A woman in Egypt is more than a woman. She is also a queen. The fact is that in ancient Egypt, elements of matriarchy were preserved for a long time. It should be remembered that the pharaohs ascended the throne after marriage with the heiress.
Although it happened that the women became the rulers of Egypt … True, there were not many names of female rulers: the Egyptian queen of the first dynasty – Merietit (about 3000 BC); Hetepheres I, the wife of Pharaoh Snofru and mother of Khufu; mother of two kings of the V dynasty – Hentkaus; the first female pharaoh was Neytikert; a female pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom era – Nefrusebek, who reigned for 3 years; queen Hatshepsut; the mother of Akhenaten the queen of Tiya; Nefertiti; the divine Cleopatra, etc. Margaret Murray in the book “Shine of Egypt” describes the nature of the relationship between the sexes and marriage laws: “The marriage laws of Ancient Egypt have never been formulated, and you can learn them only by studying marriages and genealogy. Then it becomes clear why Pharaoh married the heiress, ignoring the incest, and if the heir was dying, he married another heiress. Thus he remained in power .
.. the throne passed strictly on the female line. The king’s wife was the heir. Marrying her, the king took the throneOne of the first queens was the great and incomparable Hatshepsut.
She ruled as a man and gave Pharaonic ranks “female endings” (she was portrayed on a temple scene with a man’s physique, her face was adorned with a tied beard).Her rule has contributed a lot to the fact that Egypt has become a world power of the first rank. The Theban queens promote the expulsion of the Hyksos from the country. Note that this led to the emergence of the New Kingdom. A number of women from the Pharaoh’s circle took part in conspiracies, as was the case with the concubine of Ramses III. Unlike other countries, a woman in Egypt could become a ruler (except that in Russia and in Britain, a woman was a queen).
Tsaritsa erected monuments. Such was the tomb of the beautiful wife of Ramses II, Nefertari, “the one for whom the sun shines.” Alas, the divine Nefertari left early for another world. In the rocks of the Valley of the Tsars she was carved a burial vault, the most beautiful monument of the necropolis. The paintings occupy 520 square meters there. This is one of the best works of art from the era of the New Kingdom.
Above the portico and today you can read the words: “Hereditary nobility, Great mercy, beauty, sweetness and love, Lady of Upper and Lower Egypt, reassured Lady of both lands, Nefertari, Beloved Mut.” In Mesopotamia and ancient Jews, girls entered the age of marriage at 11-12 years, and in Egypt, and even earlier – from 6 years. Usually the Egyptian women get married at 15 years old or even earlier, becoming grandmothers as early as 30 years. Love is translated as “long desire”. It would be more correct to translate this word as “early desire”. In the Egyptian family patriarchal relations reign. Divorces were rare.
The main reason for the divorce was the absence of children. If the woman acted as the initiator of the divorce, she had to return to her husband half or a third of the property (amount). If the divorce initiator was a man, he lost everything. One of the surviving documents (a kind of marriage contract) said: “If I hate you or if I fall in love with another man, I will return your silver and give up any right to land.” Such contracts were necessary,
