Chapter TWENTY-NINE: Cleopatra VI.—continued 432 (5)

Many memorials of this great queen, spite of the efforts made to destroy them, remain to us. The ruins of the temple, the great obelisks, one of which is still standing, various statues and statuettes, many sun-dried brick with her cartouch and that of her father, some of which can be seen in our own Metropolitan Museum in New York, a cabinet in wood and ivory, her standard, her signet ring in turquoise and gold, in the possession of an English gentleman, and, most interesting of all perhaps, the remains of her throne chair, now in the British Museum. It is made of a dark wood, not natural to Egypt, and probably from the land of Punt. The legs are decorated with ucilisks in gold, and the carven hoof of some animal. The other parts are ornamented with hieroglyphics in gold and silver and one fragmentary royal oval in which the name of Hatasu appears and thereby identifies the owner of the throne.

Thus ends in comparative mystery, darkness and silence this brilliant life, of which we were long in ignorance.

Says Curtis in his charming “Nile Notes”: “The history of Eastern life is embroidered to our youngest eyes in that airy arabesque—an Eastern book cannot be written without a dash of the Arabian Nights—the East throughout hath that fine flavor.”

CHAPTER TENTH.

MAUT-A-MUA.

The great Hatasu was no more and after her no woman held such extended and absolute sway. The next queen whose name occurs at all prominently is Maut-a-mua, or Maut-em-va, “Mother of the boat,” wife of Tahutmes IV and mother of Amenophis III. She appears to have held the regency after her husband’s death till her son assumed full power, or if not actually in this official position, to have had great influence with him. The tie between mother and son was a close one and even his marriage did not seem to weaken it.

But before entering upon such fragmentary history of her as remains to us it may be well to enumerate briefly the lists of sovereigns which connects Hatasu or Hatshepsut with her great grandson’s or great nephew’s wife. Her half-brother or step son-in-law, Tahutmes or Thothmes III, sometimes called the Alexander of Egypt, who succeeded or wrested the power from her hands, had a long reign of fifty-three or fifty-four years. Hatshepsut died at fifty-nine, and Tahutmes III ascended the throne at thirty-one years of age. The computation of his reign probably dates from the time he was first associated with his sister or stepmother in the regal power. He was one of the most noted of the Egyptian kings, laid aside the peace policy of his predecessors and entered on a series of wars and conquests, marked with many cruelties. The records of his military expeditions are said to give us great insight into the condition of Syria and Palestine about the fifteenth century B. C. He, like his predecessor, was interested in architecture, builded and added to the temples and showed individual taste in his additions. He has left more monuments behind him than any of the Egyptian kings but Rameses II. He built at Heliopolis, Memphis, Thebes, Elephantine and nearly every town in Nubia. Four of his obelisks have come down to us—one in Rome, one in Constantinople, one in London and one in New York. These last bear the popular title of “Cleopatra’s needle,” though erected in a much earlier time than the era of that renowned queen. The first, “the greatest of all extant monoliths,” is standing before the church of St. John Lateran, at Rome. Many, many years were occupied in its preparation. Obelisks were generally erected in pairs and occasionally several of them in succession formed an avenue. In the temple of Deir el Bahri are pictures of Hatshepset and Tahutmes III making offerings to the gods. Says Baedaker: “On the upper part of the right wall is a noteworthy scene. Makere, Hatshepsut I, Thutmosis III, and the Princess Ranofru sacrificing to the boat of Ammon, behind which stands Thutmosis I with his consort, Aahmes, and their little daughter, Binofru. A similar scene was represented above the recess on the left wall; the kneeling Thutmosis III and the Princess Binofra may still be distinguished.” The statues of Tahutmes III are numerous, but not colossal.

He “took to wife” in the old Eastern phrase, Hatasu-Meri, daughter of the great Hatshepsut and his own near relative, but our knowledge of her is extremely limited. She evidently did not inherit her mother’s characteristics and possibly did not live any great length of time. Or if her husband transferred to her any portion of the dislike which he so evidently bore her mother he may have purposely kept her in the background, but in any case she cannot be looked upon as an assertive character. Her second name is given as Meri or Merira and there is a picture of her on a throne behind, not beside, her husband. She is, however, attired as a goddess, with whip, ankh and tall plumes. This is at Medinet Habu; again she is spoken of as Meryt-ra Hatshepset, mother of Amenophis II, and a scene in a tomb represents her, accompanied by her son. A female sphinx representing her with her husband’s name inscribed was found in the temple of Isis and is now in the Baracco collection at Rome and casts are at Turin and Berlin. One inscription, and possibly more, remain, however, speaking of her as “beloved consort,” or some other form expressing a degree of affection, but at this late period it is impossible to determine whether it was the usual conventional phrase or had some foundation in truth. She lived and died, but whether her life was a long and happy one or short and sorrowful we cannot tell.

The reign of Tahutmes III is among the longest in history. It was, however, exceeded by some monarchs, Louis XIV, seventy-two years. George III and Queen Victoria over sixty, Henry III occupied the throne fifty-six years, Edward III fifty, and there was also one of the Mogul Emperors, as well as others. A glass vase in the British Museum, said to be the oldest in existence, bears the name of Tahutmes III. There are various mementoes or memorials of him in different places, the most personal perhaps, his coffin, much damaged and stripped of its gilding, which may be seen in the Gizeh Museum.

Amenophis or Amenhotep II, son probably of Hatasu-Meri, succeeded his father. Of him also we read as a warrior and a cruel one, bringing back the bodies of several kings whom he had slain with his own hand. The Egyptians were said not to be so cruel in battle as the Assyrians, but there seems little to choose between them. There is a picture of Amenophis II on the wall at Abd-el-Gurneh, as a child on the lap of a nurse, the heads and backs of five Asiatics serving him as a footstool, implying doubtless that he himself would be, or his father before him had been, a warrior and a conqueror. There is also a kneeling statue of him, in later life, holding a globular vase in his hand. He succeeded to the throne when young, perhaps at eighteen, and his reign was comparatively short as was that of his son and successor, Tahutmes IV. His queen was named Ta-aa and is recorded on a double statue of her and her son, Tahutmes IV. She is called “royal mother and wife,” showing her to be his mother. We knew less of her than of almost any of the queens, that she continued the royal line and her name seems but brief record of her.

Of Tahutmes IV it is said that he spent much time in youth in hunting and field sports. He married Mautamua, or Maut-em-va, or as she is again spoken of, Moutetemarait, possibly an Ethiopian princess. Various inter-marriages, as in modern times not unfrequently, making the families in adjacent kingdoms near of kin.

The name of Tahutmes IV is especially associated with the great Sphinx and we cannot doubt the whole matter was of much interest to the queen also. The god Harmaehis appeared to the king in a dream and promised him his special favor if he would dig out the Sphinx which bore his image and lay half buried in the sand. The monarch obeyed, restored and repaired the grand monument and built a temple at its base. This stands between the two extended paws, on one of which the king’s name has been found inscribed. It was an open temple with an altar and on the breast of the colossus was the memorial stone with the king’s name, made of red granite.

Dreams seem to have borne a special art in the family history. The queen also had a noted dream. It was said that she was sleeping in the most beautiful room in the palace and awoke and saw her husband by her side. Then a few moments after the figure of the god Amen appeared and, when she cried out in alarm, he predicted the birth of her son and vanished in clouds of sweet perfume. Hence the young king was considered in a sense the son of the god. Mautamua is elsewhere called a princess of Mitanni and seems to have been won with difficulty by the young Egyptian prince or kin. One of the tablets found says: “When the father of Nimmuriya (Tahutmes IV) sent to Artotama my grandfather and asked for his daughter to wife, my grandfather refused his request, and though he sent the fifth time and the sixth time he would not give her to him. It was only after he had sent the seventh time that he gave her to him, being compelled for many reasons.” This was among the noted collection of the Tel-el-Amarna tablets and is believed by late authorities to refer to Queen Maut-amua, who is also spoken of as the divine wife and mother.

The queen’s home was in Thebes, which had succeeded Memphis as the great city of the Empire, standing, it is said, to Ethiopia and Egypt “in the relation occupied by Rome to Mediæval Christianity, the capital sacerdotal city of all who worshipped the god Amen.” On the wall of what is called the “Birth Room” at the temple of Luxor are various reliefs relating to the birth of Amenophis III, showing Queen Maut-a-mua, the nurses, the goddess Isis and others. In one the Queen, after the birth of her son (Ra-ma-neb), is seen kneeling on a kind of dais. The goddess Hathor kneels facing her with the babe in her arms. The Ka of both are repeated, making double figures, and the sacred cow suckles the child. For some reason, not given, Amenophis III was particularly rich in Ka names, for he had seven. Another relief shows Hathor presenting the child to the goddess Safekh, and to Amen-Ra, the god of Thebes. Behind Amen-Ra stands the god Nilus and behind him another carrying three ankhs or life signs for the family, throne and Ka name. Safekh dips her pen in ink to record his birth; the royal and Ka ovals are inscribed above. Says Miss Edwards: “Each sovereign on succeeding to the throne not only assumed a throne name, but took also a name for his Ka. The throne name was enclosed in a royal oval, or cartouch, like the family name, but the Ka name was represented as if inscribed above the false doorway, just where the name of a deceased person would be inscribed above the actual door of his sepulchre.”

As the goddess Safekh was the patron deity of libraries we may judge that the king had intellectual tastes, though we know him to have been something of an athlete and a great sportsman. Indeed, it was to this last that he owed his wife, for it was on a hunting expedition that he encountered and fell in love with her. Queen Maut-amua and her daughter-in-law, Ti or Thi, were associated much together, as were Queen Aahotep and her daughter-in-law, Nefertari-Aahmes, though not so generally considered divinities as were the founders of the race.

Maut-a-mua must have been a woman of intellect, capacity and attraction since she was her son’s guardian, and probably regent, and his attachment to her seems to have been strong and enduring. She lived many years after her husband, whose reign was brief, lasting not more than eight or nine years.

The likenesses of these various kings and queens are often found among the wall pictures in the tombs and are reproduced in many of the books on Egypt. The bas-reliefs and statues which decorated temples and tombs were mostly painted. Says Maspero: “That the Egyptians studied from Nature is proved by the facility with which they seized likenesses and drew the appropriate movements of animals. These figures are strange, but they live and have a certain charm.” To paint men brown and women yellow was the rule, but to this there were occasional exceptions. At Sackuarah, in the time of the Fifth Dynasty, the flesh tint of the men is yellow, while at Istamboul, or Abu Simbel, it is red, as also in the tombs of the epoch of Thotmosis IV.

The early Egyptian is said to have had a fine forehead, small, aquiline nose and a well-formed chin. The picture preserved of Queen Maut-a-mua, with the royal asp above her forehead, gives a long, slightly aquiline nose and a small, well-shaped chin. It is rather startling, in turning to her daughter-in-law, Ti, to find this face repeated in a sort of caricature, devoid of beauty. As in most cases, doctors differ as to the amount of reliance that can be placed upon the verisimilitude of the portraits and statues of these various kings and queens that have come down to us. Some authorities maintain that there existed an ideal conventional type, to which the actual bore little or no resemblance, and point out how each is but the modification of the other. Some again claim for them considerable authenticity. Perhaps a middle ground may come nearest to the truth. The conventional type no doubt dominated the painter’s or sculptor’s mind. But when the statues are proved to have been executed in the lifetime of the original it seems likely that some resemblance was aimed at, and the differences that exist go to show this. Also in many cases they belonged to the same family, and may well have had features common to all; as in later times the Hapsburgh jaw was handed down from generation to generation. How hard we have found it to reconcile the picture in the various galleries with the reputation of the charming, beautiful and unhappy Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, and yet doubtless there was a resemblance. How often, too, the photograph of a near and dear friend has an utterly unfamiliar aspect. So that we may fairly admit that even in these ancient times statues and pictures (at least in some cases) a suggestion of the original may remain to us.

The head of Tahutmes IV, which is preserved in a statue or statuette, gives a pleasing face, with an amiable expression. At Luxor, Queen Maut-a-mua appears without the king, but with her son, whose paternity is ascribed to Amen. There is also a picture of the king, smiting some negroes, and behind is a queen called Ai’at who is spoken of as royal daughter, sister and wife, but it is thought this may be intended for an ideograph of the “goddess queen,” Maut-a-mua, as there is no other trace of her. On one private tomb is a picture of Amenophis III and his mother, and there are also various small remains in the way of scarabs, rings, etc. In one of the reliefs in the “Birth Room,” before referred to, the god Amen and the queen are seated upon the hieroglyphic symbol for heaven and supported by the goddesses Selqet and Neith.

King Amenophis III did not resemble his mother. It is quite a different face, with good features and a resolute, though pensive expression. The forehead is high, the eyes full, the nose long but rounded at the end, the upper lip short, and the chin prognathous. He is described as amiable and generous, and showed deference and strong affection both for mother and wife. He seems among the most pleasing of the Egyptian kings. Engaged in wars, devoted to hunting, especially the chase of the lion, which led him far afield, he was yet, as were many of his predecessors, deeply interested in architectural enterprises and the era is noted for the spirit and beauty of its sculpture. Court and colonnade at Karnak were of his building, and on the walls of various apartments are pictures of the coronation of the king and other details of his life.

He is best known to us, and his fame rests chiefly on the marvellous colossi which he erected, “the grandest the world has ever seen.” They are sixty feet high, and when they wore the crown of an Egyptian king, which has since been destroyed, towered seventy feet into the air, a solid block of sandstone. Miss Martineau, a traveller of comparatively modern times, thus describes the impression they made upon her. “There they sit, together yet apart, in the midst of the plain, serene and vigilant, still keeping their untired watch over the lapse of ages and the eclipse of Europe. I can never believe that anything else so majestic as this pair has been conceived of by the imagination of Art, nothing certainly, even in Nature, ever affected me so unspeakably. The pair, sitting alone amid the expanse of verdure, with islands of ruins behind them, grow more striking to us every day. The impression of sublime tranquility which they convey, when seen from distant points, is confirmed by a nearer approach. There they sit, keeping watch, hands on knees, gazing straight forward, seeming, though so much of the face is gone, to be looking over to the monumental piles on the other side of the river, which became gorgeous temples after these throne seats were placed here—the most immovable thrones that have ever been established on the earth.”

It is rarely that the name of an Egyptian sculptor is preserved, but this case is an exception. An inscription records his name and his naturally proud and exultant feelings at the completion of his work. He was called Amen-hotep or Amen-hept, and thus speaks: “I immortalized the name of the king and no one has done the like of me in my works. I executed two portrait statues of the king, astonishing for their breadth and height, their completed form dwarfed the temple tower; forty cubits was their measure: they were cut in the splendid sandstone mountain, on either side the eastern and the western, I caused to be built lightships whereon the statues were carried up the river; they were emplaced in their sublime temple; they will last as long as heaven. A joyful event was it when they were landed at Thebes and raised up in their place.”

The stone is of a yellowish brown color and very difficult to work. Both statues represent the king and stood before a temple which he built, but of which the veriest fragments remain. We are reminded somewhat by the sculptor’s triumphant pæan of the good Un’e, who was minister to Pepi VI and so exulted in his work and position. Fond as Amenophis was of both his mother and his foreign wife, for whose pleasure and diversion he constructed a great lake, neither of them sit beside him or share the honor of so majestic a statue, as we might suppose, especially as regards his wife, would have been the case; he immortalizes himself alone. Two figures of queens, Maut-a-mua and Ti, are, however sculptured at the base of the statues; they measure eighteen feet in height, but appear small beside the colossi. Says one visitor, the surface of the statues was originally beautifully polished. The thrones on which they are seated are covered with sculptures; the god Hapi (the Nile) is weaving together the lotus lily and papyrus plant, implying the rule of the monarch over Upper and Lower Egypt.

Homer calls Amenophis III, the Memnon of the Greeks, “the most stately of living men,” and according to a later legend he was the son of Aurora. It was during the Roman imperial epoch that they were taken for the statues of Memnon, who slew Nestor’s son, Antiochus, in the Trojan war, and was himself slain by Achilles, and to explain the fact that the Trojan hero should thus appear in Egypt a legend was invented. The so-called “vocal Memnon,” the more Eastern of the statues, greeted his mother, Eos, with musical sounds and the morning dews were supposed to be the tears which the goddess shed upon her beloved child. The two statues stood at the end of an avenue of gigantic figures, leading to the temple of Amen, and from the river to the temple, a mile in length, went the Strada Regia, the royal street of Thebes.

Says our own Curtis, who has written so charmingly of his Egyptian experiences: “Yearly comes the Nile humbly to his feet, and leaving them pays homage. Then receding slowly leaves water plants wreathed around the throne, on which he is sculptured as a good genius harvesting the lotus, and brings a hundred travellers to perpetuate the homage. These sublime sketches in stone are an artist’s work. In those earlier days Art was not content with the grace of Nature, but coped with its proportions. Vain attempts, but glorious!” The fact of this musical note being heard from “the darling of the dawn” is recorded on the base of the statue, and is mentioned by Strabo, the elder Pliny and many others. Sandy beaches sometimes emit musical sounds and something in the structure of the rock, warmed by the rays of the rising sun, may have caused the sounds to be heard, or they may have been produced by artificial means, at the instance of the priests, striving to impress the people. The true origin of the mystery was never discovered, though its existence seems well attested, and eventually the sounds ceased, probably as the result of an earthquake or the restoration of the figures which was undertaken by a later king. Another theory lays the injury of the statues at the door of Cambyses, who was credited with all possible crimes, and a sculptured inscription reads: “I wrote after having heard Memnon. Cambyses has wounded me. A stone cut into the image of the sun-king. I had once the sweet voice of Memnon, but Cambyses has deprived me of the accents which express joy and grief.”

The sounds are said by some authorities to have been heard during a period of two hundred and twenty years. Travellers in ancient times (like the modern vandal) were very fond of scribbling their names on monuments, which should be held in more respect, and a number of these, including some of their remarks and silly verses, have been found on the base of the statue and refer to the sounds. At the time of their erection the level of the Nile was evidently different from that of the present day for its waters, as Curtis has said, now occasionally leave the feet of the giant pair.

Amenophis III began quarrying stone for his numerous architectural works in the first and second years of his reign from quarries near Silseleh, and his palace was said to resemble that subsequently built by his son at Tel-el-Amarna in some respects. Scarabs bearing the name of this king are to be seen in our own New York Museum, as also in various other places, but those of Tahutmes III are still more frequent here. The tomb of Amenophis III was found in the west valley of the Tombs of the Kings by a French expedition.

Queen Maut-a-mua had the pleasure, we may believe, of seeing a number of grandchildren, as Amenophis III had four sons and three daughters, if not others unmentioned, and so kindly seem to have been the family relations that we may perhaps picture her with her son’s wife in the midst of the home circle spoiling them quite like a modern grandmother. Up to this period the men of the family appear to have been a stalwart, good-looking race, while the women probably possessed more beauty than their pictures would lead us to infer. Of the general outline of their history we have some knowledge, but seldom or never can we definitely place the day of their birth or that of their death. So at what exact period Queen Maut-a-mua passed away we cannot state, only we may believe she was watched over by filial affection to the last, was buried amid tears and lamentations, and had all due funeral rites observed, even if she was not numbered among those royalties who were specially regarded as divinities, the founders of the race, and to whom divine honors were subsequently paid, yet is she occasionally spoken of as “the goddess queen.”

CHAPTER ELEVENTH.

TYI.

With Queen Tyi (or as her name is variously spelled, Ti, Tai, Tity, Tii, Teye, Tuaa, Thua) we again consider the story of a woman of unusual power, and though not leaving such indelible impression upon the page of history as did Queen Hatasu, her influence was strongly felt. Both as wife and mother we see the traces of her ideas and wishes on the actions of husband and son; both, evidently, turned to her for counsel and each in his own way showed her devoted affection. So potent was her sway over the latter that to it is largely attributed the religious and political revolution which occurred in the lifetime of Amenophis IV. Though its effects were comparatively temporary and passed away during the reign of his successors for the time being it convulsed Egypt to its centre and the records of it have not been obliterated by the lapse of centuries.

Amenophis III, son of Tahutmes IV and Maut-a-mua, was, we judge, an attractive youth. He had a fine presence, an agreeable expression and an amiable and generous disposition, while his love story holds more of romance than usually falls to the lot of kings or queens. He is credited with a number of wives or less reputable connections. Perhaps they included the errors of the “sowing of wild oats,” and at any rate seem to have been relegated to or kept in the background by a devoted affection for the lady who became pre-eminently his legal wife. These various wives are given as a sister and two daughters of Kalima-Sin, King of Karaduniyash, and a sister and daughter of Tushratta, King of Mittani, none of whom, it is said, were acknowledged queen of Egypt, while other records seem to imply that Queen Tyi was the daughter of Tushratta of Dushratta, King of Mittanni. A letter to Babylon seems to show that Amenophis III had married a Babylonish princess, and that her brother, Kali-masin, was not satisfied about her safety, but was reassured by Amenophis. A match between another princess of that country and the Egyptian sovereign seems to have failed for lack of sufficient gold on the lady’s part. Wars also interfered with connubial arrangements.

Another account says that Amenophis III haughtily refused when the King of Mesopotamia, Kalima-Sin, wished to marry one of the Egyptian princesses, saying that the daughter of the king of the Land of Egypt had never been given to a “nobody.” This, of course, occurred later, if at all, and it seems not quite reasonable that the king himself should take a princess as his wife from the same family to which he refused his daughter. The sovereign of great Egypt evidently viewed with contempt the claims of these petty princes to be considered in any way his equal. Yet one letter in the collection found at Tel-el-Amarna shows that Tahutmes III, Tahutmes IV and Amenophis IV all married Mitannian princesses. After such a lapse of time and among conflicting statements it is hard to arrive at the absolute facts, but as our present concern is chiefly with Queen Tyi it matters the less. She alone of these various ladies has a distinct personality and takes a prominent place.

Hunting was, with Amenophis III, a passion, the hunting of the lion a royal sport, for the sake of which he journeyed far and no doubt underwent many enforced privations. It must have been in the heyday of youth and manly vigor that, on one of his long expeditions, he encountered the foreign princess who at once won his heart and probably reciprocated to a more than ordinary degree the affection she inspired. Spite of the rather unattractive effigies which bear her name, we must believe that she was beautiful and winning, since for her sake he cast aside the so frequent custom of marriage with a sister or some home dignitary and invited her to share his throne.

Probably then, or later, the queen participated in the favorite amusement of her husband, not wanting in courage for the perils or hardships involved, nor did she shrink as a more sensitive female of later times might have done from what was painful, cruel or revolting in the death throes of the mighty beast.

Scarabs, so often used by the Egyptians to record events which they considered of importance, have been found, bearing such inscriptions as this: “Amenhotep, prince of Thebes, giver of life, and royal spouse Thi. In respect of lions, brought Majesty his from shooting his own, beginning from year first to year tenth, lions fierce 102.”

These scarabs, giving the names of gods, kings and singers are often most valuable in filling gaps in other records. The most frequently found are those of Tahutmes III, of which there are a number in the Metropolitan Museum in New York; Amenophis III, Seti I and Rameses II, and they are inscribed with the names of kings from Mena to the Roman Emperor Antoninus. Hence on those known to be of a particular period and found with the royal mummies, the name of much earlier kings are frequently traced. Scarabs were copied by the Phoenicians and are imitated in these modern times in Egypt. The work, at first very clumsy, has gradually become better executed, while the real ones have, of course, grown dearer as well as rarer.

A brief enumeration of some of the scarabs relating to these periods to be seen in the New York Museum may not be without interest. One of Tahutmes or Thothmes III has the figure of the god Bes in the centre, flanked by cartouches of the king a winged scarab below and obscure ornamentation above. The color of the composition of which it is made a faded reddish brown. Another of soft blue stone or paste has the pre-nomen of the same king called “subduer of foreigners in all lands.” One of green porcelain, beautifully executed, shows a squatting figure with extended arms, upholding the divine boat, and above, the pre-nomen of King Thothmes. Inscriptions are “the good god” and “lord of both lands,” while the ankh, or life sign, is both behind the body and attached to the knees. On another of grey composition, above a horse, chariot and charioteer, is the pre-nomen of the king, in a cartouch, with the ends reversed. A bead or seal of hard, green stone has on the one side the pre-nomen of Thothmes III, with the Tet sign below, each flanked by uraei, and on the reverse a Hathor-headed sistrum also flanked by uraei. A cartouch of Amenophis III and the symbol of “truth” is on a scarab of green and brown pottery. Another has “Praise of Amenophis III.” His cartouch and “lord of might” is on one of green pottery, while a scarab in grey composition, beautifully executed bears the pre-nomen of the king on both sides, with a winged beetle and disk flanked by uraei and a human headed sphinx with the words, “Living god Tum.” Most interesting of all, however, in connection with the present chapter, is a green pottery scaraboid, symbolic eye, bearing the words “The royal wife Tii,” wife of Amenohotep III.

Melville has graphically described the setting forth of a royal hunt, in another ancient kingdom, which, in some particulars at least, may reproduce the Egyptian pageant. “A queen and all her glittering train defiled from the lofty porches of Babylon the Great, with tramp of horses and ring of bridle, with steady footfalls of warriors, curled, bearded, erect and formidable, with ponderous tread of stately elephants, gorgeous in trappings of scarlet, pearl and gold, with stealthy gait of meek-eyed camels, plodding patient with their burdens in the rear. Scouring into the waste before that jewelled troop of wild asses bruised and broke the shoots of wormwood beneath their flying hoofs, till the hot air was laden with an aromatic smell, the ostrich spread her scant and tufted wings to scud before the wind, tall, swift, ungainly, in a cloud of yellow dust; the fleet gazelle, with beating heart and head, tucked back, sprang forward like an arrow from the bow, never to pause nor stint in her terror-stricken flight, till man and horse, game and hunter were left hopelessly behind—far down beyond the unbroken level of the horizon. But the monarch of the desert, the grim and lordly lion, sought no refuge in flight, accepted no compromise of retreat. Driven from his covert he might move slowly and sullenly away, but it was to turn in savage wrath on the eager horseman who approached too near, or the daring archer who ventured to bend his bow within point-blank distance of such an enemy. Nevertheless, even the fiercest of their kind must yield before man, the conqueror of beasts, before woman, the conqueror of man, and on the shaft which drank his life blood and transfixed the lion from side to side was graven the royal tiara of a monarch’s mate.”

Amid such scenes sped the wooing, and no doubt in later years passed many exciting hours. Amenophis or Amenhotep III reared young lions as pets, and also presented live ones as gifts to the temples, estimating them as of great value, though we may wonder in what special manner they could be of profit, service or pleasure there.

The pictures of Queen Tyi, or Tai, in the tombs of the Queens, near Thebes, and in other places, copied by Champollion and Rosellini show her with blue eyes, a skin of pinkish hue, like a Northern maiden, and a pleasing expression. Many of the queens were buried in a valley behind the temple of Medinet Haboo at Thebes others were laid beside their lords. Tyi, as has been said, was considered by some to be the daughter of a Mesopotamian, Asiatic, Dashratta or Tushratta, king of Mitanni, Maten of the hieroglyphics. Other authorities, from cuneiform tablets found at Tel-el-amarna, give her paternity as that of a sister of or daughter of Kalimma Sin, king of Koraduniyash, probably a county northeast of Syria. Kings and queens of Babylon claimed Amenophis III as a new kinsman, perhaps as the result of this marriage.

Scarabs were engraved in honor of the union and part of a scarab gives the record “Amenhetep, prince of Thebes, giver of life and royal spouse mighty lady Thi, living one—the name of father her (was) Tuaa or Juaa, the name of mother her (was) Thuau, the wife to wit of the king powerful. Frontier his South is as far as Kerei, land of Nubia, frontier North is as far as Netharina (Mesopotamia).” Part of another reads, “A wonderful thing they brought to Majesty his, life, strength, health, the daughter of the prince of Mesopotamia, Sotharna. Kirkipa and the chiefs of women her 300 + 10 + 7.” The mummies of her parents have been recently found.

Many of these scarabs are preserved in the Museums of Gizeh, Berlin and other places. An enamelled vase in different colors in the Gizeh Museum also bears the name of Amenophis III and Tyi, a potsherd, in one of the older museums gives the coronation date of Amenophis III as “the 13th day of the month Epiphi,” said to correspond in part to our April and May, which, without this otherwise valueless fragment we might perhaps never have known.

Queen Tyi was attended as the scarab notes, by three hundred and seventeen women, which would of course imply a force of male protectors as well. A very precious bride. This may recall the story in the Talmud about Abraham, who on approaching Egypt locked Sarah in a chest to hide her dangerous beauty. The custom officers asked if he carried clothes. He answered, “I will pay for clothes.” Then they raised their demand, “Thou carriest gold?” To this he also agreed and further to the price of the finest silks and precious stones. Finding they could name nothing of greater value than he held his treasure they at last insisted that he should open the box and the tale ends “the whole of Egypt was illuminated with the lustre of Sarah’s beauty.” Whether Queen Tyi’s beauty thus surprised and delighted the people of her new home we can only surmise, but at least she was deemed precious enough to be well served and guarded.

So the bond was sealed between the royal lovers and away from her own land journeyed the newly elected queen. A woman with a fair face and figure, a heart keenly responsive to human affections, with a deep-seated faith in the religion of her fore-fathers, worshippers of the sun, and, perhaps even at that early period, a quiet determination that she would win her husband and his people from what she must have deemed the error of their ways, their worship of so many gods under the form of beasts and birds, introduce a purer, simpler religion among them. Something of the spirit of Joan of Arc may have animated her; something of the religious fervor of an Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins (or was it only eleven martyrs, the M being mistaken for a thousand?) as the one girded herself for battle and the other took up her pious pilgrimage.

We know less of the formalities necessary for the conclusion of a royal marriage among the Egyptians than we do of their funeral rites and ceremonies. The latter as ushering them into a new and higher existence were deemed the more important and of greater concern to both the present generation and to posterity, especially the latter, and its records and momentoes tell the story a thousand times, but we may take for granted that many observances, both civil and religious, marked the union of man and woman, in particular those of nobles and kings. Some authorities have questioned Queen Tyi’s claim to royal birth, but the retinue of attendants and servants that accompanied her leave little doubt that she was a princess of note.

This bridal train may recall another of later times, that of Henrietta Maria of France, as she journeyed to meet her future husband, Charles I of England. She, too, was attended by a large retinue: she, too, held strongly a different faith and more or less, on that account, awakened the prejudices of her new subjects, and she, too, was involved in a revolution, partly religious in character. But here the parallel ends, for the one remained in possession of her power, while the other was driven from her throne and became an exile.

Perhaps the new queen was taken at once to her palace, the remains of which were discovered by Greaut at Malgata, and which, after being pillaged, were subsequently excavated by Newberry and Titus. Or she may have watched its erection with interest, after her arrival. The original edifice is thus described by those who have made a careful study of the fragmentary remains. “The plan of the palace seems to have been quite similar to that of the palace which Amenophis IV erected for himself in Tel-el-Amarna, and which was several years ago explored by Petrie. In the palace of Amenophis III the rooms were likewise adorned by beautifully decorated stucco floors, and the roof were supported by columns. The walls were embellished with stucco work, the representations, in part, setting forth every-day life. In addition to staterooms, working rooms, the kitchen with its storage closets, a faience factory, in which the different amulets and ornaments were made, can be distinguished. Not far from the palace was found an altar, built of tile, and at one time probably wainscotted with slabs of stone. It was quite similar to the one in the temple of Deir-el-Bahri, and this one was certainly dedicated to the sun-god. As the altars of ancient Israel most likely also had a similar form, these remains of the old Egyptian cultus have an especial Biblical interest.” The columns of the great temple and likely of the palace also, were sculptured to resemble the buds of the lotus, sometimes called the Egyptian immortelle, which might also be called the national flower, so highly was it regarded and so constantly was it used as a model for architectural designs.

That the foreign daughter-in-law was kindly received by Queen Maut-a-mua we may well believe from the harmony which seemed to exist between them later and the union of their two statues with that of Amenophis III; while in her turn Queen Tyi, when she occupied the same position, extended a like friendly affection to her son’s wife.

The influence of the new queen was soon perceived in the institution, by the king, of a religious festival in honor of the sun’s disk. Many of the people may have been charmed to have anything like another holiday, with its attendant pageants and observances, added to their list, but there can be little doubt that it awakened the suspicion of the priests, who jealously guarded the ancient faith and beheld with disfavor anything that might involve less devotion to the numerous gods which they worshipped and of whose interests they were the guardians, and any change that might minimize their influence or deplete the resources in the treasuries of the temples.

Queen Tyi seems not to have been popular. She was a foreigner, which in itself often awakens an antagonistic feeling, amusingly illustrated in the story of the English laborer who when told that a passer by was a stranger exclaimed, “Eave alf a brick at im’.” She held a different faith and in all probability the priests with a consciousness of her latent or expressed views and principles used their great influence quietly to set the people against her and this dislike was transferred to her son.

But to her husband she was ever a first consideration. The records give an account of an enterprise which he early undertook for her pleasure. This was the construction of a large artificial lake on which she might sail or row at will. Again the scarabs chronicle this tribute of connubial tenderness, and again we see the queen’s religious views considered. It begins as usual with an ascription to the gods. “Under the majesty of Horus the golden, mighty of valor, full power, diademed with law (lord of the North and South) establisher of laws, pacifier of the two lands. Horus, the golden, mighty of valor, smiter of foreign lands. Ordered majesty his the oaking of a lake for the royal spouse, mighty lady Thi. Length its (was) cubits 3000-6000, breadth its cubits 600. Made majesty his festival of the entrance of the waters on month third of sowing day sixteenth. Sailed majesty in his boat ‘Atenneferu’ ‘Disk of beauties’ or ‘the most beautiful disk.’” He sailed across to inaugurate the opening and perhaps to show her that all was safe and well and then doubtless the queen held sway over it, permitting only such as she chose to share the pleasure with her and perhaps making it a mark of special favor when she did so. The Egyptians held many of their religious festivals on the Nile and this lake may have been specially devoted to such religious observances as the queen wished to hold in honor of the celestial god whom she worshipped. The place selected for this feat of engineering skill was near the town of Tarucha.

The remains of a beautiful temple at Sideruga, built by Amenophis III to or for Queen Tyi, have also been found and an inscription says Amenhotep “made his monuments for the great and mighty heiress, the mistress of all lands, Tyi.” A group of the king and Tyi is in the Summa collection and an inscription reads: “Amen’nekht, princess, prays with her mother before Amenhotep III, because he praises her beautiful face and honors her beauty.” A Usheti box in the Berlin Museum bears the name of Tyi and the monuments of her are numerous. She is by the colossi of her husband and appears with him in official scenes at Saleb. The figure sculptured in the tomb of Huy at Tel-el-Amarna, on a scarab, etc., is shown seated; her name alone appears in a quarry at the same place, after her husband’s death. And her parents are named as Yoman and Thuaa.

The additions made by Amenophis III to the long list of Egyptian temples are among the most noted. He built the oldest part of the Serapeum at Sakkarah, the temple of Amen-Ra at Karnak and also at Luxor a sanctuary with surrounding chambers, a pro-naos or hall with four columns, and another large court (which was evidently used afterwards as a place of worship by the early Christians), and a noble hypostycle court with four rows of lofty columns bearing the lotus capital. At the end nearest the sanctuary on either side are double rows of the same columns, then a huge pilon, and in front of all, a noble avenue of fourteen still more massive and lofty columns bearing the lotus-flower capital. This avenue with the usual pylon appears to have completed the Temple of Amenophis III. About 1600 B. C. is the date sometimes set for this work. An avenue of Sphinxes connected the two temples. The temple of Mut at Karnak was Amenophis’ special work. At el Kab there is also a beautiful little temple or chapel built by him containing various pictures of the king making offerings to the gods, etc. Other works might be named as well as the grand statues already referred to.

As devoted as was Amenophis III to the god Amen, on whose temples he lavished gifts and to whom he paid special honors, so antagonistic was his son and successor to the same deity. May it chance that as the mother taught and impressed upon the youthful minds of her children her own religious ideas, so the father especially in the case of this son, forced them to acts of worship to the many gods of Egypt which revolted them and in the end served only to drive them the further from the old faith. Such is the perversity of human nature that the very means taken to win assent to any proposition or principle are often those which have most influence in causing the pendulum of thought and opinion to swing to the opposite extreme.

It is said that the striking change in the physiognomy and ideal type of the upper classes in the latter part of the Eighteenth Dynasty points to strong foreign infusion. The bold, active faces of earlier times are replaced by sweetness and delicacy, a gentle smile and small, gracefully curved nose, this is characteristic of the time of Amenophis III.

The life of King Amenophis was an active one, less warlike than most of his predecessors, but leaving behind many memorials. It is possible that his long and doubtless exposing hunting expeditions may have had a bad effect upon him, for it was still in his prime probably that his life ended and his wife seems long to have survived him. His reign, however, covers a lengthy period, thirty-six years, but he, owing to his father’s early death, ascended the throne in youth. So, in the quaint and beautiful language of Scripture, Amenophis III “slept with his fathers,” and Amenophis IV reigned in his stead.

The tomb of Amenophis III, discovered by the French Expedition, is in the West Valley of the Tombs of the Kings. Here also his father and many other Egyptian sovereigns were buried. On the rocky walls are representations of the king and the gods, some of which were only partially completed. Amenophis III stands out an attractive personality among the long list of Egyptian kings. We cannot doubt that he was mourned by many, especially by the love of his youth and later years, Queen Tyi. Henceforth her life was bound up with that of her eldest son. She and Amenophis III had, some say two, some say four sons, and four or five daughters. The eldest son, who changed his name, was first called Amenophis IV and his next brother, Tahutmes, after the grandfather or other ancestor of that name. The daughters were Isis, Heot-mi-hib Satamon, of whom some memorials remain, and some say Beckaten, youngest and favorite, but who is elsewhere termed grand-daughter, rather than daughter, of Tyi.

That Queen Tyi was a faithful mother whose affectionate heart clung to her children as she had been a loving and devoted wife we cannot doubt. But her eldest son, the champion of her faith, the earnest disciple of her teachings, which had sunk into his heart and borne abundant fruit, must have been especially beloved. With him her after history is closely associated, and her influence is shown even more strongly than during the life of her husband and there is little question that to it is largely due the subsequent course of events. Amenophis III had deferred to her wishes and shown special marks of favor to her religious views, but her son accepted them with his whole heart and spent his life in trying to make them the religion of his native land.

CHAPTER TWELFTH.

TYI (CONTINUED).

As the reign and influence of Queen Hatasu or Hatshepsut included, in part as those of her father and two brothers, so did that of Queen Tyi those of husband and son. The fair young girl who had left her own country with high hopes and aspirations had crystallized into the determined woman, who bent all the energies of a strong nature to the accomplishment of her wishes and purposes. The religion of her fore-fathers was no longer kept in the background. She inspired her son with the zeal of an apostle or a fanatic, as we may choose to consider it, and the king devoted his life to upturning the old order of things and an endeavor to establish the new. His father had shown much deference to his wife’s religious faith. In the new festival, instituted in his honor, that of the Solar Disk, on the 16th of Athyr (October 4th), a prominent place had been assigned in the procession to the boat of the sun “Aten-ne-fru.” He also put the disk on the head of his crlo-sphinxes and on the statues of the goddesses Pasht and Sekhet; but all this was, in a measure, tentative.

It remained for Amenophis IV, who was by early writers numbered among the Stranger kings, till his true paternity was discovered and now styled himself “Akhenaten” of “Khu-n-aten,” Worshipper of the (Sun’s Disk) to proclaim openly his mother’s faith. It has been suggested that his aim was to provide a god visible to all the people of his extensive empire, and who could be worshipped in common by all, or jealousy between the priests of Heliopolis and those of Thebes may have been another ingredient in the mixed and vexed problem. Beside his father’s great temple at Luxor he erected a sanctuary of the sun, and in various places the name of Amon was obliterated.

Whatever the subsequent history of Queen Tyi’s other children, it was to the eldest son that the mother evidently clung, and we may perhaps believe that he, chiefly of them all, shared her views and opinions. On slips from toilette boxes, etc., are found the names of the princesses Sat-amen, Hent-mer-hab and Ast; there was also a son, with the family name of Tahutmes. Bekaten is by some believed to be the youngest and favorite daughter of Tyi, by others to be her grand-daughter, the child of Amenophis IV, who is thought to have married before his father’s death. At Somma is a group of the king and Tyi. At Qurneh a funeral temple north of Ramesseum, rearranged by Amenhotep III for his daughter Sit-amen, which proves that this child, at least, died before the father. Another inscription read, “Amen’nekht, princess, prays with her mother, before Amenhotep III, because he praises her beautiful face and honors her beauty.” Some of the children probably died young, some may have married and gone elsewhere, but the eldest, the father’s successor, had both the will and the power to plant the new faith, and with him Queen Tyi’s later life seems closely associated.