Born: Unknown, Egypt (assumed)
Died: Unknown
Country most active: Egypt
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Khuwyt, the singer and harpist, lived in the vicinity of Thebes, Egypt, where she was employed in the household of the Grand Vizier. There are two wall paintings showing her seated before her harp, while the words of the songs which she is singing are written out above her head. She must have been a fine performer and greatly esteemed by the Grand Vizier to be so represented. Accompanying her in both paintings is a man harpist.
Both carry harps of five strings, but nine pegs were inserted in the frames of the harps so that the strings could be shortened and the value changed. A testimony to the eternal feminine in the women of antiquity, as well as those of today, is the intricately decorated frame of Khuwyt’s harp — a contrast to the plainer frame of the harp played by the man harpist. Perhaps the female effigy adorning the top of Khuwyt’s harp is a bit of challenging feminism on the part of this musician, who is one of the first women artists in the history of the world.