Spot on, Hil, they were taken care of and provided for materially but not emotionally, the way we see it.

I agree, I could never imagine sharing my man! But who knows how I would dhave looked upon things living in that day and time.

But it was only the King who had more than one wife. In general, people had only one wife although it was not prohibited to have more than one and in some cases there are stories telling about this. I think among the letters fromDeir el-Medina. The rleationship between man and wife was often almost idealisedd, with the wife, the "nebet per" having rights both inside and outside of the home which were not heard of in other cultures elsewhere at the time.

The King had the duty to provide an heir to the throne, and there was also the political side of it, to form liasions. So that was a very different situation. The King was a Living God, and had a very different role than men in general.