Some reflections on the sacral role of Egyptian royal women of the New Kingdom

Occupation: Associate Professor; Senior Research Fellow
Affiliation:
RUDN University
Institute of Oriental Studies RAS
Address: Moscow, Moscow, Russia

Journal name

Vostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost

Edition

Issue 6

Pages

45-57

Abstract

The paper deals with a controversial question concerning the character of the sacral role of the royal women in the context of the concept of divine queenship. As the queenship is seen in modern Egyptology as an essential constitutive element of the ideology of kingship, the sacral role of the royal women is frequently determined as similar or even parallel to that of the king. In particular, the sacral scenes with the images of the royal women performing the rites in pair with a king or alone are sometimes considered as an illustration to this interpretation. As the author of the present paper suggests, this approach needs a reеvaluation, which should be based on a careful examination of all surviving scenes depicting a cultic activity of the royal women. Among other issues the author touches, as well, the problem of the sacral role played by Nefertiti whose official position differs considerably of that of other royal women. A preliminary study of figurative and epigraphical sources, especially of the offering scenes with representations of the royal women, allowed the author to assume that in the majority of cases they played an auxiliary and secondary role. Indeed, since the Ramesside period the most widespread iconography of a royal woman is her representation shaking the sistrum/sistra – an auxiliary action in the divine cult. Thus, the thesis about the great king’s wife (or the king’s mother)’ role as a counterpart of the king in his cultic functions should be revised, if not rejected.

Keywords

ideology of kingship, queenship, royal women, iconography, New Kingdom, Ancient Egyptian rituals, offering scenes

Acknowledgment

The RUDN University Strategic Academic Leadership Program.

Received

14.12.2022

Publication date

31.12.2022

Number of characters

34261

Cite

GOST	Bolshakov V. Some reflections on the sacral role of Egyptian royal women of the New Kingdom // Vostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost – 2022. – Issue 6 C. 45-57 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://vostokoriens.jes.su/S086919080023391-7-1 (circulation date: 23.03.2025). DOI: 10.31857/S086919080023391-7
MLA	Bolshakov, Vladimir "Some reflections on the sacral role of Egyptian royal women of the New Kingdom." Vostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost 6 (2022):45-57. DOI: 10.31857/S086919080023391-7
APA	Bolshakov V. (2022). Some reflections on the sacral role of Egyptian royal women of the New Kingdom. Vostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost (6), pp.45-57 DOI: 10.31857/S086919080023391-7

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1	The main object of this article is a critical study of the sacral role of principal representatives of the royal family of the New Kingdom period. Since the king’s great wives and mothers (Hmt nswt wrt/mwt nswt) were the chief figures of the king’s female entourage, the issues concerning the ritual functions of the princesses will be omitted. Before proceeding to the subject, it is necessary to note that under the term «sacral» we consider two closely related facets of the role played by the royal women: the theological aspect and the ritual functions in the context of the divine cult. First of all, we will concentrate on the second aspect of the sacral role of the royal women, although the first one is also discussed.
2	From the very beginning of the New Kingdom, the increased emphasis on the significance of the royal women finds its visible expression in the development both of their titulary and iconography. Notably, by the middle of the XVIII^th dynasty, the prominent position of king’s mothers and great wives is accentuated by the introduction of new iconographic elements, which associate them in a more explicit form than before with the principal goddesses of the pantheon – Hathor, Isis, Maat, Mut, Nekhbet, Wadjet and, possibly, Tefnut. Furthermore, the changes in the official position of the royal women of the New Kingdom are expressed in the sporadic inclusion of their representations in official scenes of divine cult and royal ceremonies.
3	For a long time, the more or less prominent status of the royal women alongside the reigning king during the New Kingdom posed the question in Egyptology of their dynastic and sacral role. Since the publication of the fundamental work of L. Troy [Troy 1986], who for the first time formulated the explanatory model of the sacral role of the royal women, modern Egyptology has widely adopted the idea of the existence of «queenship» interpreted as a constitutional element in the concept of kingship¹. The basic idea of this model is that the women of the king’s close entourage – his mother, his «great» wife and sometimes princesses – were «bearers of divine queenship» [Robins, 2002, p. 25–26], which manifested itself at the symbolic level in their iconographies, titles, and epithets. For example, according to L. Troy’s model, it is stated in one of the publications that «royal women, who were envisioned as the feminine half of the androgynous totality of kingship, were, by their sex and roles, the complementary (and necessary) (italics –V.B.) opposite of the king… The queens’ most important roles were as protectors and supporters of the male aspect of kingship, performers of religious ritual, and agents for the sexual arousal and generative potential of kings and male deities» [McCarthy, 2008, p. 85–86]². In accordance with this idea, the ritual functions of the royal women explained mainly in the context of sexual symbolism were aimed at regeneration of the creative forces of the demiurge. At the theological level, the sacral role of the royal women is considered as equivalent to that of the goddesses-companions of the supreme solar god (Atum, Re, Amun-Re) [Troy, 1986, p. 64, 68–72, 102–103,107]. Consequently, the relationships between members of a divine family are projected directly onto the royal family. So, if the king is the terrestrial manifestation of the divine masculine element, his counterpart is that of the feminine one. Thus, the queenship is generally perceived as a mortal «manifestation of a feminine prototype» and a «source of sacral power in the performance of ritual» [Troy, 1986, p. 3, 53, 73ff].	1. See, for instance [Robins, 1993, p. 23–25, 40–43; Arnold, 1996, p. 85–119; Lohwasser, 2001, p. 70–74; Manniche, 2001, p. 157; Robins, 2001, p. 105–106; Robins, 2002, p. 26; Ziegler, 2002, p. 245; Robins, 2008, p. 118–130; McCarthy, 2008, p. 85–88; Roth, 2009, p. 4–5; Nuzzolo, 2009, p. 420–421, 423; Graves-Brown, 2010, p. 129–130]. 2. With references on Troy and Robins (notes 17–20, p. 105).
4	The presence in official scenes of the king’s wife alongside her husband, whether he performs the rites or exercises power is interpreted as a manifestation of an elaborate theology; the royal bride and pharaoh together were the guarantee of the equilibrium of the world [Ziegler, 2002, p. 245]. In other words, cultic and ceremonial scenes with royal women accompanying the king, or even officiating alone, are considered as one of the most evident signs of the supposed existence of divine queenship. The participation of a great king’s wife in worship also gave reasons to regard her as a kind of high priestess, a female equivalent of the king as a high priest [Blackman, 1921, p. 12, 20; Troy, 1986, p. 140, 149, 132; Colin, 2002, p. 116; Gautron, 2003, p. 184, 223; Onstine, 2016, p. 223]. Furthermore, the idea of the great king’s wife as a female counterpart of the king-ritualist is also linked to her perception as a representative of the harem collective and all Egyptian women [Troy, 1986, p. 73, 76].
5	In general, it can be stated that the model proposed by L. Troy remains still decisive in interpreting the sacral role of the royal women. Nevertheless, despite the publication of numerous works on royal women in Ancient Egypt (including unpublished theses³), plenty of controversial issues have no unambiguous answers yet. For instance: how should one explain the episodic presence of the royal women in some cultic scenes and their absence in others? Was the royal woman’s participation in the cult alongside the officiating king indispensable indeed? Were these scenes an idealistic and conventional image of worship or the reflection of real liturgical moments in the temple cult? Of course, there is no doubt that the royal women were always integrated into the Ancient Egyptian ideology of kingship. Still, the recognition of this fact cannot serve as reliable (and even more a direct) proof of the necessity of participation of the female element in performing the rites by the king. However, the interpretation of the sacral role of women of the king’s entourage (royal wives, priestesses and even harem ladies) within the framework of the conception of the divine queenship seems to us in many respects speculative and contains, besides, a number of vulnerable points.	3. Among them are [Robins, 1980; Green, 1988; Gautron, 2003].

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Additional sources and materials

List of figures

Thutmosis III accompanied by the anonymous royal woman offers to Amun. Lintel from Karnak. Open Air Museum at Karnak. Photo by V. Bolshakov.

Thutmosis III and Satiah offering to Ptah. Stela from Karnak. The Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Photo by V. Bolshakov.

Nefertary Merytemout offering to Mut. Relief in the Small Temple at Abu Simbel [Kuentz, Desrohes Noblecourt, 1968, pl. LVIII].

at Karnak [Gabolde, 2005, pls XI–XI⃰ ].

Akhenaten and Nefertiti offering to Aten. Relief from the temple of Aten at Karnak (fragment). The Luxor Museum. Photo by V. Bolshakov.

, Vienna. Photo by V. Bolshakov.

Ramesses III and the anonymous king’s wife (Isis?). The Temple at Medinet Habu. Photo by V. Bolshakov.