Читать книгу The Life and Times of Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt онлайн

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Site of the Palace of Queen Tiy.

In the fifth year of his reign he led an expedition into the Sudan to chastise some tribe which had rebelled, and he records with pride the slaughter which he had made. It is stated that these negroes “had been haughty, and great things were in their hearts; but the fierce-eyed lion, this prince, he slew them by the command of Amon-Atum.” It is interesting to notice that Atum is thus brought into equal prominence with Amon, and one may see from this the trend of public opinion.

At this time the Vizir, a certain Ptahmes, held also the office of High Priest of Amon; but when he died he was not succeeded in his duties as Vizir by the new head of the Amon priesthood, as was to be expected. The Pharaoh appointed a noble named Rames as his prime minister, and thus separated the civil and the religious power: a step which again shows us something of the movement which was steadily diminishing the power of Amon.

Queen Tiy seems to have borne several daughters to the king, and it is possible that she had also presented him with a son. But, if this is so, he had died in early childhood, and no heir to the throne was now living. It may have been partly due to this fact that Amonhotep, in the tenth year of his reign, married the Princess Kirgipa or Gilukhipa, daughter of the King of Mitanni, and probably niece of the Dowager-Queen Mutemua.[13] The princess came to Egypt in considerable state, bringing with her 317 ladies-in-waiting; but she seems to have been thrust into the background by Tiy, who, even in the official record of the marriage, is called the king’s chief wife. The marriage may have been purely political, as was that of Thothmes IV.; and there is certainly no record of any children born to Gilukhipa. She and her ladies but added a further foreign element to the life of the palace, and swelled the numbers of those who had no sympathy with the old gods of Thebes.