The Princess's Endless Journey

As the setting sun painted the deep blue waters of the Aegean Sea red, the princess's tears dripped down her cheeks, spreading over her neck and then her chest. The princess still couldn’t believe she was about to embark on a one-way journey into the unknown, leaving behind Apasa, where she was born and raised.

Even if he was a king, how could a father cast his only daughter out of the palace where she was born and raised, and send her to a distant land for the sake of his own interests? Did a person’s heart not ache at all? These unanswered questions buzzed in the princess's mind like bees.

The night before, she had pushed her luck one last time, pleading with her so-called father, King Tarhundaradu of Arzawa, not to send her to the hot lands along the banks of the Nile to become yet another wife of the Egyptian pharaoh. Despite hours of weeping, she had not been able to change Tarhundaradu’s decision. The King of Arzawa had merely said the following to his daughter, whom he would not even look at:

“You are the Princess of Arzawa. You have to make this sacrifice for your country. You know very well that the Hittite Kingdom has exploited our beautiful country. Every year we are forced to pay them tribute and, whenever they wish, to send the brave men of Arzawa to Hattusa, the Hittite capital, to fight for them. Enough! We must break free from the Hittite yoke and gain our independence, and for this, we need the support of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep. The easiest way to secure this support is for you to marry into Egypt. Thus, the Egyptian pharaoh will become my son-in-law and my greatest ally against the Hittites. The King of the Hittites will never again dare to exploit us Arzawans.”

The princess’s heart was so filled with profound disappointment that she did not even go to see her father before setting out with her entourage. She passed through the sea-scented lands where the ancient city of Ephesus would be established hundreds of years later, heading towards her fate. As the princess traveled, countries, climates, and even seasons changed. Finally, when she arrived in the warm lands of the pharaoh, she gazed at the yellow sands she had seen for the first time in her life and reflected on her life story.

Many years had passed since the princess arrived in Egypt. Every day there, she longed for her childhood in the palace of Arzawa overlooking the Aegean Sea. She still despised both the Egyptian pharaoh and her father, King Tarhundaradu of Arzawa, for stealing her life and her hopes. In fact, apart from their wedding night, she had never even seen her husband, who would go down in history as Amenhotep III. On her first night in Egypt, after bathing and putting on beautiful clothes, she had become the pharaoh’s wife, and the next morning she had been installed in the harem, home to hundreds of women. Among the pharaoh's hundreds of concubines, the turn of the Princess of Arzawa never came again. Nor did she complain about never seeing the pharaoh’s face again.

As she did almost every day, the Princess of Arzawa left the harem quarters towards evening and walked to the banks of the Nile. As her long white hair fluttered in the warm desert breeze, she was once again reminded of the refreshing climate of her childhood. As she thought of and longed for the Palace of Arzawa in Apasa, the Aegean Sea, and the pine trees, a gate opened in the waters of the Nile, and the princess passed through it, vanishing into the unknown. The next morning, the princess's body was found on the banks of the Nile, already cold, but the smile on her face was surprisingly fresh and vibrant.

NOTE: During the Hittite period (1650-1200 BC), the Luwians lived in Western Anatolia. The royal palace of Arzawa, the largest principality of the Luwians, was on Ayasuluk Hill near Ephesus. Tarhundaradu, one of the kings of Arzawa, sent his daughter to marry Pharaoh Amenhotep III of Egypt to form an alliance against the Hittites.

Written for the Ephesus Foundation by author and archaeologist Özlem Ertan.