ther.*

* It would seem that Queen Mirisonkhu, wife of Khephren, was
the daughter of Kheops, and consequently her husband's
sister.

[Illustration: 039.jpg PHARAOH GIVES SOLEMN AUDIENCE TO ONE OF HIS
MINISTERS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after Lepsius. The king is Amenothes
III. (XVIIIth. dynasty).

She had her own house, and a train of servants and followers as large
as those of the king; while the women of inferior rank were more or less
shut up in the parts of the palace assigned to them, she came and went
at pleasure, and appeared in public with or without her husband. The
preamble of official documents in which she is mentioned, solemnly
recognizes her as the living follower of Horus, the associate of
the Lord of the Vulture and the Uraeus, the very gentle, the very
praiseworthy, she who sees her Horus, or Horus and Sit, face to face.
Her union with the god-king rendered her a goddess, and entailed upon
her the fulfilment of all the duties which a goddess owed to a god. They
were varied and important. The woman, indeed, was supposed to combine
in herself more completely than a man the qualities necessary for the
exercise of magic, whether legitimate or otherwise: she saw and heard
that which the eyes and ears of man could not perceive; her voice, being
more flexible and piercing, was heard at greater distances; she was by
nature mistress of the art of summoning or banishing invisible
beings. While Pharaoh was engaged in sacrificing, the queen, by her
incantations, protected him from malignant deities, whose interest it
was to divert the attention of the celebrant from holy things: she put
them to flight by the sound of prayer and sistrum, she poured libations
and offered perfumes and flowers. In processions she walked behind her
husband, gave audience with him, governed for him while he was engaged
in foreign wars, or during his progresses through his kingdom: such
was the work of Isis while her brother Osiris was conquering the world.
Widowhood did not always entirely disqualify her. If she belonged to the
solar race, and the new sovereign was a minor, she acted as regent by
hereditary right, and retained the authority for some years longer.*

* The best-known of these queen regencies is that which
occurred during the minority of Thutmosis III., about the
middle of the XVIIIth dynasty. Queen Tuau also appears to
have acted as regent for her son Ramses II. during his