VISIBLY QUEER - Pharaoh Neferkare & General Sasenet

What Ancient Egyptians thought about 'queer' goings on in their society?  Well, this is unclear. When it comes to written accounts, visual representations, the interpretations we make of what we believe they meant to the Ancient Egyptians, these could be way off. This civilisation was very different from our own, so making parallels is tricky. But, at the same time, we are dealing with human nature and that hasn't changed much. So its hard to believe a 'queer' sensibility would be completely absent. It would show in some way, whether it be via positive or negative remarks or portrayals.

Ancient Egyptians had expressions for three genders - male, female, and eunuchs. The latter did not necessarily imply any physical castration, it was more a designation for a sexual orientation that was without possibility of progeny. There is little evidence of disapproval or punishment of eunuchs for being eunuchs.

Two Royal 'Manicurists'

There are many Ancient Egyptian archaeological artifacts that indicate a 'queer' interpretation might be appropriate - wall paintings of two men kissing - statuary of two women side by side in a traditional marriage pose. If one looks at these with a 'queer eye' they point towards a society that could well have been relatively open and tolerant to a degree. If not, then you would still have to interpret these examples as indicating an unusually close filial loyalty or platonic friendship. So nothing to see here. 

Women in marriage pose

There does appear to be a tendency in historical circles, to dismiss a 'queer' interpretation as more inherently fanciful than a heterosexually orthodox one. The latter becomes the assumed default position, with an automatically conferred validity. Nonetheless the 'queer' viewpoint can be an equally viable way to perceive the meaning of these suggestive artifacts from history.

One piece of documentation survives in the form of a story, with surprising details. As in all the recent Visibly Queer posts, this story concerns a historical royal figure in relationship with someone from a lower class or position. The discrepancy in status and power, as ever, making it worthy of documenting. Such stories do not indicate how ordinary people in an everyday 'queer' relationship might have been perceived and treated.

The story originally comes from the 6th Century BC in the Egyptian Old Kingdom. Significantly, it is a story retold in succeeding eras, it becomes almost a folk tale. It originates with a commoner called Teti son of Hanet. Most likely a slave within the Pharaoh's own palace entourage. In the fragmentary document the beginning of the story is missing. We enter it where Teti recounts seeing the affection the Pharaoh Neferkare expresses whenever he is left alone with General Sasanet, without his wives or harem present. The Egyptian word for love is strongly indicated about this assignation.

Teti's role as major snoop makes you wonder whether he did this entirely off his own bat, or was he asked to collect evidence by someone else? To observe and report back. We will probably never know if there was someone commissioning his surveillance. Though it is worth asking what did they, or Teti himself, hope to do with this information? Why did they waste papyrus on this?

The story continues, it was observed Pharaoh Neferkare would leave the palace late in the evening - to just to go for a walk - and did so regularly. Concerned questions began to be asked about where he walked too when 'he went forth in the night'. Teti playing private detective decides to follow him one evening, to see exactly where he ventures. Surprise surprise, he is seen arriving at the house of General Sasenet. He throws a stone up at a window and stamps his foot, then a ladder is cast down. 

He arrives in the fourth hour of the night ( 10pm) and left four hours later. Teti insinuates that this was, ' when the divine person had done what he wanted with the general he returned to the palace'. Whether Teti saw anything of what the Pharaoh had 'done' with the General is not clear, but what had happened is certainly being implied - there'd been some sexual activity going on. Nevertheless this clandestine behaviour suggests some form of public censure or gossip might be being avoided. Though this may not primarily be concerning its homosexual nature. What makes this potentially so scandalous, is that it is The Pharaoh who is embroiled in it.

A Pharoah's divine right to rule was largely carried through a matrilineal line of succession. It was important who his Mother had been and who the Mother of his children was. Also, one of the Pharoah's central duties, as the semi- divine god and spiritual  intermediary, was to ensure the continuing fertility cycle of the Nile valley. So him spilling his sacred seed into what was essentially a 'eunuch' relationship might have been perceived as imperiling not just the royal line, but, more importantly, this vital sacred fertility. If this became common knowledge it could seriously undermine public confidence in his rule.

Neferkare

Neferkare does not have a good reputation in Egyptian documents of his time, nor in subsequent periods. He was, if the reports are to be believed, an extremely bad and neglectful ruler. We do not know, but could conjecture about this particularly slanderous story. This may have originally been information gathered on a known wayward Pharaoh, whose behaviour threatened, not just the fertility of its relationship with its pantheon of gods, but also the famed economic stability of the whole country. 

Amun Ra in the underworld

The historically orthodox spin on this story is that it is all an allegory. A story confected to present this Pharaoh as the God Amun Ra descending into the underworld (General Sasenet?) to ensure the sun rises the next day. This does not really seem that credible. There are all those unnecessary little details in the story of the stone being thrown, the stamping of the foot and ladder being let down. These strike me as being more like the verbatim transcript of an actual observation. If the archetypal transit of the sun in Egyptian  mythology is being at all alluded to here, it could just as easily be as a scabrous bit of Ancient Egyptian satire. Sending up the extent that this particularly ineffective Pharaoh might go to, to ensure the stability of the heavens and relations with the gods. I find this amusing, as I do the modern attempts to explain away the surface appearance of its 'queerness'.