God´s Wife of Amun; The Divine Adoratrice
God´s Wife of Amun; The Divine Adoratrice
Origin
The first time this title appears is in the 10th and 12th Dynasties.
(Shafer, p 14) It was then held by non-royal women serving Min, Amun
and Ptah.
Later, in the beginning of the New Kingdom, it was held by the
wife of the king and sometimes the mother of the king. Often it was used
in preference to the title of King's Great Wife. The first royal person
carrying this title was the wife of Ahmose I, queen Ahmose Nefertari
(c. 1470-1505 BC) who passed it on the her daughter Meritamun. From her
it was handed to Hatshepsut who held this title before she ascended the
throne. Then she had to let go of it and passed it on to her daughter
Neferure. From these days onward the title was exclusively used in the
cult of Amun, and from the reign of Thutmose III to Thutmose IV the
God's Wife of Amun was held by women who married into the royal family
only.
Divine Adoratrice
A title called 'Divine Adoratrice' (Gr) or duat netjer
(ancient Egyptian) also developed alongside of the title of God´s Wife
during the New Kingdom. It was held by the daughter of the high priest
of Amun under Hatshepsut ( 1473-1458 b.c.) and under Thutmose III
(1479-1425 b.c.) by the mother of the great royal spouse. At this time
it´s power was much diminished and during the Third Intermediate it was
held together with the title of God's Wife of Amun.
19th dynasty: Celibate Priestess
In the 19th dynasty it was reinstated but seems not to have any
greater importance attached. Ramses VI, (1143-1136) bestowed on his
daughter Aset both the title of God's Wife and of Divine Adoratrice,
thereby turning it into a political post. From then on it was held by
the king's daughter, who therefore became a celibate priestess, barred
from marrying, and probably having much political power. Instead they
adopted a successor, preferably the daughter of the next king, to ensure
the office stayed where the power was. The office now held great
religious and political responsibility and prestige in Thebes and was a
means for the king to ensure this power, and at the same time prevent an
elder daughter from marrying possible claimants to the throne. This
made the God's Wife the highest ranking of Amun's 'concubines', which
were all virgins and all with adopted successors.
25th-26th dynasties: Princesses from Tanis, Oracles
During the 25th and 26th dynasties (747-525 b.c.) the office of god's
wife of Amun was at its height politically and economically and was
often combined with that of the chief of the priestesses of Amun at
Thebes and in southern Egypt. It was during this time held by princesses
from the ruling family in Tanis in Lower Egypt, as a means to secure
peaceful relations with the Delta area. It included an 'oracle'
function, through which political decisions were sanctioned as coming
from God.
Chapel-tombs
At Medinet Habu, by the eastern gate, are 'chapel-tombs' where
several God's Wife of Amun from the 25th and 26th Dynasties were
buried; Shepenwepet II, Amenirdis I, (adopted by the former, and a
sister of Shabaka, 716-702) Shepenwepet III and Mehitenweseket. There is
also one Amenirdis II who was adopted by Shepenwepet II in the reign of
Psamtek (664-525). She is not buried there though, but here is an
unbroken line of adopted successions to the office of God's Wife of
Amun.
The 26th (Saite) Dynasty still kept its hold over Thebes thanks
to a great lady by name Ankhesneferibre, daughter of Psammeticus II and
adopted by the Divine Adoratrice Nitocris. She took up her office in 584
BC and held it fore almost 60 years.
Function
For a long time it was thought that the role of God's Wife referred
to the myth of the divine birth of the king, wherein the queen was
impregnated by Amun-Re to give birth to the next king. However, there
were queens who were mothers to kings without having this title, namely
the mother of Hatshepsut and the mother of Amenhotep III. So the god's
wife was a priestly office, first associated with royalty in the reign
of Ahmose I, beginning with his queen Ahmose Nefertari. Since then royal
women included the title in their titularies and were even depicted
without any of the insignia of a queen.
But
God's Hand
This is an alternative title for God's Wife, which supposedly refers
to the hand with which the Creator god masturbated to produce Shu and
Tefnut. The word 'hand' is feminine in ancient Egyptian and therefore
was easily personified as a goddess. So it is thought that these two
titles God's Wife and God's Hand most likely had sexual connotations.
Perhaps the meaning was to stimulate the creator god sexually (by
ritual?) so that he would keep his fertility and thereby cause the world
to be recreated. While we don't know what this meant in temple
practise, we do know that it was forbidden to engage in sexual
activities in the temple or on the temple premises.
Rituals on Reliefs
There are scenes in the chapelle rouge, a shrine erected by
Hatshepsut at Karnak, where the God's Wife and a male priest is seen
facing each other and holding a firebrand, next scene shows the God's
Wife turning away and perhaps lighting a brazier (partially damaged).
Next, the God's Wife and the priest face each other again, now holding
semicircular fans on long handles, with images of bound captives on
them. The last scene, also damaged, shows the queen once again turned
away from the priest, now perhaps to burn the image of the captive in
the lit brazier. There exist other evidence of such rituals for
destroying names or images of enemies of the country.
There are other scenes elsewhere, where the God's Wife is seen
partaking in worshipping the gods, entering the sacred lake for
purification, and following the king into the sanctuary. What we know is
that when the king was absent, a deputy priest had the responsibility
to take care of the rites. What is not known is if the God's Wife
performed these rites if the king was absent.
Use of Title
Along with the office of God's Wife went land holdings and a staff of
male officials for administration, as well as possibly also musicians
associated with he cult of Amun. This brought quite some authority with
it and often the title God's Wife of Amun was preferred to other royal
titles like 'King's Wife', 'Great Royal Spouse', 'King's Principal
Wife'or 'King's Mother. Often queens chose only one of their titulary,
and this became a significant one. Ahmose Nefertari seemed to have
mostly chosen the title of God's Wife of Amun. Hatshepsut seems to have
kept it when she became regent for Thutmose III and Robins (p 150)
suggests that the title was so important that this was a means to gather
authority for Hatshepsut before she claimed the throne. Her daughter
Neferure used the title in the same way as her mother, which might tell
us that its' importance was meant to continue. However, during the rule
of Thutmose II, it greatly diminished in importance and we have to look
for the 25th and the 26th Dynasties to see it rise to same heights
again.
Priestly Attire
After the title became associated with royalty, it became part of the
titulary, and often used at occasions when royal insignia were worn. In
a few depictions we can see royal women wearing only the priestly
attire: a sheath dress which was sometimes tied at the waist, a short
wig, a thin fillet knotted at the back of the head and with the loose
ends hanging down. This dress is reminding of the one worn by
priestesses in the Middle Kingdom.
The office of God's Wife remained, except for some intervals, an
important one, after the 18th Dynasty the priestly attire disappears
almost totally, in favor of the queenly insignia. From the reign of
Ramesses VI, the God's Wife was a king's daughter rather than the wife
of a king, but she was still wearing queenly insignia. At this time she
is also seen performing the same rituals as had been the king's
prerogative until this time and we find her offering and presenting
Ma'at to the gods, and also the gods are seen purifying her and offering
her life. She was shown almost as a double to the king, her name and
titularies imitated the king's.
Sources:
The Priests of Ancient Egypt - Serge Sauneron
Temples of Ancient Egypt - ed: Byron E. Shafer
The Ancient Egyptians - A. Rosalie David, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1982.
People of the Pharaohs by Hilary Wilson, Michael O´Mara Books Ltd, London 1997.
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