Book contents
- Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World
- Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Timeline
- Historical Contexts
- Introduction
- Part I The Deep Past
- Part II The Bronze Age
- 4 Merneith
- 5 Šimatum and Kirum
- 6 The Woman of La Almoloya
- 7 The Priestess of Anemospilia
- 8 Hatshepsut
- 9 Puduhepa
- 10 Eritha and Karpathia
- 11 Hatiba
- Part III The Iron Age
- Part IV The Hellenistic Worlds
- Part V The Age of Empire
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
11 - Hatiba
from Part II - The Bronze Age
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2023
- Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World
- Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Timeline
- Historical Contexts
- Introduction
- Part I The Deep Past
- Part II The Bronze Age
- 4 Merneith
- 5 Šimatum and Kirum
- 6 The Woman of La Almoloya
- 7 The Priestess of Anemospilia
- 8 Hatshepsut
- 9 Puduhepa
- 10 Eritha and Karpathia
- 11 Hatiba
- Part III The Iron Age
- Part IV The Hellenistic Worlds
- Part V The Age of Empire
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Once upon a time there was an Egyptian man, a priest, by the name of Wenamun.1 Wenamun was sent by his lord Herihor to fetch wood from Lebanon to build a sacred boat for the god Amon-Ra. Sailing north with his captain Mengebet, he landed at Dor and was entertained by Beder, its prince. His good fortune soon changed and after a series of misadventures, including being robbed by his own crew and attacking a ship belonging to the local Tjeker people of Dor to replace his lost wealth, he ended up at Byblos. Here prince Tjekerbaal felled the trees to provide Wenamun with the timber he wanted. Soon the Tjeker that Wenamun had robbed caught up with him. The prince of Byblos would not arrest Wenamun but instead asked him to depart so that the Tjeker could catch him at sea themselves. However, the wind blew him off course all the way to a coastal town on the island of Alashiya (Cyprus). The story continues thus, in Wenamun’s voice:
Then the town’s people came out against me to kill me. But I forced my way through them to where Hatiba, the princess of the town was. I met her coming from one of her houses to enter another. I saluted her and said to the people who stood around her: ‘Is there not one among you who understands Egyptian?’ And one among them said: ‘I understand it.’ I said to him: ‘Tell my lady that I have heard it said as far away as Thebes, the place where Amun is: “If wrong is done in every town, in the land of Alasiya right is done.” Now is wrong done here too every day?’
She said: ‘What is it you have said?’ I said to her: ‘If the sea rages and the wind drives me to the land where you are, will you let me be received so as to kill me, though I am the envoy of Amun? Look, as for me, they would search for me till the end of time. As for this crew of the prince of Byblos, whom they seek to kill, will not their lord find ten crews of yours and kill them also?’ She had the people summoned and they were reprimanded. She said to me: ‘Spend the night …’.
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- Women in the Ancient Mediterranean WorldFrom the Palaeolithic to the Byzantines, pp. 102 - 108Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023