Mutemweya

Queen, reign of Tuthmosis IV, 1425-1417 BC.

    Diplomatic alliance between Egypt and *Mitanni in the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty had prompted the *Mitannian ruler, Artatama I, to send his daughter to become the wife of *Tuthmosis IV. This foreign princess has tentatively been identified as *Tuthmosis IV's Chief Queen and the mother of his heir, *Amenophis III, since this woman (Mutemweya) is never entitled 'King's Daughter' or 'King's Sister' as she would have been if she were a direct member of the Egyptian royal family before her marriage. Another suggestion is that Mutemweya was Egyptian in origin and that she held her pre-eminent position at Court because she had borne the king's heir. One theory maintains that she may have been the sister of *Yuya, who later became important as the father-in-law of *Amenophis III.

    Mutemweya appears in the wall-scenes in a room behind the colonnaded court in *Amenophis III's temple at Luxor, where his divine birth is depicted. These scenes emphasise the king's divine parentage and birth and closely resemble those in the temple of *Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahri. Mutemweya is shown as the consort of the god Amun, who assumes the form of her husband *Tuthmosis IV, and she is led to the birth-chamber by the deities Isis and Khnum. The queen may also be represented in the group of sculptured figures associated with the Colossi of Memnon (the great statues which once stood at the entrance to the funerary temple of *Amenophis III in western Thebes).

BIBL. Campbell, C. The miraculous birth of Amon-hotep III and other Egyptian studies. Edinburgh: 1912.

Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Rosalie and Antony E. David