Hatshepsut's Divine Birth in the Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut .. Part ( 5 )

We now return to the north, or Birth Colonnade, the reliefs on the rear wall of which represent the state fiction by which Hatshepsut was regarded as the actual child of Amûn by the Queen Ahmôse, the wife of Tuthmosis I .

The series has suffered considerably both from family jealousies and religious prejudices ; and Ramses II has not improved things by the crude colouring with which he has bedaubed the delicate reliefs .

The scenes begin at the north end of the colonnade, beside the ascending ramp, with a council of the gods in the presence of Amûn .

Then we see Thoth leading Amûn ( both almost entirely erased ) into the chamber of Queen Ahmôse .

And next Amûn seated face to face with the queen, and impregnating her with the ankh, the divine breath of life, which is held to her nose . The seats on which the god and the queen are seated are borne up in the heavens, as in the parallel scene of Amenhotep III at Luxor Temple, by two goddesses who sit upon a lion-headed couch .

Then we see the ram-headed creator-god Khnûm, getting instructions from Amûn, and ( partly erased ) shaping Hatshepsut and her Ka upon his potter's wheel .

While the frog-headed goddess Heqt ( Heqet or Heket or Heqat, was a goddess of childbirth and fertility ) puts the breath of life into the nostrils of the newly created babe .

Thoth appears to Queen Ahmôse, and warns her of her approaching accouchement .

And Khnûm and Heqt lead the queen to the birth-chamber .

The scene of the birth is very remarkable, and is handled with great reticence and delicacy . The queen sits on a chair, with her woman attending on her . The chair is placed on a lion-headed couch, which is upheld by various gods, and stands in turn upon another lion-headed couch, also supported beneath by gods .

Among the deities in the scene are Bes and Thouêris ( Taurt ), the hideous patrons of child-birth .

Hathor next presents Hatshepsut to Amûn .

And twelve goddesses suckle the twelve Kas  ( plural  of Ka ) of the divine child, Hatshepsut .

Next Thoth and Amûn hold the child and her Ka ( erased in both cases ) .

Finally Hatshepsut and her Ka ( both erased ) are seen in the hands of various goddesses .

And Safkhet ( Seshat ), the recording goddess of history, writes the record of her birth .

The remaining scenes of the north colonnade refer to the queen's presentation to the gods of Egypt, her presentation by her earthly father, Tuthmosis I, to the magnates of the land, and her coronation .

Part ( 6 ) .. Coming SoOoOon .....

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