Notable queens are rare in ancient history. Kings, emperors, and pharaohs fill the pages of history with battle deeds, law-making, and public works. Queens get barely a mention. Yet every Sargon and Ramses had a goal to produce offspring. Male leaders all married, multiple times, to create alliances with surrounding territories. There were plenty of queens, even if we don’t know much about them. I found five worthy of discussion.
Queens presuppose the existing of kings. Kings led successful armies, trade delegations, and public works projects. Queens were usually only the mother of the heir, although a smart king would rely on his queen for much more–to act in his absence, to guide children to become future leaders, and to help address needs of the population. Every now and then, she’d put on armor; every now and then, she would rule if the king died and the heir was too young.
Most ancient cultures had multiple gods, and while one was King above others, there was also a Queen. Yahweh originally had a wife–Asherah. Jesus had a mother who was Queen of Heaven.
As we contemplate these Queens, let’s think about three basic questions:
- What were the characteristics of notable Ancient Queens?
- Who were some notable Ancient Queens?
- What were some of the commonalities of notable Ancient Queens?
Who Was She, Again? A Nurse?
Queens were venerated female leaders. Period. Typically, they were married to the king and bore the king’s children, particularly the future king. But, in some cases, women who were high priestesses, minor wives, or ones who stepped up in a crisis could be called “queen.”
It’s not news to say that women’s roles were restricted in Sumeria, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, or India-. States were run by men who took power with the sword, which disadvantaged women. If there were goddess-centered matriarchal cultures before writing, they were gone by the rise of cities and their scribes.
Those male scribes who kept the tax, legal, and historical records did not write about women. Women might wear ornate crowns, be painted on temple walls, have entire tomb complexes dedicated to them, and still barely get a mention. If a scribe did include them, a later one, copying the records, might chose to omit her name–they could so with men, too. The medieval monks who then continued to copy that history would have had to preserve the name in order for us to know it now. Either that, or someone must come along later and resurrect the woman’s story based on other evidence. This is how we know these Queens must have been bad-ass women, to survive the fight against their recognition.
For example, there was a prominent woman in the city of Ur, @2550 BCE. Queen Puabi was buried with elaborate jewelry, musical instruments, and even a crown. She was also buried with a stack surgical instruments. The histories of Ur do not call her queen or doctor and claim lack of “verification.” Her seals call her NIN, which Assyriologists say might mean priestess, queen, or lady–who knows what that word meant? The lack of certainty is clear, even though this “Nin” Puabi was buried with stacks of gold, lapis lazuli–more precious than gold– and over 60 ttendants, who were apparently clubbed over the head before being added to her tomb, like every other dead king and pharaoh of the 2nd millennium BCE. But who can say if Puabi was a queen? Who can say if she wielded any power?
Puabi’s seals show her seated and raising a filled cup, as attendants watch. Probably a banquet scene. Probably. But one of the ways ancient doctors diagnosed diseases was by looking at urine or blood. Just pointing that out.
Pasting on the Pharaoh’s Beard
Puabi is not the only queen known mostly from her tomb. Hatshepsut was the 6th pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. In point of fact, it’s odd to call her “queen” since the pharaoh was called pharaoh, not king. There was no separate word for a female pharaoh. Which she was.
They didn’t want her to be. Hatshepsut was the wife of Thutmose II, who died young apparently of natural causes. Their son, Thutmose III, was two years old. She became queen regent, that special designation only given to mothers. She was the second Egyptian woman to rule on behalf of an infant son and, perhaps learning from the first, expanded her powers until she became queen regnant (I had to confirm that spelling). In other words, she ruled for real.
Hatshepsut expanded trade routes, grew the Egyptian economy, and peacefully incorporated more territory. She then embarked on masses of building projects, some considered to employ the best architectural design that Egypt had to offer. Her bid for glory? Her own tomb at Deir-al-Bahari.
To take and hold power was difficult for a woman; her sex was a disability. When she transitioned from co-ruler with a two-year-old to sole ruler, she took on the trappings of a man, including a false beard. The pharaoh’s braided goatee which she wore and had carved on statues was proof of leadership. Hatshepsut was reportedly an excellent ruler for two decades. If she was a rival to her son, she did not act as such. Her legacy is not filled with stories of poison in the night to maintain her power, which could have happened (feel free to research Livia, wife of Roman Emperor Augustus, for comparison).
Pharaoh-queen Hatshepsut died when her son was around 23. He honored her memory by immediately setting to removing all traces of her leadership. Statues were defaced, wall carvings gouged out. Good thing she built so many, since he did not get them all. It’s not entirely clear why Thutmose III, or possibly his son Amenhotep II, did this. It could be simple misogyny, as this was not a woman-friendly culture. But Thutmose III was stepson, not son, and it’s possible as well that he thought his dynastic claim was weak. Perhaps he was embarrassed by a woman’s success.
Mom was apparently a good role model for Amenhotep. Although he did not honor his mother’s memorials, he was one of the most successful pharaohs of all the dynasties, ruling 32 years, creating Egypt’s first navy, and conducting successful military expansion campaigns. She taught him well. Plus, he couldn’t exactly destroy an entire temple.
Mother of Continents
If you hadn’t heard of Hatshepsut, you may have heard of the most famous of ancient queens: Sheba. I learned of this great African queen in Sunday school. As I remembered the story, in the Book of Kings, the Queen of Sheba travels to see Solomon, legendary for his wisdom. Sheba puts several difficult questions to him and, impressed with his answers, gifts him with a great deal of gold. Also, frankincense and myrrh, by the way, which Sheba/Saba happened to have a great deal of. Another story says that Sheba was the one to whom much of the “Song of Songs” or “Song of Solomon” was dedicated.
I am black and beautiful,
From “Song of Songs,” or “Song of Solomon,” 1:5-6.
You daughters of Jerusalem,
Like the tents of Kedar,
Like the curtains of Solomon.
Do not stare at me because I am dark,
For the sun has tanned me.
This is the standard “artistic” rendering of the story. Sheba is dark-skinned in the stained glass and Renaissance paintings, in contrast to Solomon’s fair face. Hollywood continued the love story theme. Two feature films were done on the subject, one pre-Hays Code, with Sheba in nipple-revealing sheer outfits, and a second with Gina Lollobrigida during the Biblical-epic-crazy 1950s. In a 1997 miniseries starring Ben Cross as “Solomon,” Sheba is played by Vivica A. Fox.
The historical record here is more complicated. Sheba, or Saba, was a kingdom located in modern-day Yemen. In other words, the queen was South Arabian rather than African, not Three thousand years ago, Yemen didn’t keep a lot of records. But they did have queens, they did have ruling women leaders, and they did send ruling women leaders on trade missions to places like Israel or Ethiopia.
What gets more interesting is that, in addition to the Bible, the Queen of Sheba is mentioned in other texts, bits of the Talmud, and the Qu’ran. Again, she goes to Solomon to ask questions and give him riches. However, she also crosses his glass floor, polished so smoothly that she believes it to be water and lifts her skirts to show her legs. She is then admonished for her brazenness. Also, she becomes pregnant by Solomon. And she converts to whichever religion wrote the which relates the story.
The Ethiopian Christians built an entire mythology around her. According to a medieval Ethiopian text called Kebra Nagast, Sheba is known as Makeda. Her son by Solomon, Menelik, becomes the first king of Ethiopia, and monotheism rules thereafter.
Ruler of Arabia and mother of the future ruler of Africa earns Sheba a new epithet from some: Mother of Continents. This Makeda queen is my favorite, and recent scholars have resurrected her reputation, especially in seeking wisdom. As I was describing her at home, my spouse surfaced this highly appropriate snippet of Afro-French music, an homage to the ancient queens.
Warrior Queens Across the World
The names of Xena and Bodicea are well-known as warrior queens. Most of us knew about the Amazons. Few know about Fu Hao, although her rules @ 1200 BCE may make her one of the first of the warrior queens.
Queen Fu Hao was the first female general in China’s history. She may have been the greatest female general, but she also was married to the first emperor of the Shang dynasty,, Wu Ding.
As General Queen Fu Hao, she led multiple successful military campaigns against the Tufang, Yi, Qiang, and Ba. She became the most prominent general of her day, a claim supported by the large stash of battle axes and weapons in her tomb. Wu Ding built her a large tomb. Because it was built across the river and away from all the other royals, it was not looted. OK, let’s parse that factoid. She was buried way away from all the other kings and royals, not in the Royal Cemetery. Huh. Still, she got the last laugh, in that all her stuff was still in the tomb when the archaeologists came to dig it up. Maybe these Queens were a lot cleverer about tomb management than given credit.
Dubious Suitors & Bloodthirsty Vengeance
My Chinese historical knowledge is woefully-lacking, but I did know some things about the Persians of 600 BCE. Cyrus the Great ruled the giant Achaemenid Empire and was famous for creating a massive garden, irrigation in the desert. It was a way to show his power. I’ve written about Cyrus. I should have read to the end of the story.
According to Herodotus, whose histories were sometimes fanciful but often considered the only trustworthy source of the time, Cyrus lost his head over the warrior queen, Tomyris. Or perhaps I should say literally lost his head to Tomyris. It’s very funny that some describe Cyrus as her “suitor.” Let’s see if you think he qualifies.
Queen Tomyris was leader of the Massagetae, a 6th century BCE land near modern-day Kazakhstan and Iran. Her royal husband died while their young son was not old enough to rule, so Tomyris became Queen regent. Because this land was near the spreading Persian Empire, Cyrus planned to take it easily. First, he proposed marriage, which would have given him the land and her nothing, given that he had other wives.
When she rebuffed him, Cyrus decided to invade. He amassed an army and marched east, which took long enough for the son to grow old enough to lead an army. But not very well; Cyrus captures the son after getting the army drunk at a banquet. He sends Tomyris a threatening letter. Tomyris responds with a stern warning: Blood-thirsty Cyrus, … give me my son and leave this country with impunity … If you do not, I swear to you by the sun, as ruler of the Massagetae, that I will give you blood to drink, even though you are insatiable.
Cyrus does not return the son, who manages to kill himself, either out of shame or to avoid being used further as a hostage. Tomyris then leads a bigger army, which promptly routs the Persians. She fills a wineskin with blood and, after ordering soldiers to bring the head of the dead Cyrus, she dumps into the bag of blood, declaring: You thirsted for blood, king of the Persians, so drink it now to!
How did we miss that story in world history?
Renaissance painters didn’t. Many took inspiration from the story and created a version of Tomyris and Cyrus. Rubens painted it twice. In this latter version @1622, however, Tomyris does not appear to be the army’s leader, but hanging out with her gal pals, when the head is brought. I also noticed something else odd. While I searched high and low, though, no one could explain why she looks to me, decidedly pregnant. Is this, like Sheba, a way of diminishing her story?
They do try so many ways of hiding the deeds of queens. Make them pregnant, to prevent them from being thought of as warriors. Put their tombs across the river. Convert their noble grandeur and search for wisdom into infatuation; let their trade delegations become love stories. Deny they were ever queens.
Yet it is hard to deny a tomb full of gold and lapis-lazuli. It is particularly hard to ignore 1000 meters of causeway leading to three terraces full of tombs and temples, emblazoned by the setting Egyptian sun. Note to self: if I ever do become queen, be sure to build a really big monument. Although I can skip the 60 attendants part.
