Nitocris II

{{Short description|6th century BC Egyptian princess, High Priest of Amun}}

{{other uses|Nitocris (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox Egyptian dignitary

| Name= Nitocris II

| Style = High Priestess of Amun in Thebes
Divine Adoratrice of Amun?

| Image = Blank.JPG

| Caption= R8-U36-D1*t:n-i-mn:n-R24:t-i-N29:r:t
hm-ntr [tpy] n-'Imn, Nt-jqrt{{cite journal |last=Dodson |first=Aidan |date=2002 |title=The problem of Amenirdis II and the heirs of the office of God's Wife of Amun during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty |journal= Journal of Egyptian Archaeology| volume =88 |pages=179–186 |doi=10.1177/030751330208800112 |s2cid=190737173 }} pp. 179; 186
High Priestess of Amun, Nitocris

| ImageSize=

| Predecessor=

| Successor=

| Dynasty= 26th Dynasty

| Pharaoh= Amasis II, Psamtik III

| Father= Amasis II

| Mother=

| Burial=

}}

Nitocris II (or Nitokris II, Nitocris B,{{cite book |last=Kitchen |first=Kenneth A. |author-link= Kenneth Kitchen |date=1996 |title=The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC) |location= Warminster |publisher= Aris & Phillips Limited |page=608 |isbn= 0-85668-298-5 }} § 365 n. 951; table 13A Egyptian: Nt-jqrt, Nitiqret) was an ancient Egyptian princess and priestess during the reign of pharaoh Amasis II of the 26th Dynasty.

Biography

Daughter of Amasis II, Nitocris II is mainly attested by an inscription on a bronze sitting statuette of Amun-Ra now in the University of Chicago Oriental Institute (registration no. E10584A-B[https://oi-idb-static.uchicago.edu/multimedia/854/Object%20Photo%20OIM%20E10584A-B.001.1920x1200.jpg Picture of the statuette on the Chicago Oriental Institute website]) on which she is called High Priest of Amun; the same object also claims that the God's Wife of Amun Ankhnesneferibre was her "mother". Nitocris' title is notable because she is the last attested holder of the once influential office of High Priest of Amun at Thebes, as well as one of only two known female holders;Dodson, Aidan, Hilton, Dyan. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson (2004). {{ISBN|0-500-05128-3}}, p.246 she may have reached this office around 560 BCE.

The fact that Ankhnesneferibre is called her "mother" suggests that Nitocris also held the office of Divine Adoratrice of Amun which usually led to the charge of God's Wife of Amun after the adoptive mother's death. However, it seems that Nitocris never managed to reach the latter position because these offices were abolished soon after the Persian invasion of Egypt in 525 BCE.{{cite web |url=http://euler.slu.edu/~bart/egyptianhtml/kings%20and%20Queens/God%27s_Wife_of_Amun.html |title=God's Wife of Amun |website=Ancient Egypt by Anneke Bart |access-date=May 31, 2015 }}

References

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{{succession box

| before = ?

| title = High Priest of Amun

| years = c.560–525 BCE

| after = office abolished(?)

}}

{{succession box

|before = Ankhnesneferibre

|title = Divine Adoratrice of Amun

|years = ?–525 BCE

|after = office abolished

}}

{{s-end}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Princesses of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt

Category:6th-century BC clergy

Category:6th-century BC Egyptian women

Category:Theban high priests of Amun

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