Her Royal Titles
The Titles of Princess Ankhesenpaaten:
As a princess (more correctly, "King's Daughter" or "Royal Daughter" -- the Egyptians had no word for "Princess") Ankhesenpaaten really had only one title, with several variations. The fullest title would be something like this:
King’s Daughter of His Body Whom He Loves, Ankhesenpaaten, born of the King's Great Wife, Nefernefruaten-Nefertiti.
The purpose of this rather lengthy title was to show that not only was she the daughter of the King, she was also the daughter of the King's Great Wife. This title, in itself, may need a little explantion.
Like 'princess' the Egyptian's had no real word for 'queen'. The Pharaoh could have as many wives as he desired, and all of these women, except one, would be refered to as Hemet Nesu meaning something like King's Wife or Royal Wife. In most cases, there was only one Hemet Nesu Weret: Great Royal Wife, King's Cheif Wife, or King's Great Wife. This was the "Queen" proper, in the sense that she was the first lady of Egypt. Ankhesenpaaten's mother, Nefertiti, held this title. Ankhesenpaaten would later hold it herself.
Other variations of the King's Daughter title could be:
King's Daughter of His Body
King's Daughter Whom he Loves
King's Daughter
In Ankhesenpaaten's case, it would most certainly always be followed by "Born of the King's Great Wife, Nefernefruaten-Nefertiti"
It is interesting to note that after she becomes Tutankhaten/Tutankhamen's queen, Ankhesenpaaten stops using King's Daughter titles. This is important. Egyptians were not the most modest of people; if they held a title, they let the whole world know! One explaination of this dropping of the King's Daughter title may be this: Tutankhaten's adivsors wanted the royal couple to not be identified with the former regime of Akhenaten. They did not want to stress that the new queen of Egypt was a daughter of the so-called "heretic," the "Criminal of Akhet-Aten."
The Titles of Queen Ankhesenpaaten (later Ankhesenamen):
First, we have some of the traditional Queenly titles:
King’s Great Wife
King’s Great Wife Whom He Loves.
These two can be taken at face value. They mean exactly what they say. Ankhesenpaaten/Ankhesenamen is the first lady of Egypt as the first (and only) wife of Tutankhamen. Also, we must assume that the 'whom he loves' also means exactly that. Not all King's Great Wives had the 'whom he loves' after that. If one is still not convinced there was a genuine love between the two, read on...
We also have these Queenly titles:
Lady of the Shores of Horus
Noblewoman
Lady of the South and the North
and Mistress of the Two Lands.
This last title shows us, again, that Ankhesenamen is the 'Queen' of Egypt. The Pharaoh is the Lord of the Two Lands. His cheif wife is Mistress, or Lady, of the same.
Ankhesenamen also had some very unique titles, that help illustrate that there really was a genuine affection between the young queen and her pharaonic husband.
Sweet of Love
Mistress of Love
Great of Offerings, Splendid of Ornaments
Mistress of the Imat-scepter
Pure of Hands Carrying the Sistrum
Great of Praises
The One Who Pacifies the God with Her Voice
Aten Rises to Give Her Praise, He Sets to Repeat Her Love.
Wow! Just read those and then try to tell me that Ankhesenamen was not loved dearly. :)
Aten Rises to Give Her Praise, He Sets to Repeat Her Love is a particually interesting title. It implies that on some level, Tutankhamen and Ankhesenamen still held on to Atenism. The only other queen known to have held this title was Nefertiti herself; THE Atenist queen.
