Tabita

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Tabita was a priestess and a singer of the mother goddess Inanna in Babylon. As the goddess protected his children (all living being on earth), her priestesses were trained warriors, and Tabita was an expert in martial arts. She was a loyal friend and fearless guardian of Nanshaya.

 

Tagidur

 

Tagidur was the ‘Chief of the King’s body’ of Emperor Tudhaliya.

 

Tahassu

 

Tahassu was the Hittite’ Chief of Merchants’ and ‘Head of the Intelligence’, hence the spies.

 

Tarish

 

Tarish was a caravan guide during the reign of King Kadashman Enlil I. His expertise was mainly in the Syrian Desert and the Canaan.

 

Tawy

 

Tawy was a priestess and dancer in the temple of the goddess Sekhmet during the 18th dynasty in Egypt.

 

Tefnut

 

Tefnut was an ancient Egyptian goddess of moisture (her name meaning ‘She of moisture’). She symbolizes moist or corrosive air that brings about change, creating the concept of time. 

Tefnut was strongly associated with both the moon and the sun. She was known to be as both sides of the ‘Eyes of Ra’, left (moon) and the right (sun), so as a lunar goddess, Tefnut represented moisture and as a solar goddess, the dryness (the absence of moistness).

Tefnut was generally portrayed as a lioness or a woman with a lion’s head and sometimes as a woman (occasionally as a cobra). In her images, Tefnut wears a solar disk and uraeus; in her hands, she carries a sceptre (a wand for power) and the ankh (for the breath of life). Occasionally Tefnut was depicted in the form of a cobra.

 

Teiti

 

Teiti was the first maiden of the ‘First Royal Wife’ of Amenhotep III., queen Tiye. They grew up together in Mi-Wer, and she became the queen’s confidant and loyal friend.

 

Tenjut

 

Tenjut was the high priest of the Thoth temple in Hermopolis. (See Hermopolis)

 

Tetiky

 

Chief of the surgeons in the Sekhmet temple.

 

Thaneni

 

The elderly high priest of the goddess Sekhmet in Men-Nefer.

 

The Eye of Ra

 

The ‘Eye of Ra’ was an esteemed symbol in ancient Egyptian culture. Several Egyptian myths discuss its origins, existence and deeds.

The Eye was an extension of Ra’s power, equated with the sun disk, but it also behaves as an independent entity. In the legends, it was personified by various Egyptian goddesses, including Hathor, Sekhmet, Bastet, Wadjet, and Mut. 

According to one myth, Ra became angry about how humans treated him. So he sent his eye to punish humanity in the form of the lioness goddess Sekhmet. In her rage and bloodlust, Sekhmet nearly destroyed humanity. The gods feared the ‘Eye’ (Sekhmet) would kill all humans, so Ra mixed beer with blood to make her drunk, and she passed out. When she woke up, she forgot her savagery, became peaceful again and returned to the sun god. The dangerous aspect of Sekhmet, as the ‘Eye of Ra’ goddess, is often represented by a lioness or the uraeus, or cobra, a symbol of protection and royal authority. 

The ‘Eye of Ra’ was celebrated in temple rituals as a symbol of life-giving power. But, on the other hand, its dangerous aspect was invoked in the protection of the pharaoh, sacred places, and of ordinary people and their homes.

 

Thebes / Nuwe

 

Thebes (today, Luxor, 675 km south of Cairo) was the capital of the ancient Egyptian province of Wase. Its original name was Nuwe (or Nowe, meaning ‘City of Amon’), named for its patron god. Thebes is the Greek name of the city (Thebai) and could have derived from ‘Ta-ope’, the other ancient Egyptian name for Luxor.

The city lay on both sides of the Nile River and covered some 93 square km. The central part of the city was along the Nile’s east bank, and on the other side of the river in the valleys of the arid desert mountains was the ancient Egyptian’s necropolis (‘City of the Dead’). The area of the royal tombs and mortuary temples is called ‘The Valley of the Kings’ (and another valley for the queens), but numerous other nobles’ tombs are also there. The archaeologists also found houses of priests, soldiers, artisans, and labourers devoted to the service of the Egyptian rulers.

 

Thoth

 

Thoth was the god of writing, magic, wisdom, and the moon in ancient Egypt and an essential god in the ancient Egyptian pantheon. Thoth is the keeper of records and the patron of the libraries and the scribes.

Thoth’s Egyptian name was Djehuty (dhwty), meaning ‘He Who is Like the Ibis’, and he was usually depicted as a man with an ibis’s head. 

The ancient Egyptian’s beliefs about Thoth’s origin are somewhat ambiguous. According to one story, at the beginning of creation, Ra spoke the words of the divine order, and from his lips, Thoth was born. Hence, he was known as the ‘God without a mother’. On the other hand, another story tells that Thoth was self-created at the beginning of time and, as an ibis, laid the cosmic egg that was the seed of all creation.

In a third story - may be the most interesting regarding his fundamental role in the Egyptian pantheon - he was born of the seed of Horus from the forehead of Set. (After Horus tricked his uncle into eating a piece of lettuce with his seed on it. Seth became “impregnated” with an idea, and Thoth appeared on his forehead - in the form of the sun.) As the son of these two deities (one representing order and the other chaos), Thoth was also the god of balance, and as such, he was closely associated with the principle of divine harmony. The goddess Ma’at, who personified this principle, was sometimes seen as his wife.

All scientific knowledge was said to be held in the sacred books in the house of life, and included in them, was the book of Thoth, which comprised 42 papyrus scrolls and was written by the god himself.

As the gods’ record keeper, Thoth also kept account of the days of human beings. The ancient Egyptians believed that the soul of a deceased person had to pass through the ‘Hall of Truth’, where it had to pass judgement to achieve access to eternal life in ‘The Fields of Reeds’. (See A’Aru) Thoth supervised the judgment of the dead with Osiris, and the souls were encouraged to call upon Thoth for help.

Like most ancient Egyptian gods, Thoth had two sacred animals, the ibis and the baboon. According to one theory, the ancient Egyptians lived close to and observed nature. Their gods had different sacred animals corresponding to the gods’ attributes according to their behavior in their habitat. One of Thoth’s sacred animals was the ibis, a bird mainly living in the swamps. While searching for food, this bird made movements with its beak that might seem to the people it was writing (the god’s attribute to writing). Thoth’s other animal was the baboon, which always knows where a water source can be found. Still, if he notices that someone observes him, he refuses to lead anyone to it (the attribute of a record keeper of secret knowledge).  

These animals were kept in Thoth’s temples as pets, and the archaeologists have found millions of mummified bodies of them in the cemeteries near Hermopolis and Memphis.

Worship of Thoth began in Lower Egypt probably as early as the Predynastic Period (c. 6000-3150 BC.) and continued through ancient Egyptian history. Although he was worshipped all over Egypt, his major cult center was Khemenu (in Greek Hermopolis because they identified Thoth with their god Hermes).

According to some theories, many Greek philosophers were allowed to study Thoth’s philosophical mysteries in his temples, but they were strictly forbidden to teach them anywhere else. So, the Greeks invented a connection between their god Hermes and Thoth, and as the teachings of Hermes were allowed, they continued to teach what they had learned in Egypt. For the Greeks, Thoth became ‘Hermes Trismegistus’ (‘Thoth the Thrice Great’) - for writing, magic and record keeping - and as in the ancient world so throughout the world’s history, significant philosophical works were attributed to ‘Hermes Trismegistos’.

 

Thusratta

 

Thusratta (in Sanskrit Tveṣa-ratha meaning ‘His chariot charges’) was a Mitanni king during the reign of Amenhotep III. and throughout the reign of Akhenaten. First, his sister Gilukhepa and later his daughter Tadukhepa was married to the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III.

 

Thutmose / Thuthu

Throne prince

 

Thutmose (Ancient Egyptian: ‘ḏḥwtj-msj’) was the heir of Amenhotep III. as his first-born son with queen Tiye. The prince lived during the 18th Dynasty of ancient Egypt. The fact that Prince Thutmose disappeared from the public records and Amenhotep III.’s successor to the throne was Amenhotep IV. (later Akhenaten - Thutmose’s younger brother) indicates that the crown prince probably died sometime during Amenhotep III.’s reign.

Today we know about his existence from only a few objects the archaeologists have found, a small statuette of the prince as a miller (today in the Louvre Museum, Paris) and another one (in Berlin) as a mummy lying on a pedestal. Furthermore,14 calcite and pottery vases in the Louvre also bear Prince Thutmose’s name.

But the most famous artefact that proves Thutmose’s existence is best the limestone sarcophagus of his cat, ‘Ti-miaut’ (she-cat), which is now in the Cairo Museum. The coffin of the cat conclusively establishes that he indeed was the eldest son of Amenhotep III. because his then-current title of ‘Crown Prince’ is written on it. It is an outstanding object because there is no other example in ancient Egyptian history where a pet received a funeral and a sarcophagus as Ti-Miaut. The cat had been properly mummified, received all the traditional rites and was buried the same way as if it was a person.

Thutmose’s full royal titles as ‘Crown Prince, Overseer of the Priests of Upper and Lower Egypt’, ‘High Priest of Ptah in Memphis’ and ‘Sm-priest’ (of Ptah) show that he served as Ptah’s priest in ancient Memphis. His numerous titles show that he was a successful prince, and his love for his pet shows his personality, and the ancient Egyptian people probably beloved him.

 

Thuya

 

Thuya (sometimes Thuyu) was the mother of Queen Tiye and the wife of Yuya. She was the grandmother of Akhenaten and great-grandmother of Tutankhamun.

Thuya is believed to be an Egyptian noblewoman and a descendant of Queen Ahmose-Nefertari. She was born in Akhmin (a city in Upper Egypt by the Nile) and had numerous important official and religious roles in her birth town and Thebes. She held the titles of ‘Singer of Hathor’ and ‘Chief of the Entertainers’ of both Amun and Min (patron god of Akhmin) and the influential offices of ‘Superintendent of the Harem’. She married Yuya, a powerful ancient Egyptian courtier of Amenhotep III.’s court. She is believed to have died in her early to mid-50s. (See Akhmin and Yuya).

Thuya was buried in tomb KV46 in the Valley of the Kings with her husband, Yuya. The archaeologists found their largely intact burial in 1905.

 

Tiaa

 

Tiaa was the sister of Amenhotep III., and she carried many titles in the pharaoh’s court. Among these, she was the intendant of the Harem in Mi–Wer (today El-Fayoum Oasis). (See Mi-Wer)

A pink limestone fragment of a canopic jar of Tiaa, the ‘King’s daughter’, was found in the Valley of the Queens at Thebes (Luxor, Egypt). Today it is in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London.

She is likely the princess shown in the tomb of Sobekhotep (Tomb Nr. TT63 in Thebes), whose wife Meryt was her nurse. 

She died during the reign of her brother Amenhotep III. Her original burial place is unknown since her mummy was reburied during the 21st dynasty in the Sheikh Abd el-Qurna cache, along with the mummies of several other royal princesses.

 

Tiamat

 

Tiamat is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess associated with elemental chaos and sea (salty waters). As a literary/mythological character, Tiamat symbolized the chaos that existed before the establishment of order in the universe and the embodiment of the primordial sea. She is the main adversary of Marduk in the ancient Akkadian book ‘Enuma Elish’ meaning ‘The Seven Tablets of Creation’. (See Marduk).

During the reign of Hammurabi, there was a change in the ancient Babylonian religion and the female deities (and women in general) lost their status. As a result, Tiamat’s role also changed at those times, from the initially protective and nurturing mother into a vengeful warrior-queen.

 

Timbar

 

Timbar was a worker in the harbour in Men-Nefer. He was a lesser member of Ashtan’s Dark Brotherhood.

 

Ti-Miaut

 

Ti-Miaut (or ‘Ta-Miu’) was the beloved cat of the first-born son of Amenhotep III., Prince Thutmose. He is best remembered for the limestone sarcophagus of his cat, Ti-Miaut (literally “she-cat”), now in the Cairo Museum. Ti-Miaut was an exception in all ancient Egyptian history, whereas many animals (cats also among them) were mummified and used for religious purposes. What makes the prince’s cat different is that it received a burial as a human being with a complete series of rituals.

He spared no expense in the burial of his beloved cat Ti-Miaut. A unique limestone sarcophagus was beautifully carved with scenes of the cat sitting in front of an offering table laden with delicious food. Along with the offering formula, the following text appears:

Words spoken by the Osiris for Ti-Miaut: “I bristle before the Sky, and its parts that are upon it. I myself am placed among the imperishable ones that are in the Sky, I am Ti-Miaut, the Triumphant”.

Tita (See Sitamun)

 

Tiye

 

Queen Tiye (Tiy) was the ‘First Wife’ of the pharaoh Amenhotep III. (18th dynasty). She was born in Akhmin in a noble family as the daughter of Thuya and Yuya. Although she was a commoner with no royal origins (according to Amenhotep III.’s declaration), she became a queen. (See Thuya and Yuya) She had six children with the pharaoh; among them, she was the mother of Akhenaten and the grandmother of Tutankhamun.

Tiye grew up in the Kap (‘Royal Nursery’ in Mi-Wer), where she had probably learned to know Amenhotep III. as a child. She had two brothers, Anen and Ay. Anen later held the titles of the ‘High priest of Min’ in Akhmin and ‘Chancellor of Lower Egypt’, ‘Second Prophet of Amun’, ‘sm-priest’ of the capital, and ‘Divine Father’. Historians still debate about her ties to her other brother, Ay, who eventually (much later) became a pharaoh for a short period, as Kheperkheprure Ay.

Amenhotep III. had an extraordinary relationship with his wife which is shown in the fact that immediately after their marriage, Tiye was elevated to the rank of ‘Great Royal Wife’. It was an exceptional honor in ancient Egyptian history. Not even Amenhotep’s mother, Mutemwiya, held this title, so it effectively meant that Tiye outranked the king’s mother in the court.

Tiye had exceptional diplomatic talents, and she ruled ancient Egypt alongside the pharaoh with an enormous influence at the court. She lived a long life ((c.1401-1341 BC.), and after the death of her husband, Amenhotep III., she continued her role as ‘Royal Queen Mother’ and a royal advisor next to her son who succeeded the throne, Amenhotep IV. (whose name later became Akhenaten, the heretic pharaoh). Akhenaten reformed the ancient Egyptian religion from polytheism to monotheism, meaning that he abandoned Egypt’s numerous gods and worshipped only one, Aten, the sun god. Besides his reforms, he had little interest in politics. As far as the nation was in dire need of diplomatic relations, Tiye practically led the country’s foreign affairs with the help of her brothers Anen and Ay. (According to the Amarna letters, she has communicated directly with rulers of foreign nations.) Later a temple was dedicated to her Sedeinga (Nubia) to honor her works.

According to the archaeological finds and texts, she revolutionized ancient Egyptian fashion. During her rule, she revived the tradition of wigs for noble women (among other things like dresses and jewellery). The intricate hairstyles of false hair (natural or woven from wool) served both for beauty and hygienic reasons (lice). 

Tiye died in her early sixties and was buried in the Valley of the Kings. Although we have never found her tomb, her exceptionally well-preserved mummy (found among 22 mummies in Amenhotep II.’s tomb) has positively been identified as that known as the ‘Elder Lady’. Her face and long curly red hair are so well conserved that today we can still admire her beauty even after over 3,000 years. In addition, an interesting fact proves the young pharaoh Tutankhamun’s love for his grandmother because a lock of her hair was found in his tomb.

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Tudhaliya II.

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Tudhaliya II. was a Hittite king who ruled around 1380s BC. His reign was contemporary to Amenhotep III. (See Hittites)