Idylls and Lyrics of The Nile :: :: University of Virginia Library

Spain honoured Isabella, England owned
No queenlier lord than great Elizabeth;
But when in Egypt Hatasu was throned,
The ancient East for wonder held its breath.

For this was she who cast aside the veil
Of sex, fresh courage for her land to bring;
Rode forth to view her armies, clad in mail,
And went, in peace, apparelled like a king.

This was the queen who sent her shipmen wide
New spoil in unknown forest-wilds to hunt,
Gold, ivory, apes and peacocks in their pride,
And full-grown ‘camphors’ from the land of Punt.

The queen who 'neath the burning Theban hill
Set up her terraced temple's gleaming state,
And bade thereon the sculptor's utmost skill
Her tale of venturous royalty relate.

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But we who stand in Karnak's ruined shrine,
Where shattered now her rose-red obelisk lies,
May view the glory of her brow divine,
And almost feel the flashing of her eyes.

Beneath the pyramid-peaks of those twin towers,—
The stateliest ever from Syene brought,
The graver set the seal of all his powers,
Her fair strong face for whom a whole world wrought.

Note.—Hatasu, or Hatshepset, daughter of Thothmes i., sister of Thothmes ii. and Thothmes iii., b.c. 1600, was one of the most remarkable of the Egyptian queens.

Brugsch tells us in his Egypt under the Pharaohs, vol. i. p. 349, that scarcely had her royal brother and husband closed his eyes, when the proud queen threw aside her woman's veil, and appeared in all the splendour of Pharaoh as a born king. For she laid aside her woman's dress, clothed herself in man's attire, and adorned herself with the insignia of royalty. Visitors to Deir-el-Bahari will have noticed the unconventional style of her terraced Temple, and will remember the sculptured scenes that depict the return of the expedition from the land of Punt; will have noted the apes in the rigging of the vessels, the camphor trees, root and all, in huge baskets, which are being unloaded. The construction of this marvellous temple was intrusted to an architect called Senmut, who was much honoured by the queen. Those who have examined the fragments of the fallen obelisk, which he set up in honour of ‘Father Amen’ at Karnak, will have noted the proud and beautiful face of the queen engraved beneath the pyramidion.

This obelisk and its sister, still standing, respectively, 93 feet and 105 feet high, were hewn in the Syene quarries and brought down to Thebes in seven months. Their beauty of workmanship was as remarkable as their size.