The great Hatasu was no more and after her no woman held such extended and absolute sway. The next queen whose name occurs at all prominently is Maut-a-mua, or Maut-em-va, “Mother of the boat,” wife of Tahutmes IV and mother of Amenophis III. She appears to have held the regency after her husband’s death till her son assumed full power, or if not actually in this official position, to have had great influence with him. The tie between mother and son was a close one and even his marriage did not seem to weaken it.
But before entering upon such fragmentary history of her as remains to us it may be well to enumerate briefly the lists of sovereigns which connects Hatasu or Hatshepsut with her great grandson’s or great nephew’s wife. Her half-brother or step son-in-law, Tahutmes or Thothmes III, sometimes called the Alexander of Egypt, who succeeded or wrested the power from her hands, had a long reign of fifty-three or fifty-four years. Hatshepsut died at fifty-nine, and Tahutmes III ascended the throne at thirty-one years of age. The computation of his reign probably dates from the time he was first associated with[143] his sister or stepmother in the regal power. He was one of the most noted of the Egyptian kings, laid aside the peace policy of his predecessors and entered on a series of wars and conquests, marked with many cruelties. The records of his military expeditions are said to give us great insight into the condition of Syria and Palestine about the fifteenth century B. C. He, like his predecessor, was interested in architecture, builded and added to the temples and showed individual taste in his additions. He has left more monuments behind him than any of the Egyptian kings but Rameses II. He built at Heliopolis, Memphis, Thebes, Elephantine and nearly every town in Nubia. Four of his obelisks have come down to us—one in Rome, one in Constantinople, one in London and one in New York. These last bear the popular title of “Cleopatra’s needle,” though erected in a much earlier time than the era of that renowned queen. The first, “the greatest of all extant monoliths,” is standing before the church of St. John Lateran, at Rome. Many, many years were occupied in its preparation. Obelisks were generally erected in pairs and occasionally several of them in succession formed an avenue. In the temple of Deir el Bahri are pictures of Hatshepset and Tahutmes III making offerings to the gods. Says Baedaker: “On the upper part of the right wall is a noteworthy scene. Makere, Hatshepsut I, Thutmosis III, and the Princess Ranofru sacrificing to the boat of Ammon, behind which stands Thutmosis I with his consort, Aahmes, and their little daughter, Binofru. A similar scene was represented[144] above the recess on the left wall; the kneeling Thutmosis III and the Princess Binofra may still be distinguished.” The statues of Tahutmes III are numerous, but not colossal.
He “took to wife” in the old Eastern phrase, Hatasu-Meri, daughter of the great Hatshepsut and his own near relative, but our knowledge of her is extremely limited. She evidently did not inherit her mother’s characteristics and possibly did not live any great length of time. Or if her husband transferred to her any portion of the dislike which he so evidently bore her mother he may have purposely kept her in the background, but in any case she cannot be looked upon as an assertive character. Her second name is given as Meri or Merira and there is a picture of her on a throne behind, not beside, her husband. She is, however, attired as a goddess, with whip, ankh and tall plumes. This is at Medinet Habu; again she is spoken of as Meryt-ra Hatshepset, mother of Amenophis II, and a scene in a tomb represents her, accompanied by her son. A female sphinx representing her with her husband’s name inscribed was found in the temple of Isis and is now in the Baracco collection at Rome and casts are at Turin and Berlin. One inscription, and possibly more, remain, however, speaking of her as “beloved consort,” or some other form expressing a degree of affection, but at this late period it is impossible to determine whether it was the usual conventional phrase or had some foundation in truth. She lived and died, but[145] whether her life was a long and happy one or short and sorrowful we cannot tell.
The reign of Tahutmes III is among the longest in history. It was, however, exceeded by some monarchs, Louis XIV, seventy-two years. George III and Queen Victoria over sixty, Henry III occupied the throne fifty-six years, Edward III fifty, and there was also one of the Mogul Emperors, as well as others. A glass vase in the British Museum, said to be the oldest in existence, bears the name of Tahutmes III. There are various mementoes or memorials of him in different places, the most personal perhaps, his coffin, much damaged and stripped of its gilding, which may be seen in the Gizeh Museum.
Amenophis or Amenhotep II, son probably of Hatasu-Meri, succeeded his father. Of him also we read as a warrior and a cruel one, bringing back the bodies of several kings whom he had slain with his own hand. The Egyptians were said not to be so cruel in battle as the Assyrians, but there seems little to choose between them. There is a picture of Amenophis II on the wall at Abd-el-Gurneh, as a child on the lap of a nurse, the heads and backs of five Asiatics serving him as a footstool, implying doubtless that he himself would be, or his father before him had been, a warrior and a conqueror. There is also a kneeling statue of him, in later life, holding a globular vase in his hand. He succeeded to the throne when young, perhaps at eighteen, and his reign was comparatively short as was that of his son and successor, Tahutmes IV. His queen was[146] named Ta-aa and is recorded on a double statue of her and her son, Tahutmes IV. She is called “royal mother and wife,” showing her to be his mother. We knew less of her than of almost any of the queens, that she continued the royal line and her name seems but brief record of her.
Of Tahutmes IV it is said that he spent much time in youth in hunting and field sports. He married Mautamua, or Maut-em-va, or as she is again spoken of, Moutetemarait, possibly an Ethiopian princess. Various inter-marriages, as in modern times not unfrequently, making the families in adjacent kingdoms near of kin.
The name of Tahutmes IV is especially associated with the great Sphinx and we cannot doubt the whole matter was of much interest to the queen also. The god Harmaehis appeared to the king in a dream and promised him his special favor if he would dig out the Sphinx which bore his image and lay half buried in the sand. The monarch obeyed, restored and repaired the grand monument and built a temple at its base. This stands between the two extended paws, on one of which the king’s name has been found inscribed. It was an open temple with an altar and on the breast of the colossus was the memorial stone with the king’s name, made of red granite.
Dreams seem to have borne a special art in the family history. The queen also had a noted dream. It was said that she was sleeping in the most beautiful room in the palace and awoke and saw her husband by her side. Then a few moments after the figure of the god Amen appeared[147] and, when she cried out in alarm, he predicted the birth of her son and vanished in clouds of sweet perfume. Hence the young king was considered in a sense the son of the god. Mautamua is elsewhere called a princess of Mitanni and seems to have been won with difficulty by the young Egyptian prince or kin. One of the tablets found says: “When the father of Nimmuriya (Tahutmes IV) sent to Artotama my grandfather and asked for his daughter to wife, my grandfather refused his request, and though he sent the fifth time and the sixth time he would not give her to him. It was only after he had sent the seventh time that he gave her to him, being compelled for many reasons.” This was among the noted collection of the Tel-el-Amarna tablets and is believed by late authorities to refer to Queen Maut-amua, who is also spoken of as the divine wife and mother.
The queen’s home was in Thebes, which had succeeded Memphis as the great city of the Empire, standing, it is said, to Ethiopia and Egypt “in the relation occupied by Rome to Medi?val Christianity, the capital sacerdotal city of all who worshipped the god Amen.” On the wall of what is called the “Birth Room” at the temple of Luxor are various reliefs relating to the birth of Amenophis III, showing Queen Maut-a-mua, the nurses, the goddess Isis and others. In one the Queen, after the birth of her son (Ra-ma-neb), is seen kneeling on a kind of dais. The goddess Hathor kneels facing her with the babe in her arms. The Ka of both are repeated, making[148] double figures, and the sacred cow suckles the child. For some reason, not given, Amenophis III was particularly rich in Ka names, for he had seven. Another relief shows Hathor presenting the child to the goddess Safekh, and to Amen-Ra, the god of Thebes. Behind Amen-Ra stands the god Nilus and behind him another carrying three ankhs or life signs for the family, throne and Ka name. Safekh dips her pen in ink to record his birth; the royal and Ka ovals are inscribed above. Says Miss Edwards: “Each sovereign on succeeding to the throne not only assumed a throne name, but took also a name for his Ka. The throne name was enclosed in a royal oval, or cartouch, like the family name, but the Ka name was represented as if inscribed above the false doorway, just where the name of a deceased person would be inscribed above the actual door of his sepulchre.”
As the goddess Safekh was the patron deity of libraries we may judge that the king had intellectual tastes, though we know him to have been something of an athlete and a great sportsman. Indeed, it was to this last that he owed his wife, for it was on a hunting expedition that he encountered and fell in love with her. Queen Maut-amua and her daughter-in-law, Ti or Thi, were associated much together, as were Queen Aahotep and her daughter-in-law, Nefertari-Aahmes, though not so generally considered divinities as were the founders of the race.
Maut-a-mua must have been a woman of intellect, capacity and attraction since she was her son’s guardian, and probably regent, and his attachment[149] to her seems to have been strong and enduring. She lived many years after her husband, whose reign was brief, lasting not more than eight or nine years.
The likenesses of these various kings and queens are often found among the wall pictures in the tombs and are reproduced in many of the books on Egypt. The bas-reliefs and statues which decorated temples and tombs were mostly painted. Says Maspero: “That the Egyptians studied from Nature is proved by the facility with which they seized likenesses and drew the appropriate movements of animals. These figures are strange, but they live and have a certain charm.” To paint men brown and women yellow was the rule, but to this there were occasional exceptions. At Sackuarah, in the time of the Fifth Dynasty, the flesh tint of the men is yellow, while at Istamboul, or Abu Simbel, it is red, as also in the tombs of the epoch of Thotmosis IV.
The early Egyptian is said to have had a fine forehead, small, aquili............