Final answer:
Statues of Hatshepsut show her adopting both masculine and feminine traits, suggesting that she was a powerful and complex figure in Egyptian history.
Step-by-step explanation:
Based on the statues of Hatshepsut, it seems that the Egyptian people may have held varied views regarding her legitimacy and role as a pharaoh.
The fact that Hatshepsut's statues exhibit both masculine and feminine traits—such as her being depicted with a beard in some and wearing traditional feminine attire in others—suggests that her gender played a nuanced role in her representation. This complexity might reflect her unique position in Egyptian society as a female ruler who adopted many of the conventional symbols of kingship to assert her authority.
The significant number of statues, along with their placement in temples and her mortuary complex, indicates that she was a prominent figure and that her contributions to Egyptian architecture and the proliferation of her image were of great importance to her reign. The destruction and defacement of her images after her death may signal a shift in how she was remembered.
Nevertheless, the grand scale and careful construction of her statues, which were designed to last for eternity, underscore the fact that she was a powerful and influential pharaoh during her lifetime, and her use of both masculine and feminine imagery in her statues would have communicated a strong message of her power and legitimacy.