Before the death of Amenophis III he seems to have adopted the frequent Egyptian habit of associating his son with him on the throne, though the latter was probably young, as Queen Tyi appears to have acted as regent after her husband’s death. Also, at the time of his death, the father was negotiating for a marriage between his heir and a Mitannian princess, the same country from which had come Queen Tyi herself, and the wife of Thothmes IV. That the existing relationship gave the new queen some title to the throne is proved by her being spoken of as “the great heiress, princess of all women,” and “the princess of South and North, the lady of both lands,” which imply hereditary rights, possibly through the mother.
She was the daughter of Dushratta, King of Mitanni, and it may have been that her father was Queen Tyi’s brother and she herself the cousin of Amenophis IV, but the matter is not absolutely clear. A certain Dushratta, not satisfied about the safety of his sister, who had married Amenophis III, had sent to Egypt to inquire after her, but the repetition or duplication of a[188] name often makes it difficult to decide upon the exact relationship. From the letters found on tablets in the ruins of Tel-el-Amarna, many of which of course are broken and imperfect, we have chiefly derived the information we possess of these transactions. Queen Tyi seems also to have held the power for a brief period at Tel-el-Amarna, but exactly when this was the case has not been discovered.
In her own country the bride-elect bore the name of Tadukipa, but in Egypt she became Nefert-Thi, Nefertity, or Nefertiti, her full name being known as Aten’nefer’ neferu’nefertiti. After the death of Amenophis III Queen Tyi sent word of this event to the Babylonish prince, and some correspondence took place between them before matters were finally settled and Amenophis IV or Napkhurruiya, as he is called in the letters, was married and assumed full control of his own affairs. There was, of course, an exchange of presents, gold, slaves, etc., as was usual on such occasions, and no failure on either side of a satisfactory pecuniary showing seems to have interfered with the prospects of the youthful pair, such as had been known, not unfrequently, in other cases.
The beautiful, deserving or undeserving, are apt to win favor. By this rule therefore the pictures of King Khu-n-aten or Aten’ nefer’neferu and Queen Nefertiti are sufficiently ugly to prejudice the most casual observer. One is tempted to see in these hideous effigies rather the work of a defamer than a true portrait. Early pictures[189] of the king are handsome and not unlike some of Rameses II, the change is attributed by late writers to the new style of art to be seen in his reign. Certainly the king sacrificed himself nobly to the cause of Truth, if he was a consenting party to his own portraiture.
It is believed that the accession of Khu-n-aten took place in the thirty-first year of his father’s reign, in the month Pakhons, or February, and that his marriage occurred in the month Epiphi, or May, four years later. In his sixth year he abandoned the god Amon, or Amen, and adopted the Aten worship. In his sixth year also, after the birth of his second daughter, came the change of name and facial type at Thebes, Maat only of the old divinities seems to have been retained. The pictures of this period show rays of sunbeams terminating in tiny hands which support the bodies, crowns, etc., of the royal pair.
From first to last the queen is closely associated with her husband, constantly pictured with him, a true companion and helpmate, a faithful guardian of his children, and a devoted daughter to his mother, possibly her aunt, whose name, in part, she seems to have taken. As Kidijah upheld and supported Mahomet in the promulgation of his newly received revelation, so did Nefertiti accept and lend her wifely aid to the faith of her husband and his mother.
A prayer or address to the rising sun is attributed to her and shows the religious fervor with which she was penetrated.
“Thou disk of the sun, thou living god! there[190] is none other beside thee! Thou givest health to the eyes through thy beams, creator of all beings. Thou goest up on the eastern horizon of the heavens to dispense life to all whom thou hast created; to man, to four-footed beasts, birds and all manner of creeping things on the earth, when they live. Thus they behold thee and they go to sleep when thou settest.
“Grant to thy son who loves thee life in truth to the Lord of the land that he may live united with thee in eternity.
“Behold his wife the queen Nefert-i-Thi, may she live forevermore and eternally by his side, well pleasing to thee she admires what thou hast created day by day. He (the king) rejoices at the sight of thy benefits. Grant him a long existence as king of the land.”
At Heliopolis the sun-god Ra had been specially worshipped. He was pictured hawk-headed, surmounted by disk and uraeus, hence with priests at Heliopolis the king may have been in greater sympathy than with those at other points, where the various gods were worshipped. It is possible, too, that they were less antagonistic to him than the others, or may even have supported him. Be that as it may, at Heliopolis Khu-n-aten built a temple. The shrine received gifts from Pharaoh after Pharaoh and was very wealthy. It also had at one time an immense library. “The city,” says Strabo, who came to it shortly after the Christian Era, “is situated upon a large mound. It contains the Temple of the Sun,” probably a later one than that of Amenophis IV, “and the Ox Mnevis,[191] which is kept in a sanctuary, and is regarded by the inhabitants as a god.” Says Pollard, “The temple had three courts, each one probably adorned with obelisks, which were so numerous that one was called ‘The City of Obelisks.’ Pharaohs of different dynasties erected a pair of obelisks in the temple of the Sun as an offering and a memorial. After the third court came the Naos, with its outer chamber or holy place and its inner or holy of holies, in which was the shrine with the symbol of the deity. Strabo tells us that the ox Mnevis was kept in the sanctuary.”
Six daughters, one after another, enlarged the family circle of the palace “a garland of princesses,” as they have been poetically called. They constantly appear in the pictures with their parents and even attended their father in his expeditions in his chariot. Their names are given as Mi-aten or Mut-aten, Mak-aten, Anknes-aten, Nofru-aten, or Nofrura, Ta-shera, Satem-en-ra and Bek-aten, some doubt seems to exist as to whether the last was daughter or grand-daughter of Queen Tyi. A standing figure of this princess, at which the artists are still seen chiselling from life, under the eye of the queen’s overseer, Putha, by name, is among the various wall paintings. Perhaps she was an especial darling, this youngest child, or she may have had a particularly beautiful face and form; but the temple walls were said to have been nearly covered with the pictures of the king, queen and princess. Aten-en-aten or Khu-n-aten’s feelings towards his family were[192] tinged with all a lover’s enthusiasm. His words have a poetic cast.
“The beams of the sun’s disk shone over him with a pure light so as to make young his body daily.
“Therefore King Khu-n-aten swore an oath to his father thus: Sweet love fills my heart for the queen, for her young children. Grant a great age to the queen Nofrit-Thi in long years; may she keep the hand of Pharaoh. Grant a great age to the royal daughter Meri-aten and to the royal daughter Mak-aten and to their children, may they keep the hand of the queen their mother eternally and forever.
“What I swear is a true avowal of what my heart says to me. Never is there falsehood in what I say,” and he ends a long inscription, relative to the setting up of various memorial tablets with, “These memorial tablets which were placed in the midst had fallen down. I will have them raised up afresh and have them placed again in the situation in which they were (previously). This I swear to do in the 8th year, in the month Tybi, on the 9th day the king was in Khuaten and Pharaoh mounted on his court chariot of polished copper to behold the memorial tablets of the disk of the sun which are on the hills of the territory to the south-east of Khu-aten.” And perhaps the queen and the eldest daughters followed him to make this investigation. Brugsch says the inscriptions on these tablets were first found and published by Prisse d’Avennes.
The series of tablets discovered at Tel-el-Amarna[193] in 1888 are chiefly in the museums of London, Berlin, Paris and St. Petersburgh, with a few at Gizeh. One letter is from a lady who styles herself “the handmaid” of the king and others relate to the exchange of presents and slaves, men and girls.
Another beloved member of this amiable family was the princess Notem-Mut, younger sister of the queen, who seems quite to have been counted in. She, too, had a special palace built for her, and married Horem-heb or Ho-rem-hib, not of royal birth, but who eventually became the last king of this, the Eighteenth Dynasty. He may have had two wives, or else Notem-mut changed her name, as we read also of a queen Ese as his spouse.
The temples and palaces were of a somewhat different style of architecture from the usual Egyptian form, but they were beautiful, with their open courts, and calculated for the needs of those who were to occupy them, as well as for the character of the country and climate. The names of the artists and architects are preserved, which is not usually the case, and their talent seems to have descended in the family, for we learn that a certain Bek, overseer, artist and teacher of the king, was a grandson of Hor-amoo, who had served in the same office under Amenophis III.
“The tombstone of the artist, Bek,” says Brugsch, “was put up for sale some years ago in the open market place in Cairo. My respected friend, Mr. L. Vassali, bought it, and was good[194] enough to give me an exact drawing of the carving upon it and a paper impression of the inscription.”
The wall pictures that were found in the tombs present the king and queen seated on a balcony with their eldest children, the baby in the mother’s lap, enduring certain officials with the necklace of honor and casting down presents to the crowd. A pleasant sport, enjoyed in common by the whole family party. Queen Tyi, the chief of the women’s department, named Hai, the steward, the treasurer and other members of the court, also shared in the fun.
Another picture gives the king and queen worshipping the sun, accompanied by two of their daughters, showing clearly that all the duties and pleasures of life were shared in this amiable family. A touch of Nature makes us all kin, and this recalls the picture one often sees of domestic life among the Germans, where father, mother and children go off for a picnic or a frolic together, while the Frenchman perhaps is in the café alone.
The Egyptians were highly skilled in pottery and faience; fine glazing on pottery, stone and in enamels on goldsmith work is shown at the beginning of the New Empire. Tel-el-Amarna seems to have been quite celebrated for its pottery and the fabrication of delicate enamels, of which many specimens, in a great variety of colors, have been found. The vase of Queen Tyi, preserved in the Boulak Museum, is grey and blue. Olive-shaped amulets of the kings and princesses of[195] this family show delicate blue hieroglyphics on a mauve ground, while the potters of the time of Amenophis III are said to have been particularly fond of violets and greys.
Less warlike than the majority of his predecessors, we still read of some fighting during Aten-aten’s or Khu-n-aten’s reign and victories over the Syrians and other nations, which the king, though probably not taking the field himself, celebrated with the customary festival. He appears in “the full Pharaonic attire, adorned with the insignia of his rank, on his lion throne, carried on the shoulders of his warriors. At his side walk servants, who, with long fans, wave the cool air upon their heated lord.” This was in the twelfth year of his reign, on the 18th day of the month Mekhir, December. The crook, whip, and sickle-shaped sword were emblems of royalty, while of the New Empire was a canopy raised on wooden pillars, colored and ornamented, with a thick carpet on seat, footstool and floor. On ordinary occasions the king was probably carried in a sort of Sedan chair of splendid appearance.
Later occurred the marriages of some of the daughters, and as no son was born, two at least of the sons-in-law seem to have ruled in succession, and it is pleasant to be able to believe that this was peacefully accomplished, without the family jars and broils so often coincident with the dividing of a heritage. In modern parlance the ladies do not seem to have made very brilliant matches. No foreign prince or monarch is recorded as being an accepted suitor. “Home talent”[196] was strictly patronized, and the sons of high officials were de............