With Queen Tyi (or as her name is variously spelled, Ti, Tai, Tity, Tii, Teye, Tuaa, Thua) we again consider the story of a woman of unusual power, and though not leaving such indelible impression upon the page of history as did Queen Hatasu, her influence was strongly felt. Both as wife and mother we see the traces of her ideas and wishes on the actions of husband and son; both, evidently, turned to her for counsel and each in his own way showed her devoted affection. So potent was her sway over the latter that to it is largely attributed the religious and political revolution which occurred in the lifetime of Amenophis IV. Though its effects were comparatively temporary and passed away during the reign of his successors for the time being it convulsed Egypt to its centre and the records of it have not been obliterated by the lapse of centuries.
Amenophis III, son of Tahutmes IV and Maut-a-mua, was, we judge, an attractive youth. He had a fine presence, an agreeable expression and an amiable and generous disposition, while his love story holds more of romance than usually[158] falls to the lot of kings or queens. He is credited with a number of wives or less reputable connections. Perhaps they included the errors of the “sowing of wild oats,” and at any rate seem to have been relegated to or kept in the background by a devoted affection for the lady who became pre-eminently his legal wife. These various wives are given as a sister and two daughters of Kalima-Sin, King of Karaduniyash, and a sister and daughter of Tushratta, King of Mittani, none of whom, it is said, were acknowledged queen of Egypt, while other records seem to imply that Queen Tyi was the daughter of Tushratta of Dushratta, King of Mittanni. A letter to Babylon seems to show that Amenophis III had married a Babylonish princess, and that her brother, Kali-masin, was not satisfied about her safety, but was reassured by Amenophis. A match between another princess of that country and the Egyptian sovereign seems to have failed for lack of sufficient gold on the lady’s part. Wars also interfered with connubial arrangements.
Another account says that Amenophis III haughtily refused when the King of Mesopotamia, Kalima-Sin, wished to marry one of the Egyptian princesses, saying that the daughter of the king of the Land of Egypt had never been given to a “nobody.” This, of course, occurred later, if at all, and it seems not quite reasonable that the king himself should take a princess as his wife from the same family to which he refused his daughter. The sovereign of great Egypt evidently viewed with contempt the claims of these petty princes[159] to be considered in any way his equal. Yet one letter in the collection found at Tel-el-Amarna shows that Tahutmes III, Tahutmes IV and Amenophis IV all married Mitannian princesses. After such a lapse of time and among conflicting statements it is hard to arrive at the absolute facts, but as our present concern is chiefly with Queen Tyi it matters the less. She alone of these various ladies has a distinct personality and takes a prominent place.
Hunting was, with Amenophis III, a passion, the hunting of the lion a royal sport, for the sake of which he journeyed far and no doubt underwent many enforced privations. It must have been in the heyday of youth and manly vigor that, on one of his long expeditions, he encountered the foreign princess who at once won his heart and probably reciprocated to a more than ordinary degree the affection she inspired. Spite of the rather unattractive effigies which bear her name, we must believe that she was beautiful and winning, since for her sake he cast aside the so frequent custom of marriage with a sister or some home dignitary and invited her to share his throne.
Probably then, or later, the queen participated in the favorite amusement of her husband, not wanting in courage for the perils or hardships involved, nor did she shrink as a more sensitive female of later times might have done from what was painful, cruel or revolting in the death throes of the mighty beast.
Scarabs, so often used by the Egyptians to record[160] events which they considered of importance, have been found, bearing such inscriptions as this: “Amenhotep, prince of Thebes, giver of life, and royal spouse Thi. In respect of lions, brought Majesty his from shooting his own, beginning from year first to year tenth, lions fierce 102.”
These scarabs, giving the names of gods, kings and singers are often most valuable in filling gaps in other records. The most frequently found are those of Tahutmes III, of which there are a number in the Metropolitan Museum in New York; Amenophis III, Seti I and Rameses II, and they are inscribed with the names of kings from Mena to the Roman Emperor Antoninus. Hence on those known to be of a particular period and found with the royal mummies, the name of much earlier kings are frequently traced. Scarabs were copied by the Phoenicians and are imitated in these modern times in Egypt. The work, at first very clumsy, has gradually become better executed, while the real ones have, of course, grown dearer as well as rarer.
A brief enumeration of some of the scarabs relating to these periods to be seen in the New York Museum may not be without interest. One of Tahutmes or Thothmes III has the figure of the god Bes in the centre, flanked by cartouches of the king a winged scarab below and obscure ornamentation above. The color of the composition of which it is made a faded reddish brown. Another of soft blue stone or paste has the pre-nomen of the same king called “subduer of foreigners in all lands.” One of green porcelain, beautifully[161] executed, shows a squatting figure with extended arms, upholding the divine boat, and above, the pre-nomen of King Thothmes. Inscriptions are “the good god” and “lord of both lands,” while the ankh, or life sign, is both behind the body and attached to the knees. On another of grey composition, above a horse, chariot and charioteer, is the pre-nomen of the king, in a cartouch, with the ends reversed. A bead or seal of hard, green stone has on the one side the pre-nomen of Thothmes III, with the Tet sign below, each flanked by uraei, and on the reverse a Hathor-headed sistrum also flanked by uraei. A cartouch of Amenophis III and the symbol of “truth” is on a scarab of green and brown pottery. Another has “Praise of Amenophis III.” His cartouch and “lord of might” is on one of green pottery, while a scarab in grey composition, beautifully executed bears the pre-nomen of the king on both sides, with a winged beetle and disk flanked by uraei and a human headed sphinx with the words, “Living god Tum.” Most interesting of all, however, in connection with the present chapter, is a green pottery scaraboid, symbolic eye, bearing the words “The royal wife Tii,” wife of Amenohotep III.
Melville has graphically described the setting forth of a royal hunt, in another ancient kingdom, which, in some particulars at least, may reproduce the Egyptian pageant. “A queen and all her glittering train defiled from the lofty porches of Babylon the Great, with tramp of horses and ring of bridle, with steady footfalls of warriors, curled, bearded, erect and formidable, with ponderous[162] tread of stately elephants, gorgeous in trappings of scarlet, pearl and gold, with stealthy gait of meek-eyed camels, plodding patient with their burdens in the rear. Scouring into the waste before that jewelled troop of wild asses bruised and broke the shoots of wormwood beneath their flying hoofs, till the hot air was laden with an aromatic smell, the ostrich spread her scant and tufted wings to scud before the wind, tall, swift, ungainly, in a cloud of yellow dust; the fleet gazelle, with beating heart and head, tucked back, sprang forward like an arrow from the bow, never to pause nor stint in her terror-stricken flight, till man and horse, game and hunter were left hopelessly behind—far down beyond the unbroken level of the horizon. But the monarch of the desert, the grim and lordly lion, sought no refuge in flight, accepted no compromise of retreat. Driven from his covert he might move slowly and sullenly away, but it was to turn in savage wrath on the eager horseman who approached too near, or the daring archer who ventured to bend his bow within point-blank distance of such an enemy. Nevertheless, even the fiercest of their kind must yield before man, the conqueror of beasts, before woman, the conqueror of man, and on the shaft which drank his life blood and transfixed the lion from side to side was graven the royal tiara of a monarch’s mate.”
Amid such scenes sped the wooing, and no doubt in later years passed many exciting hours. Amenophis or Amenhotep III reared young lions as pets, and also presented live ones as gifts to[163] the temples, estimating them as of great value, though we may wonder in what special manner they could be of profit, service or pleasure there.
The pictures of Queen Tyi, or Tai, in the tombs of the Queens, near Thebes, and in other places, copied by Champollion and Rosellini show her with blue eyes, a skin of pinkish hue, like a Northern maiden, and a pleasing expression. Many of the queens were buried in a valley behind the temple of Medinet Haboo at Thebes others were laid beside their lords. Tyi, as has been said, was considered by some to be the daughter of a Mesopotamian, Asiatic, Dashratta or Tushratta, king of Mitanni, Maten of the hieroglyphics. Other authorities, from cuneiform tablets found at Tel-el-amarna, give her paternity as that of a sister of or daughter of Kalimma Sin, king of Koraduniyash, probably a county northeast of Syria. Kings and queens of Babylon claimed Amenophis III as a new kinsman, perhaps as the result of this marriage.
Scarabs were engraved in honor of the union and part of a scarab gives the record “Amenhetep, prince of Thebes, giver of life and royal spouse mighty lady Thi, living one—the name of father her (was) Tuaa or Juaa, the name of mother her (was) Thuau, the wife to wit of the king powerful. Frontier his South is as far as Kerei, land of Nubia, frontier North is as far as Netharina (Mesopotamia).” Part of another reads, “A wonderful thing they brought to Majesty his, life, strength, health, the daughter of the prince of[164] Mesopotamia, Sotharna. Kirkipa and the chiefs of women her 300 + 10 + 7.” The mummies of her parents have been recently found.
Many of these scarabs are preserved in the Museums of Gizeh, Berlin and other places. An enamelled vase in different colors in the Gizeh Museum also bears the name of Amenophis III and Tyi, a potsherd, in one of the older museums gives the coronation date of Amenophis III as “the 13th day of the month Epiphi,” said to correspond in part to our April and May, which, without this otherwise valueless fragment we might perhaps never have known.
Queen Tyi was attended as the scarab notes, by three hundred and seventeen women, which would of course imply a force of male protectors as well. A very precious bride. This may recall the story in the Talmud about Abraham, who on approaching Egypt locked Sarah in a chest to hide her dangerous beauty. The custom officers asked if he carried clothes. He answered, “I will pay for clothes.” Then they raised their demand, “Thou carriest gold?” To this he also agreed and further to the price of the finest silks and precious stones. Finding they could name nothing of greater value than he held his treasure they at last insisted that he should open the box and the tale ends “the whole of Egypt was illuminated with the lustre of Sarah’s beauty.” Whether Queen Tyi’s beauty thus surprised and delighted the people of her new home we can only surmise, but at least she was deemed precious enough to be well served and guarded.
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So the bond was sealed between the royal lovers and away from her own land journeyed the newly elected queen. A woman with a fair face and figure, a heart keenly responsive to human affections, with a deep-sea............