In the sacred writings the sun is usually termed “the right eye” and the moon “the left eye” of Ra (cf. hra=the (divine) face). Brugsch points out that, in certain inscriptions at Denderah translated by Mariette, “the Sothis star of Hathor-Isis is designated as ‘the right eye of Ra’ while the sun is termed the left eye.”
Brugsch states, moreover, that, according to Sextus Empiricus, “the Egyptians compared the king to the ‘right eye’ or the sun; while the queen was compared to the ‘left eye’ or the moon.” The two eyes, often with the designation of “right” or “left,” constitute a favorite decoration on funeral stelæ. In some instances the image of the solar disk, with one wing and one serpent only, is figured as a substitute for the right eye (op. cit. ii, 436, see fig. [62], 6). The established fact that the eyes of Ra were the equivalents of the uræi usually accompanying the circle of Ra, the so-called “solar disk,” is further explained by the following data.
It is well known that the two uræi on the royal diadem denote sovereignty over Upper and Lower Egypt. In the bas-relief published by Brugsch, the circle or Ra-sign is represented with two uræi, which respectively wear the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt (fig. [70], 7). The crowned uræi recur in the emblems of Upper and Lower Egypt published by Mr. Goodyear, the first accompanied by the lotus flower and the second by what Egyptologists usually identify as the papyrus, but which appears to be the ripened pod of the lotus (fig. [70], 9 and 10). While the two uræi thus emblematized the two divisions of the land of Egypt they are found as distinctly associated with Osiris and Isis, and their living images the king and queen, or the high priest and high priestess of Amen-Ra. The Berlin Museum contains several representations of Isis under the form of a serpent with a woman's head (see official catalogue, nos. 7740, 870 and 2529). Osiris is also represented as a serpent with the head of a bearded man.
A small shrine in the form of a temple, and decorated with royal serpents, is preserved at the Berlin Museum (catalogue no. 8164) and contains the effigies of two uræi, one of which, to the left of the spectator, exhibits the head of Isis, the second, to the right, the features of Osiris. Between them stands the vase or bowl which was a constant feature of Isis cult.
In connection with this monument it is interesting to examine an inscription published by Brugsch (i, p. 108) in which occur two [pg 425] serpents who are pouring liquid into a bowl placed between them and the divided halves of the sky-sign (fig. [70], 8). The text connects this with the New Year festival when the Nile began to rise “from its two sources” and the “union of heaven and earth” took place, which will be discussed later. The following temporary list briefly presents a summary of the preceding data which is rendered more complete by the addition of the signs and emblems of the festivals, when the “conjunction of sun and moon took place,” figured by the picture of two persons united by their respective right and left hands (fig. [70], 5) or by the tet column placed between two horns (fig. [70], 4). As may be seen by numerous examples in Brugsch (vol. ii), the great Sed festival is figured by the image of the small sanctuary which existed on the flat roof of the great temple at Denderah, and resembled an open pavilion with four columns which is usually represented as containing two seats placed back to back (fig. [70], 2, 3). A small picture in Mr. Wallis Budge's Nile exhibits the king and queen occupying such a double throne, respectively, wearing the insignia and crowns of Osiris and Isis and holding their sceptres, as in the representations of the ceremony of laying the foundation of a temple, in their right and left hands (fig. [70], 6). The résumé of the preceding material produces the following list:
Right eye of Ra: Left eye of Ra.
Sun: Moon.
King: Queen.
Osiris: Isis.
High priest: High priestess.
Right hand sceptre: Left hand sceptre.
North: South.
Red crown: White crown.
The following data, gleaned from the valuable works of Prof. A. H. Sayce and the serial History of Egypt, written by Prof. Flinders Petrie, J. P. Mahaffy and J. G. Milne, furnish strong indications that, in the remotest past, the two divisions of the land of Egypt were respectively governed by a male and female sovereign; a proof that, before the time of Menes, the ancient empire had become disintegrated, and undergone a long period of intense strife and warfare. We learn from Professor Sayce of the probability that “the city of Nek-hen was once the capital of the south and that the vulture, the symbol of the south, was also the emblem [pg 426] of Nekheb, the goddess of the great fortress, the ruins of which lie opposite to Nekhen on the eastern bank of the Nile” (Sayce, op. cit. pp. 152, 191).
While the capital and the emblem of southern or Upper Egypt are thus directly associated with a “goddess,” further data show us that the ancient queens of Egypt were termed “god-women or goddesses.” When the New Empire was founded (1600-1100 B.C.) with its capital at Thebes, King Ahmes assumed the sovereignty of the whole of Egypt, but seems to have shared supreme authority with his consort Ah-mes-nefretere=divine- or god-woman, also termed “the high priestess of Amen.” From the honors accorded to her and to her son Amen-hetep or Amenophis I, it must indeed be inferred that she possessed some inherited sovereign right to one of the ancient divisions of the empire.
During the period of the 26th dynasty, of Saïs, we find Upper Egypt governed by a “god-woman,” Shep-en-upet, who remained in power, even after the land had been conquered by Psammetichus I. The latter obtained, however, that his daughter Nitocris was adopted as the successor to the “divine-woman” ruler of Thebes, and she in turn adopted the daughter of Psammetichus II (B.C. 594-589), whose name was Anches-nefer-eb-re. A tablet from the temple of Karnak, preserved at the Berlin Museum (catalogue no. 2112) represents this female sovereign of Thebes accompanied by her prime minister, and standing in the presence of the gods Amen and Chon.
Another remarkable monument at the Berlin Museum (no. 7972) figures the “god-woman” Shep-en-upet, under the form of a sphinx holding a vase, and records that she had inherited the sovereignty of Thebes from her aunt, the consort of an Ethiopian king. An extremely interesting proof that the beard, per se, constituted an emblem of sovereignty, is furnished by a beautiful portrait statue of the “divine woman,” Hat-shepset (Berlin Museum, no. 2299). She is figured as a sphinx and wears a beard suspended from her head-dress.[116] The serpent decorates her diadem. On other monuments this remarkable queen, who built the temple of Der-el-Bahari, is figured with the crown of Upper Egypt (cf. no. 2279, Berlin Museum). By good fortune the personal gold ornaments of a [pg 427] “divine woman,” an Ethiopian princess, were discovered by Ferlini in the pyramid of Begerauie, enclosed in a plain bronze vase. These precious objects are now exhibited in the Berlin Museum, where I have examined them and noted with interest that the central ornament of two finely worked, broad gold bracelets, is a female figure with the royal diadem and four outstretched arms, to which wings are attached. This furnishes us with an instance of a queen being represented with four wings, in exactly the same manner as the Assyrian king Sargon, on the seal from the time of Sennacherib (fig. [65], 6), namely, as a “ruler of the four quarters,” which indicates that she held the position of a “central ruler.” As might be expected in the case of a queen who personified Isis, frequently represented under the form of a “woman-serpent,” the uræus is a favorite motif on other gold ornaments belonging to the Ethiopian queen.