StatueOfSacredBoatOfMutemuia-BritishMuseum-August21-08

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

Eighteenth Dynasty The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVIII, alternatively 18th Dynasty or Dynasty 18) is classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty ...

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

Thutmose IV Thutmose IV (sometimes read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis IV, Thothmes in older history works in Latinized Greek; Ancient Egyptian: ''ḏḥwti.msi(.w)'' "Thoth is born") was the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled in approximately t ...

, and the mother of Pharaoh

Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( , ; "Amun is satisfied"), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great and Hellenization, Hellenized as Amenophis III, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty. According to d ...

. 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 Wife, Great Royal Wives (or principal wives) of Ramesses II, Ramesses the Great. She is one of the best known Egyptian queens, among such women ...

, 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 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 has suggested that Mutemwiya be a sister of Yuya. 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 ''(r.t-pa.t)'', countess, 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 () is the title that was used to refer to the Queen consort, principal wife of the pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, who served many official functions. Description While most ancient Egyptians were ...

, 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 is a city in Upper Egypt. Luxor had a population of 263,109 in 2020, with an area of approximately and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. It is among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited c ...

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 Hatshepsut ( ; BC) was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, Egypt, ruling first as regent, then as queen regnant from until (Low Chronology) and the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II. She was Egypt's second c ...

in Deir el-Bahari.

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 was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet. His oracle in Siwa Oasis, located in Western Egypt near the Libyan Desert, r ...

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

Neith Neith (, a borrowing of the Demotic (Egyptian), Demotic form , also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an ancient Egyptian deity, possibly of Ancient Libya, Libyan origin. She was connected with warfare, as indicated by her emblem of two crossed b ...

. 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 was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

and

Khnum Khnum, also romanised Khnemu (; , ), was one of the earliest-known Egyptian deities in Upper Egypt, originally associated with the Nile cataract. He held the responsibility of regulating the annual inundation of the river, emanating from the ca ...

.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 (), comprises a vast mix of temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Construction at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I (reigned 1971–1926 BC) in the ...

and it now is in the collection of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. 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 Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III, mother of pharaoh Akhenaten and grandmother of pharaoh Tutankhamun; her parents were Yuya and Thuya. In 2010 ...

, she also is shown on the

Colossi of Memnon The Colossi of Memnon ( 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 Theban Necropolis. They have stood since 1 ...

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