Age of the Goddess; Queens of the Ninth Century BC

(Photo: Pharaoh Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye)

I am working on an article / post about the world-changing Queens that reigned from the beginning of the 9th Century BC right up to the early decades of the 8th Century BC, and their sons and daughters became the leaders of the People of the Book. Here are some excerpts from the forthcoming, still-developing piece:

While studying the relatives of 18th Dynasty luminary Yuya, I came to realize that in addition to the Chosen males who are remembered vividly in the Bible, the women of this era also left a profound impact on our world, from religion to culture to politics to trade. Many people have wondered who the primary characters of the Old Testament were, and in recent years significant research (primarily by Charles Pope of www.DomainOfMan.com ) has been published online.

If you read the foundational material on his website, you can learn about the Biblical identities of most 18th Dynasty leading lights, as well as their appearances in Greek mythology, and the re-occurrences of the archetypes during the Persian and Herodian eras. Pope's extensive research on the Egyptian and Greek identities of major Biblical figures also draws on and fleshes out the breakthrough work by Ahmed Osman, David Rohl and Robert Eisenman, all of whom I also believe are worthwhile and sometimes crucial sources. The California Institute for Ancient Studies has made a clear case for Yuya being Ashurnasirpal, and they have been an inspirational source. Still, most of the research has focused on the male personalities and their role, but in the case of the Royal Women whose offspring became the Chosen People, the People of the Book, they have spent very little time in the spotlight.

These Ladies of the 18th Dynasty in Egypt and Assyrian / Mittanni royal courts, became the Founding Mothers of the People of the Book, and centuries later another descendant, Salome Alexandra, would herself anchor a Hasmonean Dynasty that led directly to Herod's Dynasty which gave the world Christianity, and their bloodlines, and the Armenian connection, may in fact lead all the way to Heraclius and Muhammad and the roots of Islam. So, please give these gals some serious attention.

The Ninth Century BC is bracketed by 2 royal queenies that together are the inspiration for "Queen of Heaven" devotion that my man Jeremiah (a man for these times, gotta love him!!!) so lamented. Queen Asenath was better known as Asherah and her grandson's wife Queen Shammurammat lived on as Semiramis, but the Queen of Heaven was the moniker they both shared that lives on forever.

This is how the Seven Queens ruled Middle Earth and Egypt for a century and more:

Queen Atarah, Wife of Jacob, Mother of Joseph

Queen Mutemwiya, Wife of King David / Thutmose IV

Mother of Solomon by Joseph

Queen Asherah, Mother of Queen Tiye, Wife of Joseph

Queen Tiye, Wife of Amenhotep, Mother of Akhenaten

Queen Nefertiti, Wife of Akhenaten (Moses II)

Queen Kiya, Wife of Akhenaten, Mother of Tutankhamun

Queen Shammuramat, Wife of Machir / King Shamshi-Adad V

Mother of Gilead / Galaad (Adad-Nirari III)

A few notes on each:

Queen Atarah, Wife of Jacob, Mother of Joseph

Queen Atarah, aka Rachel, Basemath, Merit-Amon, Merytamen

daughter of Ishmael / Thuthmosis III and Meryt-Re'-Hatshepsut

- wife of Esau first, and then Jacob

- mother of Onam Yuya Tushratta

- mother of Benjamin

Names of Mother of Yuya Joseph:

Rachel, aka Basemath / Bosmath (daughter of Ishmael), Atarah, Merit-Amon

- granddaughter of Abraham and Hagar

- dad is Ishmael /

- mom is Ribah / Meribah / Merybah

- sister of brothers Nebayoth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam (Book of Jasher)

Sister of Leah / Abijah / Tia / Mehtenweskhet (Mother of King David / Thutmose IV / Judah / Nemuel / Nimlot)

Rachel married the biological father of Joseph and the his adoptive, royal father:

Potential adoptive father: Jacob / Israel / Amenhotep II / Sheshonq I,

Potential biological father: Shuttarna II / Tukulti-Ninurta / Esau / Ashur-nadin-ahhe / Eriba-Adad

Queen Mutemwiya, Wife of King David / Thutmose IV

Queen Mutemwiya aka Bath-shua, Bathsheba / Dinah / (Gilu-Hepa / Kilu-Heba)

- wife of Thutmose IV (King David) (Mutemwiya was niece of her husband)

- mother of Amenhotep III (Solomon) with Yuya Joseph

Queen Asherah, Mother of Queen Tiye

Queen Asherah aka Asenath Ashratu Tuya (aka Athirat, Ashtart, Ishtar, Elat, Asertu, Ashtoreth, Hertu, Qudshu, Qodesh, Pyhi)

- daughter of dad Potiphera (read Pharaoh Poti, Thutmose IV / King David) and mom Queen Iaret-Wadjet

- wife of Yuya Joseph Tushratta (aka Yusuf / Asurnasirpal)

- mother of Queen Tiye Zipporah (Queen of Sheba)

- mother of Prince Aanen Manasseh (aka Shaulmaneser III / Amenhotep III / Solomon / King of Kings)

- mother or stepmother of Aye Ephraim

In the political / military world, Tuya Asherah's daughter Tiye was wife to two Pharaoh's, plus mother of two and grandmother of at least one (Tutankhamun).

In the spiritual realm, Asherah's memory was melded with and eclipsed by (in the pantheon of Goddesses) her granddaughter-in-law, Queen Shammuramat / Semiramis, who founded the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and created a lasting monument to her own name, "Heaven in the Sands" (Shammu-ramat). Tuya / Asherah's sons Aye (Ephraim) and Aanen (Manasseh) and their progeny more than made up for her fade from memory, as they and the Chosen changed the world forever.

The 9th Century BC will come to be viewed as the true beginning of monotheism, resulting from a melding of Egyptian / Ethiopian rites and teachings with those of Assyria / Mittanni, even then without insulting Mesopotamian / Babylonian ancestors. The Sun King Akhenaten professed worship of One God, and the Century of Peace between David and Joseph created the faith we know as Judaism, and laid the foundations for the emergence of Christianity in the First Century AD and Islam in the 7th Century AD.

Queen Tiye, Wife of Amenhotep, Mother of Akhenaten

Queen Tiye aka Zipporah / Jochebed / Jezebel / Joacaste / Merope / Naamah

- wife of Amenhotep III, Solomon, with him:

- mother of son Akhenaten / Amenhotep IV / Moses II (Solomon may be "royal" father of Akhenaten, while bio-dad would then be Yuya Joseph

- as Jezebel, mother of daughter Athaliah, herself mother of King Azahiah and grandmom of King Joash and of Queen Jehoaddan, Wife of King Josiah

- mother of daughter Sitamun

- mother of daughter Henuttaneb

- mother of daughter Hentymerheb

- mother of daughter Isis / Iset

- mother of daughter Nebetah (possibly Athaliah, neb-etah)

- mother of Bakytaten

- - grandmother of Tutankhamun Joshua

According to Charles Pope, "Queen Tiye patterned herself after Hatshepsut and Hatshepsut herself was looking to at least one earlier great queen as a role model, specifically Nefrusobek of the 12th Dynasty who also was declared a pharaoh." (ReadHatshepsut, the Hyskos, and the Exodus)

Queen Tiye's husband Sol-Amenhotep III is in fact Shalmaneser III who is Shaul Manasseh, overstanding Solomon / Shalom as the western/southern / Egyptian/Ethiopian/Judean remembrance, Aaron as the northern / Israel memory and Salman / Manasseh / Shalim as the eastern / Assyrian/Mittanni manifestation of the same King. The west remembers the wisdom and the era of Peace, the north remembers the crucial role of a Joseph-quality Vizier, and the East knew well that the the Two Lands no longer meant Upper and Lower Nile, but rather Egypt and Mittanni, and they had to be the fiercest of warriors to maintain a unified front. Control of the center of the world (Medi-Terranean meaning Middle Earth) meant that others would bow their knee.

As the reigning warrior side of our lifetime heroes are hidden in Western / Judaic / Christian teachings, does that mean that to some degree the peaceful and loving side of these same humans has been hidden from Eastern disciples of The Prophet?

Oh what a predicament we're in...

Queen Nefertiti, Wife of Akhenaten

Nefertiti, Beautiful Wife of the Sun King

Queen Nefertiti aka Miriam (Daughter of Aye / Ephraim and Karamat; Graddaughter of King David)

- daughter of Taduhepa, mom (herself daughter of Yuya) and

- wife of Akhenaten, with who she had six daughters

- mother of daughter Meritaten (Meritaten TaSherit and Ankhesenpaaten TaSherit are twin daughters of Meriaten and Smenkhkare)

- mother of daughter Meketaten

- mother of daughter Ankhesenpaaten / Ankhesenamen

- mother of daughter Neferneferuaten

- mother of daughter Neferneferure

- mother of daughter Setepenre

Queen Kiya, Wife of Akhenaten, Mother of Tutankhamun

Queen Kiya aka Kiye / Mery-amon / Mery-amun / Meriamon / Miriam

possible daughter of Aye and Tiye, also possibly a sister or daughter of Yuya Tushratta

- wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten, to whom she bore two sons

- mother of Prince Smenkhare

- mother of Pharaoh Tutankhamun Joshua

Even though Kiya is shrouded in mystery, if she was the biological mother of Tutankhamun, biblical boy-king Joshua II, then as Mery-Amun, she was the prototype for a later Mariamne, mom of Jeshua Aristobulus remembered as the Roman Catholic Goddess The Virgin Mary.

The most likely scenario is that Kiya / Kiye is Meritre, daughter of Tiye and reported mother of Tutankhamun. This would make Kiya an early child (perhaps first child, by a royal lover) of Solomon's first wife Tiye, and would mean that Kiya became her "royal" daddy's sixth and final official Egyptian wife (his Eastern wives are still quite hidden).

If so, who's Kiya's bio-daddy? She was important enough to become the Favourite Wife of Moses Akhenaten, and likely brought the Sun King two shining sons of his own, Smenkhare and Tutankhamun. Tiye's / Jezebel's first husband / genetic liaison would have to be a major figure in a line from Abraham...

Queen Shammuramat, Wife of Machir / King Shamshi-Adad V

Shammu-ramat as Semiramis

Mother of Gilead / Galaad (Adad-Nirari III)

Queen Shammuramat aka Semiramis / Maachah / Maacah / Derket

By legend (semiramis), daughter of "Fish Goddess" Artagatis / Artegatis, indicating she may have been a granddaughter of Artatama, Isaac / Is-haq.

Cephelion states that Belimus / Belochus was the father of Semiramis II, and that his reign began in the 640th year from Ninus or the 702nd year of the Assyrian Empire. In terms of BC chronology? She seems to fit in towards the end of the 25 Assyrian Kings of Abydenus, which would put her in the right era to be the wife of Machir, Shamshi- Adad V, son of Salmanessah.

- daughter of dad Talmai, King of Geshur / (Belimus / Belochus)

- daughter of mom Abital? /

- Living Wife of Shamshi-Adad V (Machir)

- mother of Adad-Nirari III (Absalom?)

- sister of Shephatiah

Considering this fine Lady was the daughter of King Talmai (compare with Talmud) and the mother Absalom, she carried forth the prime Eastern line and also played a role in the emerging Israel and Judah to the West.

Queen Shammuramat (Greek / Persian = Semiramis), builder of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Eight Wonders of the Ancient World, and an apothecary for beauty, healing and vitality (eg. cosmetics and medicines), as she used the flowers and herbs to make resins, balms and oils for royal beautification and for the healing of her people the nearby nations. King Ashoka in India planted similar gardens circa 250 BC, but this was 500 years before that, a testament to her forward-thinking, beneficient leadership.

Queen Shammu-ramat (Heaven in the Sands) is the most recent and powerful manifestation of the Queen of Heaven, in a role played two generations earlier by her husband's grandmother, and after that there was a gap in the East while Queen Tiye was strongest in the West, and it was a combo of these gals who was worshipped as a Goddess by 6th century BC folk, invoking the wrath of Jeremiah.

"Besides," the women added, "do you suppose that we were burning incense and pouring out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven, and making cakes marked with her image, without our husbands knowing it and helping us? Of course not!" - Jeremiah 44:19

So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you. ¹⁷ Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. ¹⁹ But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame? - Jeremiah 7:16-19

Peace 2 All