New Egypt: The Chief Queen

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The Chief Queen
During the New Kingdom period of Egypt, the chief queen was a main provider for the social organization of kingship. The chief queen helps achieves this effect of kingship by being the sister or half-sister of the current pharaoh (Robins 2001: 107). This practice of marrying sisters could have originated from the belief that the pharaoh was a god. Since the gods married their sisters, or other family members, the pharaoh must as well (O’Connor 1990: 12). Any king would have wanted this belief of god hood to be known and understood by all, thereby creating a tradition of marrying blood sisters. In accordance with the belief of the pharaoh being a god, the main queen had two very important roles to fill. The first role that the main queens had to fulfill was to be “bearers of divine queenship” in accordance to the pharaoh …show more content…

This means that the chief queen is to accompany the king in religious ceremonies and events. Another theory is that the queen embodied the goddess known as Hathor, the mother of the god Horus (Aldred 1998: 189). Due to this, any crowned prince that was born would have been considered of a godly origin. This theory would have also given needed validity for the prince to eventually become pharaoh. This also makes reference to the fact that some chief queens had their own cultic centers from embodying the goddess Hathor. The second role of any queen of the New Kingdom era was to bear royal children (Robins 2001: 105). This role was one of great importance due to the fact that, mainly, sons were the only one to ascend the throne for kingship. Without a crowned offspring being born through the chief queen, there was a high probability that the kingship and stability of Egypt

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