Ramesses the Great by Toby Wilkinson;

Author:Toby Wilkinson;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2023-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOUR

Sons and Lovers

When recalling his appointment as Seti I’s co-regent, Ramesses chose to focus on the three key actions that signified his formal elevation from heir apparent to joint ruler: his coronation (“He summoned the chamberlains to fix the regalia on my brow”); the setting up of his own household (“He established me with private apartments”); and the establishment of his own harem (“He selected women for me”).1 The choice is telling. Coronation was a sacred rite that transformed a mere mortal into a quasi-divine ruler. The term used in ancient Egyptian is the same as the word for the sun’s appearance at dawn. By this analogy, a ruler’s crowning and his formal investiture with the regalia of royalty marked his first appearance as a transcendent, eternal being. It was the moment of supreme theological transformation in the life of a monarch. The establishment of a household, by contrast, was a commonplace marker of societal recognition: the moment in any ancient Egyptian man’s life when he left his parents’ house to be recognized by his community as an independent adult, at the head of his own family. By focusing on these two actions, coronation and setting up a household, Ramesses was pointing to the divine and mortal aspects of Egyptian monarchy. The third signifier of the prince’s elevation, the establishment of his own harem, was neither an integral part of the rites of coronation nor a recognized rite of passage for an Egyptian male. Rather, its inclusion in Ramesses’ account seems to point to personal preference. Being set up with his own bevy of concubines was evidently one of the most significant events of the young Ramesses’ life.

The evidence from his reign certainly suggests that he gloried in his role as husband (to multiple wives) and father (to countless children). There is likely to have been a strong dynastic element in this: Ramesses would have been conscious that the nineteenth dynasty had come to power solely because its founder, Horemheb, had produced no heir of his own, and that the subsequent succession from Ramesses I to his son and grandson could so easily have been disrupted, and the dynasty extinguished, if the line had failed. Ramesses II, with a powerful sense of dynastic destiny, was clearly determined to ensure that his own royal line would continue under all circumstances. Taking multiple wives was also a long-standing habit of the Egyptian male elite, especially the country’s rulers. In the eighteenth dynasty, kings had secured the allegiance of friends and rivals alike, both within and beyond Egypt, through carefully chosen marriage alliances. Yet, alongside the dynastic and diplomatic dimensions of royal marriage, the attention lavished by Ramesses on his chief wives suggests a genuine fondness. In this aspect of his reign, hinted at from the beginning, we may perhaps glimpse something of his true character and personality.

Among the many consorts taken by Ramesses during his long reign, two principal queens dominate the surviving record. Their offspring took precedence over those of lesser wives, and they were duly celebrated in the king’s monuments and inscriptions.

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