Last modified on April 17, 2007, at 17:51

Nefertiti

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Nefertiti (rough translation: "The beauty that has gone"), was the wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, later Akhenaten. On the basis of her having worn crowns normally reserved for the Pharaoh himself, it is believed she was the most powerful consort of any Pharaoh, while perhaps less powerful than Hatshepsut or Sobekneferu, who ruled in their own right. This would also have made her the most powerful woman on Earth during the 14th century B. C. Her cap crown was composed of four main colors: red, which shows power; green, which shows fertility and strength; gold, which shows superiority, preciousness and wealth; and blue, which was the main color used by Egyptians to show virtue, faith and truth.

She had six daughters and apparently died after 14 years of Amenhotep IV's reign. Theories of her death said that she was murdered; that she changed her name to Smenkhare, after the husband of her daughter; that her daughter permitted her to pose as her husband Smenkhare; or that she simply died. There was even a theory to the effect that Nefertiti was a man all along, in which case the fake marriage would have been the one to Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti's children were not hers. This would make her posthumous evolution into an archetype of the Great Mother particularly ironic.

Nefertiti was traditionally associated with the sun.