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enemies.”
    “Tiye was a magnificent queen,” agreed Amenhotep III, “according to the testimony of her enemies even before that of her friends.”
    “Yet you humiliated her in the most despicable way with your insatiable lust for other women,” decried Abnum.
    “Every king has his harem,” Amenhotep III replied. “These fleeting passions did not diminish the great role of the queen.”
    “And you wed in your senility a woman the age of your granddaughter?” continued Abnum.
    “I wanted to strengthen the ties between Egypt and Mitanni,” said Amenhotep III.
    “Lies are forbidden in this sacred hall!” Osiris warned him.
    “In truth,” Amenhotep III answered apologetically, “I had heard of her unsurpassed beauty, and I was insane about this quality. Despite illness and old age, I overindulged in love until it undid me.”
    “Was this the acme of your long life’s wisdom?” the Sage Ptahhotep needled him.
    “Death by love is fairer by far than death by illness,” said Amenhotep III.

    Osiris asked Queen Tiye to speak.
    “The king made me his wife out of love,” she began. “I was drawn intensely to him, panting with passion and the splendor of Pharaoh. Love bound us together from then on always.”
    “One day he consulted me about some of his business as king, and my opinion deeply impressed him. ‘You are a truly wise woman, as much as you are a much beloved female,’ he told me.”
    “From that day forward, he never resolved an issue without first hearing my view, and we began to receive the ministers and other officials together. I employed my own personal vision in handling the business that came to our attention. Every high office holder in the kingdom acknowledged my ability and sagacity—the priests rushed to me for guidance when the religious crisis sparked by my son Akhenaten’s creed grew out of control. I worked as hard I as could to avoid the catastrophe and prevent civil war.
    “As for my husband’s obsession with other women, all kings have their concubines. Not only should a wife refrain from plotting her revenge on this score—it is also no shame for her to select his beauties for him, until he purges himself clean, restoring his sense of well-being. Through the force of my will as an exceptional woman, I triumphed, contenting myself that a queen is no ordinary female when responsible for her husband’s policies.”
    “Was the queen never vanquished by the woman in you?” Hatshepsut put to her.
    “I never knew defeat, except before my son.”
    “But a woman is still a woman,” insisted Ptahhotep.
    “Yet Tiye was of a kind never seen before—nor shall occur again,” the queen replied.
    “This lady has proven the worthiness of woman to rule even more than Hatshepsut herself had,” advised Isis. “Her husband was a great king, and how preposterous that his appetite for women or taste for the pleasures of life in any way reduced his performance as pharaoh. Only after he had made his lowest subjects happy did he live a life of comfort and ease, in which they also shared with him. My heart is gladdened by this son and this daughter.”
    And so Osiris commanded them, “Go take your seats among the Immortals.”

21
    H ORUS HAILED , “King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti!”
    In came a man whose face fused both the male and the female, along with a ravishing woman. They walked forward in their winding sheets until they stood before the throne.
    Thoth read from the divine tome, “Dual heirs to the throne and rule, they carried out their duties faithfully. A religious revolution dawned, calling for the worship of a new, sole deity. Abolishing the old gods, Akhenaten proclaimed the reign of love and peace, and the equality of human beings. Yet internally the country fell prey to dissent and corruption, while abroad the empire faced both dismemberment and loss. The land found itself on the verge of civil war, and the king fell from power. A counterrevolution then took hold: