Emerging from the Darkness of Time....
Women of Ancient Egypt
In the field of Egyptology, it has almost been accepted as standard that females in ancient Egyptian culture were under the governance and protection of a male, either by blood or marriage with their entire lives revolving around the family. Yet, for a patriarchal culture, as ancient Egypt has been defined, the parables, myths, and aphorisms of female power and wisdom show a strong indication that female strength and independence were admired, if not prized. Beyond the traditional strong female leaders in the royal household, such as Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and later, the Macedonian ruler, Cleopatra VII, other females within the Royal House (Neith-hotep, Aah-hotep, Tiye, and Ankhsenamen, for example) held equal, if not stronger, footing with their male royal relations.
From its earliest indications, goddesses held superior position in the religious pantheon, with little or no comment on male consorts. Later periods show identification of females with such values and virtues concepts as MA'AT, the power of words in utterance and writing, and the duality/synthesization of conflicting values as mercy and devastation into feminine forms. The concept of power with a feminine face was altered over the course of the Egyptian history to that of trivializing and "pedestalizing" women and their contributions to fit an increasingly male and war-like ruling class.
It is hard to examine the place and importance of women in a system we do not fully
comprehend. However, in the language of myth, we can derive the primitive concepts of the
importance of the female within a society, albeit from a more ancient time even to the ancient
Egyptian. From these concepts, we can determine what was valued and what was despised as a
quality in women (and men), and how that quality was either diminished or transferred to men as
a desired quality while diminishing its original feminine identification.
This site will examine the various ways that women were perceived over the course of ancient Egyptian history, and that feminine influence was a continuing thread in the fabric of Egyptian society in all facets of its expression.
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