Hatshepsut Maatkare - Queen and King of Egypt in the 18th Dynasty. Her life and times.

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3 жыл бұрын

This talk is based (loosely) on the chapter from my forthcoming book. The title of this book has now been revised. It will be called:
PHARAOHS OF THE SUN
HOW EGYPT'S DESPOTS AND DREAMERS DROVE THE RISE AND FALL OF TUTANKHAMUN'S DYNASTY
It covers the life and times of Hatshepsut, a queen of Egypt who made herself into a king when confronted with the prospect of being a regent for her half nephew, Thutmose III. With no mechanism for a queen regnant in the Egyptian 'system', Hatshepsut had no choice but to adopt the trappings of a conventional male ruler while at the same time combining the male and female composite of the normal king and queen into herself.
Hatshepsut remains an enduring historical figure who transcends the time in which she lived. It is easy today to see her as a form of icon, an inspiring individual who asserted herself in a creative and forceful way by challenging convention. No other Egyptian ruler can compare with her. However, she belonged firmly also to the 18th Dynasty royal tradition of using Egypt’s resources very largely for her own gratification and benefit. This is all too easily forgotten when celebrating Hatshepsut’s achievements and being beguiled by the beauty of her Deir el-Bahari temple.

Пікірлер: 19

@ideletemyinbox 3 жыл бұрын

Every new video from Guy brings the anticipation of a moment of calm, thoughtfulness and intrigue.

@fetus2280 3 жыл бұрын

Ah ... one of my Utmost favorites of the Rulers ... Hatshepsut . My admiration extends to my Cat who I named after her . It was her challenging the system, if you will, that made me admire her so much . She is, in my opinion, someone to look up to today .

@fenham 3 жыл бұрын

One of the best Hatshepsut narratives I've heard or watched. The moreI listen to Guy, the greater his prominence among the ranks of the great historians. Thanks Guy

@JB-gw8ee 2 жыл бұрын

I love this channel. Just recently discovered it. Thank you!

@ullasu1788 3 жыл бұрын

Was looking forward to your Egyptian videos sir, thank you for this!

@philaypeephilippotter6532 3 жыл бұрын

Ditto.

@tedhollandrcp 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your uploads. I've been enjoying reading your books. You got me started collecting roman coins. Mark Antony and his lovely wife Octavia joined me for a coffee the other day. Do I hear Augustus and Agrippa ringing the doorbell asking what's going on?

@uriahheep8470 3 жыл бұрын

As always, another excellent talk.

@harrybailey6297 3 жыл бұрын

Love these talks , thank you guy

@lifeschool 3 жыл бұрын

Very nice footage and music in this episode.

@awuma 3 жыл бұрын

Dudley would perhaps be a better comparison with Senenmut than Rasputin. I think that the conclusion, that Egypt was a ruthless dictatorship, is a bit overblown, since we get a rather different picture from the writings and personal monuments and tombs of the royal tomb builders of Deir-el-Medina (over the mountain from Deir-el-Behari). The remains at Akhetaten (Amarna) perhaps reflect Akhenaten's move to Amarna and his own exploitative rule than the Egyptian system as a whole. It is interesting that the extraordinary pyramid building of Snefru and his immediate descendants a millenium earlier left a good mark on Egyptian history, whereas Akhenaten did not. Horemheb clearly had to clean up the social mess left by Akhenaten, and his stela at the Tenth Pylon at Karnak attests to that. In fact, during much of this talk, I was thinking of the bloody reigns of English kings and queens, while there doesn't seem to be much evidence of such court mayhem in New Kingdom Egypt, or of random violence against ordinary people. Only at the end of the 19th Dynasty and in the 20th is there serious unrest, quite well attested, at the time of the Bronze Age Collapse, which Egypt survived though in a weakened and divided state through the Third Intermediate Period.

@lifeschool 3 жыл бұрын

I think it goes a little deeper. Brutality towards slaves was not recorded in those days, while the peoples and nobles may have been happy with the status quo, the poor end of the spectrum may not. Especially the Nubians, the Canaanites and the Jews. They ran a strict rule over the peoples, to the point of almost commanding them to worship their kings as deities, spending much of the peoples wealth on self-glorifying effigies, and casting down those who did not bow down to the favourite Gods of their leaders. Life was rough in those days, enough that the Romans never totally subdued them.

@stiannobelisto573 3 жыл бұрын

@@lifeschool well written👍

@gruszkaa85 Жыл бұрын

Could I get the book tittle he is holding at 4:19 ? Please

@Krafty Жыл бұрын

The Royal Mummies by G. Elliot Smith

@amandajstar 3 жыл бұрын

Very interesting talk. I wonder about visiting any of these sites as a Westerner given the political hostility of certain factions and the grave danger this represents. I would love to visit Egypt but wouldn't dare.

@peterkarargiris4110 3 жыл бұрын

The phrase on the obelisks is often translated, "Now my heart turns to and fro, in thinking what will the people say." (Lichtheim, (1976) Ancient Egyptian Literature Vol 2) Her main concern seems to be that "people in after years." ie us, will misunderstand the reason for her raising the obelisks. That reason is to show her "devotion to her father" (Amun) and secondarily, "that my name shall endure in this temple." (Karnak) To my mind, the main problem that Thutmose and his advisers had with Hatshepsut posthumously was that she was a woman, and for pharaoh to be a woman who dresses and behaves like a man was an outright offence against maat. Long after she had died, I can imagine an aging Thutmose saying to one of his viziers, "Now that I'm getting on a bit, I guess it's time we did something about that silly old aunt of mine. Remember her?" For his son Amenhotep's sake it needed to be demonstrated publicly that a woman could not crown herself king. Other than that his feeling towards her seems to me to border on tolerance; one of his principal wives was named Merytre-Hatshepsut and I believe heirloom jewellery bearing Hatshepsut's name was discovered in the tomb of his foreign wives. So it seems, that privately at least, he was fine with letting her name endure. Once again Guy, thank you for a fascinating and thought provoking video. You bring the past to life like no other KZfaqr.

@ClassCiv 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your comments. It's of course also worth noting that Thutmose III, Amenhotep II, and Thutmose IV all marginalized their queens completely during their reigns to the extent they are practically unknown. They only emerged to prominence as Great Royal Wives under their sons when they fulfilled the roles one might have expected their sons' queens to. This seems to have been driven by a desire to make sure there was no chance of a widowed queen taking supreme power again. Only as dowagers did these women have a purpose to serve. The last was Mutemwiya, wife of Thutmose IV, who only emerges into the light after the accession of her son Amenhotep III, before she was sidelined by Tiye - the first prominent queen in her husband's lifetime since Hatshepsut, but Tiye of course never became 'king'. Nefertiti did, but that is another story, and she did not last long in that role.