- Nitocris I (Divine Adoratrice)
-
Nitocris I God's Wife of Amun 
Relief of the Divine Adoratice Nitocris I from her Karnak chapelFull name Nitocris I Titles Divine Adoratrice of Amun Place of death Thebes Buried Medinet Habu Dynasty 26th Dynasty of Egypt Father Psamtik I Mother Mehytenwekhet C Children none Religious beliefs Ancient Egyptian religion Nitocris I (alt. Nitiqret, Nitokris I) (died 585 BC) served as the heir to and then the Divine Adoratrice of Amun or God's Wife of Amun for a period of over seventy years, between 655 BC and 585 BC.[1] She was the daughter of the Saite Period twenty-sixth dynasty Egyptian king Psamtik I. Psamtik I dispatched a powerful naval fleet in March 656 BC to Thebes and compelled the serving God's Wife of Amun Shepenupet II, a daughter of Piye to adopt his daughter Nitocris I as her heir to this office in the well known Adoption Stela.[2] It is unknown at what date she actually assumed the office of Divine Adoratrice of Amun for herself but she served in this position until Year 4 of Apries in 585 BC.
Prior to her career in this office, the Assyrians had invaded Egypt in 671 B.C., sacked Thebes and robbed its temples of their many treasures. When she was in her eighties, she adopted her great-niece Ankhnesneferibre,[3] the daughter of Psamtik II.
During her tenure, she was attested by several building works around Karnak, Luxor and Abydos.[4] She was buried in the grounds of Medinet-Habu[5] in a tomb chapel which "she shared with her natural mother and adoptive grandmother."[6] Her sarcophagus was reused in a Ptolemaic tomb at Deir el-Medina, and is today located in the Cairo Museum.[7]
Preceded by
Shepenwepet IIGod's Wife of Amun
655–585 BCESucceeded by
AnkhnesneferibrePreceded by
Amenirdis IIDivine Adoratrice of Amun
656–586 BCESucceeded by
AnkhnesneferibreReferences
- ^ Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (2004), p.247
- ^ James H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Four, §§ 942ff.: The adoption stela of Nitocris
- ^ I. E. S. Edwards, John Boardman, John B. Bury, S. A. Cook, The Cambridge Ancient History, p.733
- ^ Dodson & Hilton, p.247
- ^ Pascal Vernus, Jean Yoyotte, The Book of the Pharaohs, Cornell University Press 2003. p.1
- ^ Dodson & Hilton, p.247
- ^ Dodson & Hilton, p.247
External links
Categories:- 7th-century BC women
- 6th-century BC women
- 7th-century BC clergy
- 6th-century BC clergy
- God's Wives of Amun
- Ancient Egyptian princesses
- Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt
- 585 BC deaths
- Ancient Egypt people stubs
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