May 28, 2010
Friday findings: menat counterpoise with two Gods
In the vein of this morning’s post, here’s an interesting piece: a menat counterpoise crowned with the heads of two Gods, one a lion and the other a man wearing plumes. (A menat, for those who might not know, is a necklace of multiple strands of beads, which can either be worn normally or carried in the hands and shaken as a musical instrument. The counterpoise is attached to the back of the necklace, to help it lie properly on the wearer’s neck and shoulders, or to serve as a handle when it’s being played.) The two heads are unusual, in my experience; more typically you’ll see a single head in profile, usually either a lion Goddess or Hethert. Here, the two heads are probably Tefnut and Shu, or Mehyt and Anhur. The body of the counterpoise shows full figures of the two Gods facing each other and holding a single papyrus stalk between them — a beautifully symbolic image, as the papyrus represents the unfurling greenness of the world, here depicted either as the gift of the two deities or as the product of their union, or perhaps as both.
There are some other nice pieces on the site where I found this one, which is a review of a Sotheby auction of Egyptian antiquities (click on the picture to visit it). About halfway down the page there are several lion Goddesses, including a lion-headed Wadjet (more commonly depicted as a cobra), and a little unidentified Goddess seated in a pose typically used for the Goddess Ma’at. It’s only a guess on my part, but the latter might represent Tefnut, who sometimes is associated with Ma’at. There are some very fine Heru and Wesir statues as well.
Dua Tefnut! Dua Shu! Nekhtet!