Predecessors of Cleopatra

by Leigh North

But if the king had restored order in the land, not so well had he kept his own household in check. Records remain of a conspiracy which arose in his harem, headed by the Lady Ti, Thi, or Tey, said to be the mother of a certain Pentaur or Pen-ta-urt, whom she wished to put upon the throne. She probably hated the “royal wife, the great lady, the lady of two lands, Ast.” In exactly what way the Lady Ti was related to the king is not specified. In both the museums of Paris and Turin there is some account of this cause celebre. The steward, Pal-bak-Amen, was her chief co-adjutor, also a certain Penhuiban or Hui, a cattle inspector, who indulged in “Black Art,” made amulets and images of wax for ladies, and had books containing directions how to strike people blind and to make figures in effigy to bring trouble upon any one who was hated. Melting wax figures and sticking pins in them to harm an enemy we think of as belonging to the age of Queen Elizabeth, and lo, it was known and practiced in Egypt thousands of years before!

On the other hand, may it not have been also possible that Queen Ise or Ast had some share in the plot, or at least sympathized with it, thus giving another reason for the non-appearance of her name beside the king’s. One of the ladies concerned wrote to her brother, commanding the army in Ethiopia, and ordered or entreated him to fight against the king. But whether he did as was desired or not, the revolt was unsuccessful. It was crushed with some severity, and it is said forty men and six women were compelled to commit suicide, and a mummy, thought to be that of Pentaur, and showing signs of death by poison, has been found.

Rameses III reigned thirty-seven years, and there is a list of his sons, several of whom succeeded him. He was buried in the Tombs of the Kings, doubtless with all the honors of state, but his body was not allowed to rest in peace, it was included in the general upheaval caused by robbers, before described. His mummy was found in the large coffin of Nefertari-Aames, and on being unrolled fell to dust. His features were said to be softer, finer and more intelligent than some of his predecessors, his figure less straight and vigorous and his shoulders narrower. His red granite sarcophagus is in the Louvre and the lid in the Fitz-William museum at Cambridge. His tomb is sometimes called “the Harpers,” from the figure of two harpers in a scene on one side, also “Bruce’s tomb” from the name of the modern discoverer. Among the treasures found in this tomb were two golden baskets. His period is given as 1200 B. C.

Rameses III was succeeded by his sons or connections of the same name, who followed him, as one writer has said, with “ominous rapidity,” from number one to number thirteen. They seem to have been a faineant race, and the proud name of Rameses degenerated from reign to reign. Here and there in the Tombs of the Kings, or in other spots, we find their last resting places.

Among them, perhaps, Rameses IV was one of the most conspicuous; and his queen, given as Isis-Ast, was buried in the Tombs of the Queens. The tombs of Rameses IV and VI are decorated with astronomical designs; the sun appears in his chariot as Horus-Ra, and that of Rameses IV has pictures of the resurrection. The seventh son is given as Ramessu Meritum, son of Queen Muf-nofer-ari.

A papyrus of the time of Rameses IX gives an account of the violation of the royal tombs by robbers, which was then discovered; and this Abbott papyrus contains a list of the tombs inspected, hence the mummies were removed at different periods from place to place for greater safety. A woman called “Little Cat” confessed that she had been in the tomb of Queen Ast, wife of Rameses III, and purloined various articles.

The line of priest-kings, of whom Her-Hor was the first, chose a common place of sepulture, and thither were at last carried many of the earlier royal remains. The discovery of these in the cave at Deir-el-Bahari made a world-wide sensation and has already been referred to. There were three kings of the Thothmes name, two Rameses and Seti I, as well as the later kings of the priestly line, Pinotem or Pinozem I and II.

Here, too, we learn the little we know of some of the queens. There was Queen Ansera, of the Seventeenth Dynasty, Queen Aames Nofritari, Hatimoohoo, and Sitha of the Eighteenth, and queens Notem-Maut, Hathor-Houtta-ni, Ma-ka-Ra, and Isem-Kheb, and a queen Hest-em-Seket, as well as Princess Nesi-Khonsu, and a number of princesses and priestesses, called “Singers of Amen.”

Some of the coffins of this period show, on a yellow ground, a picture of the dead piercing a serpent with a lance. Among the Tombs of the Queens are a few of the Eighteenth, but more of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. Here was placed the wife of Rameses III, with name no longer legible. Here Queen Ti, or Titi, wife of the earlier King Amenophis III, with her blue eyes and fair skin, pictured as making offerings to the gods. Here Bint-Antha, favorite daughter of Rameses II. One tomb has the name obliterated and Tuattent-apt written upon it in red ink. Here is Isis-Ast, wife of Rameses IV, Queen Sitra of the Twentieth Dynasty, and many others.