Cool names+Ptolemies

I also think that the names of the Pharaohs and queens in Egypt are cool. I mean, they never had anyone named ‘John Smith’ or ‘Mary Dorcus’, ya’ know, short boring names like that. Take Nefartari, Meryetamen, Istnofret, Maat-Hor-Neferure, Auibre Hor, Irynofret, Merenphat, Amenmesse, Seti, Merybast, Neferhotep, Hesysunebef, Amennakht, Naunakht, Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Seqenenre Tao, Kenherkhepeshef, Mutnodjmet, Ramsesnakht, Amenhotep, and my three personal favorites; Amunherwenemef, Neferneferuaten, and Djedmaatesankh ! These names are an adventure just to pronounce! And I think they are great, I wish that we could all be named like that. Wouldn’t that be cool! Though it seems that in the last line of Pharaohs, in the end of the BC’s, they lost their creativity. All the females were named Bernice, Arsinoe, and Cleopatra, (Which all mean:‘Glory to her father’) while the males were all named Ptolemy. Sad. Can you imagine having your father, uncles, grandfathers, and brothers all with the same name, except for the number at the end? It’s like; “Yo, Ten, come here!” “Hey Fifteen guess what!”. All the Ptolemies had nicknames though. The famous Cleopatra VII’s father, Ptolemy XII, was called Auletes, meaning flute player. Another one, Ptolemy VIII was called Physcon, which meant “Fatty”. He was his name. Whenever he sat down, servants had to hoist him to his feet, because he was so big he could not! Too bad that the Ptolemies were also a very bloodthirsty line. The Ptolemies would kill any brothers, sisters, mother, father, or anyone else who stood in the way of the throne, or even if they just felt like it. Ptolemy IV killed his mother, brother, and uncle. Those are just a few of them, even Autletes killed a few people. “Fatty” killed his own son, dismembered the body, and sent the pieces to the boy’s mother as a birthday present. Gross. But despite all this, I will forever remain faithful to my interest of ancient in Egypt!

Ramses II

Even though I find the era of pharoahs in Egypt very, very cool, and consider myself a Egypt freak, there are a few of their customs that are very gross. Take Ramses II, he had at least six chief wives, and dozens of lesser wives and concubines. Several of the girls he married were foreigners he married for alliances; he had at least two Hittite brides, one Syrian princess, and one Babylonian. He also married several Egyptian women of royal blood, at least his sister and three daughters. He had 90 children in his 67 year reign. Eesh! The two Hittite queens were sisters, their mother was the queen of the Hittites, her name was Queen Puduhepa. She actually kept up some sort of corrospondance with Queen Nefertari, Ramses’ Great Wife. The letter she sent to Queen Nefartari was never found, but Nefartare’s message back to Queen Puduhepa was this:

“With me, your sister, all goes well; with my country all goes well. With you, my sister, may all go well; with your country may all go well. Behold now, I have noted that you, my sister, have written to me, to enquire after my well being. May the sun god and storm god bring you joy; and may the sun god cause the peace to be good and give good brotherhood to the great king, the king of Egypt, with his brother the great king, the king of Hatti, forever. And I am in friendship and sisterly relations with my sister the great queen of Hatti, now and forever.”

All that just to wish her well.Yikes! It’s kinda stiff and long, she should have just said:

“i’m good.thanx dude 4 the note,i hpe you hve peace,man.friends 4ever,The Great Queen of Egypt.”

That would have been much, much easier to understand!

Egypt

I'm back! I actually used to have a different blog, but I can't use it any more for some reason, I hope this one works. I someday hope to go to Egypt, I want to be a archaeologist, I have been reading a lot lately about Egypt and I find it to be so darn cool! I think the fact that they thought that they had to be buried with tons of stuff to use it in the afterlife kinda dumb, but it made it so that we would be able to find all the stuff now. I think that the story of King Tut is really cool. But I like think of his wife/half sister, after Tut died (most likely murdered), she sent a message to the king of her worst enemies, the Hittites, asking him to send one of his sons so she could marry him. She writes that she is afraid, and that she doesn't want to marry a servant. The Hittite king does send a prince to her, but he is ambushed and killed on the way. She is then forced to marry her husband's advisor, who had made Tut pretty much his puppet king. She then disappears from all historical records. I think it is really sad, because she and Tut where only ten when they were married, she had two miscarriages, her husband died when she is eighteen, and then she is forced to marry the man who most likely had her husband murdered. It is also possible that after she married that dude, he had her murdered. He didn't need her anymore, after all, he married her for the throne and once he got it, she was no longer necessary. All I can say is: Poor girl. I find her story to be both tragic and cool. Tragic for her, but cool for a history geek like me.