Skip to main content

karnak

The Race of the Apris Bull
the Race of the Apis Bull which is often associated with the king's sed festival. This well known ceremony is for the first time found mentioned on the Palermo Stone in regard to several archaic kings, and afterwards, on a cylinder of Horus Den, the fourth king of the 1st Dynasty, we have the first known testimony of the Apis race.During the inauguration of a monument, the sacred bull Hap, at times accompanied the king during his race, as in the image on the second register at this point on the wall. Some inscriptions provide that "the king gives the land four times", implying that this ritual race was made around the area of the temple, once for each direction. Here, this is a double scene that is often found on the lintels of doorways that provide access to the sanctuaries of temples. On one side the king wears the red crown and on the other side, the white crown. Clearly visible, the king on the right holds two libation vessels. Behind him the two symbols of heaven, cut in half, are crowning the symbols of the the bull.
On the far left of this same register, Usermaatre, who wears the curling locks of a crown prince is clad in a panther skin. he holds the censer in one hand while he presents "food" to Menmaatre ( Seti I), who is standing on a pedestal in a naos, as an equal of a god. Hence, Ramesses II is paying homage to his father.
On the bottom register below these scenes, a column of text behind the barques of Khonsu and Mut, inform us that Menmaatre, maa kheru, accompanied his father Amun into the splendid temple Seti-beloved-of Ptah in the house of Amun. Hence, Seti I is depicted walking behind the sacred barques, in the same direction as the gods, and he is qualified as maa kheru (vindicated), which indicates that the king "was brought up to heaven and that he has rejoined He who has created him".

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The bindweeds of Egypt and their symbolic role for the deceased

http://www.egyptraveluxe.com/cairo_half_day_tour_to_cairo_egyptian_museum.php From the Middle Kingdom until the 18th Dynasty, representations are found of a parasitic bindweed associated with the stems of papyrus, . Its representations increase and refine themselves during the Amarnian period because of the naturalistic leaning to nature; but it is in Ramesside times, and more particularly that of Ramesses II, that the images become more beautiful and most detailed. The plant is frequently attached to the stem of the papyrus, or to bouquets, but being also able to, more rarely, exist separately. After the 20th Dynasty, if the theme persists, the quality of the representations decrease (as do all more representations of nature). This success under the Ramesseses is probably linked with the specific beliefs of that time, and notably the eminent place that the solar cults occupy. The nature of the plant has been under debate a long time ...

US authorities return eight stolen ancient Egyptian artifacts

US authorities agreed to return eight ancient Egyptian artifacts stolen and illegally smuggled out of the country. Today, upon his arrival from the United States, Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim announced that US authorities agreed to return eight ancient Egyptian artefacts stolen and illegally smuggled out of the country. The objects are to arrive next month. The pieces include the upper part of a painted anthropoid wooden sarcophagus from the Third Intermediate period depicting a face of a woman wea ring a wig decorated with coloured flowers. Two linen mummy wrappings covered with plaster and bearing paintings showing winged amulets pushing the sun disc are also among the artefacts. Hieroglyphic text showing the name and titles of the deceased are also found on the plaster cover. The third piece is a cartonage painted mummy mask from the Third Intermediate period while the fourth and fifth items are Middle Kingdom wooden boats. The other three items are lim...

what exactly happened to the Sphinx's nose?

The Sphinx's Nose The nose of the Great Sphinx at Giza is made conspicuous by its absence. What happened to it? The popular story is that the troops of Napoleon Bonaparte used the nose for target practice in 1798. Drawings done for La Description de L'Egypte depict a noseless Sphinx. The Sphinx, 1743. In 1737, British traveler Richard Pococke visited Egypt and made a sketch of the Sphinx that was published six years later. The nose is shown intact, but Pococke likely exercised his poetic license by adding it when it was not there (earlier, in 1579, Johannes Helferich had further taken an artist's liberties by depicting the Sphinx with a nose -- and with decidedly female features). Frederick Lewis Norden, an artist and marine architect, also sketched the Sphinx in 1737. His detailed drawings, published in 1755, were more realistic and showed the Sphinx with no nose. It is very unlikely that Norden would omit the nose if it was present. We can conclude that the...