Statue of a Goddess

  • 3rd century BCE
  • Granodiorite
  • height 159.5 cm,width 50 cm

Traditional Forms

As we enter the Egyptian Gallery, the first work we encounter is a statue of a goddess. Standing straight and still, she directs her gentle, smiling gaze forward, towards us. Her right arm and hand are pressed to her side, her fingers straight. In her left hand, she holds to her chest a curved scepter in the shape of a water lily branch. The petals clustered on the lily are slightly open and droop downward along the curve of her left shoulder, in an arc that suggests, to Japanese visitors, the horsehair whisk carried by Buddhist priests.

Since the water lily opens in the morning and closes in the evening, the flower is associated with the rising sun and is a symbol of rebirth. Goddesses who carry a water lily include Isis and the fertility goddesses Satis and Anika. However, the remains of a rectangular crown on top of the head suggest the throne-shaped crown associated with Isis. The wig is divided into three parts, a sheer garment covers the body from wrists to ankles, and the left foot extends forward. All are features that make this work an utterly classic example of Egyptian statues of women. This statue of a goddess is permeated with an atmosphere that belongs to a long history that dates back to the Old Kingdom.

A Distinctive Diadem

Especially noteworthy here is the diadem that crosses the forehead, encircling the head. Some examples of this type of headband-like crown, denoting royalty or divinity, date back to the Old Kingdom. Usually the band is tied in a bow knot, which forms loops. In this case, however, the knot is a plain reef knot without loops. The diadem symbolizing of royalty emerged first in Old Kingdom Egypt and is found throughout the ancient Mediterranean world in Ancient Greece. Those worn by heroes and royalty customarily had a “Hercules knot,” i.e., a reef knot.

It is believed that the use of this knot had a special significance for the Macedonian royal family, who claimed Hercules as one of their ancestors. This association is confirmed by knots without loops seen on diadems depicted on coins and other Macedonian artifacts. A further unusual feature of this statue is that, while there is no signature on the polygonal column carved into the back of the statue, the column extends from the soles of the feet to the bottom of the wig, a characteristic of statues from the Ptolemaic period (3rd or 1st century BCE).

Heirs to the Pharaohs

While this statue possesses many traditional features, the symbol of Macedonian royalty that appears on the diadem makes it highly probable that this is a statue depicting the Ptolemaic Queen Arsinoe II as a goddess. In the fourth century BCE, Alexander the Great “liberated” Egypt from Persian control. Following Alexander’s death, however, Ptolemy, one of his generals, declared himself the heir of the Pharaohs who had ruled Egypt for thousands of years and founded the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Queen Arsinoe II was the sister and wife of Ptolemy II, who had proclaimed her an avatar of the Greek goddess Aphrodite even before her death. It has been suggested that, besides being consistent with Egyptian tradition, their marriage, despite a Greek aversion to unions between siblings, was a way to solidify political authority. Following the queen’s death, the king ordered that her statues be placed and worshipped in all temples. He also had steles installed that stated that the supreme deity Amun-Ra had proclaimed, “You are the goddess who rules over all earthly gods.” Thus, the queen came to be worshipped as the Egyptian goddess Isis. That identification of the late queen with Isis could be considered a political move during the early days of the Kingdom amidst difficulties in ruling a mixed population of Egyptians and Greeks. Arsinoe II, proclaimed to be an avatar of Aphrodite, a goddess widely worshipped throughout the Mediterranean, thus came to be worshipped in Egypt as the national mother goddess and attracted avid worshippers throughout the Ptolemaic period. She is an example of the syncretism by which Greeks turned their own gods into those of other peoples. In this way, the deification of a foreign royal family was set in stone, a phenomenon that did not occur when Egypt was ruled by Persia.

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