I’m hesitating over an email from a real estate agent pressing us to meet. She was recommended to help us buy a new home, and yet I have misgivings. The agent’s marketing photos show her in high heels and short dresses. She exudes glamour.
Ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertiti has glamour. She and Pharaoh Amenhotep IV took the unusual step of moving the capital of Egypt out of the historical city of Thebes to a new city built along the Nile River. More astonishing, they tried to turn Egypt from worshiping many gods to a single god.
But old habits die hard. After the pharaoh passed, the capital moved back to Thebes and everyone went back to worshiping the old gods.
We don’t know if Nefertiti ruled as queen by herself after the pharaoh died. We do know about her for a different reason. She’s called the “Mona Lisa” of the ancient world because of a discovery of a painted, stucco-coated bust depicting her extraordinary beauty.
Is it really what she looked like? The bust, if you look closely, has an impossibly long neck. In 2009, CT scans showed that underneath the painted stucco is a more realistic limestone carving of a woman with wrinkles and a bump on her nose. So maybe Nefertiti was using ancient world photoshopping.
Queens might need to look a certain way to instill a following. But do real estate agents? My personal choice is for an agent who has smarts.