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Maāt,

↑, the “

the "daughter of Ra and mistress of the

gods,” symbolized Law, and she is always represented with ẞ, maät,

emblematic of Law, upon her head; in papyri two Maāti are shown together, each wearing, but sometimes this feather alone takes the place of the head. These are the Maati goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt. In figures of bronze, lapis-lazuli, and faïence Maat is represented sitting down.

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"house of Horus," is identified with Nut, the sky, or place in which she brought forth and suckled Horus; she was the wife of Atmu, a form of Ra. She is represented as a woman, cow-headed, with horns and a disk between them, and shares with Isis and Mut many of their attributes.1 She is often represented as a cow coming forth from the mountain of the west. The worship of Hathor is exceedingly ancient, and she was supposed to be the goddess of beauty, love, and joy, and the benefactress of the world. The forms2 in which she is depicted on the monuments are as numerous as the aspects from which she could be regarded. Full-length figures of this goddess in bronze and faïence are comparatively few, but plaques and pendants of faïence upon which her head is inscribed or painted are common.

For a fine example in bronze of Hathor, cow-headed, wearing horns, disk, uraeus and plumes, see B.M. 22925. In two interesting bronze hollow-work menats Hathor is represented in profile; B.M. 20760 shows the goddess wearing a uraeus on her forehead, and four uraei on her head; she has the usual head-dress of women falling over her shoulders. Beneath is a Hathor-headed sistrum, with pendent uraei, resting on . Beneath in an oval is the cow of Hathor, wearing, standing in a boat. Above, on each side, is a uraeus. One wears the crown of Upper Egypt,, and the other wears the crown of Lower Egypt. This beautiful object was found at Dêr al-Baharî, and is inscribed with the prenomen of Amenḥetep III - B.M. 300 represents the goddess with 아 a vulture head-dress, wearing . Below, in relief, are a figure of the goddess and a floral ornament; it is inscribed

Hathor, lady of heaven."

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was the god of the sky and the husband of

1 A list of the gods with whom she is identified is given in Lanzone, Dizionario, pp. 863, 864.

2 On a pendant (B.M. 302) she is represented at full length, in relief.

Nut,, the sky, the wife of Geb, and mother of Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, Anubis, Shu, and Tefnut, was represented by a woman having a vase of water & on her head, and holding † in in her left. She was painted on the outside of coffins, and was supposed to protect with her wings the deceased

her right hand and in her left.

within. Figures of this goddess in bronze or faïence are unknown

to me.

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Geb, J,

was the husband of Nut, the sky, and father

of Osiris, Isis, and the other gods of that cycle; figures of this god in bronze or faïence are unknown to me.

Serqit, ₪

the sun.

, daughter of Rã, wife of Horus, and

identified with Sesheta and Isis, symbolized the scorching heat of A bronze figure in the Louvre (see Pierret, Panthéon Égyptien, p. 17; Lanzone, Dizionario, tav. CCCLXII) gives her the body of a scorpion, and the head of a woman wearing disk and horns, by which she is identified with Isis. There is a similar figure in the British Museum (11629) on the base of which are the words

Af, "Isis, Giver of Life"; a small bronze scorpion, B.M. 18667,

also gives her the head and arms of a woman with disk and horns. The figures of this goddess, other than bronze, are usually made of lapis-lazuli.

Maaḥes,, is sometimes represented as a man, lion-headed, wearing a disk and uraeus; a few figures of this god in faience are known.1

Seker,, or Socharis, a form of the night-sun, is represented as a man, hawk-headed, holding A, and in his hands.

There are among the Egyptian gods in the British Museum two examples (1419 and 22930) of a polytheistic figure of considerable interest. They have hawks' ithyphallic bodies, human legs and feet, each of which stands on a crocodile, and human hands and arms; the front of the head is in the form of a jackal's head, surmounted by plumes and disk, and the back is in the form of a ram's head, surmounted by a disk and uraeus. In the right hand is a whip A, and in the left an object which I cannot identify. Each group 1 See Lanzone, Dizionario, p. 272.

2 In B.M. 22930 the hawk's body is more distinct, and has a head, surmounted by a disk, and the feathers of the tail rest upon a hippopotamus.

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stands on a pedestal with a circle formed by a serpent having his tail in his mouth. These figures have much in common with those described under the name Bes, and may be variant forms of this god.

Another figure of interest is B.M. 24385, which represents a seated woman, with the head of a sheep, surmounted by disk, uraeus, and horns; behind this head-dress is the tail of a scorpion. The right hand is laid underneath her left breast, which she touches with her finger and thumb, and the left rests upon her knee. The Museum of the Louvre possesses a similar figure with the addition of a naked child whom she holds upon her knees, and whom she is about to suckle. Lanzone (Dizionario, p. 841; for the figure see tav. CCCXI) thinks that the sheep and scorpion-headed goddess represents Isis, and the child, Horus.

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and she is usually represented in bronze and faïence with the head. and body of a hippopotamus, the hind quarters of a lion, and the tail of a crocodile. On her head she wears a modius which is some

times surmounted by a disk, horns, and plumes, M.

Sefekh-Aabu, or Sesheta, is a form of the goddess Hathor that was worshipped in Hermopolis, and was also adored in Memphis from the earliest dynasties.

Neḥeb-ka,, is a god mentioned in the Book of the Dead (Chapter XVII, 61; Chapter XXX, 3, etc.), and pictures of him are found upon coffins. In bronze figures he has the body of a man and the head of a serpent; in wood he has the body of an animal and the head of a serpent, and holds in his paws (B.M. 11779), in faïence he has an animal's body and a serpent's head, and either holds outstretched in his paws (B.M. 11795), or raises them to his mouth (B.M. 1197). He sometimes wears plumes and horns.

GRAECIZED FIGURES OF EGYPTIAN GODS

IN many large collections of Egyptian Antiquities that include objects of the Ptolemaïc and Roman Periods will be found a numerous group of red terra-cotta figures of Egyptian gods and goddesses to whom the Greeks, and possibly the Romans also, paid adoration. The gods chosen by them were not the old solar gods of Heliopolis and Memphis, but Ösiris and the members of his familyIsis, Nephthys, Horus, Anubis—and, curiously enough, the old Sûdânî god Bes. The group of such figures in the British Museum

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