Hatshepsu(t)

Foremost of noble ladies,
joined with Amen.

A husband died too soon:
left me a son too young to rule.
The survival of my family’s reign
depended on my strength.

To promote my endeavors,
the desert is littered with my statues.
A secret affair with a common architect?
I won’t kiss and tell.

Read of my grandeur
on ancient stonewalls,
visit my grand temples, and
learn of my bold military campaigns.

But notice what they have done:
see my face scratched out of history,
my accomplishments left anonymous,
the credit of my work given to the undeserving.

I am the King, the Pharaoh,
and my daughter: Egypt’s prince.
I am the woman they call ‘he’
who wears the royal headdress and false gold beard.

His Majesty,
foremost of nobles.

**************************************************

^ Third poetry assignment for Creative Writing. ^

I'm a history dork. We had to write a "persona poem," as someone or something other than ourselves. So, we had to write as if we were that person or write - at least - about that person. It didn't have to be a person, either. One of the examples we read was a mirror talking about what it sees.

So, since I'm a history dork, I wrote mine of Egypt's first (and I think only) woman Pharaoh. The title of Pharaoh is only for males, but she adopted the title and turned herself male. Everyone around her called her my male names. She even changed her name from "Hatshepsut" with a "t" to "Hatshepsu" without it the "t" because the name with the "t" means "noble female" and the name without means "his majesty." She wore the traditional male clothing and a false beard made of gold. Egypt had many queens and many female rulers: women were treated almost equally in Egypt, being allowed to own land, etc. Hatshepsut actually ruled as an equal with her husband, Thothmose II, until his death. (He was always sickly and died young. Their son was too young to rule at the time of Thothmose II's death, so she took the throne herself, originally as queen and gradually as king.) In hopes of continuing female rule, there is evidence that Hatshepsut was training her daughter, Neferura, as a prince. There are inscriptions that illustrate Neferura wearing a false beard. Though she ruled for about twenty years, a lot is unknown about Hatshepsut because after her rule, a lot of work was done to erase her accomplishments from history. Neferura died young and never ruled. Hatshepsut's and Thothmose II's son (Thothmose III, the one who was too young when Thothmose II died) grew up and reigned after Hatsheptsut, but it is unclear whether she died or if she was removed from her position by force. She disappears from history pretty suddenly. Her face and name are scratched out of the ancient structures she built and out of the historical records. Her records weren't just eroded with time. You can actually see wear stones and other tools were used on the structures, statues, and walls to scratch her out.

[Aside from doing a little research before writing the poem, I first heard about her from some Discovery Channel special where I saw the damage done to her monuments.]

But, if you don't believe me, these are a couple websites I skimmed:
http://www.egyptologyonline.com/hatshepsut.htm
http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/hatshepsut.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatshepsut


Hundred years, hundred more. Someday we may see a woman king - sword in hand - swing at some evil and bleed. Iron And Wine Woman King