History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12)Maspero, G. (Gaston)
History
History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12)
Maspero, G. (Gaston)
Civilization, Ancient; Egypt -- History -- To 640 A.D.; History, Ancient; Middle East -- History
* We know how greatly puzzled the early Egyptologists were
by this manner of depicting the queen, and how Champollion,
in striving to explain the monuments of the period, was
driven to suggest the existence of a regent, Amenenthes, the
male counterpart and husband of Hatshopsitu, whose name he
read Amense. This hypothesis, adopted by Rosellini, with
some slight modifications, was rejected by Birch. This
latter writer pointed out the identity of the two personages
separated by Champollion, and proved them to be one and the
same queen, the Amenses of Manetho; he called her Amun-num-
hc, but he made her out to be a sister of Amenothes I.,
associated on the throne with her brothers Thutmosis I. and
Thutmosis IL, and regent at the beginning of the reign of
Thutmosis III. Hineks tried to show that she was the
daughter of Thutmosis I., the wife of Thutmosis II. and the
sister of Thutmosis III.; it is only quite recently that her
true descent and place in the family tree has been
recognised. She was, not the sister, but the aunt of
Thutmosis III. The queen, called by Birch Amun-num-het, the
latter part of her name being dropped and the royal prenomen
being joined to her own name, was subsequently styled Ha-asu
or Hatasu, and this form is still adopted by some writers;
the true reading is Hatshopsitu or Hatshopsitu, then
Hatshopsiu, or Hatshepsiu, as Naville has pointed out.
Her father united her while still young to her brother Thutmosis, who
appears to have been her junior, and this fact doubtless explains the
very subordinate part which he plays beside the queen. When Thutmosis
I. died, Egyptian etiquette demanded that a man should be at the head of
affairs, and this youth succeeded his father in office: but Hatshopsitu,
while relinquishing the semblance of power and the externals of pomp to
her husband,* kept the direction of the state entirely in her own hands.
The portraits of her which have been preserved represent her as having
refined features, with a proud and energetic expression. The oval of
the face is elongated, the cheeks a little hollow, and the eyes deep set
under the arch of the brow, while the lips are thin and tightly closed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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