The Forgotten: Aten's Last Queen (2 page)

Amun/Amun-Ra
–Creator deity. Cult was centered in Thebes/Waset. During the 16
^th
to 11
^th
centuries BC, Amun-Ra held the position of King of Gods, self-created, creator deity. Became champion of the poor or troubled. Other gods became manifestations of him. Amun-Ra is one of the most widely catalogued of the Egyptian deities.

Anubis
- dog or jackal god of embalming and tomb-caretaker who watches over the dead. Anubis weighed the hearts against the feather of Ma’at in the Afterlife

Apep
or
Apophis
– evil serpent of the Underworld and enemy of Ra. Personification of all that was evil. Viewed as a giant snake/serpent and sometimes as a dragon in the later years. Believed to be defeated each night by Ra when the sun rose in the morning.

Aten
– Sun deity worshipped prominently during the Aten revolution in the 18
^th
dynasty under Pharaoh Akhenaten.

Atum
– The creator deity/first god in the Heliopolitan creation myth with its cult center in Heliopolis.

Bes
– God of war, music, and protector of homes and children.

Djehuty
or
Thoth
– Ibis-headed god of the moon, wisdom, geometry, medicine, drawing, writing, music, astronomy, and magic.

Geb
– Earth god, first ruler of Egypt, and husband to Nut.

Hathor
– Cow or cow-goddess of the sky, fertility, love, beauty, and music. Patron goddess of miners. Often depicted in tombs as the “Mistress of the West” who would welcome the dead in the Afterlife.

Horus
– Falcon-headed god of the sky and war. First known nationally-recognized god specifically related to the king. Most commonly described as the son of Isis and Osiris. In one story, Set, the patron of Upper Egypt, and Horus, the patron of Lower Egypt, battled brutally for Egypt, neither side victorious, until the gods eventually sided with Horus.

Isis
– Goddess of magic, motherhood, and fertility. Wife to Osiris. Protector of the dead and goddess for children. Resurrected Osiris by bandaging his body back together for a proper burial after gathering his body parts, cut apart and scattered by Set.

Khepri
– Scarab beetle or scarab-headed creator god identified with the rising sun. Also represented creation and rebirth.

Khnum
– Ram-headed creator god who causes the Nile flood. Believed to be the creator of the bodies of human children made with his potter’s wheel from clay. He then placed these creations in a mother’s womb.

Ma’at
– Goddess who personified the concept of truth, justice, order, law, morality, and balance. Her feather was the measure determining whether the souls of deceased, which were believed to reside in the heart, would reach paradise successfully.

Mut
– Mother goddess. Consort of Amun. In the Egyptian language, her name meant
mother
.

Nephthys
– Goddess of death, night, and lamentation. Nurse mother of Horus and the pharaohs. Typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their roles as protectors of the mummy and Osiris. Sister-wife of Set.

Nut
– Goddess of the sky. She was mother to Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys. Consort of Geb.

Osiris
– Chief god for regeneration and rebirth. Judge of the dead and ruler of the Afterlife. Husband of Isis. The god’s crook and flail are instruments of a shepherd.

Ptah
– Artisan-like figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical universe. God of craftsmen and architects. Principle god of Memphis/Man-nefer.

Ra
– The sun. His chief cult center was based in Heliopolis. In the later dynasties, Ra was merged with Horus as Re-Horakhty as well as Ra. Ra journeyed through the sky and the Duat on his sun boat. While in the underworld, he would battle Apep who would attempt to stop the god’s journey every night by consuming it. Sometimes, Ra is described as an aging king with golden flesh, silver bones, and hair of lapis lazuli.

Sekhmet
– Lioness goddess. Fierce protector of the pharaoh. Goddess of healing for Upper Egypt. Sometimes associated as the daughter of Ra. Is said to have created the desert with her breath.

Seth
– God of chaos and evil along with the desert, storms, and foreigners. Tried to prevent Osiris from being resurrected by cutting his body into pieces and scattering them across the earth. Stood at the prow of Ra’s boat and was associated as the protector of Ra during his battle with Apep.

Sopdet
– Meaning
(she who is) sharp
in the Egyptian language and referring to the brightness of Sirius, which is the brightest star in the night sky. She is depicted as a woman with a five-pointed star upon her head. She is the deification of the star Sirius. After Sirius’ appearance, the scorching heat of summer arrives.

Abbreviated Glossary:

Akhenaten City/City of Light
– City built by Akhenaten for worship of the sun god, Aten.

Ba
- Similar to the notion of personality, this represents everything that makes an individual unique. The ancient Egyptians believed that a human soul was made up of five parts: the
Ren
, the
Ba
, the
Ka
, the
Sheut
, and the
Ib
.

Black lands
- The fertile black soils of the Nile flood plains.

Book of Gates
- The Book of Gates is a book of spells. When Ra reaches a mummy’s tomb, he shines sunlight into the darkness and reads from the Book of Gates. Once these magic words are spoken, the mummies can get out of their tombs and go to the Afterlife on his boat.

Cubit
- Unit of length based upon the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. A royal cubit = 7 palms = 28 fingers (approximately 52.5 cm). A short cubit = 6 palms = 24 fingers (approximately 45 cm).

Deben
– The ancient Egyptian measurement for weight. A deben was equal to 91 metric grams during the New Kingdom.

Duat
– Known in Egyptian mythology as “the underworld.” The realm of the god Osiris and residence to the other gods and supernatural beings. It is the region the sun god Ra travels, west to east, during the night and where he battles Apep. Also the place where souls went after death for judgement (though it was not the full extent of the afterlife).

God skin
– Gold. The gods of ancient Egypt were considered to have skin made of gold.

Iteru
– Ancient Egyptian unit to measure distance: 1 iteru roughly equals 6.2 miles.

Ka
- The Egyptian concept of an individual’s vital essence. Distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person with death occurring when the
ka
left the body. One of five parts that made up the human soul (as listed above in
Ba)
.

Kemet
– The ancient name for Egypt, which means “black land.”

Man-nefer
- Meaning “enduring and beautiful” during the New Kingdom of Egypt, its location is 20 km south of Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile. Also known as Memphis. The city has had several names during its history of almost four millennia.

Mastaba
- A flat-roofed rectangular structure with outward sloping sides that marked a burial site. It was about four times as long as it was wide and rose to at least 30 feet in height. The name meant “house for eternity” or “eternal house.”

Nubian-style wig
– A built-up series of layers of tightly curled plaits thought to imitate the thick hairstyles of the Nubian peoples.

Plait
– Braid of the hair.

Red lands
– The desert which surrounded the “black lands.”

Season of Akhet
– (Fall) The Flooding Season when the Nile River rose and left miles of farmland completely submerged under roughly 5 feet of water. The beginning of the year was marked by the rise of the Nile. Consisted of four 30-day months. The annual flooding came due to the monsoon-like downfalls of rain in the Ethiopian highlands, swelling the different tributaries and other rivers that joined and became the Nile.

Season of Peret
– (Winter/Spring) The period when the floodwaters receded, and Growing Season would begin. Farmers would sow crops at this time, most notably wheat, barley, figs, melons, pomegranates, and various vine plants. Consisted of four 30-day months.

Season of Shomu
– (Spring/Summer) Harvest Season at which time fully grown crops were cut down and collected before the floodwaters returned. Consisted of four 30-day months plus one little month of five or six days.

Tenon joint
- A tenon is a projection on the end of a timber for insertion into a mortise (a cavity cut into a timber to receive a tenon).

Viceroy
– An official who runs a country, colony, or city province as representative of the king. Could act in the name of the ruler.

Vizier
– Chief Minister. Administratively is directly under the king. Viziers could even be elevated to the status of king.

Waset
- Located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean on the east bank of the river Nile within the modern city of Luxor. The Greek name for the city was Thebes.

Between Life and Death
1322 B.C
.

I am the last. And once the new king is crowned, I am dispensable.

The world was beginning to stir, but I had been up long before Ra’s ship had spotted the horizon. I stood alone and gazed out at the effervescent blue water churning gently in the wake of the early morning ferries. Despite the peace of the morning, my thoughts were still bloated with fear and death.

It was all happening so fast that I could barely keep my wits and emotions together. What with the loss of my daughter and husband so close together, I needed to find someone I could trust.

As despair threatened to overpower me, the worries trapped in my mortal shell were the only thing driving me forward. Each day became a fight to keep the emotions at bay, a fight to not give up, and a struggle to care for more than myself. I could not give in. I would not give in. That is not what my family would want me to do.

My dear husband rushed his departure, rushed to leave the temples, these scents, these sights, and rushed into battle after the loss of our second child. I could not let him die in vain. My plan could bring peace to the lands, and only I would be able to do this.

I am the last.

The walls of my family’s tombs had been violated, their names erased from memory. I could not let this happen to my husband or to me. I needed to set things right so our names would not be remembered as heretics. Surely the feather of Ma’at weighs differently for those who truly believe what they did was right? I would assure their places in the Afterlife. Even if they hurt me and then left me standing here now… alone. Even if my heart had yet to forgive one of them…

I thought of my mother. After she had left, my sisters and I had lost all the rights we had grown up with. We no longer held power or respect. We were taken and used to produce sons. Pharaoh had wanted another son so badly that he used us and forgot those long-ago times when we were once happy and full of love. Yet looking back, with so much loss around me now, I had more than I ever realized back then, so much I didn’t appreciate. In the here and now, there was a vast unknown in front of me. Like the long and fierce Nile that I stood in front of, this unknown was endless and unyielding. I was groping to find my way out, my eyes useless like those of a blind man’s.

I had finally found hope in my life. At long last, there had been goodness. My husband had been kinder to me than father had. For once, I was not just a vessel to produce heirs for the throne. I was actually someone who was needed and valued. My husband respected me and asked for my opinions on things that weighed heavy on his heart. He was also always there when I needed someone. When I was sick with child, he was there to comfort me. No one had ever treated me like that before. No one had ever touched me gently or waited until I was ready. Now who knew what my fate would be? Who would claim me next? I knew that with my bloodline, the last of my family capable of producing a child (at least, the last
known
heir), I would be used to solidify the next pharaoh. The thought made me shudder with fear.

My heart felt heavier than our entire treasury, but I could not let fear of the unknown sway me. I knew what I was doing would be what was right for my family’s legacy. The only way to keep the throne in my family’s hands and clear their names of the hearsay my father started would be by producing a new heir, but what I planned had never been done before. Pharaohs had sent for princesses from other lands to marry, but never before had a queen called for a prince from another land.

It was my last hope, and I must get the Hittite emissary here without those standing around me finding out. Even if they were our enemies, a marriage between us would bring about peace between our lands and keep my family on the throne. Then I could produce an heir with my family’s blood and keep them all alive. I could continue the reunification of the temples, the palace, and the people.

Light began to creep up my body and pierced at my eyes. Looking up, I noticed that Aten was rising early this day. Ra’s journey had been a success. Out in the Nile, the surface suddenly broke as a fish jumped up out of the water, scales sparkling in the new sunlight, before it returned into the churning depths. The rippling pool, the memory of the moment, expanded out like my shadow as Aten rose higher. I smiled and wondered if this one fish was as relieved as I was at Ra’s return. It had been a long night with demons that had threatened me.