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Religion was an integral part of life in ancient Egypt, for women as well as
for men. Women of the household maintained ancestor cults and kept shrines in
their homes dedicated to deities especially caring of women, such as the
goddess Taweret, and the bandy-legged dwarf Bes.
Both these divinities were involved in guarding the woman and child through
the pregnancy and childbirth process.
Bes
In addition to the domestic observances and household shrines, many women
of the elite class also participated in religious life and temple service,
from the Old Kingdom onwards. The husbands of these women were often among the
highest officials in the land. Women also often held jobs or had careers
outside the temple, and left to do their time of service in the temple. One
woman who supervised a royal weaving studio wrote in a letter how she had to
leave her job to serve her month of temple duty.
Hundreds of non-royal women are known to have served as priests, or hmt-ntjr,
in the cults of goddesses like Hathor
and Neith. In the
Old Kingdom women also served as prophets in the cults of the gods Thoth
and Ptah. Wives of
kings were also often priestesses in the Hathor cult.
The title priestess of Hathor remained a common one for women into the
Middle Kingdom. Some priestesses of Hathor bore the title of Mrt, which
is a title for women attested from earliest times. Their duty was to sing and
play music to greet the king and the deity at the temple, but some Mrt
priestesses apparently were responsible for managing the fields and estates,
and ultimately, the financial security, of the cult center of their goddess.
The records of the province of Kusae give an idea of just how much prestige
and probably wealth went along with the prophetship of the Hathor cult. Three
generations of one noble family were leaders of the local temple. The governor
was the overseer of priests and the women of his family were the priestesses.
It is clear that social or economic status affected a woman’s
opportunities to belong in these priesthoods, yet there was no sex
discrimination with regard to holding the title of Prophet of Hathor. In fact,
originally the priesthood of Hathor was predominantly female. A woman in
Hathor cults could even be priestess in more than one temple, and positions in
the temple hierarchy were not inherited. There is evidence of
"mother-in-law/daughter-in-law" connections, meaning that women were
identified as "X, being daughter-in-law to Y." Perhaps the older
women serving in the cult sought wives for their sons from among the younger
temple women.
Women also served as wbt-priests, a different rank in the priestly
hierarchy, in the Hathor cult as well as serving the gods Khonsu and
Wepwawet.
Priestesses who held the rank of wbt, meaning "pure one",
received the same payment for their services as did a wb-priest. A few wbt
priestesses were also known from the Middle Kingdom.
There is evidence that in the Old Kingdom the office of Chantress existed.
The Chantress participated and addressed the king directly in the very
important national celebration of his jubilee. Women as well as men could also
serve as ka-servants who looked after the mortuary cults, pouring
libations, making offerings, and reciting the proper formulas.
 Also
first appearing during the Old Kingdom were troops of female temple musicians
called khener, which were involved first with goddess cults but later
with funerals and then with the cults of the gods as well. The khener
were attached to religious and secular institutions. In the tomb of the 5th
Dynasty official named Ti, a wall scene shows a group of male musicians and
five female dancers followed by three clapping women, The captions say
"dancing by the musical troupe" and "clapping by the musical
troupe." A letter from the Middle Kingdom written to a temple scribe
instructs the recipient to bring a list of people including a "shemayet
Sattepihu who is in the musical troupe."
 Musicians
frequently carried a sistrum, as shown in the accompanying picture of the
priestess Anhai. A sistrum, called seshesht in Egyptian, was a musical
rattling instrument, sacred to Hathor. Many of these sistra were made of wood,
stone or faience, though some from the Graeco-Roman period were made of
Bronze. The priestesses are depicted holding it at their sides, or shaking it.
They rattled the sistrum before the divinity and made music for their kas.
The musician-priestesses also carried a menit, a necklace, which consisted
of a number of strands strung with small beads that came together into a single
strand of large beads at either end. The strands attached to a counterpoise,
which fell down the back and held the necklace in place. A few 18th
Dynasty scenes show women shaking their sistra in the Festival Temple of
Tutmosis III at Karnak, in the colonnade of the temple of
Luxor and in the Red
Chapel of Hatshepsut.
In the Middle Kingdom there were musician priestesses, or khenywt,
attached to the temple of Osiris at
Abydos and the Hathor temple at Cusae. In
the New Kingdom the khenywt were  attached
to the cults of Osiris, Isis,
Mut, Hapi, Hrosu of Anibeh in Nubia, Hathor of
Dendera, the Great Ennead of Karnak,
Wepwawet, and Amun-Ra.
In the New Kingdom these troupes were in charge of women with the title
"weret khener," or "great one of the troupe of musical
performers." Frequently the great one was the wife of the high ranking
priest in a cult, thus suited to head that musical troupe, or she was wife of
a high-ranking official. Wives of chief priests of Montu, Khons and Thoth were
in charge of the musical troupes of their cults, as was the wife of the mayor
of the Faiyum, during the reign of
Tutmosis IV, who was the weret khener
for the cult of Sobek.
The "great one" was perhaps responsible for the training,
practice and performances of the troupe, and for seeing that things went
correctly during the ritual.
Even when the khener included male musicians, the leadership
positions continued to be held by women.
By the beginning of the 18th Dynasty, women no longer held
priestly titles. In the Old and Middle Kingdoms, priests had been officials
who spent part of their time serving in their local cult. By the New Kingdom,
priesthood was a full-time job in which men made their careers as a branch of
the bureaucracy. The commonest title for women linking them to the temple cult
was shemayet, or musician. Though there were musicians in the Old and
Middle Kingdoms, shemayet did not appear as a title on monuments until
the New Kingdom. It was the commonest title for elite women after
"mistress of the house."
Frequently in late New Kingdom’s tomb paintings and on stelae women are
depicted making offerings to the deity or performing rites for deceased family
members. Several late Ramesside letters indicate women participated in the
administration of temples. One Chantress of Amun-Ra named Henuttowy left a
long letter addressed to her husband the necropolis scribe, describing how she
received grain shipments for the temple, and was responsible for getting food
offerings to the altar. Another woman, a Principal of the Khener of Amun-Ra, named Herere, had enough authority of position to order a troop
captain to distribute pay rations to the royal necropolis workers.
One of the highest ranks a woman could attain in a cult of the god was the
position known as "God’s Wife." In the Middle Kingdom at least two
women with this title are found, one serving Min at
Akhmim and the other,
serving Amun of Thebes. The title of God’s Wife of Amun began to be used
about the start of the New Kingdom. Since the victors against the Hyksos
invaders had come from the Theban region it was important to attribute their
success to the power and intervention of Amun. There are no known scenes
showing the holder carrying out any functions connected with the office. In
the reign of Ramesses VI his daughter was installed as god’s wife, and a
funerary stela and fragmentary pyramidion belong to her.
Three sets of scenes in the chapelle rouge involve the god’s wife. In
one, the god’s wife is shown entering the open court of the temple together
with another female figure, a male figure, and many priests. In the court, the
god’s wife and a male priest face each other holding a firebrand, while in
the next, the god’s wife turns, perhaps to light a brazier with the torch.
Then the god’s wife and priest face each other again, both holding fans on
long handles, each with an image of a bound captive on its face. Presumably
the god’s wife is participating in a ritual of burning the enemies of Egypt.
During the New Kingdom, the title of "God’s Wife of Amun" was
held by royal women. The title was awarded to high-ranking ladies in the royal
family, usually the wife, mother, or eldest daughter of the king. It was held
first by Queen Ahhotep and then Queen Ahmose Nefertari.  She
was wife of king Ahmose and mother of
Amenhotep I, who was depicted performing
a range of public religious duties including participation in the public
processionals with the priests of Amun.
Next the title was held by Hatshepsut, who received it from Meritamun,
daughter of Ahmose Nefertari, and passed it to her own daughter Neferure. When
Tutmosis III ruled alone, at the end of his reign it was held by his own
daughter Meritamun, and then in the reign of Amenhotep II it was given to his
mother Meritra, and in the next reign to Tiaa, mother of Tutmosis IV. When the
Amun cult was abandoned by Akhenaten and Nefertiti, this position disappeared,
although royal women are shown officiating in the new state cult. Later in the
19th Dynasty, the position of God’s Wife of Amun was resurrected
Another priestly title that appeared in the 18th Dynasty is duat
netjer or "Divine adoratrice." During Hatshepsut’s reign the
title was held by the daughter of the chief priest of Amun, and in the reign
of Tutmosis III by the mother of the king’s principal wife. In the Third
Intermediate Period this title became associated with the title god’s wife
of Amun and the same woman bore both titles.
After the high priest of Karnak became the virtual ruler of Upper Egypt
after the 20th Dynasty ended, later dynasties ruled from the north,
while Thebes and the south were for al practical purposes ruled by the chief
priest of Amun. Daughters of the High priest filled the role of God’s Wife
but also took the old queenly title of Lady of the Two Lands and wrote their
names inside the royal cartouche.
Sources:
- The Remarkable Women of Ancient Egypt by Barbara S. Lesko
- Position of Women in the Egyptian Hierarchy by Aylward Blackman, JEA 7
- Women in Ancient Egypt by Gay Robins
- Women in Ancient Egypt by Barbara Watterson
- Daughters of Isis by Joyce Tyldesley
- Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson
Marie Parsons is an ardent student of Egyptian archaeology, ancient
history and its religion. To learn about the earliest civilization is to
learn about ourselves. Marie welcomes comments to marieparsons@prodigy.net.
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