Quick questions on Hatshepsut's religious policy and propaganda: HSC Ancient History

Amun-Re of Thebes was the dominant state god of the 18th Dynasty. The Karnak temple complex was the largest religious complex in the ancient world. Amun's priesthood was politically and economically significant; the high priest of Amun was one of the most powerful men in Egypt.

Hatshepsut's Karnak programme put her legitimation claim into the most sacred space in Egypt. She erected an earlier pair of obelisks (from the first decade of her reign) and a second pair around year 16, of which one still stands. The base inscription of the surviving obelisk declares that she "acted under his command," meaning Amun-Re directed and sanctioned the work, framing an act of royal ambition as an act of obedient piety.

Hatshepsut inherited the office of God's Wife of Amun from her mother Ahmose. The office had become institutionally important in the early 18th Dynasty under Ahmose-Nefertari and her successors.

The two great Theban festivals were central occasions for royal display.

Annual procession of Amun's bark from Karnak to Luxor (around 3 km south), where the rejuvenation rituals of the god (and the king) were performed. The festival lasted around 24 days. Hatshepsut's role is depicted in the Red Chapel reliefs.

Annual procession of Amun's bark across the Nile to visit the mortuary temples on the west bank, including Hatshepsut's Djeser-Djeseru. The festival linked the living king with the deceased pharaohs.

Goddess of women, music, and the necropolis. Chapel of Hathor at Deir el-Bahri. Hatshepsut's identification with Hathor was strong.

Embalming and funerary god. Anubis chapel at Deir el-Bahri.

Lioness goddess at Speos Artemidos.

Hatshepsut's father, worshipped as a divine ancestor at the mortuary temple of Khenemet-Ankh adjacent to Djeser-Djeseru.