Later came the mid-day dinner, usual in Egypt, then doubtless a rest during the hottest hours, after which the reception of ambassadors and court dignitaries and an evening given more to pleasures, such as music and watching the acrobatic sports and juggling of trained performers and the dancing of female slaves. The guest whom the queen delighted to honor had a special place assigned him at table, portions sent to him from the royal dishes and sometimes, as a particular mark of favor, had a gold chain placed about his neck by the monarch’s own hand.
The throne room was probably a magnificent apartment of immense size with a polished floor, on which were laid the skins of beasts. Enormous statues of the gods, chief among them, Osiris and Isis, were ranged on either side, between tall granite columns with lotus capitals, looking like a forest of great trees. The throne of ivory stood on a raised platform, to which one ascended by steps, guarded on either side by carven figures of sphinxes and crouching animals. Behind were again immense statues of Justice and Truth. The steps were of valuable marbles, and the throne itself inlaid with jewels, all the numbers and designs were symbolic, the footstool was of precious marbles, in a gold frame, and above the throne was a canopy of silk upheld by slender white and gold columns and embroidered with the stars and constellations. Bands of soldiers and officers, richly attired, waited upon the queen. She, on all solemn occasions, wore the double crown of Egypt, which one writer describes as a graceful conical bonnet of white silk, ending in a knob like a pomegranite, the color white, of Upper, as the outer band of gold lined with red silk, was of Lower Egypt, the vulture wings and the raised asp. Her garments were of finest linen with silk robe of white and green and a girdle adorned with diamonds and precious stones. With these or similar surroundings we imagine Queen Hatshepsut.
There is a picture in Erman of King “Tuet-anch-amun” giving audience to a governor of Ethiopia. The king wears his war helmet and carries a whip and sceptre, while the governor bears a sceptre and fan as sign of rank. The king is called “Lord of Hermothis.” Sceptre and whip doubtless Hatshepsut could wield right royally, but the war bonnet she probably had little occasion for. Some writers claim that it was her father’s conquests which gave her immunity from warfare and that it was her peaceful reign and neglect to keep the wild tribes in orderly submission that paved the way for the career of bloodshed which distinguished her great successor, Tahutmes III, so that on this question, as on most, there will always remain a wide difference of opinion. But that a peaceful reign is in many respects a great blessing and a justifiable cause of pride to its successful promoter, and that peace and not war is the ideal state, cannot be denied.
The coronation of Hatshepsut, the building of her great temple at Deir el Bahri and the expedition to Punt are events of such moment that they deserve a volume rather than the narrow space of a single chapter to do them justice.
CHAPTER NINTH.
HATSHEPSUT (CONCLUDED).
An inscription in the temple of Karnak reads thus, it is as it were the deed of gift of the royal father Tahutmes I to his favorite child, and addressed to the god Amen: “I bestow the Black Land and the Red Land upon my daughter, the queen of Lower and Upper Egypt Ma-Ka-ra, living eternally. Thou hast transmitted the world into her power, thou hast chosen her as king.” Hatshepsut claimed divine origin in that the god Amen had taken upon him the person of her father and in an especial manner considered herself the daughter of the god. Hatshepset spelled with the e means “the first among the favorite women,” but the queen changed the e to u and later called herself Hatshepsut, which signifies “the first among the great and honorable nobles of the kingdom,” which she considered more befitting her exalted position.
The Eighteenth Dynasty is included in the Golden Age of Egyptian history, and in no period was its power more widely felt, its individual monarchs more remarkable or its architectural and literary remains grander or more impressive.
Before his death Tahutmes I seems to have had celebrated the marriage of his two children, his daughter of twenty-four and his son of seventeen. All things combined to put Hatshepsut in the first place, her more royal heritage, by the mother’s side, her father’s devotion to her, her superiority in years and her more striking talents, while Tahutmes II was perhaps both physically and mentally her inferior. Death at last had severed the tie which bound father and daughter together, but no such tender feeling seems to have existed between the two now occupying the throne, hers was the dominant will, hers is the prominent figure. After this she frequently wore male attire and the dress and ornaments belonging to a king, and doubtless, had it been a matter of choice, she would have been a man.