Shepenupet I or Shapenewpet I was

God's Wife of Amun God's Wife of Amun ( Egyptian: ''ḥm.t nṯr n ỉmn'') was the highest-ranking priestess of the Amun cult, an important religious institution in ancient Egypt. The cult was centered in Thebes in Upper Egypt during the Twenty-fifth and Twent ...

during the

Twenty-third Dynasty of Egypt The Twenty-third Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXIII, alternatively 23rd Dynasty or Dynasty 23) is usually classified as the third dynasty of the ancient Egyptian Third Intermediate Period. This dynasty consisted of a number of Meshwesh ki ...

., p.231

Biography

She was the first “hereditary”

God's Wife God's Wife ( Egyptian ''ḥmt nṯr'') is a title which was often allocated to royal women during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. The term indicates an inherited sacral duty, in which the role of "God's Wife" passed from mother to daughter. The r ...

Divine Adoratrice of Amun The Divine Adoratrice of Amun ( Egyptian: '' dwꜣt nṯr n jmn'') was a second title – after God's Wife of Amun – created for the chief priestess of the ancient Egyptian deity Amun. During the first millennium BCE, when the holder of this ...

to wield political power in ancient Thebes and its surrounding region. She was the first to take on complete royal titulary with names in two

cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the fea ...

s (her prenomen ''Khenemetibamun'' means 'she who is one with the heart of Amun'), and although her successors followed her example, she remained the only one who also bore the royal titles “Lord of the Two Lands” and “Lord of Appearances”, also, the only one whose throne name refers to

Amun Amun (; also ''Amon'', ''Ammon'', ''Amen''; egy, jmn, reconstructed as (Old Egyptian and early Middle Egyptian) → (later Middle Egyptian) → (Late Egyptian), cop, Ⲁⲙⲟⲩⲛ, Amoun) romanized: ʾmn) was a major ancient Egyptian ...

, not to his wife

Mut Mut, also known as Maut and Mout, was a mother goddess worshipped in ancient Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush in present-day North Sudan. In Meroitic, her name was pronounced mata): 𐦨𐦴. Her name means ''mother'' in the ancient Egyptian l ...

. She was the daughter of

Osorkon III Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon III Si-Ese was Pharaoh of Egypt in the 8th Century BC. He is the same person as the Crown Prince and High Priest of Amun Osorkon B, son of Takelot II by his Great Royal Wife Karomama II. Prince Osorkon B is best att ...

and Queen Karoadjet, and the (half-)sister of Takelot III and Rudamun.Dodson & Hilton, pp.226-227 She was God's Wife during her father's whole reign. When

Kashta Kashta was an 8th century BC king of the Kingdom of Kush, Kushite Dynasty in ancient Nubia and the successor of Alara of Nubia, Alara. His nomen ''k3š-t3'' (transcribed as Kashta, possibly pronounced /kuʔʃi-taʔ/) "of the land of Kush" is ofte ...

, a monarch of the

25th Dynasty The Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXV, alternatively 25th Dynasty or Dynasty 25), also known as the Nubian Dynasty, the Kushite Empire, the Black Pharaohs, or the Napatans, after their capital Napata, was the last dynasty of th ...

, extended his influence to the Theban area, she was compelled to adopt Kashta's daughter

Amenirdis I Amenirdis I (throne name: ''Hatneferumut'') was a God's Wife of Amun during the 25th Dynasty of ancient Egypt., p.238 Originating from the Kingdom of Kush, she was the daughter of Pharaoh Kashta and Queen Pebatjma, and was later adopted by Shepen ...

as her successor and name her as her chosen heir. Shepenupet and Amenirdis are depicted together in Wadi Gasus. Shepenupet is known to have survived into the reign of

Shebitku Shebitku ( egy, šꜣ-bꜣ-tꜣ-kꜣ, Neo-Assyrian: , grc, Σεθῶν ) also known as Shabataka or Shebitqo, and anglicized as Sethos, was the second pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt who ruled from 714 BC – 705 BC, according to ...

since she is depicted on a section of a wall

Temple J A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

which was decorated under this

Nubian Nubian may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Nubia, a region along the Nile river in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan. *Nubian people *Nubian languages *Anglo-Nubian goat, a breed of goat * Nubian ibex * , several ships of the Britis ...

king.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shepenupet 01 God's Wives of Amun People of the Twenty-third Dynasty of Egypt 8th-century BC Egyptian women 8th-century BC clergy 8th-century BC Egyptian people Berber people