husband,
Aa-kheperka-Ra (Thothmes I), sitting with Aahmes and giving her the
Ankh, or sign of Life, which she receives in her hand and inhales
through her nostrils.(3) God and queen are seated on thrones above a
couch, and are supported by two goddesses. After leaving the queen, Amen
calls on Khnum or Khnemu, the flat-horned ram-god, who in texts of
all periods is referred to as the "builder" of gods and men;(4) and he
instructs him to create the body of his future daughter and that of her
_Ka_, or "double", which would be united to her from birth.

(1) See Naville, _Deir el-Bahari_, Pt. II, pp. 12 ff.,
plates xlvi ff.

(2) See Budge, _Gods of the Egyptians_, Vol. II, pp. 23 ff.
His chief cult-centre was Hermonthis, but here as elsewhere
he is given his usual title "Lord of Thebes".

(3) Pl. xlvii. Similar scenes are presented in the "birth-
temples" at Denderah, Edfu, Philae, Esneh, and Luxor; see
Naville, op. cit., p. 14.

(4) Cf. Budge, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 50.

The scene in the series, which is of greatest interest in the present
connexion, is that representing Khnum at his work of creation. He is
seated before a potter's wheel which he works with his foot,(1) and on
the revolving table he is fashioning two children with his hands, the
baby princess and her "double". It was always Hatshepsut's desire to be
represented as a man, and so both the children are boys.(2) As yet they
are lifeless, but the symbol of Life will be held to their nostrils
by Heqet, the divine Potter's wife, whose frog-head typifies birth and
fertility. When Amenophis III copied Hatshepsut's sculptures for his own
series at Luxor, he assigned this duty to the greater goddess Hathor,
perhaps the most powerful of the cosmic goddesses and the mother of the
world. The subsequent scenes at Deir el-Bahari include the leading of
queen Aahmes by Khnum and Heqet to the birth-chamber; the great birth
scene where the queen is attended by the goddesses Nephthys and Isis, a
number of divine nurses and midwives holding several of the "doubles"
of the baby, and favourable genii, in human form or with the heads of
crocodiles, jackals, and hawks, representing the four cardinal points
and all bearing the gift of life; the presentation of the young child
by the goddess Hathor to Amen, who is well pleased at the sight of his
daughter; and the divine suckling of Hatshepsut and her "doubles". But
these episodes do