Herodotus, a Greek who wrote about Egypt in the fifth century BCE, likened Isis to Demeter, whose mythical search for her daughter Persephone resembled Isis’s search for Osiris. Even with the Egyptian tradition, Isis was associated with other goddesses like Hathor, from the old kingdom, or even older like Renenutet and Beset (the partner of the god Bes)

The importance we might notice here is the emphasis role of the feminine in the old deities. They mostly appear with equal power and rights, if not overhanding the masculine gods. For example Inanna or Ishtar,  Kali, Hecate, Mitra (or Mithra imaged in both; masculine and feminine), etc.

Here is another story of saving such a treasure by artisans for the future by Marie Grillot with heartfelt thanks. 🙏💖

“The Isis of Coptos” from the Turin Museum…

via égyptophile

At the height of 1.53 m, this statue of a female deity is unfortunately deprived of its lower part… But what we are given to see is of touching beauty… Sensuality and softness of the face, femininity and perfection of the body, everything is combined in a totally accomplished elegance and harmony!

This statue is generally attributed to Isis or Hathor, even if Jacques Vandier considers that: “The goddess of Turin, who has always been made, because of her hairstyle, a Hathor, is rather a goddess Mut, this one often wearing, in place of the pschent, the disc and the horns of Hathor”. Some also see it as a representation of the wife of Amenhotep III, Queen Tiyi…

The Hathoric crown – cow horns enclosing the solar disk – is placed on her tripartite wig. Adorned with a frontal uraeus, it exposes the ears and surrounds the face with perfect symmetry… For Eleni Vassilika: “Hathor’s features are typical of the style of Amenhotep III, father of the heretical king Akhenaten who, during his reign, suppressed the pantheon of traditional deities (Amarna period). In the shape of a drop, the face of the goddess is very much in the style of Amenophis III, especially that of his wife, Queen Teye. The design of the prominent ribbon-shaped eyebrows, the inner corner of the almond-shaped eyes also circled, and the fleshy lips under the well-defined nasal septum are typical characteristics of this reign”…

Around her neck hangs a delightful usekh necklace, delicately incised, with several rows of pearls, the last of which is in the form of drops.

Her dress, which begins under the chest with a braid enhanced with vertical bands, is held by thin straps. Her round breasts are adorned with a floral decoration, which resembles a rosette, a detail which recalls certain statues of Sekhmet from the same period.

Her left arm, hanging along the body, was amputated at the elbow, but the hand, enclosing an ankh sign, survived. The right arm, damaged, is unscathed only from the elbow. It is slightly bent and brought under the navel where the fist firmly holds a sceptre ouas. Her presence makes Eleni Vassilika react as follows: “It is surprising that the goddess holds a sceptre of ouas power (normally the prerogative of male deities), instead of the floral Wadjet sceptre, usually reserved for goddesses”.

This statue was acquired in 1759 in Upper Egypt, at Coptos (the ancient Gebtou) – where there was a temple dedicated to Min – by Vitaliano Donati. Charles-Emmanuel III of Savoy had commissioned this professor of botany at the Royal Turinese University to search for antiquities. He undertook a long journey that took him to Egypt, Palestine, Syria and then on the road to India… from which, unfortunately, he did not return. However, a few pieces from the collection he had built up were able to be recovered by the Turin museum… This statue – registered under the reference Cat.694 – is one of the most remarkable!

Marie Grillot

sources:

Statue of female divinity (Hathor o Iside), cosiddetta “Iside di Copto” https://collezioni.museoegizio.it/it-IT/material/Cat_694/?description=hathor&inventoryNumber=&title=&cgt=&yearFrom=&yearTo=&materials=&provenance=&acquisition=&epoch=&dynasty=&pharaoh=

Franco Cosimo, Museo Egizio, Fondazione Museo delle Antichità Egizie di Torino, Panini Editore, 2016

Eleni Vassilika, Art Treasures of the Museo Egizio, Allemandi & Co

Guide Museo Egizio, Franco Cosimo Panini editions

The Egyptian Museum Turin, Federico Garolla Editore

Ernest Scamuzzi, Egyptian art at the Turin Museum, Hachette, 1966

Arielle P. Kozloff, Amenophis III, the sun pharaoh, RMM, 1993

Y. Watanabe, The architecture of ‘Kom el Samak at Malkata-South: a study of architectural Restoration” in Studies in Egyptian Culture, 5, Tokyo, 1986

Vandier, Jacques, Handbook of Egyptian Archaeology, Paris 1952-1978, III, p.385

Burt Kasparian, When the king jubilates with the gods: the sed-fest, instrument of divine glorification of Pharaonic royalty https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03202306/document