There is an ivory plaque of Queen Ameneritis in the New York Museum bearing a figure and a cartouch of “the divine wife, Ameneritis, daughter of Ra Khasta,” the sister, and it says also, the wife of Sabaco of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. The queen is shown on the plaque kneeling on the right, holding a lotus in each extended hand, with a necklace and short hair, like a man’s, and on her head a crescent and disk. There is an alabaster statue of Queen Ameneritis on a base of gray granite in the Gizeh Museum, which has a rather long but slim and delicate figure; but the head is overweighted with the wig of a god and she has a gloomy expression—possibly brought on by the discomfort of her wig in particular, and her experiences of life in general. Numerous monuments and scarabs bear her name and titles, and Budge says that within the last few years the British Museum has secured a remarkable object once belonging to her. It is of glazed steatite, with the cartouch and a short prayer cut in hieroglyphics upon it; at one end a perforated projection by which it was probably hung, and on the other a sign; its use is unknown.
Shabataka, “son of the sun,” is accounted the second king of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, and was probably associated with his father in the government. A stele now in Turin represents Shap-en-apt with her mother, Amenar, her husband, Pi-ankhi, and Shabataka, showing them to be contemporaries. Brugsch says that Pi-ma or Pi-mai means the “male cat.” King Shabataka or Shabata-k, the son of Sabaco, is in the Barabra language Sab-ato-ki, “the male cat’s son,” just as a Barabran word, Kash-ato, “horse’s son,” lies at the base of the name Kash-ta, which is an interesting little piece of philology. An ancient tradition, it is said, affirms that at the end of twelve years Shabataka was taken prisoner and put to death at Tirhakah, who became the last king of the dynasty, and reigned, some say eighteen, some twenty-five years. He married the princess Amen-tak-het, “the chief wife, the royal sister, the royal wife.” The name of his mother is thought to be “Akalouka,” though it is mutilated in the inscriptions, and as she appears to have been related to the priest-kings, it was probably through her that Tirhakah laid claim to the throne. It is said that when he was about twenty years old he was proclaimed king of Napata, and leaving his mother behind, who had doubtless used her influence to produce this result, he hastened to Egypt, overthrew and perhaps slew Shabataka, who was then reigning. A stele which he set up at Tanis gives the further information that he was the younger but favorite son of his father, and certainly a youth of ability, to accomplish what he did at the early age of twenty. He called himself, Son of Amen, and was crowned with royal honors according to the customs of the ancient Egyptian kings. He sent for his mother and saluted her as the spouse of Amen, while she, says Brugsch, “looked upon him with the same pride which Isis felt as she gazed upon her son Horus.” And, leaving out any moral aspect of the question, a mother might well be proud of such an able and energetic son. Some believe the Taket-Amen, whom he married, was the widow of Shabaka, first king of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, as he was the last king of the same, and upon both mother and wife he bestowed high titles and many honors. 693 or 691 B. C. is the period given as that on which he ascended the throne. The priests had, so far as in them lay, made Napata a duplicate of Thebes, but not its equal in fineness of architectural work. Tirhakah added materially to the building and repairing of the temples. He built one at Napata or Gebel Barkal, subsequently destroyed by the fall of overhanging rocks, and added to and restored many in Egypt, in all of which no doubt his mother, if not his wife, took great interest, as did Queen Thi, in the work of her son Khu-en-aten. The early part of his reign was peaceful; then Seracherib, king of Assyria, seems to have defeated the king of Egypt and others in battle and caused him to flee, returning temporarily to overthrow the governors appointed by the Assyrian king, when Esarhaddon, the son, succeeded, only to be again overthrown. Before the king’s death, which is spoken of as going to his “dark doom,” he associated with him Tannath-Amen or Tanut-Amen. The last appearance mentioned of the women is on a stele at Gebel Barkal, where the king is making an offering to the god Amen and his sister, Quelhetat, a tiny figure, is pouring out a libation and shaking a sistrum. Behind the king stands his wife, Kerearhenti, and while the king has on sandals of a peculiar shape, the two ladies are in bare feet. Still another king is called Tandamanie, son of the sister of Tishakah, yet the former seems accounted the final ruler of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty.
Of the time from the Twenty-second to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, says Budge: “With this period the New Empire comes to an end, and we are on the threshold of the Renaissance of the Egyptian kingdom, with all its ancient arts and sciences brought into connection with the Greece of the Seventh Century before Christ.” Under Shashanq a slight revival took place, and he ruled the whole land, putting an end to the weak dynasties of Tanis and Thebes. But with the close of the priestly dynasty the glory of Thebes, which had lasted two thousand years, had departed, and by the time of the Ptolemies the city was almost in ruins, and Bubastis, in the Delta, of whose festivals Herodotus has given us an account, rose to the first place.
During this time, to quote again from Budge. “Much of the spirit of the old art had undoubtedly been lost, the hieroglyphic script had become chiefly an official and sacred code of writing used for funeral prayers, historical inscriptions, etc. And the decay of the written language, begun as early as the Eighteenth Dynasty, was followed by the decay of the writing, which became more conventional and abbreviated, and the hierotic, supplemented by the newly developed script, is now known as Enchorial or Demotic, the peoples’ or common writing.” It is also said that the Eighteenth Dynasty was much more elaborate and luxurious in costume than the earlier ages, but that the severe simplicity of the former commended itself to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, which we now consider.
The first queen seems to have been Shep-en-apt II, a descendant of Queen Ameneritis. Her cartouch was found on a cornice, and she probably was of higher birth than her husband, Psamthek I or Psammetichus I, who is thought to have been merely the son of a governor, while she was of the blood royal. The queen was a priestess of the grade “neter tuat,” and through her doubtless her husband laid claim to the throne. Psammetichus I made Sais his capital; he was, after he was once established on the throne, less fond of war than many of his predecessors, was a patron of the arts and sciences, and turned his attention to the building of temples. A distinct Renaissance of art took place at this period, with high finish and elaboration of detail, a certain elegance suggestive of Greek influences. He added a large gallery, with side chambers, to the Serapeum at Sakkarah, and the stele found here by Mariette are of the greatest chronological importance. We learn from them that Psammetichus I immediately succeeded Tirhakah, by the records of the birth and death of the Apis bull. His name is found in various places, Philæ and elsewhere, and an obelisk belonging to his reign was brought by the Emperor Augustus to Rome. He was, some say, of Nubian, some of Lidyan origin; and there is a glazed porcelain ushabti figure in the British Museum, supposed to be a likeness of him, which is very fat and jolly-looking. He had a long reign of fifty-four years, and both Herodotus and Diodorus give accounts of him. The daughter of this marriage was named Nitocris, or Nit-a-quert, and an inscription says, Psammetichus has made a gift to his father Amon: he “has given him his eldest daughter Nitaquit-Shapen-apit, to be his divine spouse, that she may shake the sistrum before him.” This princess traveled from one part of the kingdom to another and was received with great honor. Sometimes the queens adopted daughters and associated them in the governing power. One stele found at Karnak states that the king caused his daughter to be adopted by the lady Shep-en-apt, the sister of Tirhakah, who had inherited property from her father and mother, and had previously adopted a daughter of Tirhakah’s, Amenartas (II). Says Budge: “The stele, which is dated in the ninth year of the reign of Psammetichus I, proves that Tirhakah’s sister was ruling at Thebes, as a priestess of Amen, while Psammetichus I was reigning at Sais, and that when Nit-aquert had been adopted by her, the daughter of the king of Sais (Nit-aquert) took her name also. The stele was set up to commemorate her journey to Thebes, where she was welcomed with the greatest joy as the heiress of Tirhakah’s sister, and where she no doubt received not only the property, but also the rank and position of her whose name she took, Shap-en-apt, the daughter of Pi-anchi and Amen-artis I, and grand-daughter of Khasta and Shep-en-apt I, the last named lady being a daughter of Osorkon.” The distinction between Shep-en-apt, the wife of the king, and the adopted mother of her daughter, does not seem to be very clear. Nitocris bore the same name as the last ruler of the Sixth Dynasty, and a rose-colored sarcophagus inscribed with this, and having a granite cover, is in one of the museums.
All this period is to some extent still a matter of dispute among authorities as to the exact titles and order of succession of the kings, and as to their importance in the line; compared to their predecessors, and even to their successors, they were but petty rulers, holding control over but a portion of the country, and in many cases more like governors than chief authorities.
According to Professor Budge, Apries was the next king. His Horus name was U-ah-ab-Ra, and he is spoken of as Pharaoh Hophra in the Bible, of whom, though he reigned from nineteen to twenty-five years, we know little, and his wife is not mentioned. He was overthrown by his own general, Amasis, or Aames II, who became king, and apparently lived in peace with his predecessor for some years, but slew him, or permitted him to be slain, when Apries endeavored to regain his lost authority. Amasis II took unto himself several wives, and welcomed and favored the settlement of Greek colonies in Egypt. He took the Horus name of Smen-Maat, “Stablisher of Law,” and was apparently good-natured and affable when not fighting. His wives are given as the lady Shent-kheta, daughter of Peta-Nit, and the queen, Takanath, daughter of Psammetichus I. She had been chosen heiress of Nitocris or Nit-a-quert, and it was doubtless to legalize his claim to the throne that Amasis II contracted the marriage. The female pieces in this regal game of chess were of immense value. What share the ladies had in the disposal of their hands we do not learn, but in most cases it could hardly have been an important one. Amasis II was a builder and restorer of temples, and his name is found in many places. At the end of his forty-fourth year to power he died and was buried at Sais. Queens Shep-an-apt and Nitocris, who were priestesses of Amen, were buried at el Aso-fif, and laid, as were other ladies of royal blood, in tombs with finely worked ante-chambers and inscriptions, and with false doors.
Psamthek or Psammetichus III, who reigned only six months, succeeded to Amasis II, and is sometimes omitted from the list of kings. He was the son of the Lady Thent-kheta, and some reliefs of him are found in a small temple near the temple of Amasis II and Nitocris, where there are pictures of these queens; and with him ends the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, and we come to the consideration of the Persian rule, numbered, though of entirely different blood, as the Twenty-seventh Dynasty.