Why Did Hatshepsut Use Title And Royal Images To Assert Her As Pharaoh

a) Explain how Hatshepsut used titles and royal images to assert herself as Pharaoh.

Hatshepsut played a vital position in the dynastic succession with her role as queen, ultimately progressing to pharaoh. During the reign of Thutmose II, Hatshepsut had the duties of a great royal wife, later advancing as regent for the king Thutmose III upon his father’s death. Due to Thutmose III being at a premature age to rule unaccompanied, she became accountable for managing the affairs of Egypt and was later crowned pharaoh and became co-regent alongside Thutmose III, between the years 2 and 7 of his reign.

With the transition she made, Hatshepsut took on the title king Maat-ka-re, further legitimising her reign. With all the discrepancies of her claim

Hayes states that by emphasising the ka (spiritual aspect of a human or god which survives after death), Hatshepsut ‘could be a woman and a king simultaneously’; Gardener argues that as some statues displayed her feminine qualities, it indicates some hesitation causing her to appear like a man. Bearing the Double Crown, Hatshepsut appeared as the ‘Lady of The Two Lands’ maintaining Robin’s idea of her aspirations of being king shown early on in her

She concentrated on the development of the concept of Amun-Re, divine oracles, personal piety, ideology of kingship and religious festivals. The emphasis Hatshepsut made on Amun was profound as she developed new ideas of theology that correlate with the divine nature of Aum-Re and the roles he possessed in society. Amun was seen as a god who expressed his will, thus calling people to develop personal piety in their daily lives. The ideology of kingship developed by Hatshepsut was one that addresses the legitimacy of her reign and the strengthening of her relationship to the god Amun; pharaohs that followed Hatshepsut, adapted aspects of her divine birth to suit their reign and communicate their descendance from Amun. The pharaoh stressed the oracle of Amun-Re and how Egyptians could consult with the god during religious festive processions. Hatshepsut is believed to have begun the Festival of the Valley, ‘which the god Amen was taken in his barque across the River Nile of the west bank of Thebes, where lay the main Theban royal cemetery.’(Callender, ’Innovations of Hatshepsut’s Reign’, p, 39). This remained to be celebrated after the death of Hatshepsut, and the additional theologies she added to religion in Egypt, proved to be an effective approach to implementing her beliefs and to grasp a firm hold of the