Priestess, queen, goddess

Abstract

This chapter provides the historical background of ruling queens of Kush, a land that many know only through the Bible. The omission of Kushite queens from an analysis of female power in the ancient world could be due to two factors: first, Egyptologists tend not to know much about Kush; second, Egypt has been associated with the Mediterranean world, while Kush is relegated to Africa. A potent avenue to political power for Kushite royal women of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty was to serve as God's Wife of Amun and the Hand of God, both titles held by the Kushite princesses Amenirdis I and Shepenwepet II. While the level of power attained by Napatan queens was highly unusual in the ancient world, Meroitic queens consolidated even greater power, resulting in a series of sole-ruling queens during the first century BCE and the first century CE. Meroitic queens are often depicted with their breasts bare on temple walls and in their funerary chapels.