Yahia Rady

2010

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Mutemwiya

Mutemwiya (also Mutemwia, Mutemweya; "Mut in the divine bark") was a minor wife of Thutmose IV, a pharaoh of Egypt, in the Eighteenth Dynasty and the mother of the child who would become Amenhotep III.
She received many of her titles, including that of Great Royal Wife, only after her husband's death and the selection of her son to succeed him. His elevating her to this title was an attempt to make his selection as pharaoh seem more traditional. At that time she gained prominence as the new pharaoh's mother. During Thutmose's rule, only his two other wives, Iaret and Nefertari bore the title of Great Royal Wife, which usually was reserved for the royal women of Egypt who carried the lineage.
Mutemwiya is shown in the Luxor temple, in scenes depicting the divine birth of her son Amenhotep III. A statue, which shows her in a boat was found in Karnak and it now is in the collection of the British Museum; probably it had been taken from her mortuary temple, which would have been its original location. She was buried in Thebes.
Along with her daughter-in-law, Tiye, she also is shown on the Colossi of Memnon erected by Amenhotep III. These two women would have been stressed as his relatives since his position in the royal lineage was weak.
While she occasionally was identified by some researchers as a daughter of King Artatama I of Mitanni—in an attempt to give her an exotic origin—no evidence proves that she is the same person, and nothing about her own background is known. In fact, it now is believed by many that there is evidence that she was not a daughter of Artatama..
Mutemwiya's titles include:

Statue of a sacred boat dedicated to Mutemwiya - circa 1400 BC, black granite from the Temple of Karnak, on display at the British Museum
  • God’s Wife (hm.t-ntr)
  • Great King’s Wife (hm.t-niswt-wr.t)
  • Lady of The Two Lands (nb.t-t3wy)
  • Great King’s Wife, his beloved (hm.t-nisw.t-wr.t mery.t=f)
  • Hereditary Princess (iry.t-p`.t)
  • Great of Praises (wr.t-hzw.t)
  • Sweet of Love (bnr.t-mrw.t)
  • Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt (hnw.t-Shm’w-mhw)
  • God's Mother (mwt-ntr)
Mutemwiya is called both "king's mother" (mut nesu) and "god's mother" (mut netjer), but this amounts to the same thing since the god in question was the reigning king, Amenhotep III.
The date of her death is unknown, but she is believed to have survived long into her son's reign. The evidence for that is her presence among the sculptures of the Colossi of Memnon, which was built well into his reign, as well as a mention of her estate on a wine-jar label found in Amenhotep III's Malkata palace in Thebes