The Career of Queen Hatshepsut (Hatasu)
Queen Hatshepsut was a successful fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. She was the second woman to rule as the King of both Upper and Lower Egypt.
1. Live the Horus, abounding in divine gifts, the Mistress of diadems, rich in years, the golden Horus, goddess of diadems, Queen of Upper and Lower Egypt ; MAT-KA-RA, daughter of the Stin, Hatasu (Hatshepsut), consort of Amon, living for ever and ever, daughter of Amon, dwelling in heart, his only one, who hath been formed for him; glorious image of the universal Lord ; whom the spirits of Heliopolis have created.
2. Her beauty hath taken hold of the Two Worlds as he hath done. He hath formed her to bear his diadems, the form of forms like CHEPERA, the crowned of all the crowned, like the god of both horizons, pure egg which hath come forth in glory, nursed by URIT-HEKAIU, Mistress of diadems, crowned by Amon himself upon his throne in Hermontliis.
3. He hath selected her for the protection of Egypt, and for securing the victory to the Pat and the Rechit, Horus the avenger of her father, the elder of his mother’s husband, whom RA hath engendered to produce a glorious seed upon earth, and to give happiness to the Hamemet.
4. His living image, the Queen of the South and of the North MAT-KA-RA the smu-metal of kings, she hath made this as a monument to her father Amon, lord of the thrones of the Two Worlds, dwelling in the Apt; and hath made for him two great obelisks of hard granite of the South, the summit of each is of the smu-metal (the tribute) of the best quality of all countries; they are seen at a distance of many leagues, the Two Worlds are bathed in their splendours.
5. The sun’s disk shines between them as when it rises from the horizon of heaven.
6. I have done this from a heart full of love for my divine father Amon. I have entered upon the way in which he conducted me from the beginning, all my efforts were according to his mighty spirits, I have not opposed anything which he hath predestined.
7. I have (offered) the two obelisks wrought with smu-metal to father Amon with the intent that my name should remain permanent in this temple for ever and ever.
8. They are of a single stone of granite, without any joining or division in them.
9. My Majesty began to work at this in the 15th year, and the first day of Mechir till the 16th year and the last day of Mesori, making seven months since the beginning of it in the mountain.
10. I have made them for him in satisfaction of heart, for it is the King of all the gods to whom I pray. I have had them covered with smu-metal which I have put upon the top of them. . . . I ignore the talk of men; my own mouth is perfect in all that cometh forth from it; I do not retract what I have said.
11. Listen ye, therefore; I have put smu-metal upon them (till the extremity) measured in ingots and sacs.
12. It is I who have proclaimed the quantity, so that the Two Worlds may see, and that the ignorant man as well as the wise may know it.
13. No one who heareth this can contradict what I have said, but will say, “She hath been established as truthful before her father,” and the god knows that which is within me.
14. Amon, the Lord of thrones, he hath granted that I should reign over Egypt and the Red Land because of this. I am not revolted against in all the plains; all the countries are subject to me.
15. He hath made my bounds as far as the limits of heaven; the course of the sun’s disk is at my service; he hath given it to her who is before him; he knoweth that I offer it to him, I his daughter who exist in truth and glorify him. He it was who destined me to favour before my father, the living, the stable, the strong, upon the throne of Horus and of all the living, like the Sun-god for ever.
——————————————————————————–
“Inscription of Queen Hatasu on the Base of the Great Obilisk of Karnak,” translated by P. Le Page Renouf, in Records of the Past, being English Translations of the Assyrian and Egyptian Monuments, vol. 12 (London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1881), pp. 131-132, 135-136
——————————————————————————–