Egypt has had many rulers among the eras, men were the only ones to rule. Not until the great Hatshepsut came into power, shortly after the passing of her father the throne was given to her young brother, he was too young to rule so Hatshepsut married her half brother and proclaimed herself as pharaoh. She was a pharaoh for two decades, and during her reign she ordered multiple buildings of projects and art work of herself.
Hatshepsut is very well known for the building of her Mortuary Temple (Deir el-Bahri, Egypt,18th Dynasty, ca. 1473-1458 B.C.E) this was one of the first immense multilevel funerary temple that was ever created. This was a shrines for the gods of Amen, Hathor and Anubis, the temple was also devoted to herself and her father
Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt during the 18th dynasty, was one of a small handful of female pharaohs. Despite her many achievements, her reign is most remembered for the fact that she was a woman. Her unique story has been a source for dispute among scholars, which has led to a number of conflicting views. The small amount of Hatshepsut’s life that has been documented does not allow us to see the more intimate details of her life. Historians have a broad range of opinions on her, but one thing is certain: her reign provided Egypt with a period of peace and prosperity after 100 years of foreign rule. There are a number of theories involving Hatshepsut’s personal and public life.
The success of the king’s rule became based on the approval or rejection of the god Amun-Re. Thus, Amun was used as a platform for political propaganda, with pharaohs such as Hatshepsut and Thutmose III using the God to legitimise their claims to the throne, as evidenced for Thutmose III on the Temple of Tiraqa: ‘I have achieved this according to that which was ordained for me by my father, Amun-Re’. Concepts of the divine oracles and the divine birth of the king became a theme for pharaohs of the 19th dynasty, and afforded them heightened legitimacy. Hatshepsut’s divine birth scenes on her mortuary temple in Deir el Bahri depicts her claim to be the daughter of Amun, manipulating the public to believe in her divine birth. Additionally, Thutmose IV’s ‘dream stela” erected between the paws of the sphinx, which claimed that he had been granted the kingship because he had freed the monument according to instruction from gods. Some historians have dismissed these building projects, which consolidated the importance and authority of the state cult of Amun-Re as mere political propaganda. However, it is more the point that they reflect a significant change in the Egyptian political landscape, as it became dependent on and connected to the sustained pre-eminence of the cult of Amun-Re and the religious unity that eventuated. Therefore, the amun
Robins, Gay. "The Names of Hatshepsut as King." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 85 (1999): 103-12. Jstore. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. .
These two statues are famous to the Egyptian art era. They represent the woman’s position and the man’s position at that day and age. Traditionally, the rulers of Egypt were male. So, when Hatshepsut, Dynasty 18, ca. 1473-1458 B.C., assumed the titles and functions of king she was portrayed in royal male costumes. Such representations were more for a political statement, rather than a reflection of the way she actually looked. In this sculpture, she sits upon a throne and wears the royal kilt and the striped nemes (NEM-iss) headdress with the uraeus (cobra) and is bare chested like a man. However, she does not wear the royal beard, and the proportions of her body are delicate and feminine.
Hatshepsut was the first female pharaoh of Egypt. She reigned between 1473 and 1458 B.C. Her name means “foremost of noblewomen.” (O. Jarus, The First Female Pharaoh, 2013) Some sources state that queen Hatshepsut was the first great woman in recorded history; according to Jennifer Lawless she was the forerunner of such figures as Cleopatra, Catherine the Great and Elizabeth I. (J. Lawless, Personalities of the past. Pg. 33-34), yet other sources testify. Hatshepsut came to power at the death of her husband, Thutmose Il. She denied her nephew's claim to the throne and stated Amun-Ra had spoken and declared that she would be Pharoah. “She dressed like Pharoah, even wearing a fake beard to give traditional image of a King to her people who accepted her without issue.” (R. Stevenson, Hatshepsut; the Woman Who Was King, 2009) Despite...
Before Hatshepsut, there were other woman who attempted to rule over Egypt. Every time a woman came to power, there was some sort of problem that was left for them to solve. Unlike Hatshepsut, the other woman did not have any confidence to name themselves pharaoh and they did not grow up in the royal family like Hatshepsut did. In paragraph 13, it states, “A few women had tried to rule Egypt before, but never would search valid claim to the throne,” and, “These women had not ruled long or well and neither had had the audacity to proclaim herself pharaoh.” These quotes explain that Hatshepsut was recognized for taking power at a good time and not stepping
Although her tomb was build in the XVIIIth dynasty, Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple was designed old fashioned and unlikely any other, “Hatshepsut’s mortuary cult chapel did not occupy the central axis of the temple, a location that was reserved for the cult of Amun” (Roehrig, 138). This book also shows most of the items and relics she left on the tomb, which would magically appear on the afterlife when she reincarnates, most of them are jewelry and utensils.
Was she the archetypal wicked stepmother, an unnatural and scheming woman ?of the most virile character who would deliberately abuse a position of trust to steal the throne from a defenceless child? (Gardiner, 1961:184)? Or was she ?an experienced and well-meaning woman who ruled amicably alongside her stepson, steering her country through twenty peaceful, prosperous years who deserves to be commemorated among the great monarchs of Egypt? (Budge, 1902:I)? According to biographer and historian Joyce Tyldesley, Queen or as she would prefer to be remembered, King Hatchepsut became the female embodiment of a male role, whose reign was a carefully balanced period of internal peace, foreign exploration and monument building (Tyldesley, 1996:1). This study will show that it was Hatshepsut the Pharaoh?s devotion to the god Amen and her protection of the maat of 18th Dynasty Egypt that allowed her to forge her successful New Kingdom regime.
The Funerary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut and the Parthenon were very similar in most cases but at the same time, there were also very different. In this essay, I will compare and contrast these two renowned temples. I am going to focus on the context, subject and style of each Temple. Firstly, let us examine Funerary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. According to Hill (2010) the Temple of Hatshepsut is one of the most beautiful temples in ancient Egypt and it is located at Deir el-Bahri. It was built by an architect named Senemut. Moreover, this temple was very significant in Egypt because that is where the body of Queen Hatshepsut was buried, and she was said to be the first woman ruler in history. On the other hand, according to Beard
Ancient Egypt is home to one of the greatest female pharaoh. Queen Hatshepsut. She was the first female pharaoh and did great things.
During the fourth Dynasty, Hatshepsut ruled the Egyptian culture. She represented both genders in her portrait statue revealing power, strength, and woman culture dominance. Even though it was not common or permitted for women to be a ruler in the ancient cultures, Hatshepsut was one the first Egyptian women who accomplished social change by building huge temples to venerate their patron gods, after their deaths, and for their own worship. By the sharing of a mutual belief in gods, a social interaction could be achieved in the Egyptian culture. The construction of these temples could also be a symbol of solidarity that could bring the cultures to become
An essential characteristic for being a great leader, consistent within many, is confidence. A person may have ideas, but for them to be carried out takes confidence in themselves to bring those ideas to reality. Hatshepsut portrayed herself as a very confident woman by taking the initiative to do things that only Pharaoh’s would commonly do, such as performing certain religious rituals, making offerings directly to the gods, and commissioning various building projects. These actions made it evident that she saw herself as important and powerful, and others soon believed this as well; she was considered as God’s wife of Amen and became a priestess in temple rituals. Hatshepsut also depicted herself as a male—she dressed in a kilt, crown, and wore an artificial beard. This clearly shows that she had great ambition to be King, as she took on the daring task of creating a false persona just so that she could reach her goal. Despite the typical male dominating society, Hatshepsut displayed confidence in herself that she could become ...
Egyptians cherished family life the way we cherish food or money. Children were considered a blessing. They prayed for them and used magic to have children, but if a couple could not conceive they adopted. Men were the head of the household and the oldest son inherited everything of the father’s. Egyptian women were to obey their fathers and husbands, but were equal in many other ways. For example, women could have jobs, some rights in court cases, and they were able to own land. Women were also allowed to own businesses. Only noble women, however, could be priestesses. The women raised the children and took care of the house. Wealthy families would hire maids and nannies to do such things. Divorce was not common in Ancient Egypt, though it was an option. Problems were talked about between families, and if they could not be settled a divorce would take place. Some women became rulers but only in secret. The only woman who ruled as a pharaoh in the open was Queen Hatsheput. Ordinary men normally had one wife, while pharaohs and kings had several. Most marriages were arranged by parents. Most girls married at age twelve while boys were usually a little older.
A distinctive difference between the two cultures’ myths of kings is that the Egyptian Pharaoh acted as chief priest of all gods due to the importance of divine kingship which is highly demonstrated by the Pharaoh Hatshepsut. In order to legitimise her claim to the throne, Hatshepsut extensively used propaganda to not only retell history so that she was seen as the rightful successor of her father Thutmose I, but also to describe her divine conception by the God Amun and her mortal mother Ahmose. The latter was a significantly common practise especially by the Pharaohs of the fifth dynasty, however, Breasted regards Hatshepsut’s claim of being Amun’s physical daughter as ‘a violent wrenching of the traditional details … for the entire legend was fitted only to a man’. This essentially shows that Hatshepsut went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that she was seen as the successor of Thutmose I, reiterated by a large amount of her depictions showing her wearing the full regalia of a male
... Egyptian women were looked at differently than men; their role was that of the nurturer and the caregiver, the bearer of a family’s future. They were just as important to the society as the men. Ancient Egypt was a very complex world, and just as complex was the role that women played in its society. They were not free, but they also were not enslaved. They were vital, but only in terms of their husbands and their children. Egypt offered women a far more free life than the rest of the ancient world. In the end, women played a secondary role to men putting their desires for achievement aside so their husband could be king.