Images

A relief of Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator on one of the pillars in the courtyard of the Temple at Kom Ombo.

A detail of a wall painting in the Etruscan Tomb of the Funerary Bed at Tarquinia. The two men are dining, as indicated by their low one-armed chairs. c. 460 BCE.

A scene from a stone Etruscan sarcophagus showing a drinking party. Chiusi, 6th century BCE. (Staatliche Museum, Berlin)

A scene from a stone Etruscan funerary urn depicting a banquet scene. Chiusi, 5th century BCE. (British Museum, London)

An Egyptian apotropaic knife made from a hippopotamus tusk and designed to ward off evil in a nursery. (Oriental Institute Museum, University of Chicago)

A faience amulet of the Egyptian protective deity Bes. Egypt, 950-700 BCE. (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, USA)

A serpentinite and gold heart scarab pendant. Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Tomb of Hatnefer and Ramose, Mummy of Hatnefer. Thebes. Egypt, 18th Dynasty, c. 1492-1473 BCE. The text inscribed on the back of the scarab calls for Hatnefer's heart not...

Detail of the temple wall, Esna, Egypt. The temple was dedicated to the triad of Latopolis.

Temple dedicated to the triad of Latopolis. Esna, Egypt.

Marble statue of Scylla, a monstrous sea goddess who haunted the rocks of a narrow strait opposite the whirlpool daemon Charybdis (Kharybdis). Ships that sailed too close to her rocks would lose six men to her ravenous, darting heads. The...