Nitocris
Nitocris, also known as Nitiqret, was the last Pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the first female ruler of Egypt, the first known Queen regnant in the world, and the first of three women to take the title of Pharaoh (the other two being Hapshepsut of the Eighteenth Dynasty and Cleopatra VII of the Ptolemaic dynasty). Nitocris is not mentioned in inscriptions or buildings, but is in the king lists of Turin, and by Herodotus and Manetho. She may have succeeded Pepi II, her father, or Merenre II, her brother and possibly husband. Manetho claims she built the "third pyramid" at Giza, which we attribute to Menkaure, but it is believed that he confused the name Men-kaw-re with Nitocris's praenomen, Men-ka-re. The main belief of her reign is that she came into power when her brother/brother-husband Merenre II was murdered. The story goes that she invited the murderers to a banquet, then killed them by flooding the sealed room with the Nile. Then, to avoid the other conspirators, she committed suicide (possibly by running into a burning room). However, this is mainly a romanticized story, but it is one of the only pieces of information we have about her.
|
|
