Heraklion Archaeological Museum - CollectiveAccess System : Bronze objects : Bronze figurine of Egyptian god Amun Re [Χ422]

Bronze figurine of Egyptian god Amun Re

Χ422

Metal (Bronze)

Almost intact

Height: 10 cm.Length: 2.1 cm.Width: 3.1 cm.

Dictaean Cave (Cave of Psychro)

Lower Cave

Early Archaic period (Egyptian dating: Third Intermediate Period):

700-600 BC:

Gallery:

XVII

Case:

174

Exhibition thematic unit:

Geometric - Archaic - Classical period (10th - 4th c. BC). The Sanctuaries. From Minoan cult to the amalgamation of religious beliefs

Sacred Caves

Description

Bronze figurine of the Egyptian god Amun-Re. He is depicted standing, wearing an Egyptian kilt, with an Egyptian aegis around his neck and a crown on his head with two vertical plumes, one of his main symbols. His cult was directly connected to the pharaonic dynasties of the time (18th-22nd Dynasty), with the pharaohs being considered his sons. Centred on the capital of Thebes, the god soon became very popular and his cult spread far afield. He was the god of fertility, the creator of life, and the deity who guided the Pharaoh and solved ordinary people’s problems. This figurine was discovered in the Dictaean Cave, the sacred cave of Zeus. According to myth, it was there that Zeus was born and raised, concealed from his father Cronus. The discovery of the figurine of an Egyptian god as a votive offering in the cave echoes the link between Zeus and the cult of Amun.

Bibliography:

Halbherr, F.-Orsi, P., “Scoperte nell’ Antro di Psychro”, Museo dell’ Antichità Classico 2, 1888, 107, pl. X. Hogarth, D.G., “The Dictaean Cave”, Annual of the British School at Athens 6 (1899-1900), 94-116. Hogarth, D.G., “The birth cave of Zeus”, Monthly Review 1901, 49-62, Boardman J., The Cretan Collection in Oxford: The Dictaean Cave and Iron Age Crete, Oxford, 1961. Cook, A.B., Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, vol. 2, part 1, New York, 1965. Verlinden, C. Les statuettes anthropomorphes crétoises en bronze et plomb, du IIIe millénaire au VII siècle av J-C., Louvain-la-Neuve, 1984, 228. Karetsou A. - Andreaki-Vlazaki M., Crete-Egypt, Three thousand years of cultural links, Herakleion-Cairo, 2001, 346.

Author:

S. P.

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