Consort of Amun
| Consort of Amun in hieroglyphics | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| title |
Hemet-netjer-en-Amun Ḥmt-nṯr-n-Jmn Consort of Amun |
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| extended form |
Hemet-netjer-en-Amun-em-Ipet-sut Ḥmt-nṯr-n-Jmn-m-Jpt-swt Consort of Amun of Karnak |
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The wife of God of Amun was a high ancient Egyptian title that was worn by female members of the royal family in the New Kingdom up to the 26th Dynasty . It included a priestess office in the Amun cult. The titleholders were mostly queens or the eldest daughters of the reigning king.
development
New kingdom
From the 18th dynasty onwards, the wife of God played an important role in the succession of kings as the so-called "Hereditary Princess". Crown princes , whose mothers were only concubines of the king, had to legitimize their claim to the throne by marrying a consort of God. In this way, marriages between siblings or half-siblings often took place in the royal family. If there was no eldest son of the king, other members of the royal family could be appointed heir to the throne by marrying the consort of God.
The wife of God owned her own palace as well as extensive estates and lands that were administered by her own civil servants. Her office was also associated with the practice of certain rituals in the Amun cult, which were performed together with the king or his entourage, e.g. B. the symbolic annihilation of the enemies of Egypt .
In the 18th dynasty the title was often passed on from mother to daughter. From the 19th dynasty onwards, it was only reserved for Great Royal Wives, and it was no longer possible to pass it on to the daughter. Since the title was closely linked to the Theban cult of Amun, it lost some of its importance with the relocation of the capital to the north of the country.
Third intermediate and late period
With the establishment of the Theban State of God during the 21st Dynasty , the meaning of the title increased again. Under Psusennes I , it was given again to princesses who now devoted themselves entirely to the ministry of priests and who lived celibate in the temple district of Amun . The title was passed on through adoption , with the following candidate receiving the title of worshiper of God to distinguish them . The Wife of God was no longer forced to marry or have daughters of her own. Usually a daughter of the ruling king or a high priest of Amun was adopted.
Over time, a kind of female counter-dynasty emerged, which gradually took over the power of the Theban high priests. In the 25th and 26th dynasties, the wives of God were practically the rulers of Upper Egypt and administered the temple of Amun in Thebes and its property. Their high position is also expressed in the spelling of their names in royal cartouches . They also celebrated the Sedfest and were entitled to dedicate new temples together with the King of Upper and Lower Egypt.
The rulers who resided in Lower Egypt at the time had direct influence on Upper Egypt through the Wives of God.
mythology
Mythologically, the title of the wife of God was closely linked to the birth legend, according to which the respective heir to the throne is conceived by the Great Royal Wife and the sun god Amun-Re in the form of the king. In this role she formed the earthly embodiment of the goddess Mut . At the same time she stood as Sat-netjer (“ God's daughter ”) and with the title “ God's hand ” in close connection to Tefnut , who appears in the myth of the sun eye as the daughter of Re .
iconography
The Wife of God is iconographically represented with a vulture hood and a uraeus snake on her forehead. Occasionally she wears a high pair of feathers, which are complemented by a sun disk and the cow horns of the goddess Hathor .
See also
- List of Amun's wives of God
- Great royal consort of Amun
- Title of ancient Egyptian queens
- Ancient Egyptian official and function titles
literature
- Erhart Graefe : Studies on the administration and history of the institution of the wife of God of Amun from the beginning of the New Kingdom to the late period. two volumes In: Ägyptologische Abhandlungen. (ÄA) Volume 37, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1981, ISBN 3-447-02174-8 .
- Constantin Emil Sander-Hansen: The Divine Wife of Amun (= Historisk-filologiske Skrifter. Vol. 1, No. 1, ZDB -ID 204516-3 ). Munksgaard, København 1940.
- Lana Troy: Patterns of queenship in ancient Egyptian myth and history (= Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Volume 14). Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala 1986, ISBN 91-554-1919-4 (also: Uppsala, Univ., Diss.).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Gabriele Höber-Kamel: The Wives of Amun in Karnak . In: Gabriele Höber-Kamel (ed.): Karnak - home of the gods . (= Kemet issue 1/2001), Kemet Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISSN 0943-5972 , p. 48.
- ↑ Gabriele Höber-Kamel: The God's Wives of Amun in Karnak . In: Gabriele Höber-Kamel (ed.): Karnak - home of the gods . (= Kemet issue 1/2001), Kemet Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISSN 0943-5972 , p. 49.
- ↑ Gabriele Höber-Kamel: The God's Wives of Amun in Karnak . In: Gabriele Höber-Kamel (ed.): Karnak - home of the gods . (= Kemet issue 1/2001), Kemet Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISSN 0943-5972 , pp. 50-51.
- ↑ Gabriele Höber-Kamel: The God's Wives of Amun in Karnak . In: Gabriele Höber-Kamel (ed.): Karnak - home of the gods . (= Kemet issue 1/2001), Kemet Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISSN 0943-5972 , p. 51.
- ↑ Angelika Lohwasser : The royal women in the ancient kingdom of Kush: 25th dynasty up to the time of Nastasen . (= Meroitica. Writings on ancient Sudanese history and archeology, Vol. 19), Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2001, ISBN 3-447-04407-1 , pp. 328–329.