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APRIL 2023

A goddess with her son!

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Copper alloy complex of Isis cradling her child, Horus.

National Archaeological Museum, Collection of Egyptian Antiquities, inv. no. ΑΙΓ 155.

 

Provenance: Egypt. Donated by Ioannis Dimitriou in 1880.

Dimensions: height: 49,7 cm, length: 16,7 cm., thickness: 20 cm.

Date: Third Intermediate Period, 1070-712 B.C.

Display location: Exhibition of Egyptian Antiquities, Room 40, Case 14 a.

 

The ancient Egyptian religion was deeply polytheistic. The Egyptians worshiped innumerable gods with piety and absolute faith that they transfigured in art by creating, among other masterpieces, a large number of their statues, of incomparable beauty! The Egyptian Collection of the National Archaeological Museum holds a significant number of such statues, in a variety of sizes, the most important of which are displayed in showcase 14 of Room 40.

The bronze complex ΑΙΓ 155 depicts goddess Isis[1] who cradles her little son, god Horus[2], on her knees, the offspring of her love with god Osiris[3], a quite popular representation throughout Egypt, mostly from the Third Intermediate Period (ca 1070 BC) onwards. The Egyptians used to offer such figurines to the temples and shrines of Isis in order to ensure her blessing for long life, prosperity and good health, gifts she was generously offering to her son and the Egyptian rulers.

The goddess is sitting on a throne, now missing, wearing a long tight dress that accentuates her curves and her slightly swollen belly, a tiny detail that denotes maternity, whereas her young firm breast with the nipples rendered in high relief, is exposed. With her right hand, she is holding her left breast to feed her son while with the left, now missing, she would hold him, as we see in all similar representations. Moreover, she is wearing sandals on her feet that rest on a simple footstool, arm bracelets and a collar ousekh[4] around her neck. The young Horus, naked on his mother’s laps, wears the Pschent[5] double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, with the royal uraeus in front, and a curl on the right side, the typical coiffure for youth in ancient Egyptian art.

In the ancient Egyptian literature, Horus as a child and like all children, was fragile, clumsy and sickly. He is often stung by scorpions or other insects, he raises fever, he gets injured, he has stomach ache, in a few words, Horus gets in trouble like every child in this tender age. Nevertheless, his mother is always by his side, protecting and comforting him. Horus after all, remains her little baby no matter how old he gets!

In the Egyptian mythology, Isis is the archetypal wife and mother, the giver of life, who protects and shelters her child at any cost from all harms that could hurt it and above all from the insidious and vicious powers of the god Seth[6]. After Seth assassinated Osiris, Isis hid her one and only son in the Nile marshes on the island of Kheb(t)[7], so as to raise him in safety and thus in the future, Horus may avenge for the murder of his father and claim the throne of Egypt.

This type of representation derives from the iconography of Ancient Kingdom (2575-2134 B.C.), where the king was depicted being nursed by goddesses as a child, and mostly from the Pyramid Texts[8] in which goddesses, including Isis, nourish the young pharaoh. Milk, as the first nourishment of a being, is a true source of life, even so the milk of a goddess! The divine breastfeeding provides the king with youth, strength, good health, protection and above all, it ensures the continuity and the longevity of his dominance and thus it is symbolically embedded in the coronation ritual. By this ostensibly simple act of motherly love, the king acquires divine status and therefore the legitimacy to rule.

The cult of Isis spread throughout the Mediterranean and the Iberian Peninsula, especially after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great while during the Roman times, it was extended up to Northern Europe and Britain and consequently elements of the image of Isis Lactans influenced the art throughout the centuries.

 

[1] Isis, the sister-wife of Osiris was one of the most important deities in ancient Egypt. She was the goddess of magic through which she could heal, of fertility and protector of women as well.

[2] Among the oldest gods in ancient Egypt, god Horus was associated with the king of Egypt as early as the First Dynasty (3150-2890 BC) who was considered the incarnation of the god on earth. Usually, as a sky god, he takes either the form of a falcon or of a human with a falcon’s head.

[3] Osiris was the god of underworld and one of the dominant gods of ancient Egyptian mythology. He is associated to death, resurrection and fertility.

[4] Broad collar decorated with beads which covered the neck up to the shoulders. It was extremely common in Egypt, as it was worn by men, women and gods. Moreover, the ousekh was the preeminent funerary jewel for the mummy of the deceased; it had an important role in religious worship, and, among other things, an apotropaic symbolism.

[5] Pschent crown is the combination of Deshret, the crown of Lower Egypt and Hedjet, the crown of Upper Egypt, symbolizing the union of the two regions under one ruler.

[6] Seth was the storm god of chaos and confusion, depicted with a human body and the head of a mythical beast. He was the brother and the assassin of god Osiris.

[7] The ancient Egyptian name of an island near the temple of Butus (capital of the 19th Nome of Lower Egypt), on which, according to mythology, Isis gave birth and raised Horus, in the Butic Lake according to Strabo. In Coptic, the name became ɰebi, in Arabic Chaba, Hemvis in Greek and Khñvis as a compound in names such Ἁρχñβις (Ώρος εκ Χñβις) και Ἐσεχγñβις (Ίσις εκ Χñβις).

[8] Τhe Pyramid Texts are the earliest Egyptian burial and religious texts on the walls of the corridors and burial chambers of royal pyramids of Saqqâra, by the end of Οld Kingdom (2375-2181 B.C.). They consist of mortuary prayers, hymns, and spells aimed to protect the dead and ensure life and sustenance in the great beyond.

 

Argyro Grigoraki

 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fernández Muñoz M.-E., 2019, Notes sur le lait des déesses dans l’Égypte ancienne, signification de l’allaitement divin, in: Dialogues d΄ histoire ancienne. Supplément, vol. 19, n°1. Visiones sobre la lactancia en la Antigüedad. Permanencias, cambios y rupturas. pp. 47-56.

Gauthier H., 1927, Dictionnaire des Noms Géographiques Contenus dans les Textes Hiéroglyphiques T.4, Société Royale de Géographie d’ Égypte. Le Caire.

Handoussa T., 1981, Le collier ousekh, Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur, Bd. 9,143-150.

Leclant J., 1951, Le rôle du lait et de l’allaitement d’après les Textes des Pyramides», Journal of Near Eastern Studies 10, pp.123-127.

Shaw I., Nicholson P., 1995, British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. British Museum Press.

Volokhine Y., 2017, Le lait et l’allaitement dans le discours égyptien sur la constitution du corps, in : Arena F., Foehr-Janssens Y., Papaikonomou I., Prescendi F. (eds.), Allaitement entre humains et animaux: représentations et pratiques de l’Antiquité à aujourd’hui. Anthropozoologica 52 (1): 83-90.

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