5. AKHNATON’S AFFECTION FOR HIS FAMILY.
In about the thirteenth year of the reign a fifth daughter was born, who was named Neferneferura. This seems to have been the first daughter born after the changes in the religion recorded at the beginning of this chapter[74] had taken place; and it is significant that the name of Aton, of which all the previous daughters’ names had been compounded, now gives place to Ra. A sixth daughter seems to have made her appearance somewhat over a year later, some time during the fourteenth year of the reign. Again Ra is used in the name instead of Aton, she being called Setepenra. It is impossible to say what was the meaning of this slight change in the theological aspect of the religion at this period, but it seems evident that certain developments in which Ra figured were now introduced.
Head of Akhnaton’s Daughter.
No son was yet forthcoming, and both the king and the queen must now have suffered six successive disappointments. It may be mentioned here that the next child born to the unfortunate couple in the following year proved to be a seventh girl and a seventh disappointment; and in the remaining two years of the reign no other child was born, or at any rate was weaned, so that Akhnaton died sonless. It is strange to picture this lofty-minded preacher in his home, with his six little girls around him, as he is shown upon the monuments. No other Pharaoh thus portrayed himself surrounded by his family; but Akhnaton seems to have never been happy unless all his children were with him and his wife by his side. The charm of family life, and the sanctity of the relationship of husband and wife, parents and children, seems to have been an important point of doctrine to him. He urged his nobles, also, to give their attention to their families; and in the tomb of Panehesy, for example, one may see representations of that personage sitting with his wife and his three daughters around him.
Akhnaton’s affection for his daughters is now shown to us in another manner. When Amonhotep III. had asked the King of Mitanni for one of his daughters to be given in marriage to Akhnaton, the little Nefertiti was at once dispatched, although she was not yet old enough to cohabit with her husband. He had no scruples about sending the child of eight years old to a foreign country, and seems to have packed her off without a thought. Now, however, we obtain a glimpse of Akhnaton’s actions under similar circumstances, and the difference is marked. The King of Babylon, Burraburiash, wrote to Akhnaton in about the fourteenth or fifteenth year of the reign, asking for one of the Pharaoh’s daughters as a wife for his son. Wishing to be on friendly terms with Babylonia, Akhnaton consented to the union, and selected probably his fourth daughter, Nefernefernaton, as the future Queen of Babylon. His eldest daughter subsequently married a noble named Smenkhkara, who succeeded to the throne after the death of Akhnaton; and his third daughter was later married to another noble named Tutankhaton, who usurped the throne, as we shall see in the sequel. The fact that neither of these daughters was now chosen to marry the Babylonian prince indicates that they were already betrothed to their future husbands, and hence this event could not have taken place much earlier than at the date mentioned above. The second daughter, Meketaton, was not selected for the reason that she seems to have been in a precarious state of health. The little princess who was chosen was born in the tenth year of the reign, and was now not more than five years of age. Akhnaton, unlike the King of Mitanni, did not at once send the child to her future home, but arranged the marriage by proxy, and thus kept his daughter with him for yet a few years. This is made evident from the fact that in a letter from Burraburiash to Akhnaton, the Babylonian king states that he is sending a necklace of over a thousand stones to the “Pharaoh’s daughter, the wife of his son,” who is thus evidently still resident in Egypt.
Besides Akhnaton’s six, and presently seven, daughters there were two other princesses probably in residence at the palace. One of these, his young sister Baketaton, whom we have seen visiting the City of the Horizon with her mother, is not again heard of, and perhaps did not long survive the dowager-queen’s death. The other was Nezemmut, the sister of Queen Nefertiti, who seems to have lived in Egypt continuously since the time of the founding of the new city, when we last saw her.[75] Her portraits are shown in the tombs of May, Panehesy, and Ay; and she is generally seen to be accompanied by two female dwarfs, named Para and Reneheh, who appear to have waddled after her wherever she went. She was still, no doubt, very young, and these two grotesque attendants were entrusted with her safety as well as her amusement.