasure. But finally the king, or prince, of Bakhtan, “dreamed a dream,” like the Pharaoh of Scriptures, in which a golden hawk came out of the ark and flew to Egypt. Possibly the king of Egypt had demanded its return before, or perhaps the queen’s influence had been used to induce him to leave it, for the benefit of her family, as long as possible. The explanation is not given, but at last the conscience of the delinquentwas pricked, and the ark, with royal honors, was returned to its native land.
Queen Ra-neferu is variously spoken of as Mesopotamian, Bakhtan or Lidyan. From this story we may infer that she was young and beautiful at the period of her marriage, that she had great influence with the king, and possessed near relatives to whom she was warmly attached. But this, so far as we know it, is the whole of her history, and other queens than she of this same general period make no figure among the records.
For some time the priests had been gaining in power and influence, and Rameses XIII seems to have been set aside and Her-Hor, priest of Amen, the third who had directed affairs of state, seized the reins of government. He is described as of a “pleasing countenance,” with features that were delicate and good, and expression that was mild and agreeable. The priest-kings were the chief rulers, but a few descendants of previous Pharaohs held sway in a portion of the kingdom, as Japan was once divided between the Mikado of the old regime and the Shogun, the military and political chief.
Of these monarchs and such of their consorts as are mentioned we now give a brief summary, chiefly following the guidance of the well known Egyptologist, Professor Wallis Budge.
Nes-ba-Tettet is called the first king of the Twenty-first Dynasty of Tanis. From the time of this king to that of Rsammetichus II, third king of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, the dates are given as from about 1100 to 600 B. C. Egyptdeclined in power and influence, and its tributaries recovered their independence. With the close of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty the New Empire came to an end, and the period of Egyptian Renaissance began. The feeble kingdoms of the South and North were again united, under Shashang I, and a Libyan reigned. The worship of the cat-headed goddess Bast increased, and that of Amen-Ra declined, while his priests were forced to seek refuge in Napata, Nubia. Esarhaddon, king of Asyria, sacked Thebes, and ruled by governors.
Nes-ba-Tettet, the Smendes of Manetho, possibly a descendant of Rameses II, reigned at Tanis, while the priest king Her-Hor reigned at Thebes. The name of the former’s queen, Thent-Amen, is about all we know of her, and is thought to suggest her having the true claim to the throne. King Nes-ba-Tettet reigned twenty-nine years, making no such mark in history as did his great predecessors. This king is also called Nessu Ba-neb-Tet.
Next came Pasebkhanut I, second of the Tanite kings, who was called the “Mighty Bull,” and reigned forty-one years. The statues of the Nile, North and South, in the Cairo Museum, are said to belong to this period.
Long and uneventful seem to have been the reigns of these kings, for Amen-em-apt, “Amen in Karnak,” a descendant of Nes-ba-Tettet, reigned forty-nine years, and our chief knowledge of him seems to be derived from a stele at Cairo, making offerings to Isis, his favorite goddess.
Possibly this king was succeeded by one or two others, with short reigns. Authorities do not seem decided on this point. A king, Sa-Sa-Amen, is believed to have reigned sixteen years; his greatest work was the restoration of the pylons of the temple of Rameses III at Tanis. Gold and porcelain tablets have also been found, engraved with his name, and he added it also to the two obelisks taken from Heliopolis to Alexandria, and thence in modern times to London and New York, thereby proving he had authority in Heliopolis.
Pasebkhanut II added Heru to his name, thus distinguishing himself from Pasebkhanut I. He was the last king of the Tanite, Twenty-first Dynasty, and his daughter is said to have married Solomon. We read in I Kings: “And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David.” Thus, in the so usual fashion, he strengthened his political connection by marriage. And the Bible further says: “Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had gone up and taken Gezer and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon’s wife.” Pasebkhanut II reigned, it is said, twelve years, and another daughter married Osorkon I, the first king of the Twenty-second Dynasty.
We now turn again to the priest-kings in Thebes, also called the Twenty-first Dynasty. Of the first of them, Her-Heru, or Her-Hor, we have already spoken. A common title of his was “Living,beautiful god, son of Amen, lord of the two lands, lord of diadems,” and he wore the royal uraeus on his forehead. Queen Notem-Mut, Notimit, or Netchemet, was either mother or wife of King Her-Hor—authorities differ as to which relation she held to him. By some she was believed to be a princess of Rammeside blood, as her name is found encircled by a royal cartouch, while that of the king was not so decorated until the fifth year of his reign. Another says she was called “great royal consort,” but not king’s daughter or princess. There is a finely executed but dilapidated statue of this queen, inlaid with glass, and her head is also on a sphinx. A papyrus belonging to her, illustrated with medallion heads, or portrait vignettes of her husband, or son, Her-Hor, still exists, part being in the Louvre, part in the British Museum, and part in the possession of a lady in Berlin. It was the sale of some of these fragments that led to the discovery of the royal mummies at Deir-el-Bahari. The canopic boxes of Queen Notem-Mut represented, according to custom, a little chapel, placed on a sledge, a small jackal in black wood, mounted on the cover. Many were found, like the mummies themselves, in coffins not belonging to them, but their inscriptions tell who were the rightful owners. Miss Edwards discovers a likeness between one of the carved masks of Rameses II and the vignettes of Her-Hor, and thinks the mummy case may have been made in the time of the Twenty-first Dynasty and given the likeness of the reigning king, rather than the personfor whom it was intended. Her-Hor repaired and preserved many of the mummies of the more ancient kings.
He was succeeded, apparently, not by his son Piankhi, or Pianchi (who perhaps died before him or whose reign was too short or insignificant to be dwelt upon), but by his grandson, Pinotem, Pinozem, or Pai-netchem I, who is said to have married a princess of the old line, a daughter of Pa-seb-kha-nut I, king of Tanis, and who is variously termed Maat-ka-Ra, Ra-ma-ka, or Rahama. He was both high priest and king, which has caused some confusion to the chronologists. His Horus name was “he who satisfieth the gods, he who performeth glorious things for their doubles.” He had a long reign, some say twenty-one years. Queen Maat-ka-Ra is called on one of her coffins, “divine wife, a priestess of Amen, in the Apts, lady of the two lands.” In the same coffin was the tiny mummy of her infant daughter, Mutem-hat. Mother and child evidently died soon after the birth of the latter. A box with two compartments accompanied them, filled with funeral statuettes for the two queens, for the baby, though she died and was embalmed in infancy, is called Queen Maut-em-hat. An accompanying papyrus gives the royal cartouch, around the name of Maat-ka-Ra, but to the child also, strangely enough, the title of “Royal Wife,” etc. Another wife of the same king was called Henttaui, daughter of Nebseni, and Thent-Amen, and mother of the high priest of Amen, Men-keper-Ra. Her mummy, withdouble coffin, was found at Deir-el-Bahari. Great efforts had been made to preserve the lifelike aspect, red was put on the lips and cheeks, and the eyes were treated with eye-paint. She wore a much becurled wig, and even the furrows made by mummification were filled with paste. Pai-netchem I had also been removed to Deir-el-Bahari, and the upper part of the body was found rifled of amulets, but the lower part was intact, the Book of the Dead between the legs. He had repaired and found places of safety for royal mummies, Amen-hetep II, Thothmes II, Rameses II and Rameses III.
The priest kings made Thebes their residence while the old line dwelt at Tanis or San. One writer says that the papyri of the princes and princesses of the family of Pai-netchem or Pi-nozem show the best traditions of art to have been yet in force in the time of the Twenty-first Dynasty. The ushabti, little figures which so often were placed in the tombs with the mummies, came into general use in the Eighteenth Dynasty. They were made of painted limestone, hard stone, steatite, wood, etc. At the end of the dynasty they began to be made of porcelain, and were glazed with such colors as mauve, yellow, chocolate and blue. In the Nineteenth Dynasty blue was the universal color, and figures were made like living people, in every-day clothes, rather than, as previously, to resemble mummies. This continued through the Twentieth Dynasty and is found sporadically under the Twenty-second, while in the Twenty-first, as a generalrule, they had returned to the mummy form and had a brilliant blue glaze with black inscriptions. In the “Book of the Dead,” in the Eighteenth Dynasty, the vignettes were sometimes colored, sometimes plain, later coarser and more representative of modern things.
Masaherth and Men-kheper-Ra, sons of Pai-netchem I, seem to have been priests rather than kings. The latter married Ast-em-khebit, and became the father of Pai-netchem II, Hent-taui, and others. Ast-em-khebit or Ist-em-khebit is sometimes spoken of as queen, and probably belonged to the royal line. Authorities differ much as to this period, and it is difficult to give a perfectly clear account of the succession. Many of this lady’s belongings were found among those of the royal mummies so often referred to. That she died before her husband is proved by his seals remaining unbroken upon the hamper of mummified food accompanying the body. She was evidently much beloved, and buried, like others of her family, with special care, in three coffins, elaborately decorated and swathed in the finest of linen, in long plaits. The usual shabti, or “little servants,” accompanied her, as well as beautiful vases in blue glass, inscribed with funerary legends. Baskets of food, boxes with wigs, and many other articles, the reproductions of those used in daily life, were included in her burial outfit. A pet gazelle was also mummified and buried with her, a pathetic suggestion of her tenderness of heart. While crumbled and cast aside was her funeral tent, with an inscriptionwishing her “a happy repose,” among the first articles found when the modern discoverers entered these long hidden places of sepulture.
Pai-netchem II, son of Ast-em-Khebit, married Nes-su-Khensu, who seems sometimes to be regarded as a queen, and is the last of the line of whom we have record. Her husband, too, appears rather as a high priest and commander of soldiers than a king, and again the claim to higher descent may have been on the lady’s side. There were several children of this marriage, but they are not specially noteworthy.
The priests apparently did little for the enlargement or aggrandizement of Egypt. They ruled about a hundred and twenty-five years, preserved generally friendly relations with the more ancient royal line, seem to have been less oppressive and despotic than some of the earlier kings, and contented themselves with repairing the temples and the royal mummies, and have left behind many interesting funeral remains and papyri, said to form a highly important class of literature.
Authorities agree that the Twenty-second Dynasty made Bubastis its principal city, and seem to have been descended from a race of great chiefs. Shashanq or Sheshenk I, the Sesonchis of the Greeks, and Shishak of I Kings, was the first king of the dynasty, a Libyan, son of the chief Namareth, who was buried at Abydos, and of whom there are statues in Florence, as well as gold bracelets with his name in the British Museum. Also the grandson of Shashanq, the “great prince of Mashauasha,” and the Egyptian princess, Mehtet-en-usekht. Shashanq I married a Rammeside princess, and through her, probably, or possibly through his Egyptian grandmother, laid claim to the throne. His reign seems to have begun before the death of Paseb-khanut II, last king of the Twenty-first, Tanite Dynasty. One author says his wife’s rank was shown by the prefix Sutem-sat, or others claim that this belonged to the Egyptian grandmother.
Shashanq I married Karama, or Karamat, called “a morning star of Amen,”daughter of the last Tanite king. She had been despoiled of her inheritance and was restored to all her rights by this marriage. The custom of taking more than one wife often enables the student to reconcile apparent discrepancies.
Brugsch says the ordinance relating to this marriage was engraved on the north side of a pylon, near the temple of Amon in Karnak. “Thus spake Amon, the king of the gods,” “with regard to any object of any kind, which Karamat, the daughter of the king of Upper Egypt, Miamun Pisebkhan, has brought with her as the hereditary possession which had descended to her in the Southern district of the country, and with regard to each object of any kind whatever which the people of the land have presented to her, which they have at any time taken from the (royal) lady, we hereby restore it to her. Any object of any kind. Any object of any kind whatsoever (which) belongs (as an inheritance to the children) that (we hereby restore) to her children for all time. Thus speaks Amon-Ra, the king of the gods, the great king of the beginning of all being, Mut, Khonsu and the great gods,” etc., etc., at great length and with much repetition, closing with a number of threats, if this command is not complied with, and ending with “we will sink their noses in the earth,” and an unfinished, “we will.”
Josephus says that Jeraboam, the son of Nebat, who revolted against Solomon, took refuge with Shashanq I, until Solomon’s death, and marrieda daughter of the king of Egypt. Later Shashanq I made an expedition against Rehoboam, son of Solomon, who governed the two tribes, and was proud of the victory by which he recovered the Egyptian hold on Palestine. The dates of the Twenty-second Dynasty are given by Budge as 966 to 750 B. C. Shashanq I also repaired the temples and caused his son, the viceroy of a part of Egypt, to remove to a place of greater safety various royal mummies, who perhaps travelled more after death than during life. Shashanq reigned twenty-one years, called himself “Prince, doubly mighty, subduer of the nine Bows, greatest of the mighty ones of all lands,” thus falling not a whit behind his Rammeside predecessors in his estimate of himself.
He was succeeded by his son Osorkon, or Usarkon I, who, according to Manetho, reigned fifteen years. There is a head of Osorkon in the British Museum, of a Mongolian type, once thought to be one of the Hyksos kings. He appears to have had two wives, Ta-shet-Kensu, whose son Thekeleth succeeded to the throne, and Maat-Ka-Ra, daughter of a Tanite king, whose son Shashanq became high priest and commander of the forces. He is, by some, credited with a third wife, but she was perhaps merely a concubine, and the two others evidently occupy a first place.
Takelut or The-keleth I followed, with a wife named Shepes, daughter of Neter-mer-Heru, probably a priest, or one of the Egyptian nobles, and they had two sons; the eldest, Namareth became a priest, while a second, Osorkon, succeeded.Manetho says Thekeleth I reigned twenty-three years, but there are few authentic records remaining either of him or his queens.
Usarkon or Osorkon II had three wives, and according to the same authority reigned twenty-nine years. One queen’s name was Karama, or Kareama, and she had a son called Shashanq, a name which seems frequently handed down in this race. A second queen, Mat-ketch-ankh-s, or, as she is elsewhere called, Mut-hat-ankhes, whose son Namareth was again high priest, and a third, Ast-em-khebit, daughter of the princess Thes-bast-peru, who gave to her daughter her mother’s name. During the reign of these sovereigns the goddess Bast, who had formerly been a mere local deity, rose to first importance, and Bubastis superseded Memphis and Thebes as the principal city. The king held magnificent festivals in honor of Amen and as a tribute of respect to the queen, who not only inherited sovereign rights over the principality of Thebes, but was also high priestess of Amen. Pontifical rights were sometimes inherited in the female line, and this gave her husband claims at Thebes, Bubastis being the chief seat of his government.
A colossal Hathor-headed capitol, in the museum in Boston, bears this inscription: “In the year 22, in the first day of Choriak (October 8th of our reckoning) the appearing of his majesty in the Hall of Festival. He reposes on the throne, and the consecration is begun, the consecration of the harem of the house of Amon” (the priestesses of Amon were designated as the wives ofthe god) “and the consecration of all the women who have dwelt as priestesses therein since the day of his fathers.”
There is a bas-relief showing a procession, first the king, then the queen and her daughters, followed by many priests and women, these last slender and graceful, carrying water jars, said to be of electrum, others bearing sheafs of flowers, some the ankh or life sign, and still others in single file, clapping their hands in measured time.
Queen Karama is followed by her or the king’s daughters, and little dwarfs, like the god Bes, are also included in the procession. The princesses are called Tasbakeper, Karoma and Meri-Amen. The queen assists the king in making offerings in the great festival hall, built especially for the purpose. A sculptured bas-relief of King Osorkon II and Queen Karama, at full length, is in the British Museum. Scarabs of these and later periods are in the New York Museum and in many other places. An inscription remains telling of a great flood which occurred in this reign, so that in order to enter the temples the priests had to wade through water several feet deep, and it is said to have been the highest rise of the Nile ever known.
Of Shashanq II, who succeeded, or of his wife, almost nothing is recorded; he was probably a peaceful king and did little towards building or repairing temples.
Queen Karemama was the wife of the next king, Takelut or Theke-leth II, who reigned fifteen years, and is described as the “Great chiefof Mashanasha”; the queen is called “great royal wife” and “beloved of Mut.” Brugsch speaks of her as a daughter of Nimrod, and gives her a very lengthy name, which we can only hope that the lady was of sufficient size to carry. Another wife is called Mut-em-hat-sat-Amen. The former was the mother of the high priest Uarsarken. The queen was descended from one of the royal families of Thebes, and, perhaps in deference to her wishes, they dwelt for a while in Thebes, with a view also, no doubt, of propitiating the priests. The queen is also called “princess, great lady and mistress of the South.”
Shashanq III turned the huge statue of Rameses II into a pylon, having no more respect for his predecessors than did Rameses II himself, and his exploits are inscribed and described after those of Rameses II and Seti I. He adopted the pre-nomen of Rameses II. An Apis bull, a tablet records, was born in the twenty-eighth year of his reign; but, though it lasted fifty-two years, there seem to be no memorials remaining, which was also the case with his successor, Pamai. Nor in the reign of his son Shashanq or Shishak IV do we find mention of the queen. The former seems to have reigned only two, the latter thirty-seven years.
All this time Egypt was in more or less of a turmoil, with a divided or disputed succession, “Such a condition of things,” says one writer, “was of course fatal to literature and art,” which latter “did not so much decline as disappear,” and after Shashanq I no monarch of the line leftany building or sculpture of the slightest importance. In this period of doubt and disorder we have the names of a king, Peta-Bast, Auuth-meri-Amen and Uasar-ken or Osorkon III, whose mother and wife are probably mentioned as “Royal mother, royal wife, Tata-Bast, and son of the sun, Nasaek (en) living forever” in a golden aegis of the goddess Sekhet, in the Louvre.
Named as one of the Twenty-third Dynasty, we have Pi-ankhi, who descended on Egypt from Ethiopia, whither the priests had retired, who made his capital at Napata and who, probably through his wife was connected with the old royal families of Egypt. Pi-ankhi called himself “King of Kush,” and the mother, sister and daughter of the king bore each a title of honor as “Queen of Kush.” In inscriptions the king is spoken of as being “like a panther,” and we further read that “Then Nimrod sent forth his wife, the queen and daughter of a king, Nes-thent-nes,” or, as she elsewhere is called, Nes-thent-meh to supplicate the queens and royal king’s daughters and sisters. And they threw themselves prostrate in the women’s house before the queens (saying), “Pray come to me, ye queens, king’s daughters and king’s sisters! Appease Horus, the ruler of the palace. Exalted is his person, great his triumphs. Cause his anger to be appeased before my (prayer), else he will give over to death the king, my husband (but) he is brought low”; when they had finished her majesty was moved in her heart at the supplication of the queen. This comes from a closelywritten memorial stone set up by the king. It is spoken of as “The Inscription of Pi-ankhi Mer-Amen, king of Egypt, in the eighth century B. C.,” and the Nimrod mentioned was probably Nemareth, one of the petty rulers of Egypt before referred to. The stone was discovered at Mont Barkal, the place where it was originally set up, and the words in brackets are those half obliterated and restored to make out the sense.
When the victor entered the conquered city we are told that “then came to him the king’s wives, and the king’s daughters, and they praised his majesty, after the manner of women; but his majesty did not turn his countenance upon them.” Ungallant majesty, who was hastening on to further conquests and had no time for social amenities! To Nemareth, however, who finally came, leading “a horse with his right hand, and holding a sistrum made of gold and lapis-lazuli in his left,” Pi-ankhi was more condescending—nobly forgave him, like some other nations we have heard of, for defending his own territory, and accompanied him to the temples, and then to Nemareth’s stables, where he, with further condescension, actually scolded the grooms for giving the horses too short rations during the siege.
Elsewhere the queen Pi-anchi, or the next monarch, is spoken of as “sister and wife, the queen of Kekmi (Egypt) Ge-ro-a-ro-pi.” The stone from which this was taken has two pictures, the other showing also the Ethiopian queen. Says Brugsch, “While this sister of the king is designated as Queen of Nubia, another, who was alsoa wife of Miamun-Mut, is called Queen of Egypt.” His majesty seems to have spent a great deal of time sailing up and down the river, yet conquering wherever he went. And it is probable, after the weak rulers had all submitted to him, he returned to Ethiopia, where he died.
According to Manetho there was but one king of the Twenty-fourth Dynasty, of the old line, named Barkenrenef, who reigned for six years only, at Sais, and there is no mention of his wife. But meanwhile an Ethiopian, possibly the son of Pi-ankhi, held authority at Thebes, and is called “King of the South, Kasta.” He seems to have married a priestess of Amon, called “divine adorer” or “morning star,” a daughter of Osorken III by the name of Shep-en-apt, and Sabaka, who became king, and Amenartas, a priestess, who held the rank of “Neter tuat,” which her mother had also borne.
This Sabaka, or Sabaco, became king of the Nubian Twenty-fifth Dynasty and reigned about twelve years. He called himself “king of the South and North” and “son of the sun.” He appears to have made repairs on various temples and was a contemporary of Sargon and Sennacherib, kings of Assyria, with which country, as well as with Palestine, the confused history of Egypt, through all this period, is much associated.
Queen Amenartas, or, as she is elsewhere called, Ameneritis, married Pi-ankhi, a Nubian prince, and styled herself “royal daughter, royal sister, royal wife.” Her husband called himself“Uniter of two lands” and “multiplier of mighty men.” The queen was a zealous restorer of the temples, and added chambers and small sanctuaries at Karnak, in one of which a fine limestone statue of her was found. We know that she was considered beautiful, and Brugsch says, “sweet peace seems to hover about the features; even the flower in her hand suggests her high mission as reconciler of the long feud.” A part of the inscription at her feet, on the base of the statue at Gizeh, from which the names of her father and mother are erased, reads: “May he (the god Amen) grant everything that is good and pure by which the divine nature lives, all that the heaven bestows and the earth brings forth, to the princess, the most pleasant, the most gracious, the kindest and most amiable queen of Upper and Lower Egypt, the sister of the king (Sabaco), the ever-living, the daughter of the deceased king (Khasta), the wife of the divine one, Amenisitis. May she live!” Of herself she says, “I was the wife of the divine one, a benefactress to her city (Thebes), a bounteous giver for her land. I gave food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked.” So we may judge that she was good, beautiful and beloved.
There is an ivory plaque of Queen Ameneritis in the New York Museum bearing a figure and a cartouch of “the divine wife, Ameneritis, daughter of Ra Khasta,” the sister, and it says also, the wife of Sabaco of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. The queen is shown on the plaque kneeling onthe right, holding a lotus in each extended hand, with a necklace and short hair, like a man’s, and on her head a crescent and disk. There is an alabaster statue of Queen Ameneritis on a base of gray granite in the Gizeh Museum, which has a rather long but slim and delicate figure; but the head is overweighted with the wig of a god and she has a gloomy expression—possibly brought on by the discomfort of her wig in particular, and her experiences of life in general. Numerous monuments and scarabs bear her name and titles, and Budge says that within the last few years the British Museum has secured a remarkable object once belonging to her. It is of glazed steatite, with the cartouch and a short prayer cut in hieroglyphics upon it; at one end a perforated projection by which it was probably hung, and on the other a sign; its use is unknown.
Shabataka, “son of the sun,” is accounted the second king of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, and was probably associated with his father in the government. A stele now in Turin represents Shap-en-apt with her mother, Amenar, her husband, Pi-ankhi, and Shabataka, showing them to be contemporaries. Brugsch says that Pi-ma or Pi-mai means the “male cat.” King Shabataka or Shabata-k, the son of Sabaco, is in the Barabra language Sab-ato-ki, “the male cat’s son,” just as a Barabran word, Kash-ato, “horse’s son,” lies at the base of the name Kash-ta, which is an interesting little piece of philology. An ancient tradition, it is said, affirms that at the end of twelve years Shabataka was taken prisoner andput to death at Tirhakah, who became the last king of the dynasty, and reigned, some say eighteen, some twenty-five years. He married the princess Amen-tak-het, “the chief wife, the royal sister, the royal wife.” The name of his mother is thought to be “Akalouka,” though it is mutilated in the inscriptions, and as she appears to have been related to the priest-kings, it was probably through her that Tirhakah laid claim to the throne. It is said that when he was about twenty years old he was proclaimed king of Napata, and leaving his mother behind, who had doubtless used her influence to produce this result, he hastened to Egypt, overthrew and perhaps slew Shabataka, who was then reigning. A stele which he set up at Tanis gives the further information that he was the younger but favorite son of his father, and certainly a youth of ability, to accomplish what he did at the early age of twenty. He called himself, Son of Amen, and was crowned with royal honors according to the customs of the ancient Egyptian kings. He sent for his mother and saluted her as the spouse of Amen, while she, says Brugsch, “looked upon him with the same pride which Isis felt as she gazed upon her son Horus.” And, leaving out any moral aspect of the question, a mother might well be proud of such an able and energetic son. Some believe the Taket-Amen, whom he married, was the widow of Shabaka, first king of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, as he was the last king of the same, and upon both mother and wife he bestowed high titles and many honors. 693 or 691 B. C. is theperiod given as that on which he ascended the throne. The priests had, so far as in them lay, made Napata a duplicate of Thebes, but not its equal in fineness of architectural work. Tirhakah added materially to the building and repairing of the temples. He built one at Napata or Gebel Barkal, subsequently destroyed by the fall of overhanging rocks, and added to and restored many in Egypt, in all of which no doubt his mother, if not his wife, took great interest, as did Queen Thi, in the work of her son Khu-en-aten. The early part of his reign was peaceful; then Seracherib, king of Assyria, seems to have defeated the king of Egypt and others in battle and caused him to flee, returning temporarily to overthrow the governors appointed by the Assyrian king, when Esarhaddon, the son, succeeded, only to be again overthrown. Before the king’s death, which is spoken of as going to his “dark doom,” he associated with him Tannath-Amen or Tanut-Amen. The last appearance mentioned of the women is on a stele at Gebel Barkal, where the king is making an offering to the god Amen and his sister, Quelhetat, a tiny figure, is pouring out a libation and shaking a sistrum. Behind the king stands his wife, Kerearhenti, and while the king has on sandals of a peculiar shape, the two ladies are in bare feet. Still another king is called Tandamanie, son of the sister of Tishakah, yet the former seems accounted the final ruler of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty.
Of the time from the Twenty-second to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, says Budge: “With thisperiod the New Empire comes to an end, and we are on the threshold of the Renaissance of the Egyptian kingdom, with all its ancient arts and sciences brought into connection with the Greece of the Seventh Century before Christ.” Under Shashanq a slight revival took place, and he ruled the whole land, putting an end to the weak dynasties of Tanis and Thebes. But with the close of the priestly dynasty the glory of Thebes, which had lasted two thousand years, had departed, and by the time of the Ptolemies the city was almost in ruins, and Bubastis, in the Delta, of whose festivals Herodotus has given us an account, rose to the first place.
During this time, to quote again from Budge. “Much of the spirit of the old art had undoubtedly been lost, the hieroglyphic script had become chiefly an official and sacred code of writing used for funeral prayers, historical inscriptions, etc. And the decay of the written language, begun as early as the Eighteenth Dynasty, was followed by the decay of the writing, which became more conventional and abbreviated, and the hierotic, supplemented by the newly developed script, is now known as Enchorial or Demotic, the peoples’ or common writing.” It is also said that the Eighteenth Dynasty was much more elaborate and luxurious in costume than the earlier ages, but that the severe simplicity of the former commended itself to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, which we now consider.
The first queen seems to have been Shep-en-apt II, a descendant of Queen Ameneritis. Hercartouch was found on a cornice, and she probably was of higher birth than her husband, Psamthek I or Psammetichus I, who is thought to have been merely the son of a governor, while she was of the blood royal. The queen was a priestess of the grade “neter tuat,” and through her doubtless her husband laid claim to the throne. Psammetichus I made Sais his capital; he was, after he was once established on the throne, less fond of war than many of his predecessors, was a patron of the arts and sciences, and turned his attention to the building of temples. A distinct Renaissance of art took place at this period, with high finish and elaboration of detail, a certain elegance suggestive of Greek influences. He added a large gallery, with side chambers, to the Serapeum at Sakkarah, and the stele found here by Mariette are of the greatest chronological importance. We learn from them that Psammetichus I immediately succeeded Tirhakah, by the records of the birth and death of the Apis bull. His name is found in various places, Philæ and elsewhere, and an obelisk belonging to his reign was brought by the Emperor Augustus to Rome. He was, some say, of Nubian, some of Lidyan origin; and there is a glazed porcelain ushabti figure in the British Museum, supposed to be a likeness of him, which is very fat and jolly-looking. He had a long reign of fifty-four years, and both Herodotus and Diodorus give accounts of him. The daughter of this marriage was named Nitocris, or Nit-a-quert, and an inscription says, Psammetichus has made a gift to hisfather Amon: he “has given him his eldest daughter Nitaquit-Shapen-apit, to be his divine spouse, that she may shake the sistrum before him.” This princess traveled from one part of the kingdom to another and was received with great honor. Sometimes the queens adopted daughters and associated them in the governing power. One stele found at Karnak states that the king caused his daughter to be adopted by the lady Shep-en-apt, the sister of Tirhakah, who had inherited property from her father and mother, and had previously adopted a daughter of Tirhakah’s, Amenartas (II). Says Budge: “The stele, which is dated in the ninth year of the reign of Psammetichus I, proves that Tirhakah’s sister was ruling at Thebes, as a priestess of Amen, while Psammetichus I was reigning at Sais, and that when Nit-aquert had been adopted by her, the daughter of the king of Sais (Nit-aquert) took her name also. The stele was set up to commemorate her journey to Thebes, where she was welcomed with the greatest joy as the heiress of Tirhakah’s sister, and where she no doubt received not only the property, but also the rank and position of her whose name she took, Shap-en-apt, the daughter of Pi-anchi and Amen-artis I, and grand-daughter of Khasta and Shep-en-apt I, the last named lady being a daughter of Osorkon.” The distinction between Shep-en-apt, the wife of the king, and the adopted mother of her daughter, does not seem to be very clear. Nitocris bore the same name as the last ruler of the Sixth Dynasty, and a rose-colored sarcophagusinscribed with this, and having a granite cover, is in one of the museums.
All this period is to some extent still a matter of dispute among authorities as to the exact titles and order of succession of the kings, and as to their importance in the line; compared to their predecessors, and even to their successors, they were but petty rulers, holding control over but a portion of the country, and in many cases more like governors than chief authorities.
According to Professor Budge, Apries was the next king. His Horus name was U-ah-ab-Ra, and he is spoken of as Pharaoh Hophra in the Bible, of whom, though he reigned from nineteen to twenty-five years, we know little, and his wife is not mentioned. He was overthrown by his own general, Amasis, or Aames II, who became king, and apparently lived in peace with his predecessor for some years, but slew him, or permitted him to be slain, when Apries endeavored to regain his lost authority. Amasis II took unto himself several wives, and welcomed and favored the settlement of Greek colonies in Egypt. He took the Horus name of Smen-Maat, “Stablisher of Law,” and was apparently good-natured and affable when not fighting. His wives are given as the lady Shent-kheta, daughter of Peta-Nit, and the queen, Takanath, daughter of Psammetichus I. She had been chosen heiress of Nitocris or Nit-a-quert, and it was doubtless to legalize his claim to the throne that Amasis II contracted the marriage. The female pieces in this regal game of chess were of immense value. Whatshare the ladies had in the disposal of their hands we do not learn, but in most cases it could hardly have been an important one. Amasis II was a builder and restorer of temples, and his name is found in many places. At the end of his forty-fourth year to power he died and was buried at Sais. Queens Shep-an-apt and Nitocris, who were priestesses of Amen, were buried at el Aso-fif, and laid, as were other ladies of royal blood, in tombs with finely worked ante-chambers and inscriptions, and with false doors.
Psamthek or Psammetichus III, who reigned only six months, succeeded to Amasis II, and is sometimes omitted from the list of kings. He was the son of the Lady Thent-kheta, and some reliefs of him are found in a small temple near the temple of Amasis II and Nitocris, where there are pictures of these queens; and with him ends the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, and we come to the consideration of the Persian rule, numbered, though of entirely different blood, as the Twenty-seventh Dynasty.