Images

The King is shown in the pose, beard and robe of Osiris, the god of rebirth. This expressed a wish for eternal sed festivals: jubilees in which Amenhotep was to be rejuvenated. The King wears the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. Amenhotep's...

The owner was "a great commissioner of the palace" for Osorkon II, whose cartouches of birth and throne names appear on the upper arm. The shrine he presents contains a figure of Atum, the creator god of Heliopolis. The statue stood in the...

Monumental lists of past kings expressed the living ruler's legitimacy. Originally, Ramesses II was shown on the far right, honoring previous kings and the god Osiris. The kings were represented by their throne names, written inside oval...

Setau, a viceroy of Nubia for Ramesses II, assumes the pose of Osiris, god of the afterlife. His crossed hands claps a djed (right) and tit (left), symbols of performance and life linked to Osiris and consort Isis. Below, the sky goddess...

Sekhmet was a lion goddess, whose name means "the mighty one", and she personified the aggressive aspects of other goddesses. Sekhmet was a daughter of the sun god Ra. She usually wears the sun-disc on her head. A famous myth recounts how...

This is one of just a few surviving royal statues from the late Second Intermediate Period, when southern Egypt was ruled from Thebes. Two of its kings had the birth name of Sobekemsaf, but their order and chronological potions remain disputed...

The King wears the white crown of Upper Egypt, with a protective cobra emblem, representing the goddess Wadjyt. A long flaring beard has broken away. The hands are in a position of devotion. For stylistic reasons, the identity of this king...

Rehuankh was mayor of Abydos, where Osiris (the god of death and the afterlife) had his principal temple. He was also a "senior lector priest": a scholar with knowledge of rituals and sacred texts. The inscriptions on this statue are of unusual...

Stela of Ity from Abydos, Egypt, 12th Dynasty, year 14 of the reign of King Senusret I, c. 1951 BCE. In the upper scene, Ity and his wife receive offerings from two sons. Below left is another figure of Ity faced by two daughters...

The Great Sphinx at Giza represents the 4th Dynasty ruler, Khafra, with a body of a lion guarding his pyramid. A thousand years later, the Sphinx had come to be revered as a god called "Horemakhet", which means "Horus in the horizon". Some...