The Women of Ancient Egypt

I figured after talking about slaves we'd tackle another, mostly Hollywood, misconception and that is the lives and place of women in the Egyptian society. I will be talking solely about Egypt prior to Greco-Roman rule and only during times of Egyptian pharoahship. The invaders of Egypt found their practices regarding women uncomfortable. Reading Herodotus gives us some insight on how the Greco-Roman world viewed Egypt, including women.

I think we should start with what women couldn't do in Egypt. For most of Egyptian history the only thing truly forbidden to the Egyptian woman was being a Pharaoh (they could be Queens) and they were not permitted to be soldiers, particularly infantry or those that managed soldier. Again, the queen could be an exception to that particularly if she was ruling as a regent for a son or nephew. Even despite this being forbidden we do see queens acting as pharaoh and there are historical records of women involved in military endeavors, particularly around overthrowing of invaders to home and country. There are some that contend that women were excluded from bureaucracy. This is highly contested and I will discuss it below. Though not really forbidden you don't often see evidence for women as stone masons or those moving large stones for building. Heavy labor seems to be less common for women.

So, what were the rights of women?

Women could own and inherit property. This meant money, land, businesses and animals among other things. These inheritances were often equally split between brothers and sisters. If widowed, a wife would receive 1-2 thirds of her husband's wealth depending on the era. Women could run businesses as well. Some businesses were strictly run by women for much of Egyptian history. These businesses include sacred mourners and wailers (part of a funeral procession), weavers and those that administered medical care to women and often young children as well. Later men would join these businesses but still most imagery shows a greater proportion of women in these professions.

Women could divorce. Divorce processes were not long and drawn out like modern times. One spouse would claim some misdeed and proof was shown then a decision made. There are accounts of women divorcing husbands because he didn't do his fair share of work to maintain the house or he did not provide enough sex. Men could also divorce in the same manner. Divorce in Egypt was not a legal matter but a personal one, same as marriage.

While there were harems and polygamy in some times and parts of Egyptian history, harem women could keep their possessions, land and businesses unlike other areas of the Mediterranean world where harem women were slaves or an equivalent.

Women played major roles in religion and religious functions. They served as everything from chantresses to doctors, dream readers to caring for sacred animals. Women filled much of the role as sacred dancers and musicians through much of Egyptian history. In the clergy the only gender based limit seems to be that high priests were usually men.

Women could be traders and captain boats. There is quite a lot of evidence for women being the importers of fine goods.

There are some records of women being viziers to the pharaoh. These were usually positions filled by a mother or aunt but there seemed to be no stigma to having a female vizier vs a male one.

It is expressed by some, that Egyptian women were forbidden from bureaucratic jobs. However, there are women with the titles of judge, overseer and director of funerary priests. These suggest that women were in bureaucratic positions in Egypt.

Grave goods showed that there were women capable of paying for their own funerary goods including statues, gold and other materials. This shows not only wealth but also control of that wealth and its use.

Women often ran estates even when their husbands were home. "Mistress of the House" was a common title for Egyptian women. This didn't mean house wife but expressed the fact that the woman managed the finances and goods of the home as well as any production, servants or other persons working there.

There is a lot of support for women congregating for work, social needs and support systems.

While women are mentioned in stelae and tomb carvings with male relatives there are also quite a number made by women that only feature the woman who commissioned it or the woman and her female relatives.

Many women, particularly those who had brothers who were schooled at home or mothers who had been schooled, received the same education as a male child might. This was very uncommon in ancient times.

Women are depicted hunting and trapping birds as well as running marketplaces and workshops.

Women had full access to the court system as witnesses, plaintiff, entering or writing contracts, collection of taxes and estates and so on. 

Fathers, particularly pharaohs, often appointed their daughters to important roles in inheritance and religious stations. Often during royal succession the princess had royal blood and it was her presence and will that gave her husband the right to rule.

Women had full access to medical care of an equivalent quality to that of men.

Women enjoyed the same access to food and drink. There are references to images that may be drunk women, including women vomiting from overindulgence in beer.

Single women, especially widows, are referenced as adopting children.

Queen Tiy, wife of Amonhotep III, is often referred to as "common-born" meaning she was probably not of the royalty or nobility but was still sought and married by the pharaoh.

Some titles given to women not mentioned above include: Overseer of the physicians, overseer of the female physicians, director of the dining hall, overseer of the weavers, divine mother, caretaker/overseer of the royal hair (ie the royal hairdresser),  Mistress of Amun/Osiris/Isis/Hathor/etc, Chantress, Keeper of the halls (house maid?), Officiate of ceremonies (official of religious celebrations), Mother of Upper and Lower Egypt and so on.

One more brief comment about women. In Egyptian religion and society women had a very distinct role in life. Men were seen as fertile and fertility but the society believed that it was only through the nurturing of women that things grew prosperous. In this belief most agricultural and fertility deities are male but when it comes to nurturing (or the lack of nurturing) goddesses are used. One thing that stems from this is Egyptian ideas about birth. While the Egyptian mind believed the semen was what created life it was the women's body which could nurture that life into a child. With these religious concepts women were seen as nurturers of society. Anything that needed to be cared for money, goods, children, the dead, etc were often considered in the domain of women.


Sources:
-Kelsey Museum Exhibit on Gender and Ancient Egypt
-The works of Barbara S. Lesko including the research paper "Women's Monumental Mark on Ancient Egypt" from The Biblical Archaeologist and books: The Great Goddesses of Egypt and Women's Earliest Records: From Ancient Egypt and Western Asia
-"Women of Ancient Egypt and the Sky Goddess Nut" by Susan Tower Hollis
-"Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt" - By Lionel Casson
- Kahun and Ebers Medical Papyri

Slavery in Ancient Egypt

This is a hotly debated topic and there is no way to address it in one post however I am going to hit on the basics. There are three main questions to address. What is the definition of slave and servant in Ancient Egypt? How does the Ancient Egyptian definition of slave compare to more modern and contemporary (to the Egyptians) definitions of slave? How did one become a slave in Ancient Egypt?

With these questions I think we can address a lot of the comments commonly made about slavery in Ancient Egypt. I am actually going to address these questions in reverse of how I listed them above.

How did someone become a slave in Ancient Egypt?

The most common way was probably prisoner of war. Egyptian history shows that often the soldiers of defeated armies became slaves. Most were used as laborers or as house servants.

The second most common method was likely debt. Debt slaves were more like the concept of indentured servants in Europe where someone would work as a slave/servant until the debt had been paid. Debt slaves did not lose their rights due to their service.

By birth the children of a slave, particularly debt slaves who had not paid off the debt, would remain slaves until the debt was paid or the terms of the slavery was fulfilled.

Punishment! Pharaohs, Viziers and the like could give forced labor as a punishment for a crime.

Voluntary slavery. We might not even call this slavery by modern terms. Families or individuals would give themselves, their families or their children into service of an individual. Those taking them on as slaves would provide them with protection and give economic stability to the people. Usually these individuals would pay so much to their "owner" for a set period of time at a set rate. As far as I have read these individuals also kept their rights as citizens.

The slave trade of other nations brought slaves into Egypt and they were sold or given as tribute. There were no slave markets in Egypt through most of its history as existed in many other parts of the ancient world.  Slave trades were usually for specific skills; dancers, weavers, people who spoke extra languages, craftsmen or on occasion a noble or pharaoh searching for exotic looks.

How is slavery defined by Egypt and ourselves?

In modern times we identify slavery as being owned, forced to toil, abuse, domination and persons as property. Our modern definitions would be on par with how Romans, for example, felt about slaves.

The Egyptians however did not feel the same about slavery. Slaves in Egypt often, more often than not, kept their civil rights. Slaves were also often freed for various reasons. Decent treatment of those in service (and slaves) is written in the moral conduct of the religion. Treating a slave well in Ancient Egypt was part of judgement and the weight of the heart on the scales. In addition, freeing a slave after a fair amount of work had been done was written as a boon for the heart at judgement as well.  Egyptian slaves did not all toil on temples. Anything from a field worker to a tax collector; watchmen to temple members could be the duty of a slave. Egyptian slaves could also own property, their own businesses and personal possessions which is contradictory to many of the modern ideas of slavery. Slaves could perhaps marry and definitely co-habitate with both slaves and non-slaves in committed unions with the allowances of the master. Slaves maintained legal rights as well and could speak up as witnesses or in their defense if accused of a crime. Egyptian slaves also could have higher status than free Egyptians. For example, the slave of a temple high priest that was say in charge of ensuring the temple always had enough incense could easily have a higher stature in the Egyptian society than a free field worker. The final interesting tidbit about Egyptian slaves is often the Mistress of the House (ie the owner's wife) would care for and raise the slave children because children were not permitted to be used for labors of adults. It was also forbidden for a master to sell the children or spouses of a union he had sanctioned as ok. Egyptian slave families were rarely broken up aside from grown children being gifted or sent to other locations to work.

Another problem with the word slave in Ancient Egypt is that there is little difference between the usage of slave and servant. For example, priests would interchangeably call themselves slaves and servants of their god. Also, all bets were off when outsiders took over Egypt, particularly the Greeks who brought large numbers of slaves and increased the use of Greek style, more modern style, slavery into Egypt.

It leaves the question of how much slavery was in Egypt by modern standards? Was any of this even slavery by our understanding of the word? This is still something that is contested in research but more and more there is a leaning toward less examples of slavery in Egypt based on our modern understanding of the word compared to how these Egyptians lived.

Some sources for identification of slaves and the life of a slave in Egypt include:

The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt
Grimal's History of Ancient Egypt
Romer's History of Ancient Egypt
Life of the Ancient Egyptians
The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization
Some on the Slavery in Egypt during Roman times.
The Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt: A Modern Investigation of Pharaoh's Workforce


The next post I will tackle the idea of slaves as pyramid and temple builders which will be closely related to that last book about the pyramid builders. I would have included it here but I think this post is quite long enough.

Ancient Egyptian Poetry

Poetry is relatively common in Egyptian culture. Many examples of Ancient Egyptian poetry has been found. Most I have read rely on metaphor and similes for description and effect. I have only seen one of these in the original Egyptian so I am not really sure if rhyming was common. Of course, translating into English the rhyming patterns would be lost. One of my favorite Ancient Egyptian poems is the following. It is a love sonnet/poem of a sort that says a lot about Egyptian ideals of beauty.

She looks like the morning star,
Rising at the beginning of the year.
Shining bright, fair of skin.
Lovely is the look in her eyes.
Sweet is the speech of her lips.
She has not a word too much.
Upright neck, shining breasts,
Her hair like real lapiz lazuli.
Her arms are gold, her fingers like lotus buds.
Heavy thighs, narrow waist,
Her legs parade her beauty.
With graceful step she treads the ground
And captures my heart by her movements.
She causes all men's necks to turn to see her.
Joy has he whom she embraces.
When she walks abroad she is like the Eye of the Sun.
-Old Kingdom Poem.

I really love the way this reads. You could imagine a man in any time period writing something about a woman he loves with similar words to these ones. That is something I found reading Ancient Egyptian poems is that the content seems to be those things that every age and person thinks about.

Another very interesting love poem. This one I am unsure of the time period but I believe it is New Kingdom.
I wish I were your mirror
so that you always looked at me.
I wish I were your garment
so that you would always wear me.
I wish I were the water that washes your body.
I wish I were the unguent,
O woman, that I could annoit you.
And the band around your breasts,
and the beads around your neck.
I wish I were your sandal
So that I may always walk with you.

If you want to learn more there is an awesome piece about Egyptian poetry here on National Geographic's website.

There is also a much longer love poem to be found here.

Google books also has a book available. I have yet to read this one titled Reading Ancient Egyptian Poetry by R.B. Parkinson.