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lotus-bud pillars of haunting design supported the roof and blossomed against a sky-blue ceiling, with its
flocks of pigeons and golden ravens in flight. The floor was richly carpeted and painted with marsh and river
scenes, snarers capturing the "birds of Araby", huntsmen slaying wild animals, and fish gaping wide-eyed in
clear waters. Amidst the carved and inlaid furniture in this scene of beauty the eye was taken by the raised
golden thrones of the king and queen, over which the great gleaming pinions of the royal vulture were
displayed in noble proportions.
A shady balcony protruded from the outer decorated walls; it was radiant with greenery and brilliant flowers
from Asia, covered with coloured rugs, and provided with cushioned seats. When the invigorating wind from
the north blew cool and dry over the desert, Queen Tiy and her artistic friends, lingering on the balcony, must
have found much inspiration in the prospect unfolded before them. The grounds within the palace walls,
basking in the warm sunlight, were agleam with Asian and Egyptian trees, shrubs, and many-coloured
flowers. Onthe west rose in light and shadow the wonderful Theban hills of every changing hue; eastward
between the blue, palm-fringed Nile, with its green banks and background of purple hills, lay a great
mile-long artificial lake, sparkling in sunshine and surrounded by clumps of trees and mounds ablaze with
strange and splendid blossoms. On this cool stretch of restful water the king and queen were wont to be
rowed in their gorgeous barge of purple and gold named Beauties of Aton, while girl voices rose bird-like in
CHAPTER XXV. Amenhotep the Magnificent and Queen Tiy 152
EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND
song, and sweet music came from many-stringed harps and lyres, and from guitars, and lutes, and warbling
double pipes. On nights of festival, religious mysteries were enacted on the illuminated waters, which
reflected the radiance of many-coloured lights, the brilliant stars, and the silver crescent of the moon.
In the vicinity of the palace were the luxurious villas and beautiful gardens, with bathing pools and summer
houses, of the brilliant lords and ladies who attended the state banquets and entertainments organized by
Queen Tiy.
Egypt's king and queen no longer held themselves aloof from the people with the Chinese-like exclusiveness
of the Old and Middle Kingdoms. They were the leaders of social life; their everyday doings were familiar to
the gossipers. No air of mystery and idolatrous superstition pervaded the Court; domestic life in its finest
aspects was held up as an ideal to the people. Public functions were invested with great splendour, royalty
drove out in chariots of silver and gold, brilliantly costumed, and attended by richly attired lords and ladies
and royal attendants and guards. The king was invariably accompanied by the queen.
Amenhotep vied with his predecessors in erecting magnificent temples. His favourite architect was
Amenhotep,son of Hapi, a remarkable man whose memory was long venerated; by the common people he
was regarded as a great magician. It must have been he who appealed to the vanity of the king by designing
the two colossal royal statues which were erected on the western plain of Thebes; they were afterwards
known as the "vocal Memnon", because they were reputed to utter sounds at sunrise, caused, no doubt, by
some ingenious device. These representations of Amenhotep III rose to a height of seventy feet, and still
dominate the landscape in mutilated condition; they guarded the entrance of the royal mortuary temple which
was demolished in the following Dynasty. Amenhotep was worshipped in his temple at Memphis, while
Queen Tiy was similarly honoured in Nubia.
Great wealth accumulated in Egypt during this period. Tushratta, the subject king of Mitanni, writing to
Amenhotep, declared, when he asked for gold "in great quantity" that "in the land of my brother gold is as
plentiful as dust". The Pharaoh had added to his harem a sister of Tushratta's, his Asian cousin, named
Gilu-khipa, and she arrived with over three hundred ladies and attendants, but she did not displace Queen
Tiy.
Much light has been thrown on the relations between Egypt and other countries by the Tell-el-Amarna
letters a number of clay tablets inscribed in Babylonian script which were discovered a few years ago.
Babylonian was at the time the language of diplomacy. In these we find rulers writing in affectionate terms to
one another and playing the game of politics with astuteness and Oriental duplicity.
In the beautiful Theban palace was born to Queen Tiy, in the twentieth year of her husband's reign, the
distinguished Akhenaton, who was to become the most remarkable Pharaoh who ever sat on the throne of
Egypt. He was the only son; several princesses had preceded him. The young heir of the favourite wife was
called Amenhotep, and when his father died he ascended the throne as Amenhotep IV. He was then about
fourteen years of age, but had already married Nerfertiti, an Asiatic princess, apparently a daughter of
Tushratta.
The last half-dozen years of the life of Amenhotep III were clouded in gloom. He was laid aside by some
disease either paralysis or insanity which Tushratta of Mitanni sought to cure by sending on two occasions
images of the goddess Ishtar. Queen Tiy appears to have governed the kingdom in the interval, and it is
possible that she inaugurated the religious revolt, which became so closely associated with the name of her
son, to counteract not only the retrogressive tendencies of the priests of Amon, but also, perhaps, to curb their [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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