Statues of Divinities

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Introduction and description:

This collection of hardwood figures buried with Tutankhamen about 35 statues in total were found divided between the antechamber, burial chamber and the treasury. Seven of them represented the king himself while the rest included a strange group of divinities.

The greater number was recovered from the treasury where they had been stuffed into 22 double door shrines of resin coated wood mounted on sleds and with sloping roofs. The doors of only one of those shrines had been opened by tomb robbers while the seals of the remainder had survived untouched since the king’s funeral.

These figures had been wrapped in a linen shawl which dates back to year three of Akhenaton’s reign which left only the face revealed. Some of them wore wreaths of sprouting barley grains or garlands made from tree leaves.

They were mainly made out of wood covered with gold leaf. The eye of all figures are framed in bronze and inlaid with glass or semi-precious stones except for Qebehsenewef and Dwamwtef whose eyes are simply pained in black. The fittings including the objects they carry and their sandals are of gilded copper-alloy.

The base of the Sekhmet statue has been roughly sawn off to allow it to fit into its shrine. The bases of the majority of the statues are inscribed with the coronation name (niswt bity) of Tut: Nebkheperure, beloved of Re.

The function:

According to Howard Carter these figures of gods or divinities represent a record of myths and beliefs, ritual customs, associated with the dead and the after life. But their exact meaning in the burial is not clear to us, they might have represented good or evil and or they may have some form of magic associated with them.

Some scholars suggested that the king is represented in the form of these deities but we don’t have a strict meaning for that. May be he wanted to embody some of their aspects in the afterlife. Others suggest that the reason for placing them in the tomb might be that due to the fact that the ancient Egyptians were religious people so they were hoping for these deities to accompany them in the afterlife.

Atum

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His name in ancient Egyptian language is ‘tm’ meaning “the complete one”.

When associated with the sun god RE, he was a creator god, head of the HELIOPOLITAN ENNEAD. He was the father of SHU and TEFNUT who gave birth to GEB and NUT then they later gave birth to ISIS, OSIRIS, SETH, NEPHTYS and HORUS THE ELDER (who is different to HORUS son of ISIS and OSIRIS).

His main cult centre was in HELIOPOLIS.

In later periods he was worshipped as the evening manifestation of the sun (the setting sun or the aging sun)

He was depicted in human form often wearing the double crown of Egypt.

One of the animals particularly sacred to him was the ichneumon (fighter of snakes).

SHU

He was the son of ATUM–RE in the HELIOPOLITAN ENNEAD. Together with his sister and wife TEFNUT, they formed the 1st pair of gods born off ATUM-RE in the HELIOPOLITAN ENNEAD.

SHU was the god of air and dryness while his sister TEFNUT was the goddess of moisture so they complemented each other.

SHU’s name means “the uplifter” or "he who raises up". His job was to support heaven (the sky NUT). His position was always separating GEB the earth god and NUT the sky goddess while he is standing and lifting up his arms to hold NUT.

One of the myths suggests that god RE asked SHU to separate NUT from GEB after RE fell in love with NUT.

SHU was represented in a human form and sometimes wearing a plume on his head which represented the hieroglyphic sign of his name.

SHU was sometimes equated with the Sun as the right eye of RE and his wife TEFNUT was associated with the moon as the left eye of RE. In this role, SHU took the head of a lion and TEFNUT took that of a lioness.

Description:

In this wooden gilded figure god Shu is shown as a mummy form man he is wearing a headdress with four feathers. He has an osirian beard, which like his eyelid and eyebrow, is painted black.

There is a question related to this figure because on the bases of the other deity figures which were found in the tomb of Tutankhamen the king is described as beloved of the deity but text on the base of this figure read as (Shu Horus strong of arm), this could be explained as the king himself is sometimes described as Horus strong of arm but why there is a link between Shu in this form with Horus but why there is a link between Shu in this form with Horus. This problem is still unsolved.

GEB

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He was the god of earth (physical support of the world). His sister and wife NUT was the goddess of the sky. He was the son of SHU and TEFNUT (as per the HELIOPOLITAN ENNEAD)

He is the father of OSIRIS, ISIS, NEPHTYS, SETH and HORUS THE ELDER.

He is often depicted lying under the feet of SHU, the air god, reclining on his side with one arm bent.

As a god of earth, responsible for vegetation, he was sometimes represented green in colour or even with vegetation sprouting from him. He was the provider of crops and a healer. It was believed that Geb’s laughter caused earthquakes. It was feared that because Geb was an earth god he might imprison the dead preventing others from having another life in the netherworld.

His sacred animal was the goose. Thus he is sometimes represented as a man with a goose upon his head. He had a title associating him with the goose, which was “the great cackler”.

His normal representation was in purely human form.

 According to an Egyptian legend Geb married his sister Nut the sky goddess without the permission of the powerful Sun god Re. Re was so angry at Nut and Geb that he forced their father Shu, the god of air, to separate them. That is why the earth is separated from the sky. Moreover, Re prevented Nut from having children in any month of the year. But, fortunately, Thoth the divine scribe decided to help her. Thus, he convinced the Moon to play with him a game of draughts, where the prize was the Moon’s light. Thoth won so much light that the Moon had to add five new days to the official calendar. Thus Nut and Geb could finally have five children: Osiris, Seth, Isis, Nephthys and Horus the elder. These days are known as the five Epagomenal Days. 

Description:

The gilded wooden statue portrays Geb, the god of earth standing on a small rectangular base. He is depicted in the form of a mummy with his body completely enveloped in a cloak. His arms are crossed on his chest, which is adorned by a large collar. He wears a tripartite wig on his head. His body is entirely gilded except for his eyes, eyebrows and false beard.

Isis

<!--<!--Her name is written with the hieroglyphic sign for the throne. There is a theory about her association with the throne; the legend says that during the struggle between her son HORUS and SETH, she took her son’s place on the throne to guard it for him.

She was the divine mother of HORUS, sister and wife of OSIRIS.

She is a famous mother goddess, symbolic mother of the Egyptian king, who was himself regarded as the human manifestation of HORUS.

She was frequently depicted as seated on her throne suckling the baby HORUS. This image has survived the centuries and the same idea was adapted later by the divine figure of Virgin Mary with her son baby Jesus. This idea helped in facilitating the transition from the Egyptian religion to the Coptic religion in its early stages.   

She was a beneficent goddess as well as a great magician. In the legend of ISIS and OSIRIS, she made the 1st mummy by gathering the dismembered parts of her husband’s body then she used her wings to breathe life into him and magically conceiving her son HORUS.

Together with her sister NEPHTYS they were the divine mourners of the dead, often referred to as the two kites.

She is one of the protective goddesses guarding coffins and Canopic jars also associated with THE FOUR SONS OF HORUS represented on the four corners of the sarcophagi. This role stayed with her till the Ptolemaic period when she became the wife of Serapis and one of the Agatha demons. She was represented as a serpent in tomb reliefs and called Isis Thermouthis or Isis tA rnnt which means Isis the nurse.

In this aspect, ISIS was always represented at the southern end of the coffin (at the feet of the dead person), while NEPHTYS was represented at the northern end (at the head of the deceased) thus protecting the deceased.

She was represented as a woman with a throne on her head surmounting a vulture headdress, sometimes with cow horns and the solar disk.

From the New Kingdom onwards, she was closely connected with HATHOR.

She was one of the most popular deities in ancient Egyptian religion with cult centres all over the country. Her biggest temple was at Philae.

Some legends associated with Isis

The myth of Isis and Osiris:  

<!--<!--Osiris went out to other distant places to teach men to live in peace and while he was away he left Isis to rule Egypt.

Seth pretended to love Osiris but he secretly gathered a band of conspirators and plotted against him.

When Osiris returned from his journey Seth held a feast in his honour and planned a cunning trick to get rid of him. He brought forth a beautiful chest made of cedar wood from Lebanon and ebony from Ethiopia. It was inlaid with gold and silver and many precious stones.

Seth cried out to his guests, “I will give this chest to the one who most perfectly fits inside it. Come now and try it on for size for it is a beautiful thing”

Osiris stepped up and said “let me try”. Into the chest he stepped, and it fit perfectly for Seth had had it secretly made to fit him. “it is mine” Osiris cried triumphantly, “just like it was made for me” as it had been.

Seth stepped up to the chest and slammed the lid and locked it saying “it will be your beautiful coffin” and he and his companions nailed the coffin shut and sealed it with lead and threw it into the Nile in the secret hours of the night. The swift current of the Nile carried the chest out to the sea.

The chest floated over the waves until it came to shore near Byblos. As the chest approached the beach a great wave arose and tossed it into the branches of a tree. The tree quickly drew the chest into its innermost heart and folded its truck around it. And the god’s presence made the tree grow into the most beautiful tree in the land.

They had the tree cut down and made a pillar out of the trunk. The pillar was set in the palace and its fame spread throughout the land for it had the most beautiful fragrance that made all those around it feel blessed.

Isis grieved the loss of her husband and vowed to find his body and bury him with all ceremony so that he could travel to the Duat, the Land of the Dead.

Children along the Nile saw Isis searching in the reeds and when she asked them about the box they reported that they had seen the beautiful box float down the Nile. Isis travelled down the Nile in the form of a swallow till she finally arrived to Babylon where she heard about the marvellous fragrant pillar. Using her magic she saw a vision of the chest within the heart of the tree and knew that the fragrance of the wooden pillar in the palace was the fragrance of the god Osiris who was hidden inside.

Isis managed to acquire the pillar after a series of tricks. Once Isis had the pillar she asked for it to be split open. The workmen found the coffin of Osiris inside the heart of the pillar. Isis removed the coffin and poured perfume and oils on the pillar. She took the body of Osiris home that he might be buried and pass into the Duat. But first she gave him life for only one night, she got pregnant with Horus.

Seth knew that the loyal wife had brought his brother back so he got so angry and jealous and be cut him into pieces and spread it all over Egypt. So Isis waited till Horus was born, left him in the Delta marches with Hathor and went to find the pieces of her husband. When she found them all she regrouped them again with her magical powers and he was buried and passed into the Duat. Then he became the king of the dead who judged all souls. The worthy souls dwelled with him in the Duat and the unworthy were doomed to eternal nothingness.

The secret name of Re: 

<!--<!--Osiris and Isis married when they grew up as did Seth and Nephthys. But Re was still Pharaoh though he had grown older and older and his hand shook with old age and the spittle dribbled from his lips.

Isis who was the greatest magician that Egypt had ever known devised a plan to trick Re to leave his throne so that Osiris might become Pharaoh. Thoth told her that she could not succeed unless she learned Re’s secret name. Only with his hidden name could she gain power over Re. While only Re could create living things, Isis used her magic to steal some of this power from Re and create a cobra of clay. Each day Re passed by Isis on his way to Upper Egypt. As he passes on the road the spittle from his lips fell into the dust. Isis gathered this spittle and dust and with her magic made the first cobra and lay it beside the path of Re for it had form but was lifeless.

When Re next passes along the road his eye fell on the lifeless cobra and it came into being. It reared out of the grass and bit Re on the heel as he passes and then the cobra slithered away.

Re sat down beside the road holding his heel and soon a great pain shot through him and he cried aloud. All the gods came swiftly to help him in his anguish and Isis was among them.

Isis cradled Re’s heel in her hand and asked him how they could help him in his agony. Re replied that all those who knew magic and had wisdom must be called to help him. So one by one they came and none could help. The last who came was Isis

Re’s pain had grown greater he shivered and his eyes grew dim. “help me Isis for you are the greatest magician in Egypt. I do not know what poison attacks me or what snake bit me for I did not make it”.

Isis bowed before Re and whispered that she had great magic but she must have extra power to cast out this strange poison that came from no snake that Re had made; a snake that no one in Egypt had known existed. “I must have the power of your secret name, Divine Father”

Re was cautious and told her many of his names of power, but Isis shook her head and told him he must tell her his secret name. Finally the pain burned more powerfully and Re relented. But before he told her his secret name he made her promise that she would tell no one but the son that she and Osiris would near.

She must tell no one the secret name but Horus their son who would rule after Osiris.

Isis swore this oath and Re whispered his secret name. With that name Isis chanted a spell of extraordinary power that dorve the poison out of Re’s body.

Re’s pain ended but he was tired and felt very old. He knew that Osiris was destined to reign after him and his grandson Horus would follow as the third God-Pharaoh. So Re left the earth and took his place in the heavens. He crossed the sky daily and passed under the earth in the twelve regions of the Duat nightly

NEPHTYS

<!--<!--She was the sister of ISIS and OSIRIS and she was married to the evil god SETH who was also her brother.

She was never worshipped on her own. She doesn’t even have a cult centre or a temple of her own.

In legend she was the mother of god Anubis who was an illegitimate son of her from god Osiris.

The hieroglyphic sign for her name is (NBT_HT): which means the lady of the house.

She was represented as a woman wearing her sign of the NBT_HT on her head.

She was one of the four protector goddesses guarding the dead (ISIS, NEPHTYS, SELKET and NEITH). She was associated with HAPY son of HORUS as guardian of the lungs in one of the Canopic jars.

Together with Isis, she was represented guarding the foot and head of the deceased, respectively.

Horus

<!--<!--Falcons were more numerous in ancient Egypt than they are today. These impressive birds with their fine plumage and their ability to hover motionless above the before swooping on the prey that they have seen from afar, or to swerve upwards into the sky higher and higher until they disappear from sight appealed to the ancient Egyptians’ sense of awe at the mysteries of nature. Thus, falcons were worshipped at many places under many different names. Several gods took on the form of falcon e.g. Re, Montu and Sokar; but the most famous of the falcon gods was Horus.

Horus originally represents the Sky god, identified with the living king i.e. the reigning king was considered to be the earthly embodiment of the god and was called living Horus

He is one from the oldest deities known in ancient Egyptian religion. His name is attested from at least as early as the dynastic period.

He is the son of ISIS and OSIRIS, known as “the avenger” in relation to his role for avenging his father from his uncle SETH in the famous legend of “The Contending of HORUS and SETH”.

The eye of Horus “Udjat”: 

<!--<!--The sun and the moon were mythically imagined to be the eyes of Horus but the term eye of Horus (singular) is understood to refer to the moon eye as the sun was considered to be one of the two eyes of Horus and in the same time was the eye of god Re. the myth tells how the moon eye of god Horus was lost in one of his battles against his uncle Seth but god Djhwty succeeded in collecting the parts of this eye and fixed them together and returned it back to Horus so this eye was symbol of perfection and it was used as an amulet and was also painted on the sides of the coffins.

He has more than 15 different aspects to list some of them:

Hr sA ist: Horus the son of Isis. He was represented as a naked baby boy with his finger in his mouth and some times represented seated in his mother’s lap. He was the son of Isis and Osiris. He was worshipped in all temples where Isis was worshipped.

Hr sA wsir: Horus the son of Osiris

Hr pA Xrd: Horus the child. He was represented as a naked child putting his finger in his mouth with a shaved head except for a side lock of hair. Sometimes he was represented seated on a lotus flower, in this form Horus was referred to as nefer hr which means “the good Horus”. He was the son of Isis_Hathor.

Hr nd it.f: Horus the avernger of his father. He was represented as a man with a falcon head. He was worshipped at Hierakonopolis. He was the son of Isis and Osiris. He was in constant conflict with his uncle Seth, the killer of his father.

Hr bHdty: Horus the Behdetite or the Horus of Edfu. \he was represented as a winged solar disk. He was mainly worshipped at Edfu. He was the son fo Re and Isis and also the husband of Hathor and father of Ihy.

Hr m Axt: Horus in the horizon. He was represented as a falcon or as a falcon headed man or as a falcon headed lion but his most known form is that of a sphinx or as ram headed sphinx. He was associated with Re, Atum and Khepry. He was worshipped at Heliopolis.

Ra Hr Axty: Horus of the horizon. He is represented as a falcon or as a falcon headed man wearing the solar disk and the double crown or the uraeus and the Atef crown. He was indentified with god Re and the daily voyage of the sun from horizon to horizon. The two deities combined to become god Re Horakhty.

Hr smA tAwy: Horus unifier of the two lands.

Hr m pt: Horus in the sky

Hr nwb: the golden Horus

Hr wr: Horus the great or Horus the Elder at Kom Ombo. He was mainly worshipped at Kom Ombo. He was either the husband or son of goddess Hathor at Kom Ombo. He was considered to be the 10th member of the Heliopolitan Ennead as a brother of Isis, Osiris, seth and Nephthys. He was represented as a falcon or as a falcon headed lion wearing the double crown.

Hr ihy: Horus of Dendera associated with god Ihy. He is the son of Horus of Behdt and Hathor. He was worshipped at Edfu and Dendera

Hr Hnty irty: Horus of Letopolis Kom Ossim

There are four forms of Horus that were mainly worshipped in southern Nubia and they were all represented as a falcon headed man or as a falcon headed sphinx wearing the double crown and they are :

Mha: worshipped at Abu Simbel

Baki: Worshipped at Quban

Miam: worshipped at Aniba

Buhin worshipped at Buhen

The most important forms are: Horus the Elder (Harocris) brother of Isis and Osiris, Horus the younger (Horus the Child) and Rehorakhty who is represented in association with god Re.

He is often depicted as a falcon sometimes wearing the double crown or in human form taking the head of a falcon wearing the double crown. In the late period he got linked with Harpocrates, represented as a child with a side lock of hair and a finger in his moth normally associated with Horus the child.

The most complete temple for Horus is in Edfu. Nevertheless, he was closely connected with Hierakonpolis (known as Nekhen during the Pharaonic period) or Kom El Ahmar.

The four sons of Horus

They are four deities whose main role was protecting the viscera or the eternal organs of the deceased by guarding the Canopic jars

From the 18th Dynast onwards, they were represented on the stoppers of the 4 Canopic jars.

Mention of their name was attested since the Old Kingdom, when they were described as the ‘friends of the king’, assisting him in his ascension to heavens.

They were associated with the 4 protector goddesses guarding the dead, related to specific cardinal points and each guarding a specific organ of the body of the deceased, in this specific order:

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Khepri

<!--<!-- His name means: ‘he who is coming into existence’.

Creator god principally manifested in the form of the scarab or ‘dung beetle’, although sometimes depicted in tomb paintings and funerary papyri as a man with a scarab as a head or as a scarab in a boat held aloft by NUN (the primeveal ocean). The best example for Khepri in his scarab form is the huge scarab next to the Scared Lake in the Karnak temples.

 He is attested from at least as early as the fifth dynasty, where he was mentioned in one of the spell of the Pyramid Texts invoking the son to appear in the name of KHEPRI.

He is the god of resurrection and after life.

He represented the sun at the early hours of dawn. The ancient Egyptians associated him with the rising the sun, because they observed the scarab at dawn when they used to roll their dunk in balls and push it from the east to the west early in the morning (which is reminiscent of the movement of the sun). Similarly they believed that Khephri, in the form of a gigantic scarab, rolled the sun like a huge ball through the sky then rolled it through the underworld to the eastern horizon. Each morning Khephri would renew the sun so that it could give life to the whole world.

Khephri was believed to be swallowed by his mother Nut each evening then pass through her body to be reborn each morning.

 (N.B) There is no male and female in the scarab species, i.e. they don’t need to get married to reproduce so that’s why they are associated with the idea of regeneration. This character is known as Hermaphrodite.

Ptah

<!--<!--He is one of the very ancient gods of ancient Egyptian religion. His worship goes back to the earliest part of the dynastic period.

<!--<!--He was the creator god of Memphis, Head of the Memphite Creation theory.

He was also the patron god of craftsmen.

The origin of the name of Egypt: Ht kA PtH, the house of the ka of Ptah is related to his name.

His name means the opener and this name is associated with the ceremony of opening the mouth, as he used to open the mouth of the deceased.

His main cult centre was at Memphis where he formed his triad with his wife goddess SEKHMET and their son god NEFERTUM (the lotus god).

He was represented as a man in a mummy form completely wrapped except for his hands which are protruding from the mummy wrappings and he was holding in his hands: the DJED pillar, the ANKH sign and the WAS sceptre. His head was shaven and covered with a tight fitting skull cap leaving his ears exposed often coloured in blue.

Later on, he was mingled with SOKAR (ancient god of Memphis) forming the god PTAH-SOKAR. Then by the Late Period this combined deity was associated with OSIRIS as PTAH-SOKARIS-OSIRIS taking the attributes of a god of the dead represented in mummy form or as a hawk or as a dwarf. This deity incorporated the principle gods of creation, death and the afterlife.

Sekhmet

<!--<!--Her name means the powerful one

She held many titles for example sxmt aAt or the great Sekhmet, mrt ptH beloved of Ptah, nbt tAwy lady of the two lands, nbt snD lady of fear, nbt iSrw lady of Ishrw like Mut, nbt nsrw lady of flames like wadjet.

She was a war goddess in leonine form and she always accompanied the king during his battles. Why did the Egyptians choose a lioness to be a war god not a lion? Because the lioness is more fierce than the lion.

She is the consort of Ptah in the Memphite Triad, mother of Nefertum

She was considered as one of the daughters of god Re. She was associated with the legend of the destruction of mankind. She personified the aggressive aspects of the female deities and as a daughter of Re she was closely connected with the royal ureaus in her role as the fire spitting Eye of Re so she attacks hostile powers

Her main cult centre was in Memphis

She was a great magician and also as a great healer

She was represented as a lady with the head of a lioness with the two horns and the sun disk in between or as a complete lioness with the solar disk upon her head

Later on she got mingled with goddess Mut as attested by a big number of statues as Mut-Sekhmet

Description of the statue:

<!--<!--It is made out of gilded wood. Sekhmet is represented as a seated lady with the head of a lioness crowned with the solar disk. She is seated on a low back throne. She is wearing a tripartite hair wig and a collar of six layers a tight fitting dress decorated with geometrical motifs. She is placing one hand on her leg which once held the Ankh sceptre while the other hand is flat. The throne is decorated with geometrical motifs and has the representation of the Sema Tawy on both sides.

Sopdu

<!--<!--He was a warrior deity of foreign origin

He represented the eastern frontier of ancient Egypt and his main cult centre was in pr-Sobed the 20th nome of Lower Egypt (saft El Henna). There are also inscriptions attesting his worship at Serabit El Khadim in Sinai.

He was represented either as a falcon or as a man in the Asiatic form with a beard and wearing the shemset girdle and a headdress of two falcon feathers often holding a battle axe together with the was sceptre and the Ankh sign.

Ihy

He was a young god son of goddess Hathor and god Horus of Behdet.

His name meant the cestrum player. He is considered the personification of joy and delight associated with the sound of the cestrum

He was represented as a naked child with a side lock of hair and sometimes with a finger in his mouth holding the cestrum in his hand and sometimes the mnat collar one of the cult objects of goddess Hathor

He was a sky god because his mother Hathor was a goddess who had association with the sky

His main cult centre was the temple of Dendera. In the temple complex the birth house or mammisis was a sanctuary where the mystery of the conception and birth of the divine child Ihy was celebrated

His name was rarely found outside the temple of Dendera though for example we occasionally find it in spells of the coffin texts or Book of the Dead where he is called Lord of bread in charge of bear.

During the Late Period he was equated with Horus The Child then in turn with Harpocrates

Description of the statue:

<!--<!--Among the collection of the gods that were in the treasury there were two statuettes of god Ihy. They are made out of wood covered with a dark resin and they are identical. This statue is represented completely naked left leg stepping forward and holding a gilded cestrum in his right hand. His eyebrows are inlaid with gold. He is depicted with the side lock. The colour symbolizing the fertile soil may indicate his association with rebirth.