...Ancient Art Ancient art is the types of art in the cultures of ancient society. Art is any human endeavor thought to be aesthetic and have meaning beyond any simple description. Ancient art is the types of art in the cultures of ancient society. Unlike modern times, our ancient ancestors believed in many gods and goddesses to look over their beings from gods and goddesses of war to the goddesses of fertility. I have chosen to review The Nude Goddess Figurine, late 8th – 7th century B.C., ancient Lachish (metmuseum.org, 2008) and Plaque, Nude Goddess Standing on Crescent, 13th century B.C. Both figurines are felt to represent fertility (louvre.fr, 2008). Nude Goddess Figurine and The Plaque were found in Syria, in different eras. The Nude Goddess Figurine was created from clay or is ceramic in nature. She is a large woman holding her breast outward as to state that she is mother or to represent that she is fertile. Her neck is long and her hair is cap like with very tight curls. Her face seems to be from a mold the face shows much more detail than the body of the figure. The faces display smiles females were to be alluring. Possibly the mother of the gods this pillar figurine was created in large numbers in the kingdom of Judah (metmuseum.org, 2008). The Plaque or Nude Goddess Standing on Crescent was created from gold leaf over a carving of a sturdier sculpture. The Plaque was created to be e a charm for a necklace. She too is a large curvy woman her arms are bent but...
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...Chris Sinvil IHHIST 399-06 12-5-14 Dying gods In all ancient cultures myths were used to explain the phenomenon’s in the world before we truly knew why things happened the way they did. In this paper I will be comparing two fairly similar myths from different cultures. The first myth is the ancient Egyptian myth about Isis and Osiris. And the second myth is the Mesopotamian story of Inannas descent to the under world. First I will summarize both myths and then talk about what their purpose was. Then I will compare and contrast two too show just how similar they are. Firstly comes the myth of Isis and Osiris. As with much of the ancient Egyptian mythology, there are various versions of the story of Isis and Osiris, but basically it goes like this. Osiris was an earthly ruler, who was popular with the people who he ruled over. He was married to his sister, the beautiful Isis. His brother, Set, was very jealous of this popularity and title, so he plotted against Osiris. Osiris never realized Set’s true devious intentions but Isis had always had a sense that set was up to no good. Set's plans to be rid of his brother started when he secretly obtained his brothers measurements and had a magnificent casket made to fit. This casket was in the form of a human shaped box. Set then organized a large feast to which Osiris and a number of others were invited. At the peak of the festivities Set produced the casket and announced that it would be given to whomever it fitted. All...
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...Horus was the one who brought Osiris back to life and located him to the other world which there it was decided if it was permitted to enter in the eternal death. Geb was the father of Osiris and the day that he was born the was a voice from the heavens that said the good lord was born. Osiris was the oldest of four children and he married his sister Isis. Osiris taught his people a lot of things as the upper and lower king and he invented the Golden Age in Egypt. Since, this source mentions all the myths from Egypt like Osiris and why it relates related to the book of the dead. The source will be used to mention the life of Osiris from his birth to how he was murdered and the relationship between his wife as well as with his...
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...the Caucasus or Hittite Empire. Both of the work of art is from the time period of 2000 BC to 1000 BC. Both of these pieces of art is part of their own culture but holds an magnificent piece of their own cultures past. The Ancient Egyptian Jar lid was an very important piece in this ancient civilizations culture. The jar lids main purpose was to store the internal organs of the body. The organs that were individually wrapped were the stomach, liver, lungs and the intestines. According to the history of Canopic Jars the heart was left in the body due to the Egyptians believed the heart carried the soul or spirit of an individual. For each organ that was removed they placed them all four different containers. The Metropolitan Museum of Art list the Canopic jar of Queen Kiya which has been identified by the hieroglyphic and the outer appearance of the facial lid part of the jar. The Egyptians placed the face of whoever may have died on the upper jar lid. The art form of the lids was that of pottery, this piece of Egyptian history is a three dimensional art piece. The material that was used to produce the lids was alabaster, wood, glass and stone. The jars were sculptured first out of what material they may want to use. Then they would design the four jars depending on what organs were placed in them. The head of the lids were stated as the Four Sons of Horus. Egyptians believed these four gods would protect their organs in...
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...Religion guided every aspect of Egyptian life. Egyptian religion was based on polytheism, which means the worship of many deities, except for during the reign of Akenaton. During the reign of Akenaton, more than 3,000 years of development, Egyptian religion underwent significant changes of emphasis and practice, but in all periods religion had a clear consistency in character and style. The Egyptians had as many as 2000 gods and goddesses. Some, such as Amun, Isis, Osiris, and Horus, were worshipped throughout the whole country, while others had only a local following. There were two essential foci of public religion: the king and the gods. Both are among the most characteristic features of Egyptian civilization. The king had a unique status between humanity and the gods, partook in the world of the gods, and constructed great, religiously motivated funerary monuments for his afterlife. The Egyptian "Book of the Dead" contains the major ideas and beliefs in the ancient Egyptian religion. Because their religion stressed an afterlife, Egyptians devoted much time and wealth to preparing for survival in the next world. Tombs were placed if possible in the desert. Vast resources were expended on creating prestigious burial places for absolute rulers or wealthy officials. Tombs contained elaborate grave goods (mostly plundered soon after deposition), representations of “daily life,” or less commonly of religious subjects, and some texts that were intended to help the deceased attain...
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...stability. The chaos was divided into light and dark and set into place. This order was called Maat, which formed the principles of life for all time. Maat was a feather; it was light and pure. Shu and Tefnut produced Geb, the Earth and Nut the Sky. At first these two were tangled together as one. Shu, god of the air, pushed Nut up into the heavens. There she would remain arched out over Geb, her mate. They longed to be together, but in the name of Maat they had to be apart, to fulfil their functions. Nut produced rain for Geb, and Geb made things grow on earth. As the sky, she gave birth to the sun every night before dawn, and by day it would follow its course over the earth and die at sunset. Shu and Tefnut produced the other gods. Isis, the queen of the gods, Hathor, the goddess of love and beauty, Osiris the god of wisdom and justice, Seth, the god of evil, Thoth, the god of wisdom and Nephthys the protectress of the dead. But the chaos was still vast and not yet fully separated into the order of Maat. Shu and Tefnut once got lost in the dark waters of Nu. Atum was desperate to find his children. He sent his all-seeing eye throughout the...
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...When comparing Isis and Osiris from Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride to The Homeric Hymn to Demeter it is very easy to notice the many similarities. For example, the similarities between the characters in terms of their personalities, and journey. Especially between Isis and Demeter who both go on a search for their loved one and grieve in a similar fashion. However, towards the end of myths more differentiating qualities arises between the two goddesses. Moreover, the two myths also have noticeably similar themes such as grief, love, loss, betrayal and anger. However, forgiveness is a theme that appears only in Isis and Osiris and revenge only appears in The Homeric Hymn to Demeter. So, overall despite some major differences, mainly in the events...
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...stability. The chaos was divided into light and dark and set into place. This order was called Maat, which formed the principles of life for all time. Maat was a feather; it was light and pure. Shu and Tefnut produced Geb, the Earth and Nut the Sky. At first these two were tangled together as one. Shu, god of the air, pushed Nut up into the heavens. There she would remain arched out over Geb, her mate. They longed to be together, but in the name of Maat they had to be apart, to fulfil their functions. Nut produced rain for Geb, and Geb made things grow on earth. As the sky, she gave birth to the sun every night before dawn, and by day it would follow its course over the earth and die at sunset. Shu and Tefnut produced the other gods. Isis, the queen of the gods, Hathor, the goddess of love and beauty, Osiris the god of wisdom and justice, Seth, the god of evil, Thoth, the god of wisdom and Nephthys the protectress of the dead. But the chaos was still vast and not yet fully separated into the order of Maat. Shu and Tefnut once got lost in the dark waters of Nu. Atum was desperate to find his children. He sent his all-seeing eye throughout the heavens and earth to...
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...Thoth is the Egyptian God of the moon. Thoth is known as one of the first gods. Thoth is said to have a head of an ibis. An ibis is a bird with a long, curved beak, long legs, and a long neck. The curve on the ibis’ beak is described to look like a crescent moon. Thoth also healed Horus’ left eye and was considered to be the inventor of the hieroglyphics by the Egyptians. Thoth first became known as the god of the moon after the fight between Set and Horus. Horus’ eyes were known as the sun and the moon, the sun being the right eye and the moon being the left eye. In the fight between Set and Horus, Horus’ left eye was injured. Thoth came in and healed Horus’ eye; this linked the moon to Thoth. Also a crescent moon looked very similar to Thoth’s curved beak. Thoth not only helped Horus but also invented medicine, magic, different religious practices, and the biggest one, writing. Thoth was also known as the scribe of the underworld. Once this happened the moon detached from Thoth, Thoth became more closely related with wisdom rather than the moon. Thoth was then worshipped by all of the ancient Egyptian scribes. Thoth and his invention of writing, was not only the scribe of the underworld but also the scribe to the gods. Thoth was believed to be the creator of hieroglyphics. Thoth kept many scrolls and one of his wives, Seshat, was known as the goddess of writing. Thoth was related to the Egyptians with arts, learning, literature, and speech. Some ancient Egyptians stories...
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...that was alone in the world. Atum was neither male or female, and had one all- seeing eye that could roam the universe. Atum created his own children were he spit and vomited them out of his body. His son name Shu was god of the air. His daughter name Tefnut and made her god of mist and moisture. Shu and Tefnut job was to separate the chaos into principle of law, order and stability. Choas was divided into light and dark and was called Maat. Maat was a feather. Shu and Tefnut produced Geb, the Earth and Nut the Sky. Nut produced rain for Geb and Geb made things grow on earth. Sky gave birth to the sun every night before dawn, and every day it would follow its course over the earth and die at sunset. Shu and Tefnut produced other Gods, Isis, the queen of the gods. Hathor, the goddess of love and beauty. Osiris the god of wisdom and justice. Seth, the god of evil. Thoth, the god of wisdom and Nephthys the protectress of the dead. Atum’s children had got lost so he sent his all- seeing eye out to find them and when they came back he was so happy he cried tears of joy and when the tears hit the earth, they became the first men. The Zulu myth long ago before man or any animals it was just darkness and a large seed. They seed fell into the earth and long weeds began growing which were called Uthlanga, which is the source of all things. One weed grew into a man named Unkulunkulu. He was the first man and the creator of all things. He grew larger until he fell of the weed and started...
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...Egyptians considered the floods a gift from Osiris; the God of the Nile, justice, order, and eternal life. The infrequent droughts of the Nile that the Egyptians experienced were seen as a time of hardship. The people believed that the droughts were bought onto them by Seth; brother of Osiris and god of drought, aridity, evilness, chaos, injustice, and darkness. When the droughts occurred it left the Egyptians with little to fertilize their crops. The cycles of the environment was illustrated in the myth when Seth, out of jealousy, killed Osiris and chopped his body up into fourteen pieces and scattered them throughout Egypt. When that event took place the drought occurrence symbolized Seth and his power as pharaoh. When Seth came into power Isis; wife and sister of Osiris and goddess of fertility, nature, medicine, and romantic love, collected the pieces of Osiris’ body and reassembled him with body wraps; this was an early sign of mummification. After she reassembled his...
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...Had I lived in ancient Egypt, I would have adopted the beliefs of my ancestors who believed in believed in many gods and goddesses. We worship our gods and goddesses in our home. We have a statue of Osiris, the God of the afterlife and we show gratitude and love by our offerings of food and gifts throughout the day. The elders in the family share stories about our gods providing a constant presence in our daily lives. Great effort is exhibited to prepare for the death of family members and our journey to another world where we will lead a new life. We will need all the things we use in our lives and we collect in preparation for the afterlife. We will place objects such as bowls, combs, and other trinkets, along with food, in their graves. We are farmers and our poor and cannot afford to be buried with jewelry, furniture, and other valuable like wealthy Egyptians. Our family members will buried in the sand unlike the rich ones who will be buried in tombs. Death is not considered to be the end of one's life, rather a necessary process that one has to go through in order to enter a dimension of complete bliss and eternity. This is dependent on the way we live our lives. There are 42 Principles that guide us on what we should and should not do in our everyday lives and we strive to follow these principals so that we may be judged favorably by Ma’at, the goddess of justice. Ma’at will judge us by these principals and award our...
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...Egyptian Statue of Horus vs Mesopotamia Plaque of Protection Abstract This document will compare two works of art from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The first piece from ancient Egypt is a Statuette of Horus from the Third Intermediate Period. The second piece is a plaque for protection from the Neo-Assyrian period. Both pieces of art are made by using the lost-wax bronze castings technique which this paper will examine. Statuette of Horus Horus was a falcon-headed man the son of Aset (Isis) and Osiris (McLeish, 1996). The falcon head is represented by a beak and bird like eyes. The statuette of Horus depicts a sun disk over his head and a cobra wrapped around the disk. The sun disk represents the sun god Ra, while the cobra goddess represents the nurse or protector of Horus. The statuette of Horus was produced using the lost-wax bronze casting technique and made in several parts. The lost-wax bronze casting was commonly used during the Third Intermediate Period (Edith Whitney Watts, 1998). His eyes represented the sun and the moon and are inlaid with gold and inlays of glass probably filled the eye sockets at one time. Horus’s body has a long bust with the pectorals placed high and a narrow waist. The body is smooth to represent his god like indestructibility. His left leg is striding forward and he is looking directly forward. His Egyptian loincloth has ribbed vertical lines. The statue is mainly smooth with some detail preciously carved for the features...
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...The god that I chose was Bes. Bes is the protector of pregnant women, newborn babies, and the family. Bes has a gnome-like stature, curly beard, shaggy eyebrows, huge head, flat nose, large, thick arms, bowed legs, a feathered crown, and a long tongue. Bes was also a unique and popular member of the ancient Egyptian pantheon. He also served as a champion of everything good and the protector against anything bad. Therefore Bes had a long list of deities including, protector of women, protector and entertainer of children, guardian against nightmares and dangerous animals of the night, patron of warriors, hunters and travelers, patron of joy, music, dancing, and merrymaking, guardian of families and keeper of domestic happiness, god of...
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...Bast was a goddess in Ancient Egypt. She was worshipped as part of the Ancient Egyptian religion. She was/is a major goddess. She was the patron goddess of cats, protection against contagious diseases and evil spirits, love, and family. She is also closely linked with Sekhmet and they are sometimes considered to be two sides of the same coin, so to speak. Sekhmet was also a major goddess. She was the goddess of fire, war, vengeance and medicine, and she was often depicted as a lioness. Bast is considered a lunar deity, and Sekhmet is a solar deity. They are both said to be the mother of Nefertum and the wife of Ptah. Although Bast was generally thought of as a domestic cat goddess in early times, she is also depicted as lion or desert cat....
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