God's Wife of Amun

The God's Wife of Amun was a high ancient Egyptian title which was borne in the New Kingdom to the 26th dynasty of female members of the royal family. It included a priestess office in Amun cult. The title winners were mostly queens or the oldest daughters of the reigning king.

Development

New Kingdom

The God's Wife played from the 18th Dynasty as so-called " Hereditary Princess " an important role in the royal succession. Crown Prince, whose mothers were only concubines of the king, had their claim to the throne by marrying a God's Wife legitimize. In this way it was in the king's house frequently to marriages between siblings or half-siblings. Was not a king 's eldest son present, other members of the royal family could be determined by marriage to the god's wife successor to the throne.

The God's Wife had his own palace and extensive goods and lands that were managed by a separate bureaucracy. With their office and the exercise of certain rituals in the cult of Amun was associated, which were completed in collaboration with the King or the wake, eg the symbolic destruction of the enemies of Egypt.

In the 18th Dynasty the title was often inherited from the mother to the daughter. From the 19th dynasty it was only Great Royal consorts reserved, a further inheritance to the daughter was no longer possible. Since the title was closely associated with the Theban Amun cult, he lost with the transfer of the capital to the north of the country fairly important.

Third Intermediate Period and Late Period

With the establishment of Theban theocracy during the 21st Dynasty, the meaning of the title increased again. Under Psusennes I, he was reassigned to princesses who now dedicated themselves to service and celibate priests lived in the temple precinct of Amun. The passing of the title was made by adoption, wherein the subsequent contender for the distinction was awarded the title Gottesverehrerin. The God's Wife was therefore no longer forced to marry or to get their own daughters. Typically, a daughter of the reigning king or a high priest of Amun was adopted.

Over time, a kind of female counterpart dynasty that took over gradually the power of the Theban high priest arose. In the 25th and 26th dynasty the God's Wives were virtually the rulers of Upper Egypt and managed the temple of Amun in Thebes and his property. Their high position is also reflected in the spelling of their names in royal cartouches from. They also celebrated the sed festival and were entitled to inaugurate new temple along with the King of Upper and Lower Egypt.

The rulers who resided at that time in Lower Egypt, had about the God's Wives direct impact on Upper Egypt.

Mythology

Mythologically the title of God's Wife was closely linked with the birth of legend, in which the respective heir to the throne of the Great Royal Wife and the sun god Amun -Re is conceived in the form of the king. In this role, she was the earthly incarnation of the goddess Mut. At the same time she stood as satellite netjer ( "God's daughter " ) and entitled God's hand in close connection to Tefnut that occurs in the myth of the sun eye as the daughter of Re.

Iconography

Iconography the god's wife is presented with vulture head and uraeus on the forehead. Occasionally she carries a high spring pair, which is supplemented by a sun disc and the cow's horns of the goddess Hathor.