Some reflections on the sacral role of Egyptian royal women of the New Kingdom

Abstract

The paper deals with a controversial question concerning the character of the sacral role of the royal women in the context of the concept of divine queenship. As the queenship is seen in modern Egyptology as an essential constitutive element of the ideology of kingship, the sacral role of the royal women is frequently determined as similar or even parallel to that of the king. In particular, the sacral scenes with the images of the royal women performing the rites in pair with a king or alone are sometimes considered as an illustration to this interpretation. As the author of the present paper suggests, this approach needs a reеvaluation, which should be based on a careful examination of all surviving scenes depicting a cultic activity of the royal women. Among other issues the author touches, as well, the problem of the sacral role played by Nefertiti whose official position differs considerably of that of other royal women. A preliminary study of figurative and epigraphical sources, especially of the offering scenes with representations of the royal women, allowed the author to assume that in the majority of cases they played an auxiliary and secondary role. Indeed, since the Ramesside period the most widespread iconography of a royal woman is her representation shaking the sistrum/sistra – an auxiliary action in the divine cult. Thus, the thesis about the great king’s wife (or the king’s mother)’ role as a counterpart of the king in his cultic functions should be revised, if not rejected.