1
Images of Women
Wherever you go, beware of approaching the women.
Old Kingdom scribal advice
The women of Dynastic Egypt created quite a stir in the ancient world. Legally free of the strict male supervision which more patriarchal societies imposed on their wives and daughters, these fortunate females appeared to their contemporaries to lead excitingly independent lives tinged with an alluring romance. In a land of exotic and unusual customs, where the king lived as a god, the gods took the form of animals and the entire population appeared obsessed with death, women were acknowledged to be one of the strangest phenomena. Their distinctive exotic beauty, coupled with fantastic rumours of lax Egyptian morals and wanton Egyptian females, simply added to their fascination and served as an inspiration to the authors and poets of Greece and Rome. It is this rather decadent image of Egyptian womanhood which has been perpetuated by more modern authors from Shakespeare onwards, so that even today the names of Nefertiti and Cleopatra conjure up a vision of the ultimate femme fatale.
But just how accurate is this portrait of the active, independent and sexually liberated Egyptian lady? How did the Egyptians themselves view their womenfolk? And how did the women see themselves?1 It is not always easy for us to gain an understanding of the beliefs and cultural conditioning which lie behind the deeds of the past. Archaeological evidence, invaluable when attempting to assess material culture and used as the basis of all the subsequent chapters in this book, rarely allows an insight into ancient thought processes. For example, archaeology may tell us that Egyptian kitchens were situated at the back of the houses, furnishing us with a wealth of factual detail concerning different types of ovens and cooking utensils. It cannot, however, tell us who did the cooking. Was cooking a menial task to be despised? Or was the cook a respected member of the household, honoured for his or her skill?
Fig. 1 Lady carrying goods
Fortunately, the Egyptians have left us two contrasting means of studying their attitude towards women. An examination of contemporary arts (painting, sculpture and literature) can provide us with an idealized view of womanhood by allowing us to study the image which the Egyptians themselves wished to present to the world. At a more down-to-earth level, a consideration of the legal system and its treatment of females gives us an understanding of how, in practice, women were treated within the community. By combining these two very different types of evidence we can go at least some way towards an understanding of the woman’s place in Egyptian society.
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The idiot who looks at a woman is like a fly sucking on blood.
Papyrus Insinger, first century AD
Representational art, with its colossal stone figures, vibrant tomb paintings and delicately carved reliefs, presents us with some of our most enduring images of Dynastic women, allowing us the chance to expand our knowledge of Egyptian society by examining and contrasting the ways in which men, women and children were recorded by their fellow citizens. However, Egyptian art differed greatly in both style and function from its modern western counterpart, and it is not possible to make a literal interpretation of the abundant painted scenes and statues without some understanding of the conventions which exerted a profound influence on the work of the contemporary artists.
The ancient Egyptians did not recognize the concept of ‘art for art’s sake’; every single piece of their art was commissioned for a definite purpose and each image or statue had a deliberate and well-defined function. Aesthetic considerations were never the sole or even the primary concern of either the artist or his patron. This strictly utilitarian view led the Egyptians to regard all their painters and sculptors as craftsmen rather than artists and to confine their work to certain highly specific contexts, usually either the temple or the tomb. Here, standard and widely recognized formal scenes were presented not merely as a means of enhancing the décor but because they made an important contribution to the religious and/or political aspect of the building. An illustration of the king vanquishing his traditional enemies carved high on the wall of a temple, for example, both expressed the power of the monarch and reinforced the authority of the king, while a scene depicting a dead man enjoying the delights of the Afterlife added a magical strength to the deceased’s endeavours to reach the Field of Reeds. Scenes painted on the interior walls of private houses were similarly impersonal. Accurate artistic ‘snapshots’ of Dynastic family life were extremely rare, and almost all the surviving household paintings include a fairly direct religious or magical message.
Not surprisingly, this deliberately practical emphasis stifled any impulse towards experimentation and creativity. Instead, it led to the development of strict artistic conventions and a repertoire of constantly repeated themes which satisfied the Egyptian love of tradition and continuity. Although there were many subtle changes in artistic styles throughout the Dynastic period, and although no two tomb walls are precisely identical, we find that the same conventional scenes are represented over and over again with very little variation in content.