Benson, Margaret; Gourlay, Janet: The temple of Mut in Asher: an account of the excavation of the temple and of the religious representations and objects found therein, as illustrating the history of Egypt and the main religious ideas of the Egyptians (London, 1899)

154

THE TEMPLE OF MUT.

[PART IV.

the statues of the temple of Mut. On the statue of
Minhetep, "Superintendent of the inner chamber "
about this time, Minhetep says he was " born of
Abu, the lady of the house" (p. 319). On a statue
of the " Superintendent of the treasury," also of
this dynasty, Senemaah states that his father was
Uazmes the doctor, and his mother "the lady of
the house, Aahmes " (p. 320).

In the same anomalous way the Egyptian law of
inheritance through the mother, or rather the
determination of inheritance by the rank of the
mother as well as of the father, a custom which is
generally associated with a low standard of social
life, we find preserved in Egypt when the country
was even highly civilised. So too the marriage
with so near a relation as a half-sister, which we
are inclined to treat as altogether a mark of bar-
barism, is absolutely the rule in the royal family.

Thus we have even at this period in Egypt poly-
gamy, inheritance by the female line, and marriage
with the half-sister. Yet these points which we are
accustomed to associate with a barbarous condition
of society, low morals, and a despised and subject
condition of women, we find associated in Egypt
with a high decree of civilisation and an inde-
pendent and powerful position of women. It is an
interesting point as illustrating in its social condition
a principle which we find in the religion of Egypt,
and even, as Wiedemann * says, in their art of
* ' Religion in Ancient Egypt,' pp. 1, 2.