The problem of the ancient Egyptian breasts
There is a puzzling issue about the ancient Egyptians that has not been resolved until today. Most of the statues and drawings that were found for the kings of ancient Egypt show them with prominent breasts and chests – along with the royal beard -. This abnormal appearance can be observed in the ancient Egyptian statues and drawings scattered in Egyptian tombs and cemeteries. When the Englishman Howard Carter discovered the ancient Egyptian King Tutankhamun (in January 1924), he found a golden mask showing the young king with two breasts and a small beard. And when his ruling dynasty was arranged, the same phenomenon was discovered in the last three kings. They ruled before him – especially since the ancient Egyptian drawings show the human body in a side position, which clearly shows the breasts!!
And this phenomenon of gynecomastia (so to speak) is particularly noticeable among the pharaohs of the twelfth and eighteenth dynasties, whom the ancient Egyptian artist singled out with clear female features. Gay or castration since childhood!!
Deepening into this phenomenon limits us to three main possibilities:
The first: that these kings were originally women who ruled in men’s clothing (such as Queen Hatshepsut, the daughter of King Tuthmosis I, who ruled in male clothes and wore a false beard for 21 years).
And the second possibility: that in ancient Egypt, feminine traits were preferred over masculine traits (as they symbolize fertility and tenderness). Therefore, the Egyptian artist tried to impart them to royal characters!
The third and most important possibility is that these kings were affected by a genetic condition that caused the birth of mixed gender (hermaphrodite). The men appear with prominent breasts, large buttocks, and sagging stomachs!!
And this ancient Egyptian phenomenon. According to her, this type of sexual disorder was known among the royal dynasty (to the point of distinguishing them from the rest of the people) because of their marriage to their close relatives. The ruling dynasties viewed themselves as direct descendants of the gods. They, therefore, restricted the marriage of their members to the mahrams of the same family. .. Brother-sister marriage was particularly preferable to preserve the family’s powers in the least possible scope. Thus, great kings (such as Akhenaten, Thutmose IV, Amenhotep III and Tutankhamun) married their sisters. They were the product of a marriage between brothers (even the well-known Queen Cleopatra married her younger brother to preserve the influence and ethnicity of the family).
However, this type of marriage – which was not forbidden in ancient civilizations – always ends in sterility, effeminacy, and the emergence of genetic diseases and certain congenital and mental defects.
And the feminine manifestations that the ancient Egyptians appeared to be just a natural outcome of incestuous marriage throughout successive generations. The last ancients of the twelfth and eighteenth dynasties were completely infertile, and their dynasties ended for this very reason!!
Incest marriage in ancient Egypt. Did the ancient kings marry their daughters?
Perhaps it is common for some to spread the idea of ​​incestuous marriage, which is the name given in Islam to the marriage of brothers and fathers to their daughters, and controversy always arises from time to time, about this type of marriage and its prevalence in ancient Egypt, without any evidence-based on those who promote it.
In the beginning, there was no evidence so far in the ancient Egyptian texts to prove the marriage of full brothers. Perhaps this confusion came as a result of the ancient Egyptian’s terming of his wife “snt”, meaning sister, a term also called the beloved in the texts known as love songs, where this word goes beyond in The two previous cases, its verbal concept into a meaning concept, indicates the strong bond between the husband and his wife and the lover and his lover as a brotherhood that cannot be separated or evaded, according to Magdy Shaker, an archaeological expert, in previous press statements.
It is proven that the ancient Egyptian marriage traditions have avoided “incest” marriage by nature or legislation since an early period in its distant history, and often what remained of the lineages of husbands and wives in ancient Egyptian texts indicated their affiliation to various families and different branches despite continuing to call the husband, mother, wife and sister.
It is proven that Princess held this title “Sat Amun” the daughter of “Amenhotep III”, and the two princesses “Meritaten” and “Ankhs-N-Ba-Aten” during the reign of their father “Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten)”, and the princesses “Nebt Anat” and “Meritamon”. And “Nebt Tawi” during the reign of their father, King “Ramesses II”.
These anomalies are the marriage of “Amenhotep III” to his daughter, “Set Amun,” and some historians say that she is his sister, the daughter of “Thutmose IV” and not his daughter. Rameses II married at least two of his daughters.
The issue of “marriage of the king with his daughter” in the era of the modern state in particular, and during the era of three of the greatest kings of the period, “Amenhotep III”, his son “Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten)” and “Ramesses II”, aroused a historical controversy because of the nickname “Hemat Snow” Wort (the great wife of the king)” on specific daughters of these kings without the rest of the princesses.
Perhaps the surname’s translation was a major reason for making some believe that the king officially and effectively married his daughter. But some scholars believe that it is just an honorary title that the princesses shared with their queen mothers in their lifetime.
But there is another possibility for what some narrations about the father’s marriage to his daughter, in that the mother queens have allowed this title to be given to their daughters as a kind of preparation for the future, and the expectation that they will become queens shortly. It is also possible that the king considered this to be a god-likeness, which is just a title. An honour granted to the Princess. There is no confirmed evidence of the idea of ​​a father marrying his daughter in a real way in ancient Egypt, as many consider it a mere honorific title to confer a kind of honour or holiness on the royal daughters.