Nitocris
Encyclopedia
Nitocris has been claimed to have been the last pharaoh
of the Sixth Dynasty
. Her name is found in the Histories of Herodotus
and writings of Manetho
but her historicity is questionable. She might have been an interregnum queen
. If she is in fact a historical person, then she may be the sister of King Merenre and the daughter of Pepi II and Queen Neith
.
.
Then, to avoid the other conspirators, she committed suicide
(possibly by running into a burning room). Manetho claims she built the "third pyramid" at Giza, which is attributed by modern historians and archaeologists to Menkaure. Herodotus also has a Babylonian queen of the same name and talks of her constructions in Babylon
, mainly connected with diverting the Euphrates
. His story about her tomb and the inscription on it which fooled Darius into opening it, only to have another inscription on the inside that chastised the opener for being so greedy is an early example of a familiar cultural meme
.
Nitocris is not mentioned, however, in any native Egyptian
inscriptions and "she" probably did not exist. It was long claimed that Nitocris appears on a fragment of the Turin King List
, dated to the Nineteenth Dynasty
, under the Egyptian name of Nitiqreti (nt-ỉqrtỉ). The fragment where this name appears was thought to belong to the Sixth Dynasty portion of the king list, thus appearing to confirm both Herodotus and Manetho. However, microscopic analysis of the Turin King List suggests the fragment was misplaced in reassembling the fragmentary text, and that the name Nitiqreti is in fact a faulty transcription
of the praenomen of a clearly male king Netjerkare Siptah I
, who is named on the Abydos King List
as the successor of the Sixth Dynasty king Nemtyemsaf II
. On the Abydos King List, Netjerkare Siptah is placed in the equivalent spot that Neitiqreti Siptah holds on the Turin King List.
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
of the Sixth Dynasty
Sixth dynasty of Egypt
The sixth dynasty of ancient Egypt is often combined with Dynasties III, IV and V under the group title the Old Kingdom.-Pharaohs:...
. Her name is found in the Histories of Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
and writings of Manetho
Manetho
Manetho was an Egyptian historian and priest from Sebennytos who lived during the Ptolemaic era, approximately during the 3rd century BC. Manetho wrote the Aegyptiaca...
but her historicity is questionable. She might have been an interregnum queen
Interregnum queen
Some more recent research has other findings, but according to early twentieth century writers in 1932, an interregnum queen, is a Great Royal Wife of a previous pharaoh who rules as a regent in the place of her heir-son, who has not yet reached the age to solely assume the role of pharaoh of Egypt...
. If she is in fact a historical person, then she may be the sister of King Merenre and the daughter of Pepi II and Queen Neith
Neith (wife of Pepi II)
Neith was an ancient Egyptian queen consort, one of the principal queens of the Old Kingdom pharaoh Pepi II, who ruled . Queen Neith was named after goddess Neith.-Family:...
.
Ancient records
According to Herodotus (Histories ii-100), she invited the murderers of her brother, the "king of Egypt", to a banquet, then killed them by flooding the sealed room with the NileNile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
.
-
- ...[Nitocris] succeeded her brother. He had been the king of Egypt, and he had been put to death by his subjects, who then placed her upon the throne. Determined to avenge his death, she devised a cunning schema by which she destroyed a vast number of Egyptians. She constructed a spacious underground chamber and, on pretense of inaugurating it, threw a banquet, inviting all those whom she knew to have been responsible for the murder of her brother. Suddenly as they were feasting, she let the river in upon them by means of a large, secret duct. (Herodotus)
Then, to avoid the other conspirators, she committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
(possibly by running into a burning room). Manetho claims she built the "third pyramid" at Giza, which is attributed by modern historians and archaeologists to Menkaure. Herodotus also has a Babylonian queen of the same name and talks of her constructions in Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
, mainly connected with diverting the Euphrates
Euphrates
The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...
. His story about her tomb and the inscription on it which fooled Darius into opening it, only to have another inscription on the inside that chastised the opener for being so greedy is an early example of a familiar cultural meme
Meme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
.
Nitocris is not mentioned, however, in any native Egyptian
Egyptian language
Egyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...
inscriptions and "she" probably did not exist. It was long claimed that Nitocris appears on a fragment of the Turin King List
Turin King List
The Turin King List, also known as the Turin Royal Canon, is a hieratic papyrus thought to date from the reign of Ramesses II, now in the Museo Egizio at Turin...
, dated to the Nineteenth Dynasty
Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt
The Nineteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt was one of the periods of the Egyptian New Kingdom. Founded by Vizier Ramesses I, whom Pharaoh Horemheb chose as his successor to the throne, this dynasty is best known for its military conquests in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria.The warrior kings of the...
, under the Egyptian name of Nitiqreti (nt-ỉqrtỉ). The fragment where this name appears was thought to belong to the Sixth Dynasty portion of the king list, thus appearing to confirm both Herodotus and Manetho. However, microscopic analysis of the Turin King List suggests the fragment was misplaced in reassembling the fragmentary text, and that the name Nitiqreti is in fact a faulty transcription
Transcription (linguistics)
Transcription in the linguistic sense is the systematic representation of language in written form. The source can either be utterances or preexisting text in another writing system, although some linguists only consider the former as transcription.Transcription should not be confused with...
of the praenomen of a clearly male king Netjerkare Siptah I
Neitiqerty Siptah
The Ancient Egyptian king, Neitiqerty Siptah is an obscure successor to Merenre Nemtyemsaf II, towards the end of the Sixth dynasty of Egypt. His reign is usually replaced with that of Nitocris, the 'first female pharaoh', who seems not to have actually existed, as although it was claimed that...
, who is named on the Abydos King List
Abydos King List
The Abydos King List, also called the Abydos Table is a list of the names of seventy-six kings and pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, found on the walls of the Temple of Seti I at Abydos, Egypt. It consists of three rows of thirty-eight cartouches on each row...
as the successor of the Sixth Dynasty king Nemtyemsaf II
Merenre Nemtyemsaf II
Merenre Nemtyemsaf II was briefly Pharaoh of Egypt, likely succeeding his long-lived father Pepi II Neferkare. The Turin King List says that Merenre reigned for only a year, after succeeding his father Pepi II. His name is also mentioned on a stela that was discovered near the site of the pyramid...
. On the Abydos King List, Netjerkare Siptah is placed in the equivalent spot that Neitiqreti Siptah holds on the Turin King List.
In fiction
- Two letters in the name are transposed in Bolesław Prus' 1895 historical novelHistorical novelAccording to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
Pharaoh, where "Nikotris" appears as the mother of the protagonist, Pharaoh "Ramses XIII" (there were only eleven Ramesside pharaohsRamessesRamesses is the name conventionally given in English transliteration to 11 Egyptian pharaohs of the later New Kingdom period. The name essentially translates as "Born of the sun-god Ra"....
). - The Queen's Enemies, a play by Lord Dunsany, is based upon Herodotus' account of Nitocris' murderous activities.
- Nitocris is mentioned in two stories by H. P. LovecraftH. P. LovecraftHoward Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
, "The OutsiderThe Outsider (short story)"The Outsider" is a short story by American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written between March and August 1921, it was first published in Weird Tales, April 1926. In this work, a mysterious man who has been living alone in a castle for as long as he can remember decides to break free in search...
" and "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs". She is mentioned only in passing and portrayed as an evil queen reigning over ghouls and other horrors. - Tennessee WilliamsTennessee WilliamsThomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
' first published work is the 1928 short story "The Vengeance of NitocrisThe Vengeance of Nitocris"The Vengeance of Nitocris" is a short story by Tennessee Williams, written when Williams was 16 years old, and published in Weird Tales in its August, 1928 issue. The story is a "surprisingly lurid" tale of loosely historical fiction, based on the account of the semi-legendary female pharaoh...
", detailing the queen's careful plan for revengeRevengeRevenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. It is also called payback, retribution, retaliation or vengeance; it may be characterized, justly or unjustly, as a form of justice.-Function in society:Some societies believe that the...
. She makes the people who slew her brother die in a fitting way. - Le Basalte Bleu, a book by John KnittelJohn KnittelJohn Knittel, originally Hermann Emanuel Knittel was a Swiss writer.- Life :...
, has a sort of time-travel plot in which the main character falls in love with the ancient queen. Knittel speculates that the origin of the CinderellaCinderella"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
fairy taleFairy taleA fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
lies in the marriage of Nitocris, who lost her golden sandal only to have it later found by the pharaoh. - Nitocris La Dame de Memphis is a book by Pierre Montlaur.
- "The Mirror of Nitocris," a short story by Brian LumleyBrian LumleyBrian Lumley is an English horror fiction writer.Born in County Durham, he joined the British Army's Royal Military Police and wrote stories in his spare time before retiring with the rank of Warrant Officer Class 1 in 1980 and becoming a professional writer.He added to H. P...
, features a mirror that once belonged to Nitocris which unleashes evil forces upon its owners. - Nitocris is Queen to Merenra II in the novel Rhodopis of Nubia by Nobel laureate Naguib MahfouzNaguib MahfouzNaguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism. He published over 50 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie...
which tells the fateful love story of Pharaoh Merenra II (successor to Pepi II Six Dynasty) and the courtesan Rhodopis.
Trivia
- Karl SandersKarl SandersKarl Sanders is an American musician, most widely known as the founding member of the American Egyptian-themed death metal band Nile. He was born in California, and lives in Greenville, South Carolina. Karl is endorsed by Dean Guitars, and has two signature models by KxK Guitars...
has a song called "Slavery Unto Nitokris" on his second solo album, Saurian ExorcismsSaurian ExorcismsSaurian Exorcisms is the second solo album by Karl Sanders, the vocalist/guitarist of the death metal band Nile. It was released on 14 April 2009 through The End Records. The music is a full length exploration of the atmospheric interludes heard on Nile's previous albums, and still draws on ancient...
.
External links
- "Herodotus on Nitocris": gives quote