Hatshepsut: The Lost Queen of Egypt

Her name may sound like a sneeze but she was one of the most successful and powerful rulers of Egypt. Although Hatshepsut (or Hatchepsut) was not the first woman to rule Egypt, she was the first to rule in the guise of a man. The ancestress of Tutankhamen has left as many questions as to her reign as there are answers. The regent for her step-son nephew Thutmose III, what was it that made her decide to seize power? Did she have an affair with Senenmut, her chief advisor? And lastly led to the almost total destruction of her name and image after her death?

Even the dates of her life and her reign are subject to debate but the ones that fit are 1479 BC- 1458 BC. The only thing that we do know for sure is that she was the fifth Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty which united Egypt after almost 100 years of foreign rule by the Hyksos. Hatshepsut was the oldest daughter of Thutmose I, a general who had married into the royal line. At the age of 12, she married her half-brother Thutmose II to fortify the royal lineage. However, they had only one child, a daughter named Neferure. Another minor wife, Isis, would provide the heir.

Thutmose II didn’t reign long; he may have died of heart disease at a young age. No one is sure how old Hatshepsut was when he died. She may have been anywhere from 15-20 years old. Since his son, Thutmose II was only a kid; Hatshepsut assumed control as regent until he came of age. This was common in Egypt for a Queen mother or former Queen to take control as regent until the heir came of age. During her husband’s reign, Hatshepsut had apparently been a model consort. Images of her at the time show her in her rightful place behind her husband. She was given the title of ‘Great Royal Wife,’ a new title that was unique to the 18th dynasty.

In the beginning, Hatshepsut acted on her step-son’s behalf. She was careful to abide by the conventions of previous Queen Regents. Soon there were signs that things were going to be a little different. After seven years, she ‘assumed’ the role of Pharaoh. She didn’t rule completely on her own. Thutmose III was named her co-regent, but effectively she was the power in Egypt for the next 21 years. Her daughter Neferure took on the role of consort, performing the same duties that her mother had done during her husband’s reign. Why did Hatshepsut take on the role of Pharaoh? Some historians used to believe that Hatshepsut seized power for herself, that she was ruthless and full of ambition. That she was a wicked step-mother who pushed the rightful ruler aside. Contemporary historians believe that there might have been a threat, perhaps from a minor branch of the royal family or from an outside threat that led her to believe that she needed to solidify the monarchy by taking power.

Hatshepsut took the new name Maatkare. From now on all images of Hatshepsut would be in her new role as Pharaoh, wearing male clothes and the false ‘beard of wisdom.’ Hatshepsut gained the support of powerful men at court, including Senenmut, who was a triple threat, serving as chief steward, architect and tutor to her daughter Neferure. Senenmut’s role in Hatshepsut’s reign appears to have been controversial. He was a commoner who rose to great power. There is no proof one way or the other that they were lovers, but if they were, it would explain why after her death, so much effort was made to remove her reign from official documents.

During her reign, Hatshepsut was one of the greatest builders in Egyptian history. She raised and renovated temples and shrines from Sinai to Nubia. Vast amounts of Karnak temple appear to have been built by Hatshepsut as well as the Deir el Bahri temple. She commissioned hundreds of statues of herself and left accounts in stone of her reign, even her thoughts and hopes. She established trading relationships that had been lost during the occupation by the Hyksos, and brought great wealth to Egypt. Her reign was a time of peace and prosperity for Egypt. While her father and step-son were great generals, Hatshepsut felt no need to go out and conquer new territory but she was fully prepared to protect Egypt’s territories from foreign invasion. She oversaw the preparations and funding for a mission to the Land of Punt. The Egyptians returned from the voyage bearing thirty-one live frankincense trees, the roots of which were carefully kept in baskets for the duration of the voyage. It is reported that Hatshepsut had these trees planted in the courts of her Deir el Bahi mortuary temple complex.

Her step-son’s education was not neglected. He was trained as a soldier, and Hatshepsut put him in charge of the army. Contrary to the myth that Thutmose III resented Hatshepsut, he seemed content to allow Hatshepsut to rule. He could have staged a military coup, but he didn’t. Although there is some evidence that Hatshepsut was training her daughter Neferure for power, perhaps because Thutmose II had died young, there is no evidence that she planned to replace Thutmose III with her daughter. Some historians believe that Hatshepsut married her daughter to Thutmose III, but there is no evidence of this, although it is clear that Neferure possibly died before the end of her mother’s reign. If she and Thutmose III were married, they had no children, because his heir Amenhotep was born of another wife.

While there have been rumors that perhaps Thutmose III or other enemies might have had Hatshepsut murdered, Hatshepsut actually died due to an abscessed tooth. She was perhaps in her late forties or early fifties when she died. Historians have long believed that Thutmose III in an act of revenge after her death removed Hatshepsut’s name from the historical record. However due to new evidence, it appears that her name wasn’t removed until the end of Thutmose III’s reign, when he was co-regent with his son and heir Amenhotep II. Not only did Thutmose III remove images of Hatshepsut he also claimed many of her accomplishments for his son. This was done probably in an attempt to have the record read that the throne had come down to Amenhotep II in a strictly patrilineal line. Images of Hatshepsut as Queen however were kept.

In 1903, Howard Carter of later King Tut fame excavated her tomb in the Valley of Kings but her mummy was not found. In March 2006, Zahi Hawass, a leading archeologist, claimed that Hatshepsut’s mummy had been found, it had been misplaced in a Cairo Museum.

There is still much we may never know about Hatshepsut but her name and her reign as one of Egypt’s most powerful and important Pharaoh’s has been restored.

Sources:

Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh - Joyce Tyldesley, Penguin, 1996

Scandalous Book I Couldn't Resist Buying

Thanks to Marie at The Burton Review for alerting me to this book. I'm writing a chapter on Elizabeth I for Scandalous Women and I was looking for research books about her that I haven't already read. This book so far is only out in the UK and Tracy Borman doesn't have on her site yet when the book might be out in the US. After reading an article that Tracy wrote about the book in the September issue of the BBC History Magazine, I wanted to read it even more but ordering books from the UK can get expensive even though the book is on offer at Amazon.co.uk for 11 pounds and on the BBC History Magazine site for 15 pounds. But then I remembered that, wait a minute, I could write it off on my taxes as a research expense! So I caved. If you read the description of the book you can see why.


"Elizabeth I was born into a world of women. As a child, she was served by a predominantly female household of servants and governesses, with occasional visits from her mother, Anne Bolyen, and the wives who later took her place. As Queen, Elizabeth was constantly attended by ladies of the bedchamber and maids of honor who clothed her, bathed her and watched her while she ate. Among her family, it was her female relations who had the greatest influence: from her sister Mary, who distrusted and later imprisoned her, to her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, who posed a constant and dangerous threat to her crown for almost thirty years. Despite the importance of women in Elizabeth's life, most historians and biographers have focused on her relationships with men. She has been portrayed as a 'man's woman' who loved to flirt with the many ambitious young men who frequented her court. Yet it is the women in her life who provide the most fascinating insight into the character of this remarkable monarch. With them she was jealous, spiteful and cruel, as well as loyal, kind and protective. She showed her frailties and her insecurities, but also her considerable shrewdness and strength. In short, she was more human than the public persona she presented to the rest of the court. It is her relationships with women that hold the key to the private Elizabeth.


In this original chronicling of the life of one of England's greatest monarchs, historian Tracy Borman explores Elizabeth's relationships with the key women in her life. Beginning with her mother and the governesses and stepmothers who cared for the young princess, including her beloved Kat Astley and the inspirational Katherine Parr, "Elizabeth's Women" sheds new light on her formative years. Elizabeth's turbulent relationships with her rivals are examined: from her sister, 'Bloody' Mary, to the sisters of Lady Jane Grey, and finally the most deadly of all her rivals, Mary, Queen of Scots who would give birth to the man Elizabeth would finally, inevitably have to recognize as heir to her throne. It is a chronicle of the servants, friends and 'flouting wenches' who brought out the best - and the worst - of Elizabeth's carefully cultivated image as Gloriana, the Virgin Queen, in the glittering world of her court."


I've been looking for a different angle to take on Elizabeth, and this book will certainly help. I have to admit that after looking at Tracy Borman's site that I'm jealous that she's doing so many events with historian Alison Weir.


Also, if you go to the BBC History Magazine site, you can read Tracy's guide to Showtime's The Tudors, as well as listen to a podcast of Tracy talking about the book.

Scandalous Movie Review: Georgia O'Keeffe

Saturday nite I settled in to watch Lifetime Television's biopic of Georgia O'Keeffe (1884-1986) starring Academy Award nominee Joan Allen as Georgia and Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons as her husband and mentor, photographer Alfred Stieglitz (1868-1946).

The film opened in 1916 at Steiglitz's gallery Studio 291. Without her knowledge, Steiglitz is showing several of her drawings without permission. She berates him and they argue about his actions. He convinces her that she has an amazing talent that should be shared with the world. He offers her his niece's apartment in NY, which she accepts reluctantly. She worries that there are strings attached to the offer, especially since Steiglitz is a married man with a child.

Steiglitz photographs O'Keeffe as they ket to know each other. At a society part, she meets art patron Mabel Dodge Luhan (played by Tyne Daly) among other luminaries of the literary/art world scene such as African-American writer Jean Toomer. After the party, Steiglitz and O'Keeffe become lovers. After being caught inflagrante delicto by his wife, Steiglitz leaves her and moves in with O'Keeffe. Soon they are married.

At an exhibition of Steiglitz's photography, Georgia discovers that he has included several nude photos of her, and worries that it will ruin her career as an artist (FACT: during this exhibition, O'Keeffe was not identified as the model in these photos at her request). They argue. Steiglitz meets a younger woman named Dorothy Norman and starts an affair with her, which hurts Georgia. She runs of with her friend Beck Strand to stay with Mabel Dodge Luhan in New Mexico where she is renewed and inspired in her art. Georgia spends increasing amounts of time in New Mexico which pisses off Steiglitz. They argue about her taking a commission to do a mural for Radio City Music Hall. She has a nervous breakdown and retreats back to New Mexico. Steiglitz has a heart attack which brings her back to NY. Georgia finally makes a break with Steiglitz and goes out to New Mexico for good (FACT: O'Keeffe didn't move permanently to New Mexico until 3 years after her husband's death. She generally spent half the year in New Mexico and half the year in New York.)

I wish I could give a wholehearted thumbs up to this film. It follows the usual biopic formula, boy meets girl, they fall in love, they fight, she creates art, he gets jealous, they break-up. The movie makes it seem as if Steiglitz and O'Keeffe fell in love instantaneously but in reality, Georgia went back to Texas to her teaching job after the exhibition in NY, and she and Steiglitz exchanged letters for a year before she finally decided to move to NY. Although Steiglitz did leave his wife soon after he and O'Keeffe became lovers, it took six years before they married, since his wife fought the divorce.

The movie is at its most interesting when it deals with O'Keeffe creating, particularly the scenes in New Mexico when she is exposed to a whole different way of thinking about art, and her work moves in a new direction. The least successful scenes are the ones where O'Keeffe and Steiglitz are fighting about his affairs, they smack of really bad soap writing. From my research, it was well known in the art world that Steiglitz was a womanizer, and he preferred relationships with much younger women. O'Keeffe was 28 when she met Steiglitz and he was 52 (which is glossed over in the movie). Dorothy Norman was not the first affair that he had while married to O'Keeffe. He had an affair with Beck Strand, wife of his friend Paul Strand. O'Keeffe ignored it because she felt it didn't interfere with their relationship.

More successful are the scenes where they argue over Georgia's career. During their marriage, Steiglitz staged an exhibition every year of O'Keeffe's paintings which had to be rough on her creatively. He definitely controlled every aspect of her career. The biopic could have made more of the fact that O'Keeffe's career began to eclipse his as he spent less time on his photography and more time promoting her as well as other artists.

As for the acting, Joan Allen is quite good as O'Keeffe. She resembles her slightly (although much thinner) and was wholly credible in the scenes where she is shown painting. Jeremy Irons on the other hand comes off less well. The role of Steiglitz is written as a cranky, selfish, willful, whiny old man. No one ages in this film, even though the film spans 30 years, until the end when we see an older Georgia in her studio in New Mexico. At times, the viewer has no idea what year it is either.

Still, if even one viewer, heads out to a museum to see a Georgia O'Keeffe painting, or to seek out photos of her work, the film will have done it's job.

Daughter of Kura Giveaway

Sorry I'm so late with this but I have been a little busy lately! Anyway without further ado, the winner of the Daughter of Kura giveaway is:

Meeno

Meeno, please email me at scandalouswoman@gmail.com with your address, so that I can send you the book.

Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra

I have a confession to make: I had never heard of Zenobia until I read Bertrice Small's romance called Beloved. One of the coolest chicks ever to live in the 2nd century A.D. and I have a romance novel to thank for finding out about her.

Zenobia was born in Palmyra in what is now present day Syria. It was a city of 150,000, smack dab in the middle of where several key trade routes intersected, which allowed them to collect huge taxes, a right the Palmyrans earned by being a buffer between Rome and the Persian Empire.

We don't know much about Zenobia's early childhood or her family. Her father was probably a wealthy merchant and her mother possibly Egyptian. Zenobia's Latin name was Septima Zenobia and her Aramaic name Bat Zabbai. Of course, later historians came up with fanciful tales of Zenobia growing up as a tomboy. When she was 15, she was married off to a King of Palmyra Septimius Odaenathus in 258 as his second wife. Odaenthus had proved himself in service to the Empire, fighting against the Persians.

Zenobia was described by contemporary historians as 'beautiful, chaste, and clever.' She apparently had long black hair, dark eyes, teeth that shone like pearls and dark skin. Zenobia loved hunting and riding her horses, she spoke several languages and was learned enough to be able to discuss philosophy with the great minds of the day. Like many Scandalous Women, she had no use for the company of women, finding them trivial, she preferred to hang out with the boys, riding, hunting and drinking on occassion with her officers. Historians also claimed that Zenobia only allowed her husband into her bed to procreate, and once that was achieved she denied him her bed until it was time to make another baby. She and Odaenathus managed to have at least three children during their short marriage.

In 267 or 266, Odaenathus was mysteriously assassinated, possibly by his nephew Maeonius, who was pissed off that he had been punished for insubordination. Odaenathus's heir, Zenobia's step-son, Hairan was also killed as well. Zenobia had barely put on her widow's weeds before she took the iniative to seize power, ostensibly in her son Valballathus' name who was just a baby at the time. Zenobia said that she was trying to protect the Eastern Roman Empire for the peace of Rome, however, her efforts significantly increased the power of her throne. Claiming descent from Cleopatra and Dido, Queen of Carthage, Zenobia marched into Egypt in 269, and took control. The Roman prefect of Egypt, Tenagino Probus and his army, tried to expel her from Egypt, but Zenobia's forces captured and beheaded Probus. She then proclaimed herself Queen of Egypt.

Zenobia soon became known as a "Warrior Queen". In leading her army, she displayed significant prowess: she was an able horse rider and would walk three or four miles with her foot soldiers. Zenobia continued to increase her power by moving into Asia minor, as far as Ankara, moving onto to Lebanon and Palestine. In her short lived empire, Zenobia took the vital trade routes in these areas from the Romans. At the time, the Roman Emperor Aurelian was busy in Gaul (France) and wasn't really paying too much attention to what was going down. It wasn't until Zenobia decided to declare Palmyra independent of Rome that the sh*t hit the fan.

Aurelian wasn't about to take that lying down, particularly from a woman. At the final smackdown in 274, Aurelian beat Zenobia's forces but it took him at least two battles to do it. Zenobia was captured attempting to flee to seek help from the Persians. As a punishment, Aurelian forced her to walk through Rome in a parade featuring bears, tigers and other wild animals, wearing enough gold jewelry to outfit every rapper in the Middle East.

Despite her humiliation, unlike her noble ancestors Cleopatra and Dido, Zenobia still came out on top. Aurelian was impressed by her beauty and dignity. She negotiated a sweet little deal with Aurelian, which gave her a villa for herself and her kids near Tivoli. Zenobia married again to a Roman senator, had several daughters, and lived out the rest of her days in comfort as a prominent philosopher, socialite and Roman matron.

During her short-lived reign, Zenobia was known as a good ruler. She treated both Jews and Christians alike with dignity and respect. When she wasn't off conquering territory, she was establishing Palmyra as an intellectual center of learning, inviting prominent scholars and men of letters to her court. Whose to say what Palmyra could have become if Zenobia had been allowed to keep on ruling or if she had been content to have Palmyra just remain a small cog in the wheel of the Roman Empire. Instead Zenobia was ambitious for her country and longed to see it take what she considered its rightful place as a major power. And she almost succeeded. What is remarkable about Zenobia's story is how fascinated historians were by her story at the time. And she continues to fascinate writers to this day.

Sources:

Warrior Queens - Antonia Fraser

Fiction:

Beloved, by Bertrice Small
Zenobia (2005), by Haley Elizabeth Garwood
The Chronicle of Zenobia: the Rebel Queen (2006), by Judith Weingarten

Scandalous Good News

Well, the cat is out of the bag. From Publishers Marketplace:


Fiction:Women's/Romance
Author of the blog scandalouswoman.blogspot.com Elizabeth K. Mahon's SCANDALOUS WOMEN, an intriguing look at the tumultuous lives of some of history's most fascinating and notorious women, to Jeanette Shaw at Perigee, for publication in 2011, by Erin Niumata at Folio Literary Management (World).

Yes, Scandalous Women will be a book coming out in March 2011. I'm very excited about it and I can't wait for it to come out. What this means for the blog is up in the air at the moment. The manuscript is due to the publisher in March 2010, which means that while I'm working on the manuscript, I probably won't be blogging as regularly for awhile.

I hope to keep blogging at least once a week, but be patient with me, if a week goes by without a post.

Scandalous Book Review: Jezebel

Her name has come down through the centuries as euphemism for wicked women. The dictionary definition of Jezebel: An evil, scheming or shameless woman; an immoral woman. Example: She’s an absolute Jezebel!

The 1937 movie starring Bette Davis called Jezebel depicts a spoiled and scheming Southern Belle who embarrasses her fiancee and family by wearing a scandalous red dress to a ball. She later redeems herself by going with her former fiancees who is suffering from yellow fever into quarantine.

In the Bible, she is depicted as a scheming, manipulative woman who leads the northern kingdom of Israel into ruin by inflicting her worship of heathen gods on the nation. But was this truth or fiction? In Lesley Hazelton's biography Jezebel, The Untold Story of the Bible's Harlot Queen, a different picture emerges not just of Jezebel but of the era of the two kingdoms Israel and Judea.


From the coverflap:
There is no woman with a worse reputation than Jezebel, the ancient queen who corrupted a nation and met one of the most gruesome fates in the Bible. Her name alone speaks of sexual decadence and promiscuity. But what if this version of her story, handed down to us through the ages, is merely the one her enemies wanted us to believe? What if Jezebel, far from being a conniving harlot, was, in fact, framed? Here at last is the real story of the rise and fall of this legendary woman—a radically different portrait with startling contemporary resonance in a world mired once again in religious wars.

It helps if one is familiar with the biblical story before reading Jezebel, although Hazelton does a magnificent job of telling the story. In a nutshell, Jezebel was a foreign princess, a Phoenician from the island city-state of Tyre who is married off to Ahab, the King of the northern Kingdom of Israel. It was a dynastic marriage, giving Israel access to international trade routes. Ahab is tolerant of Jezebel's polytheistic beliefs, which include worship of the gods Baal and Astarte, which brings down the wrath of Yahweh and his prophet Elijah.

Elijah and Jezebel struggle for power. He challenges 450 prophets of Baal to a test, and exposes their god as powerless, and then has them slaughtered which brings down Jezebel's wrath upon him. He flees Israel but not before he issues a fatwa against Ahab. After Ahab's death, Jezebel rules as Queen Mother until her son Ahaziah is old enough to rule on his own. When he is killed in battle, she rules through her other son Jehoram. However, Jezebel now has a new enemy in Elijah's successor Elisha. Like Cleopatra after her, Jezebel goes to her death like a Queen. Dressed to the nines, and heavily made-up, she sits on a chair out on her balcony to await her death, which is pretty horrific. She is torn apart by dogs until nothing is left of her but her head, hands and feet. Although she is depicted as a faithful wife, her religion is depicted as being one long orgy with the priests and priestesses copulating on altars etc.

What is remarkable about Hazelton's book is how she goes into detail of how the book of Kings came to be written, during the Israelites from the Kingdom of Judea's long exile in Babylon. The story of Jezebel and Ahab can be seen as an explanation for why the Northern Kingdom of Israel ceased to exist and the ten tribes of Israel that made up the kingdom were lost for good when the Assyrians conquered (or were invited in) Israel. In other words, since Ahab allowed idol worship into the kingdom, and was merciful to his enemies, the kingdom was weakened and became wicked.

Unfortunately for Jezebel, there are no surviving documents that give another point of view. Hazelton expresses the theory that because the Phoenicians not only were polytheistic but allowed women in priestly roles, there must have been something inherently decadent about the religion. Despite the fact that Jezebel was perfectly content to let the Israelites worshipped as they pleased, and respected their God, that wasn't good enough. She also gives the reader the history and background of the Phoenician kingdom that is immensely fascinating. They were a strictly maritime economy, building amazing ships, and basically inventing navigation as we know it. They also invented the alphabet.

Jezebel would have been seen as exotic and cosmopolitan compared to the Israelites. The monarchy and the wealthy nobles benefited from the alliance, but the little people, the farmers and landowners didn't. Hazelton points out that there is very little evidence of Jezebel's so-called wickedness apart from the story of Naboth, an owner of a vineyard near the palace that Ahab coveted. When Naboth refuses to sell the vineyard to the King, Jezebel takes matters into her own hands, and has him killed.

Hazelton uses the story of Jezebel to point out how the conflicts in the Middle East stem from this time. She uses her own personal experiences from traveling in the Middle East as well as her own personal translations of the Hebrew Bible to back up her thesis that Jezebel, while not totally an innocent, is not the wicked Queen that has been depicted over the centuries. She points out the problems with taking the bibilical story literally without examing the historical context. One of the more interesting facts that I learned from reading this book was a) the name Jezebel has come down to us in the name of Isabelle/Isabella and c) Dido, the Queen of Carthage was Jezebel's great niece.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the pre-Christian world, but also how the story of powerful women can be distorted. This book is not for everyone. Hazelton sees parallel's Elijah's intolerance with the fundamentalist views prevalent in the current Middle East. Although revered by three different religions (Christianity, Judiaism, and Islam), he's really the bad guy in Hazelton's book.