I have sent Hania, the commander of the archers, to you with all sorts of things, to bring the beautiful women.... There are in all forty women; forty pieces of silver is the price of the women. Send me therefore very beautiful women among whom are no slanderers, so that the king, your lord, may say to you, “This is fine.”[72]
The building of a harem had political implications for it involved an alliance of friendship. Early in Solomon’s reign he “made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt; he took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the City of David....” (I Kings 3:1). A large harem, moreover, was a symbol of power, wealth and prestige. Solomon was but adapting the customs of the great rulers of the ancient East when he built an enormous harem for himself.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Archaeology
Budge, E. A. W., By Nile and Tigris, I (London: 1920), pp. 133-144
Pendelbury, J. D. S., Tell el-Amarna (London; 1935)
Peet, Thomas Eric; Woolley Leonard; Frankfort, Henri; Pendelbury, J. D. S., et al. The City of Akhenaten (Parts I-III), 4 volumes (London; 1923-51)
History
Aldred, C., “The End of the El ’Amarna Period,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology XLIII (1957), pp. 30-41
Baikie, James, The Amarna Age (New York: 1926)