StatueOfSacredBoatOfMutemuia-BritishMuseum-August21-08

Mutemwiya (also written as Mutemwia, Mutemuya or Mutemweya) was a minor wife of the Eighteenth Dynasty

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until th ...

Thutmose IV, and the mother of Pharaoh

Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(.w), ''Amānəḥūtpū'' , "Amun is Satisfied"; Hellenized as Amenophis III), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different ...

. Mutemwiya's name means " Mut in the divine barque". While unconfirmed, it has been suggested that she acted as regent during the minority of her son

Biography

Mutemwiya is not attested during the reign of her husband Thutmose IV. She would have been overshadowed at court by the chief queens

Nefertari Nefertari, also known as Nefertari Meritmut, was an Egyptian queen and the first of the Great Royal Wives (or principal wives) of Ramesses the Great.Dodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dyan. ''The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt''. Thames & Hud ...

, and later Iaret. Mutemwiya is only shown on the monuments of her son Amenhotep III. While she occasionally was identified by some researchers as a daughter of King

Artatama I Artatama I was a king of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni in the late fifteenth century BC. His reign coincided with the reigns of Egyptian pharaohs Amenhotep II and Thutmose IV. He is believed to be the son of earlier Mitanni king Shaushtatar. ...

of Mitanni, no evidence proves that she is the same person, and nothing about her own background is known. There seemed to be evidence that she was not a daughter of Artatama, but this theory has been discarded.O'Connor, David and Cline, Eric H. Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His Reign University of Michigan Press. 2001

Cyril Aldred Cyril Aldred (19 February 1914 – 23 June 1991) was an English Egyptologist, art historian, and author. Early life Cyril Aldred was born in Fulham, London, the son of Frederick Aldred and Lilian Ethel Underwood, and the sixth of seven child ...

has suggested that Mutemwiya be a sister of

Yuya Yuya (sometimes Iouiya, or Yuaa, also known as Yaa, Ya, Yiya, Yayi, Yu, Yuyu, Yaya, Yiay, Yia, and Yuy) was a powerful ancient Egyptian courtier during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (circa 1390 BC). He was married to Thuya, an Egyptian noble ...

. He argues that since Mutemwiya was present during the early years of her son's reign, she might have engineered the marriage between Tiye and the young king to connect her family with royalty. However, this theory is poorly supported by texts or archaeological finds. Mutemwiya held many titles including God’s Wife ''(Hm.t-nTr)'', Lady of The Two Lands ''(nb.t-tAwy)'', Great King’s Wife, his beloved ''(Hm.t-nsw-wr.t mry.t=f)'', noblewoman, countess ''(r.t-pa.t)'', Great of Praises ''(wr.t-Hsw.t)'', Sweet of Love ''(bnr.t-mrw.t)'', Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt ''(Hnw.t-rsy-mHw)'', and God's Mother ''(mwt-nTr)''. The titles king's mother and god's mother amount to the same thing since the god in question was the reigning king, Amenhotep III. All of these titles, including that of

Great Royal Wife Great Royal Wife, or alternatively, Chief King's Wife ( Ancient Egyptian: ''ḥmt nswt wrt'', cop, Ⲟⲩⲏⲣ Ⲟⲩⲣϣ), is the title that was used to refer to the principal wife of the pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, who served many official ...

, were used only after her husband's death, during her son's reign. At the time of Amenhotep III’s accession to the throne she gained prominence as the new pharaoh's mother.Tyldesley, Joyce. Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 2006, p. 114. Mutemwiya is shown in the

Luxor Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...

temple, in scenes depicting the divine birth of her son Amenhotep III. The scenes resemble (and in some cases copy) scenes of the divine birth of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari. Hatshepsut had used the birth story to reinforce her claims to the throne. Amenhotep was the son of a ruling pharaoh and it seems that the birth scene is used to stress the semi-divine nature of Amenhotep III. In a key scene Mutemwiya is shown seated on a bed receiving the god

Amun Amun (; also ''Amon'', ''Ammon'', ''Amen''; egy, jmn, reconstructed as ( Old Egyptian and early Middle Egyptian) → (later Middle Egyptian) → ( Late Egyptian), cop, Ⲁⲙⲟⲩⲛ, Amoun) romanized: ʾmn) was a major ancient Egypt ...

who had taken the form of her husband Thutmose IV. They are in the presence of the goddesses

Selket Serket ( egy, , italics=no, translit=srqt) is the goddess of healing venomous stings and bites in Egyptian mythology, originally the deification of the scorpion. Her family life is unknown, but she is sometimes credited as the daughter of Neith ...

and Neith. The scenes show Amenhotep III to be the result of the union of his mother with the god Amun himself. A pregnant queen Mutemwiya as later shown being led to the birthing room by

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

and Khnum.Aldred, Cyril, Akhenaten: King of Egypt ,Thames and Hudson, 1991 (paperback). A partial granite statue representing Mutemwiya was found in

Karnak The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (, which was originally derived from ar, خورنق ''Khurnaq'' "fortified village"), comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Constru ...

and it now is in the collection of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. The statue takes the form of a rebus showing the goddess Mut seated in a barque, thereby forming her name. Mutemwiya is named in the inscription on the side of the barque.Quirke, Stephen and Spencer, Jeffrey, The British Museum Book of Ancient Egypt, Thames and Hudson, 1992, p 78. Along with her daughter-in-law,

Tiye Tiye (c. 1398 BC – 1338 BC, also spelled Tye, Taia, Tiy and Tiyi) was the daughter of Yuya and Thuya. She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III. She was the mother of Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamun. ...

, she also is shown on the

Colossi of Memnon The Colossi of Memnon ( ar, el-Colossat, script=Latn, italic=yes or ''es-Salamat'') are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, which stand at the front of the ruined Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, the largest temple in the Th ...

erected by Amenhotep III.Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (2004), pp. 132-141.

Death

The date of Mutemwiya's 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.

Biography

Death

References

See also