God's Wife of Amun

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The title of God's Wife of Amun first appears during Ancient Egypt's 10th and 12th Dynasties, when it was held by non-royal women serving Min, Amun and Ptah, but it was at the beginning of the New Kingdom, when the title started to be held by royal women (usually the wife of the king, but sometimes by the mother of the king), that its power and prestige was first evident. The title was used in preference to the title of King's Great Royal Wife. The first royal wife to hold this post was the wife of Ahmose I, Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, and this event is recorded in a stela in the temple of Amun at Karnak, and the role seems to have been a priestly post of importance in the temple of Amun in Thebes. She then passed it on to her daughter Meritamen, who in turn handed it to Hatshepsut, who used it before she ascended the throne. Both Nefertari and Hatshepsut sometimes used the title as an alternative to that of "King's Principal Wife," which shows how important they felt the role was. Hatshepsut passed the title on to her daughter Neferure. From this point onwards it was only held by non-royal women who married into the royal family.

A series of scenes in Hatshepsut's Chapelle Rouge show the God's Wife and a male priest undergoing a ritual or ceremony that seems to be aimed at destroying the names of enemies. Other scenes elsewhere show the God's Wife worshiping the gods, being purified in the sacred lake, and following the king into the sanctuary. These again show the importance of the role, but give very little indication of the actual tasks and responsibilities involved.

Hatshepsut seems to have used the power and influence associated with her title as a power base for her eventual rise to dual kingship alongside Thutmose III. After the reign of Hatshepsut, the power and prestige of the role was greatly diminished, and the role fell out of use until the 19th Dynasty, when Ramesses IV's daughter Aset held the role, as well as the additional title of Divine Adoratrice of Amun.

The office of the God's Wife of Amun reached the very heights of its political power during the late Third Intermediate Period of Egypt when Shepenupet I, Osorkon III's daughter was first appointed to this post at Thebes. The Nubian king Kashta, in turn, appointed his daughter Amenirdis as her successor. Later, the Saite king Psamtik I would forcibly reunite Egypt in March 656 BC under his rule and compel the then serving God's Wife of Amun, Shepenupet II, daughter of Piye, to appoint his own daughter Nitocris as her chosen successor to this position. The office continued in existence until 525 BC under Nitocris' successor Ankhenesferebre when the Persians overthrew Egypt's last Saite ruler, Psamtik III. Thereafter, the office disappears from history.