Between kingship and the cult: the god's wives of Amun (12th-6th centuries BC)

Author(s)

André Shinity Kawaminami

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2023-06-21

Examining board members

Marcelo Aparecido Rede; Fábio Afonso Frizzo de Moraes Lima; Ronaldo Guilherme Gurgel Pereira; Rafael Scopacasa

• Advisor: Marcelo Aparecido Rede

Abstract

The office of the god\'s wife of Amun, created in the beginning of the New Kingdom and lasted until the Persian conquest of Egypt (c. 1550-525 BC), was occupied by royal women and it became very important in the political, religious, economic and social dynamics of Ancient Egypt. Their mainly function as priestesses was to perform rituals to the gods, as well as to command an institution of their own, with servers, goods and lands. The king was responsible for choosing the heiress to the title, who assumed the position only after the death of the current god\'s wife. In the representations of the god\'s wives of Amun are common the presence of symbols and texts adapted from the Egyptian kings\' prerogatives and a prominent position of the divine consorts, considering the Egyptian artistic canon. These exceptionalities were often interpretated by Egyptologists as a concession from the pharaohs for these women as their representatives in the Upper Egypt, inserted at the highest ranks of the priesthood of Amun – a significant institution for the kings\' interests in the cohesion and unification of the kingdom. Therefore, the divine adoratrices were essentially understood as instruments for the kings, putting aside these priestesses\' own interests in the different Egyptian dynamics from their sources. The aim of this dissertation is to discuss how the representations of the god\'s wives were constituted and their relationships with other subjects from their material production, in order to examine their agency not being restricted to a support function for the pharaonic power and to investigate these priestesses\' interests. Understanding the kinship as a relational process, it will be analyzed how the consorts of Amun\'s kins with different groups were mobilized in their representations in the iconographic reliefs from Thebes (specifically at Karnak, Medinet Habu and Naga Malgata), in the period of the 12th-6th centuries BC. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 20/03090-4 - Between the kingship and the cult: the god's wives of Amun (12th-6th centuries B.C.)
• Grantee: André Shinity Kawaminami
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master