Thanks to a royal proclamation from Amenhotep III himself, historians know that Queen Tiye was born to two \u2018commoners\u2019: her father Yuya and mother Thuya. Despite her humble birth, Tiye went on to be Amenhotep\u2019s right-hand woman, ruling Egypt alongside him, and one of their children Akhenaten later succeeded the throne as Amenhotep IV.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2022\/07\/Joycecmykwebready-187c050.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Queen Tiye\u2019s life<\/h2>\n
At the time of Tiye\u2019s life, explains Tyldesley, kings had many wives, who were grouped into \u201csecondary queens\u201d and the queen consort. As queen consort, Tiye would have had a lot of power, because she was the queen who appeared in all official writings and art. Tiye\u2019s importance can be seen in her appearance on important monuments and tombs, and the property that belonged to her. Tyldesley also highlights Tiye\u2019s widespread significance in the religious and diplomatic spheres \u2013 in Egypt and beyond, Tiye was associated with a goddess, and after her husband\u2019s death, she appears in diplomatic correspondence.<\/p>\n
It is difficult to know if Tiye\u2019s power was atypical for the time, Tyldesley explains, because comparative power is hard to judge due to uneven levels of evidence for each life. For example, while Tiye\u2019s daughter-in-law Nefertiti appears unusually powerful because of a wealth of representation based on her life in a city that worshipped the royal family, Tyldesley admits explains that for Tiye, it seems that she was simply unusual because <\/em>she was powerful.<\/p>\n Though not to the same extent as Nefertiti, historians do have access to various depictions of Tiye \u2013 from statues, to tombs, to figurines. One is a figure of Tiye\u2019s head that shows her as an older woman. This was unusual, Tyldesley explains, because queens were generally depicted as \u201ceternally young and eternally slender\u201d. This representation of Tiye shows her as a woman who had \u201cacquired real wisdom [and was] to be respected\u201d. This could be, Tyldesley believes, an artist\u2019s celebration of Tiye reaching a great age at a time when many did not.<\/p>\n Tyldesley believes that Queen Tiye deserves her 15 minutes of fame because she has been unfairly overshadowed by those that followed her. For those studying ancient Egypt 100 years ago, Tyldesley explains, Queen Tiye would have been seen as the dominant figure of her time.\u00a0However, in more recent years, history has focused on Nefertiti, placing her as an unusually powerful woman, a living goddess.<\/p>\n But all this evidence could also apply to Queen Tiye,\u201d explains Tyldesley, \u201cand Nefertiti is not so much as an unusually powerful woman, but she is the daughter-in-law who is following in the footsteps of the powerful Queen Tiye.\u201d<\/p>\n Tiye, as a strongly influential figure in ancient Egypt who held a lot of power, \u201cdeserves to be remembered as the Egyptians would have seen her and not as we see her today\u201d.<\/p>\n Professor Joyce Tyldesley was talking to Ellie Cawthorne. Tyldesley is the author of several books on ancient Egypt, including 2018\u2019s Nefertiti\u2019s Face: The Creation of an Icon <\/em>(Profile Books, 2018), and the upcoming\u00a0Tutankhamun \u2013 Pharaoh, Icon, Enigma<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Listen to the full interview<\/a> and find more episodes in our 15 minutes of fame podcast series<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Article compiled by Isabel King<\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Ellie Cawthorne Published: Monday, 25 July 2022 at 12:00 am Who was Queen Tiye? Queen Tiye was queen consort to Amenhotep III, who ruled Egypt for almost 40 years from roughly 1390 BCE. Tiye was also the mother-in-law of Nefertiti, and the probable grandmother of Tutankhamen. Thanks to a royal proclamation from Amenhotep III […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":16090,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/07\/15-minutes-of-fame-joyce-tyldesley-chooses-queen-tiye.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/07\/15-minutes-of-fame-joyce-tyldesley-chooses-queen-tiye-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/07\/15-minutes-of-fame-joyce-tyldesley-chooses-queen-tiye-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/07\/15-minutes-of-fame-joyce-tyldesley-chooses-queen-tiye.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/07\/15-minutes-of-fame-joyce-tyldesley-chooses-queen-tiye.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/07\/15-minutes-of-fame-joyce-tyldesley-chooses-queen-tiye.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/07\/15-minutes-of-fame-joyce-tyldesley-chooses-queen-tiye.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Ellie Cawthorne Published: Monday, 25 July 2022 at 12:00 am Who was Queen Tiye? Queen Tiye was queen consort to Amenhotep III, who ruled Egypt for almost 40 years from roughly 1390 BCE. Tiye was also the mother-in-law of Nefertiti, and the probable grandmother of Tutankhamen. Thanks to a royal proclamation from Amenhotep III…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/16089"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why does Queen Tiye deserve her 15 minutes of fame?<\/h3>\n
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