First thoughts about Egypt may turn to well-known male pharaohs such as Akhenaten, Tutankhamun or Ramesses II. In this context what was the role of a queen in ancient Egypt? A literal answer would be that of a royal wife. However to what extent is a royal wife a companion in power, or simply fulfilling a religious role as a female counterpart to the pharaoh? Across a period of three millennia we can't expect a single answer to this question. Indeed despite the fact that in dynastic Egypt kingship was almost by definition male we have a number of examples of female pharaohs gaining power as kings, one of the best known being Hatshepsut. By the Greaco-Roman period queens were increasingly powerful partners in kingship culminating in the reign of Cleopatra VII.
In this course through well-illustrated presentations we explore examples of women of power in ancient Egypt with an emphasis on elite royal female power. We consider royal daughters who became Gods Wives of Amun, queens as regents (starting with Meretneith in the first dynasty), royal wives who can be demonstrated to have yielded influence (for example Queen Tiye) and especially those women who ruled Egypt as principal or sole pharaoh.
Where available, we will consider both textual and archaeological evidence. The reign of Queen Hatshepsut is especially rich in both sources supporting us in an analysis of her verbal and visual self-presentation as she makes the journey from royal wife, to regent, to queen. We see key scenes and texts from her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri and buildings at Karnak to present in context the changes that she laid out in these monuments before the god. The cost of such exceptional female power must also be considered in an analysis of the damnatio memoriae that followed with damage to her statues and erasure of many relief images.