ollinopolis, the golden disk, whose children
are numerous...." It is further stated that the god and goddess became
inseparable like sun and moon. Brugsch states that the appearance of the
said new moon, which was also associated with the heliacal rising of
Sirius, would range from Aug. 18 to Sept. 16, Jul. Cal. (see _op. cit._
II, pp. 282-1). The appearance of the goddess was the signal for the
opening of a season of general "feasting and drinking, rejoicing, singing
and dancing" throughout the land, to which the name Tekhu is given in some
texts. This is translated by Brugsch as "the intoxication of gladness or
joy;" it "coincided with the highest level attained by the overflow of the
Nile," and its modern survival is the annual "marriage of the Nile" which
takes place on the 23d of August.

It is curious to note how the original carrying out of primitive and naive
rites by the queen and high-priestess gradually caused her presence to be
regarded as essential for the "drawing out of the Nile from its source"
and her person to be surrounded with utmost veneration and sanctity. As
Prof. Flinders Petrie states, speaking of as far back as B.C. 1383-1365:
"The marriage to a royal high priestess of Amen was, of course, purely a
political necessity to legitimate the king's position."

"It would seem that Hor-em-heb was not married to Nezem-mut until his
accession, when he legalized his position by becoming husband of the
high-priestess of Amen, as in the arrangement of the later dynasties. This
marriage was an affair of politics solely, considering the age of the
parties; Horemheb was probably between fifty and sixty at the time and if
the queen was the same as Nefertiti's sister Nezem-mut, she must have been
about the same age as Horemheb" (_op. cit._ pp. 183, 250). How long the
female Egyptian ruler maintained her sway may, perhaps, best be seen by
the following texts describing the political homage paid to the living
goddess of the Egyptians under Ptolemaic and Roman rules.

One inscription clearly shows that, at the time of Ptolemy IX, Euergetes
II, the living Isis was acknowledged as the sole ruler of the land of the
south by the king and his wife, queen Cleopatra III, who jointly occupied
the throne of northern Egypt. Jointly the latter dedicated a beautiful
hall to the goddess Isis, as a place in which to celebrate the Tekhu feast
and in which she might linger at this season (Brugsch, _op. cit._ II, p.
284). I have f