Meritamen (daughter of Thutmose III)

For other Egyptian ladies called Meritamen see Meritamen (disambiguation)

Meritamen in hieroglyphs

Meritamen (“Beloved of Amun”) was a princess during the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. She was the daughter of Pharaoh Thutmose III and his Great Royal Wife Merytre-Hatshepsut^[1]. She is also called Meritamun.

Biography

Meritamen was one of six known children of Thutmose and Merytre. Her siblings were Pharaoh Amenhotep II, Prince Menkheperre and princesses Nebetiunet, a second Meritamen and Iset^[2]. She is depicted, together with her sisters and Menkheperre, on a statue of their maternal grandmother Hui (now in the British Museum)^[3]. She is also depicted in the Hathor chapel built by her father in Deir el-Bahri^[4].

She inherited the title God's Wife of Amun from her mother. Her additional titles were King's Daughter and King's Sister.^[5]

Thutmose and Merytre had a second daughter called Meritamen; she is also depicted on Hui's statue. It is not known which of these princesses is shown on the lap of Benermerut, the Overseer of the Works, on his cubic statue found in Karnak^[5].

Sources

1. ^ Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (2004) ISBN 0-500-05128-3, pp.133,140
2. ^ Dodson & Hilton, op.cit., p.133
3. ^ Dodson & Hilton, op.cit., pp.133,138
4. ^ Dodson–Hilton, op.cit., pp.133,138,139
5. ^ ^{a b} Dodson–Hilton, op.cit., p.139