Nitocris I (Divine Adoratrice)

For other uses, see Nitocris (disambiguation).

Nitocris I (alt. Nitiqret, Nitokris I) (died 585 BC) served as the heir to and then the Divine Adoratrice of Amun or God's Wife of Amun for a period of over seventy years, between 655 BC and 585 BC.[2]

Biography

She was the daughter of the 26th Dynasty pharaoh Psamtik I. Psamtik I dispatched a powerful naval fleet in March 656 BC to Thebes and compelled the serving God's Wife of Amun Shepenupet II, a daughter of Piye to adopt his daughter Nitocris I as her heir to this office in the well known Adoption Stela. It is unknown at what date she actually assumed the office of Divine Adoratrice of Amun for herself but she served in this position until Year 4 of Apries in 585 BC.

Prior to her career in this office, the Assyrians had invaded Egypt in 671 BC, sacked Thebes and robbed its temples of their many treasures. When she was in her eighties, she adopted her great-niece Ankhnesneferibre,[3] the daughter of Psamtik II.

During her tenure, she was attested by several building works around Karnak, Luxor and Abydos.[2] She was buried in the grounds of Medinet Habu[4] in a tomb chapel which "she shared with her natural mother and adoptive grandmother."[2] Her sarcophagus was reused in a Ptolemaic tomb at Deir el-Medina, and is today located in the Cairo Museum.[2]

The Adoption Stela

The stela was unearthed in 1897 by Georges Legrain at Karnak, and moved to the Cairo Museum. It is made from red granite and measures roughly 6 ft (1.8 m) in height and 4.5 ft (1.4 m) in width.[5]

The beginning of the inscription is lost, and it starts when pharaoh Psamtik I is already reporting his intention to give his daughter to Amun to be a God's Wife. Psamtik acknowledged that the current God's Wife Shepenupet II, daughter of pharaoh Piye of the 25th Dynasty, already has an heiress in Taharqa's daughter Amenirdis II who was officiating as Divine Adoratrice of Amun. Nevertheless, Psamtik compelled Shepenupet to adopt Nitocris as her heiress, thus supplanting Amenirdis II in the succession.[6]
The court praised the pharaoh's decision and in his regnal “year 9, first month of the first season, day 28” (a date identified with March 2, 656 BCE[7]) Nitocris departed from Sais to Thebes on a royal flotilla led by the admiral and nomarch of Herakleopolis Magna, Sematawytefnakht.[8]
After sixteen days the flotilla reached Thebes whose population acclaimed the princess' arrival. Both Shepenupet II and Amenirdis II met Nitocris who was formally adopted, and both agreed to convey to her (and, indirectly, to Psamtik I) their properties.[9] Then the stela reports a very detailed list with all the daily donations (mainly food) to Nitocris from several personalities such as the mayor of Thebes Mentuemhat and his family, from the priesthood of Amun at this time led by the High Priest of Amun Harkhebi, from the king himself, and from many temples of the whole Land.[10]

Importance

Shepenupet II and Amenirdis II were the last remains of the vanished 25th Dynasty, yet they held the highest position of power in the South and practically controlled the entire Upper Egypt. Psamtik I cunningly chose not to forcefully remove the God's Wife in charge – an action that would be unpopular – but to make her adopt his daughter, thus ensuring the future control of Upper Egypt, as well as a considerable amount of properties and other goods: beyond the “facade” of Nitocris' adoption, the stela de facto reports the reunification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the aegis of Psamtik, after centuries of fragmentation.[5][7][11]

Preceded by
Shepenupet I		 God's Wife of Amun
655–585 BCE 		Succeeded by
Ankhnesneferibre
Preceded by
Amenirdis II		 Divine Adoratrice of Amun
656–586 BCE

References

  1. 1 2 3 von Beckerath, Jürgen (1999). Handbuch der Ägyptischen Königsnamen (in German). Mainz am Rhein, Von Zabern. ISBN 3-8053-2591-6. pp. 218-19
  2. 1 2 3 4 Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (2004), p.247
  3. ↑ I. E. S. Edwards, John Boardman, John B. Bury, S. A. Cook, The Cambridge Ancient History, p.733
  4. ↑ Pascal Vernus, Jean Yoyotte, The Book of the Pharaohs, Cornell University Press 2003. p.1
  5. 1 2 Breasted, James Henry (1906). Ancient records of Egypt, vol IV. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press., §§ 935-937
  6. ↑ Breasted, § 942
  7. 1 2 Wilkinson, Toby (2011). The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt. New York: Random House. p. 560. ISBN 9780747599494., p. 438-439
  8. ↑ Breasted, §§ 943-944
  9. ↑ Breasted, §§ 945-946
  10. ↑ Breasted, §§ 947 ff
  11. ↑ Grimal, Nicolas (1992). A History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Blackwell Books. ISBN 9780631174721., p. 354

Further reading

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