Statue of Amenhotep II with goddess mrt sgrt

Amenhotep II the son of Thutmosis III from the royal wife that is he was the legitimate heir to the throne, he was different from his father in his physical features as he was a tall young man. He shared the throne with his father as a co-regent for one year and reigned for about 25 years. He married ti aA from which he gave birth to Thutmosis IV who succeeded him in ascending the throne. It was said that nobody could bend his bow. Like his father he followed an aggressive policy of conquest. He was a sportive king, a great man of sports and he boasted of being the only man in Egypt or Syria able to bend his bow. As a child he was sent to Memphis to be educated and raised among the stables so he was a sportive horse rider, a pharaoh of an extraordinary power. He was fond of hunting, horse riding, rowing and archery. During his reign there was a revolt made by the Syrian princes who made use details of his visit to Syria. On his stela found at Memphis made out of limestone there is the story that tells us that he had captured seven Syrian princes, he hanged six of them at the Theban wall as a kind of sacrifice for god Amen-Re and hung the head of the seventh on the prow of a ship which he sent to Napata in order to threaten the princes there and tell them if they ever think of revolting their end will be like that of Tokshy (the name of the town in which the rebellion happened). In this stela the name of Hebrews was mentioned for the first time as he brought Hebrews as prisoners. There is another stela belonging to him at Giza plateau recording his strength. A third stela belonging to him was found at the temple of Thutmosis III at Nubia (Amada) relating his campaigns in Syria. His tomb was discovered in the Valley of the Kings in 1898 and it contained his mummy and the mummies of eight other kings; Thutmosis IV, Amenhotep III, Merenptah, Siptah, Seti II, Ramsis IV, Ramsis V and Ramsis VI together with three unidentified mummies for three women and a body all of them were transferred to the Egyptian Museum in 1935. His arrow was also found buried with him which indicates that he was proud of himself as a bowman. The end of his reign was quite peaceful and Egypt came to enjoy one of the most prosperous periods in its history.

We have a representation here for Amenhotep II together with a local goddess know as mrt sgrt. The statue is made out of grey granite and it was found in Karnak cachette. It represents Amenhotep II in standing position putting his hands on his lap wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt with a starched kilt having rays coming up to enlighten his cartouche with two cobras protecting it since this cobra was the protector of god Re. There is another explanation that the cartouche is in the sun disk. So we can call the attitude of this statue praying attitude. He is represented with a step left leg forward with the nine bows under his feet. He is protected from the back by goddess mrt sgrt “beloved of silence”. She lived in the west as it was the place of death as she was a protector goddess of the Theban necropolis which was a very quite place. She was the goddess of Gebal El Qorna on the western bank of the Nile. She presided over the whole Theban necropolis and is usually represented as a snake with a woman’s head or sometimes as a scorpion with a female head. Here she is represented as a huge serpent with two horns and the solar disk in between as a sign of identification with goddess Hathor. On either side of the statue we can see the mw sign of water but it seems that they are unfinished. Coming form the mw sign are the lotus and the papyrus to give us the atmosphere of the primeval (sacred) island from which all gods and goddesses came. It was said that the plants in this island were mainly lotus, papyrus and palm trees. Representing the goddess here in larger size than the king proves that the idea of divinity of the king which was in the Old Kingdom times was altered in the New Kingdom.

Hieroglyphic inscriptions:

Left side:

Nfr nTr aA xprw ra mry imn ra di anx

The good god great are the forms of Re beloved of Amen-Re giving life

Right side:

sA ra imn Htp mry imn ra di anx

The son of Re, Amen is happy, beloved of Amen, given life