Love in Ancient Egypt

A Love scene show
Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti

The most famous baron of Egypt in the cool day is best knew not for any of his achievements but for his intact tomb saw in 1922 CE. The pharaoh Tutankhamun (1336-1327 BCE), though a young man when he related the throne, did his best to restore Egyptian stability and religious uses after the dominate of his father Akhenaten (1353-1336 BCE). He did so in the company of his young wife and half-sister Anksenamun (c. 1350 BCE) and the pictures of the two of them together are among the most entertaining depictions of romantic love in ancient Egypt.

Ankhsenamun is ever pictured with her husband but this is not particular as such images are common. What makes these special ones so worrying is how the artist emphasizes their cultism to each other by their proximity, hand gestures, and facial expressions.

Tutankhamun died round the age of 18 and Ankhsenamun disappears from the historical record shortly afterwards. Even though the depictions of the two of them would have been clean, as most Egyptian art was, they still convey a deep  level of devotion which one also finds, to variable degrees, in other paintings and inscriptions throughout Egypt's history. In a coffin dedication from the 21st Dynasty a husband says of his wife, "Woe, you have been involved from me, the one with the beautiful face; there was none care her and I saw zip bad about you." The husband in this lettering signs himself, "your brother and mate" and in many other similar inscriptions men and women are seen as equal partners and friends in a relationship. Even though the man was the head of the household, and was expected to be obeyed, women were prestigious as co-workers with their husbands, not subordinate to them.

Sexuality in ancient Egypt was taken just another face of life on earth. There were no taboos worrying sex and no stigma attached to any aspect of it except for infidelity, and, among the lower classes, incest. In both of these cases, the brand was far more serious for a woman than a man because the bloodline was passed through the woman.

While this is true, there are pictures of administration officials intervening in events and ordering a woman put to death for adultery when the husband taken the case to the attention of authorities. In one case, the woman was linked to a stake wrong of her home which she had been judged as staining and burned to death.

Recent Posts:


·        Kenamun I
·        Kenamun II
·        Tomb of Kenamun (TT93)
·        Ancient Egyptians Sexuality
·        Nebetu
·        Adicran (589-570 B.C.E.)
·        Kenbet
·        Marriage in Ancient Egypt