The Gods Wife of Amun

The Mortuary Chapels of the
GODS WIFE of AMUN at Medinet Habu

                                                      
                                                      
 Ramses 111 had been one of the last great rulers of ancient Egypt, later pharaohs struggled to maintain order and the country was split once more, dividing Egypt into two kingdoms again, with one king ruling Upper Egypt and another king ruling Lower Egypt. During the 25th dynasty Waset maintained its own individuality and was ruled by The Gods Wife of Amun, these women were the daughters or sisters of the opposing kings, and their rule was a political as well as a religious position. Waset (Luxor) was the middle ground between two kingdoms so each king maintained power through his daughter or sister therefore avoiding war and unnecessary hardship, The women were revered within Waset as they were considered the living mortal wife of the god of Amun and these particular Gods wives had taken a vow of celibacy which promised no threat of another male claim to the throne. The Gods Wife owned about 2,000 acres of fertile land in both the delta and Upper Egypt and received bread oxen geese and yields from the fields from the Priests of Amun, A small row of mortuary chapels are set back on the side of the courtyard as you come through the Migdol gateway. These mortuary chapels belong to Shepenwepet 1 who was the daughter of Osorken 111 a king of the Libyan invasion, Amendiris 1, a Kushite princess who was the sister of the king Piankhy the founder of the 25th dynasty. Piankhy made a religious pilgrimage to Waset and convinced Osorken and Shepenwepet to adopt his sister Amendiris as heir and successor to the title of Gods wife of Amun. I walked over to visit their chapels before I left the precincts of the temple grounds.  Above the lintels of the doorways the ‘appeal to the living’ is written, it encourages people passing through the door to repeat the offering formula for the Ka’s of these powerful women. An offering formula ensured that after their deaths a person would not be neglected, if offerings are not actually taken it is considered that the words spoken would be enough to sustain the Ka’s of these mortal celibate wives of Amun. You have to think of ‘the appeal to the living’ in the same way as a gravestone reminds you to visit an ancestor or friend to leave them flowers, telling them your worries and expressing your love for them, so as I passed through the door I asked Amendiris to accept my spoken offerings of food wine linen incense and water as gifts for the Ka of her eternal life.

Inside the chapel I was greeted with a deep warm glow of golden sand coloured stone and a strong, yet elegant image of Amendiris walks across the wall wearing only the plumed headdress of Amun, where she is performing an ancient ceremony known as the driving of the four calves and the treading of the grave. In her left hand she holds a staff, leashed to the staff are four calves, as a farmer would till the earth to enhance the fruitful growth of his new crops, Amendiris is symbolically re-enacting s the farmers yearly ritual in her burial tomb with four calves who tread the earth so that they like Osiris the god who rose again from death to be reborn would keep Egypt fertile for another year, at the end of each leash dangles the key of life enhancing the wish for new life. In her right hand she carries a stick to drive the calves across the burial ground. The Egyptian faith encompassed all the forces of nature and I feel that this expressive coffin text helps to understand the beauty and simplicity of this symbolic act that Amendiris portrays to combine the acts of nature with the Gods and the universe.

Whether I live or die I am Osiris,
I enter in and reappear through you,
I decay in you,
I grow in you,
 I fall down in you,
I fall upon my side.
The gods are living in me for I live and grow in the corn that sustains the Honoured Ones.
I cover the earth;
Whether I live or die I am Barley.
 I am not destroyed.
I have entered the Order,
I rely upon the Order,
I become Master of the Order,
I emerge in the Order,
I make my form distinct,
 I am the Lord -of the Chennet
I have entered into the Order;
I have reached its limits. . .