CHAPTER SECOND.
THE QUEEN.
Egyptian Queens! What a picture their name seems to call up of old time splendors—of the light of Eastern skies, the soft breath of eternal summer—of the great river Nile as a beneficent deity, of monuments and palaces, gardens and waving palm trees—houses with gorgeous coloring, of princes and slaves—all mingled on the tapestry of time!
In an age sometimes called “the Woman’s Era,” when woman has become a subject of analytical study to herself and to man, it may be interesting to turn from the varieties of the “New Woman” to the very old. Even on the borderland of mythology she asserts a strange individuality and is vitalized for us in the pages of history and legend.
The Western woman on the stage of life is ever a prominent figure. The Eastern has held a place in the background, giving glimpses only of her real self, always a veiled form, with dark, shining eyes, merely suggestive of beauty and charm. It may be matter of surprise, therefore, to some, that in the most ancient of lands—or among the most ancient of peoples, Eastern beyond dispute, woman held an almost modern place. In this, in some respects, advanced civilization, religiously, politically and socially she took her share in the world’s work and pleasure, and was deemed, not the ignorant child or inferior of Semitic lands, but the friend, the associate, the equal of man.
The Queen was the companion of her royal spouse, not his mere slave and toy. From the time of the Second Dynasty she frequently ruled, as the king’s guardian in youth, as regent in his absence, or as independent sovereign after his decease, or in right of heredity. The succession was continued on the maternal equally with the paternal side, and it was at times through the female, and not through the male parent, that the king traced his right to the throne.
Among the nobility also the same custom, to a degree, obtained. The son of the eldest daughter was sometimes the heir. Thus we read in the time of Sneferu of his “great legitimate daughter, Nefret-Kari,” and her son was “High Treasurer.” In the hieroglyphic system after female appellations, such as queen, wife, mother, daughter, and the like, the figure of a seated woman appears usually on a modest stool.
On the monuments the queen is always treated as an official personage, she shares the king’s honors and her name, like her husband’s, is enclosed in a cartouch. We know more of her public than of her private life.
As a rule, to which there were exceptions, the king had but one legal wife, of high or royal birth, the daughter of “the god,” as the late king was called, and hence she was in many instances, in the strange Egyptian fashion, her husband’s sister. One needs surely a different standard from the Christian to judge of the morals of Egypt. The marriage of a brother and sister, so abhorrent to our ideas, was frequent in the Royal Family, nor does nature herself, at that period, seem to have set upon it the same mark of disapprobation that one might expect. It began in the heavens with the gods, who, according to Egyptian mythology, did not dwell on earth, and why should not humanity follow their example. Osiris and Isis were both brother and sister, husband and wife. Nor could the gods any more than men get on without magic. Even the statues of the former wore amulets as a protection against evil and death, and used mystic formulae to constrain each other. Isis was above all the mistress of magic and famous in incantations.