W 13 Women’s Self-Presentation in Pharaonic Egypt Mariam Ayad hen considering Egyptian culture and society, expressions of self-presentation are often hidden under layers of intermediaries. For men, we are dealing with one layer: the artist/scribe composer of the text or relief, who had to interpret the preferences of the “order-giving self.” 1 For women, an added layer of male relatives comes between us and women’s self-presentation in art and text. Nearly all surviving textual and iconographic representations of women were commissioned by their male relatives: a husband, a father, or a son. 2 The image that emerges from these textual and artistic representations is, thus, mostly mediated by a double male perspective: that of the male relatives who commissioned the work, as well as that of the scribes and artists who produced the work. The resulting representations and expressions are thus often reflective of this male perspective. 3 Still, some information may be gleaned from women’s titles and epithets—how they developed, shifted, and evolved over time—and a few examples of women’s biographical texts. Despite the dearth of the latter, closer examination of these exceptional examples will help us achieve a more nuanced understanding of how ancient Egyptian women chose to present themselves for their peers and for all posterity. The Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period Egyptian self-presentational inscriptions from the Old Kingdom are attested in a funerary context. The earliest self-expressions are found on epitaphs inscribed in nonroyal tombs. This is true for both men and women’s self-presentations. 4 But whereas men’s self-presentations focused on the professional progression of their careers and their ‘moral personality,’ women’s self-presentational inscriptions consisted mainly of their honorary or priestly titles, and only occasionally, contained some genealogical information. 5 Possibly because women were mostly confined to the private realm, their self-presentational inscriptions were more limited than men’s. 6 The earliest attestations of women’s self-presentational epithets, dating to the Fourth Dynasty, belong to priestesses associated with the cult of Hathor. 7 Priestesses of Hathor were drawn from the ranks of elite women, including royal princesses such as Hemetre (also called Living Forever : Self-Presentation in Ancient Egypt, edited by Hussein Bassir, American University in Cairo Press, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aucegypt/detail.action?docID=6242685. Created from aucegypt on 2025-01-24 18:15:12. Copyright © 2019. American University in Cairo Press. All rights reserved.