Ancient Egyptian culture recognizes Nephthys, also known as Nebet-Het, as a powerful goddess. She belonged to the Great Ennead of Heliopolis from Egyptian mythology. The myths recognize Nephthys as the daughter of the god Geb and goddess Nut. Mythology pairs the goddess herself with Isis, her sister, in funerary rites.

Honestly, I didn’t know much about Isis’s sister. It is always fascinating to learn more about this magical ancient Egypt. With forever thanks to Marie Grillot for her brilliant article about this piece of jewelry.

Nephthys, Divine Mourner

via: égyptophile

“Isis and Nephthys, the divine mourners, appear many times in tombs in the form of wooden statuettes”, indicates Marcelle Werbrouck in her magnificent work on “The Mourners”. This representation of Nephthys, with a height of 24.5 cm, is actually made of wood, covered with painted gesso. It is from the Ptolemaic period: this dating covers three centuries, from 332 to 30 BC. AD

The goddess kneels on a thick, rectangular base, ideally suited to her size and position. What she wears on her head, represented quite schematically, allows her to be identified. These are the two hieroglyphic signs enabling one to write her name: the ideogram castle (hout) surmounted by the basket (neb).

“The Lady of the Castle is the sister of Osiris, Isis and Seth, and the latter’s wife. During the fight between the two brothers, she was nevertheless the ally of the martyr god and helped Isis to reconstitute his corpse. Anubis is sometimes considered the adulterous son that Osiris would have given him. She appears with her sister near the divine remains, mourning and watching over her…” specifies Isabelle Franco in her “Dictionary of Egyptian Mythology”. Thus, Isis and Nephthys are frequently represented in the funerary context in their specific gestures, such as mourning, weeping, protective goddesses, and participating in the deceased’s rebirth. They are often associated with Neith and Selqet.

Nephthys wears a black tripartite wig covering most of her forehead but exposing her ears. Her large black eyes, stretched with a thin line of makeup, are topped with slightly arched eyebrows, which match them perfectly. The nose and mouth are briefly represented.

Around her neck hangs an ousekh necklace, the rows and pattern drawn in black. She wears wrist bracelets, armillas (on the humerus) and periscelides (on the ankle), all materialized by black horizontal and vertical lines. Under her bare chest, her green dress is held together by a belt or border, also painted black. The visible areas of the flesh are light yellow in colour.

Her left arm is placed flat on her left thigh while her right is raised in front of her face. The hands are made “in one piece”, and the fingers are defined delimited by black lines. The palm of her right hand is turned towards her; it is a ritual gesture of mourning, one of the postures of mourners.

Although frozen in silence, this representation lets the lamentations resonate, and the sadness spread… The divine sisters embody the mourner’s par excellence; thus specifies Marcelle Werbrouck, “Isis is the ‘great mourner’, Nephthys the ‘little mourner’. They are also sometimes called the two complainers”.

Near Isis, Nephthys occupies a place as discreet as it is significant. “Always alongside, if not in its shadow, she participates in the rites ensuring the rebirth and protection of the dead god, a use to which an untranslatable epithet – Kheresket” relates, sensitively analyzes Jean-Pierre Corteggiani. He also specifies that: “The discovery of the remains of a temple from the Roman era, at Kômir, not far from Esna, showed that Nephthys could be venerated for herself: a hymn dating from Antoninus the Pious, engraved on the base of the rear wall of this monument which she shares with Anouqis, assimilates her to most of the great goddesses of the pantheon”…

This statue of Nephthys entered the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1912, under number 12.182.23a, and that of her “inseparable” sister Isis, under number 12.182.23b. “They were probably placed at each end of the sarcophagus of the deceased as they appear at each end of the body of Osiris”, specifies the Museum.

They were acquired from Mohammed Mohassib, a well-known antique dealer in Louqsor Square at the time. In his youth, he had been a “donkey boy” in the service of Lady Duff Gordon, who, according to “Who was Who in Egyptology”, had taught him English. After being a seller of antiques “on the run”, he was able, at the beginning of the 1880s, to “settle down” and open a store. The antiques trade was then unregulated and enjoyed a good reputation. Thus, a significant number of artefacts from the Theban region passed through his hands…

Marie Grillot

Sources:

Mourning Nephthys https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/551501

Marcelle Werbrouck, Marcelle Baud, The mourners in ancient Egypt, Editions of the Queen Elisabeth Egyptological Foundation, Brussels, 1938
Youri Volokhine, Ritual sadness and funeral lamentations in ancient Egypt, Ritual expressions of sadness and weeping in ancient Egyptian mourning, Revue de l’Histoire des Religions, Armand Colin, OpenEdition Journals, 2008 https://doi.org/10.4000/rhr.6043

Isabelle Franco, Dictionary of Egyptian mythology, Pygmalion 1999
Jean-Pierre Corteggiani, Ancient Egypt and its gods, Fayard, 2007
Morris L. Bierbrier, Who Was Who in Egyptology, London, Egypt Exploration Society, 2012
Mourning Isis https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/566487

Publié il y a 28th October par Marie Grillot

Libellés: 12.182.23a Mohammed Mohassib 332 à 30 av. J.-C. deuillante Isis Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York Nephthys pleureuse période ptolémaïque

So, my dear friends. Let me end my second post with a short but wise anecdote before I drown again in the ocean of my big and small tasks.

There is an old Japanese tale that recounts the story of a samurai who was known for his warlike nature. One day, the samurai challenged a Zen master to explain the meaning of heaven and hell.

The monk replied with disdain, “You are nobody but a mere mortal. I cannot waste my time with someone like you.”

With his ego hurt, the samurai angrily drew his sword, screaming, “I could kill you for your insolence!”

“This,” said the monk calmly, “is hell.”

Startled, realizing how true the teacher was telling him about the rage that had taken over him, the samurai calmed down, sheathed the sword, and bowed, thanking the monk for his profound knowledge.

“And this,” said the monk, “is heaven”…

Source: Lectures

Painting at the top: Gyuri Lohmuller

Thank you, everybody, for being here! 🙏🤘💖

I have already written two sections about this topic, p1/p2, and I was unsure if I would write another part. It seems like I have to emphasize the importance of children in our lives. They are not only one of the most vital aspects but also one of the most vulnerable groups, especially during the ongoing wars that are devastating so many parts of the world. We must be mindful of the traumatic experiences that children face during these conflicts, which can affect them psychologically for a long time.

“If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could be better changed in ourselves. “Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.” Carl Jung, ‘On the Becoming of Personality’ (1932)

It tears my heart apart when I see these children suffer by doing the foolishness of the grown-ups, no matter from which side of any conflict. As a child, they will never know why, and that stays in their soul forever: trauma!

Anyway, let’s try to keep learning from Dr Jung, who understood children well and believed that intuition is a gift that exists from childhood and is essential.

Jung was fascinated by intuition as an exceptional gift or function in the traditional sense. This was evident in his 1896-1899 Zofingia Lectures and 1902 On the Psychology and Pathology of So-called Occult Phenomena: A Psychiatric Study. As seen in his Red Book, a significant shift occurred in 1913 when he began using esotericist intuitions for psychological purposes. His personal and private use of intuition, which was remarkable, led Jung to place intuition at the core of his psychology. It became a necessary intuitive form of empathy in his practice and, as we will see, at the heart of his theory. In 1921, Jung wrote Psychological Types, where intuition became one of the four fundamental functions and types of the psyche, alongside thinking, feeling, and sensation. In doing so, Jung proved to the world that intuition was no longer a psychologist’s hobby for table-turning but the most significant function of the psyche.

As Christmas approaches, we begin the period of anticipation for the birth of the Christ child, a symbolic representation of the birth into divinity. Despite our beliefs or disbelief, we may try our best to save the child’s soul from the pain and trauma it may encounter.

Thank you for reading.🙏💖

You look so thoughtful. What is the matter? My wife asked.

Nothing worriedly, I just think to manage my weekend post on WP. I replied.

What do you mean? She went on . We want to ride up to Bremen visiting friends, have you forgotten?

Oh yes! I think I am so far, somehow! We had planned last week to drive up to visit friends this weekend, and I forgot!! So, I just send you love and my best wishes. 🤗🙏💖🌹

Art: Carl Fredricksen

Definition: A twin flame is an intense soul connection with someone thought to be a person’s other half, also called a “mirror soul.” It’s based on the idea that one soul gets split into two bodies from creation.

Souls, in my belief, are not defined by gender. Therefore, the concept of soulmates or twins is not restricted to masculine or feminine traits, per our earthly understanding (I think we must cast our minds wider than the limit on this Earth!). It involves a pairing between two souls irrespective of their gender. Although some poor souls have lost their mates, I have encountered a few pairs who have found their soulmates and now live together happily, albeit rarely.

Honestly, I’ve never felt the absence of a soulmate or a twin in my life. I lived with my brother, Al, for about 50 years, and I would say that he was my soulmate. Now, with my wife, who I have been in a relationship with for over 35 years, she could be my twin’s soul. Who knows for sure?

According to the esoteric religious movement Theosophy, whose claims were modified by Edgar Cayce, God created androgynous souls—equally male and female. Later theories postulate that the souls split into separate genders, perhaps because they incurred karma while playing around on the Earth, or “separation from God.” Over several reincarnations, each half seeks the other. The two will fuse and return to the ultimate when all karmic debt is purged.

In tarot card meaning, the concept of a soulmate is loosely implied to be a person with whom your soul is tied by consensual intercourse. Since in divination, it is believed that two persons acquire a shared fate once they have sex, it becomes possible for someone to have various ‘soulmates’ (even simultaneously) as read in a tarot card spread. Wikipedia

I highly recommend a book on this topic called “The Soul’s Twins” by Jean Benedict Raffa: https://jeanbenedictraffa.com/. It provides a comprehensive study of our souls, and I have learned much about my own soul through it. I even gained a deeper understanding of my wife’s soul!

My other tip is the poems of an excellent poet, lyricist and versifier, Deborah Gregory, http://www.theliberatedsheep.com/, who knows vastly about this subject.

And another puzzle is the real-born twins who mostly can’t stand each other!

Twin flames are driven towards and away from each other due to intense vibrational energies at a spiritual level. 
Their fierce connection is a result of soul separation.
Before their birth, they were two pieces of the same soul.
They were sequestered, and it caused them to create bipolarity.
That’s why when they meet again in their material forms in this life,
they find it excruciatingly hard to control and contain.
They feel they will explode into smithereens if they stay in each other’s presence longer.
That is the reason why twin-flame relationships almost always end badly. ……………  twin flame connection.

Hathor was the incarnation of dance and sexuality and was given the epithet “Hand of God” (referring to the act of masturbation) and “Lady of the Vulva”. One myth tells that Ra had become so despondent that he refused to speak to anyone. Hathor (who never suffered depression or doubt) danced before him, exposing her private parts, which caused him to laugh out loud and return to good spirits.

As the “lady of the west” and the “lady of the southern sycamore”, she protected and assisted the dead on their final journey. Trees were not commonplace in ancient Egypt, and their shade was welcomed by the living and the dead alike. She was sometimes depicted as handing out water to the deceased from a sycamore tree (a role formerly associated with Amentet, who was often described as the daughter of Hathor), and according to myth, she (or Isis) used the milk from the Sycamore tree to restore sight to Horus who Set had blinded. Because of her role in helping the dead, she often appears on sarcophagi with Nut (the former on top of the lid, the latter under the lid). AncientEgyptOnline

Once again, I take the opportunity to express my friendship with the brilliant Marie Grillot by sharing one of her excellent articles about discovering the magical ostracon image of the Goddess Hathor.

Hathor, The Goddess, is worshipped by the artisans of the “Place of Truth.”

égyptophile

This “figured” ostracon comes from the necropolis of the current village of Deir el-Medineh. In ancient times, this place was called the “Place of Truth” and housed the artisans who worked on the digging and decoration of the eternal residences of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. “The village was a royal institution,” and community members lived there and could be buried there. This is how numerous tombs were discovered in two distinct cemeteries (east and west).

During the excavations of 1923-1924, carried out in the necropolis by Bernard Bruyère, this ostracon was discovered. It was located in TT No. 330, the tomb of Karo, who was a servant of the Place of Truth during the 19th Dynasty.

Before decorating the tombs, the artisan painters – the word artist was apparently not used then – initially practised on shards of limestone or terracotta. These graphic supports – which served as a sort of “rough draft” or preparatory sketch before working “in situ” – are called “ostraca” (singular = ostracon).

This one, 13 cm high and almost 11 cm wide, is covered with a layer of ocher-yellow colour. In its lower part, in the centre, there is an open lotus flower. Very slightly above it, occupying most of the surface, the head of the goddess Hathor flourishes.

While her face usually has round cheeks, here it is clearly triangular, almost stylised, treated in white, while the mouth and nose are sketched in light red lines. The large black eyes are stretched and rise towards the temples; the eyebrows, also black, carefully follow the same curve.

The dark blue hair is covered with a few black lines, signifying the texture of the strands of hair. It is separated in the middle, then passes behind the cow’s ears before very closely following the shape of the face. The hair parts at the neck move outwards before ending in a large curl.

Her head is surmounted by a “kind of abacus”, elegant in shape, treated in shades of red-ochre outlined in black. Above is inscribed a beautiful line of hieroglyphs, spaced and traced in black, the translation of which is “Hathor who reigns over the sky of Thebes”.

Her neck is adorned with a large, colourful “ousekh” type collar, which seems to be made up of black and ocher-red rows.

In the lower-left corner, a man is depicted. While his feet are at the level of the lotus flower, his head barely reaches the level of the hathoric ears. He is in a walking attitude; his body is simply covered in a short loincloth. His black hair reaches above his shoulders. His eye, very stretched, is also black.

Bernard Bruyère and Charles Kuentz consider that: “this tableau would be an ex-voto to the goddess Hathor whose cult in the New Kingdom was very popular in the Theban region”.

Hathor has two faces: the Goddess of love and fertility and the Goddess of the world of the dead. As mistress of the western peak: “she then receives the deceased, who has become her child, into the mystical lap of the tomb-mountain. She helps him to be reborn as, as Isis-Hathor, she watched over Horus in the papyrus swamp of Khemmis.”

We sometimes find her represented (TT13, TT278…) in the scenes of Theban tombs: in her form of a cow, adorned with the menat collar, she emerges “from a thicket of papyrus at the foot of the western mountain of Thebes, looking into the direction of the rising sun. Its papyrus residence in the swamps symbolises the place where the germ of the deceased is reformed.

During the sharing of the excavations carried out in 1927, this ostracon returned to France: it entered the Louvre Museum under the inventory number E 12966.

Marie Grillot

Source:

The face of the goddess Hathor emerging from a lotus flower http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=24103&langue=fr Stone notebooks, Anne Minault-Gout, Hazan
A century of French excavations in Egypt, 1880-1980, Ifao, Louvre museum
The artists of Pharaoh, RMM, 2002 http://www.ifao.egnet.net/bases/archives/ostraca/ostracafigures

After a gloomy post, let’s enjoy something which proves that humans can also set up something beautiful. We must focus on the bright side of life to thrive and replenish our energy.

My actual plan was to write about my latest trip to Samos, Greece, but I found this “Third Look” in my draft. Therefore, I thought it better to finish this before I stumbled onto the other journey.

First, let’s have a look around the city;

We have also, traditionally, visited some cathedrals or churches, and there’s the famous Norman Palace, a massive complex of many buildings, and we have one of these with many floors. I took some help from Wikipedia to explain the place and completed it with some pictures of mine.😉

The Palazzo dei Normanni (Norman Palace) is called the Royal Palace of Palermo. It was the seat of the Kings of Sicily with the Hauteville dynasty and served afterwards as the main seat of power for the subsequent rulers of Sicily. Since 1946, it has been the seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly. The building is the oldest royal residence in Europe and was the private residence of the rulers of the Kingdom of Sicily and the imperial seat of Frederick II and Conrad IV. Wikipedia

Some more?!

Alright, I believe that’s enough for this. Although I may resemble the character of Mr. Ernst from Oscar Wilde’s play, I possess a wild and adventurous side that sets me apart!😁🤓 I hope you have a peaceful weekend.🙏🤗💖

Friedrich Nietzsche

It would be great if I could share some positive news or events that I would like to share. However, we face a sorrowful truth when we open our minds and look at what is happening worldwide. Yesterday, I happened to stumble upon The Truman Show while flipping through channels. It’s an older movie from 1998 (you might have seen it already), but I think it’s still relevant in today’s life and our contemporary “Modern Bourgeoisie” world. I believe it is essential, especially now, to observe our surroundings more closely and be aware of the dark side that casts its wings upon our lives. Anyway, I want to share some bitter yet poetic words from Nietzsche that provoke thought.

While reading Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” I came across a section that resonated with the current state of Iran. Zarathustra mourns the loss of youth. It’s no secret that we humans are beings of habit. This fact has been reflected in every major catastrophe in our history. For instance, the war in Ukraine once dominated the headlines, but now another story has taken over as the top news (Israel in the Gaza Strip), pushing the previous one to the sidelines. The Iranian Revolution of #Woman_Life_Freedom was once a hot topic in world news, but it has gradually lost its importance. It’s evident that the interest in any event depends on the observer. As long as people continue to be occupied with their daily lives, their focus can shift, thus preventing the event from becoming monotonous! For me, as a former journalist, every event is significant, and of course, especially those in Iran. In Ukraine, through Russia’s aggression, Ukraine’s folk are suffering, and the Israelites and Palestinians conflict is so old that the judgment thereabout is beyond my ability. What causes me pain is the children suffering in all this turmoil.

I have translated this episode from Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra to depict the scene in his version. In the scene where the youths are dying for their wishes, for the minimum aspiration of human rights, so cries my heart, calls for justice!

The image at the top, Milkrain, Pic Title: Oh! My Pieta! PopArtist Yoon. Deviant Art

The Funeral Song

There is the island of graves, the silent one; The graves of my youth are there too. There, I want to carry an evergreen wreath of life.
So, deciding in my heart, I drove across the sea. – Oh, you, my young visions and appearances! Oh, all your looks of love, all your divine moments! How you died so quickly for me! I remember yours today as my dead.

From you, my dearest dead, comes to me a sweet smell, a heart- and tear-loosing one. Verily, it shakes and loosens the heart of the lonely sailor. I’m still the wealthiest and most enviable – I’m the loneliest! For I had you, and you still have me: tell me, who had such rose apples fall from the tree as I did?

I am still your love’s inheritance and soil, blooming in your memory with colourful, wild-growing virtues, O you most beloved!

Oh, we were made to stay close to one another; you behold strange wonders; you did not come to me and my desire like shy birds – no, as a trusted, to the trusted. Yes, made to be faithful, like me and for tender eternities: I must now call you after your unfaithfulness, you divine looks and moments: I have not yet learned any other name.

Truly, you died too quickly for me, you refugees. But you did not flee from me, nor did I flee from you: we are innocent of our unfaithfulness to one another. To kill me, they strangled you, you songbirds of my hopes! Yes, after you, dear ones, malice always shot arrows – to strike my heart!

And she scored! You were always my dearest, my possession and my obsession; that’s why you had to die young and all too early!

The arrow was shot at the most vulnerable thing in my possession: This is what you are waiting for, whose skin is like fluff and, even more so, like a smile that dies at a glance! But I will speak this word to my enemies: What is all the murder of men compared to what you did to me? You have done more evil to me than all human murder; You have taken something irretrievable from me – so I speak to you, my enemies!

You murdered the visions and dearest miracles of my youth! You took my playmates from me, the blessed spirits! To your memory, I lay this wreath and this curse. This curse against you, my enemies! You would make my eternal short, like a piece of clay shattering in the cold night! Barely as a flash of divine eyes, it came to me as just a moment!

So my purity once spoke at a good hour: ‘All beings shall be divine to me. < Then you attacked me with dirty ghosts; ah, where did that good hour now flee! “All days shall be holy to me” – this is what the wisdom of my youth said: verily, the speech of joyful wisdom! But then you enemies stole my nights from me and sold them to sleepless torment: Ah, where did that joyful wisdom now flee? Once, I longed for lucky bird signs: then you brought an owl monster across my path, an unpleasant one. Ah, where did my tender desire flee?

I once vowed to renounce all disgust, and then you turned my near and dear ones into boils. Ah, where did my noblest vow flee? As a blind man, I once walked blessed paths: then you threw filth on the blind man’s path, and now the old blind man’s footpath disgusts him. And when I did my hardest and celebrated the victory of my overcoming, you made those who loved me cry out that I hurt them the most. Indeed, this has always been your doing: you spoiled my best honey and the hard work of my best bees. You always sent the most impudent beggars to my charity. For my pity, you always urged the incurably shameless. So you wound my virtues in their faith.

And I also laid down my most holy thing as a sacrifice: your “piety” quickly added its fatter offerings so that my most holy thing was suffocated in the steam of your fat. And one thing I wanted to dance like I’ve never danced before. I wanted to dance across the sky. Then you persuaded my favourite singer. And now he intoned an eerie, dull tune; oh, he sounded like a dark horn in my ears! Murderous singer, the instrument of malice, most innocent! I was already prepared for the best dance: then you murdered my ecstasy with your sounds! Only in dance do I know how to speak parables of the highest things – and now my highest legend remained unspoken in my limbs!

My highest hope remained unsaid and unredeemed! And all the visions and consolations of my youth died to me! How do I endure now? How did I cope and overcome such wounds? How did my soul rise again from these graves? Yes, there is something in me that is invulnerable, something that cannot be buried, something that can shatter rocks: that is what is called my will. Walks silently and unchanged through the years.

He will walk his course on my feet, my old will; His mind is heartfelt and invulnerable. I am invulnerable at my heel alone. You still live there and are the same as you. Most patient! You still broke through all the graves! The unredeemed part of my youth still lives in you, and as life and youth, you sit here hoping on yellow grave rubble. Yes, you are still the destroyer of all my graves: Hail, my will! And only where there are graves are there resurrections. –

“The monotony and loneliness of a quiet life stimulate the creative mind” A. Einstein.

Loneliness, happiness, happiness in loneliness? It is an exciting issue which caught my eye as I saw this article by Marina Moscha. I never want to say I am an intellectual or to talk about my IQ (I think it is not more than 160!), but I found something very in common with such intelligent people; I find my happiness in my solitude 100% for sure!

Here, I would like to share this article with my intellectual friends, along with my best wishes.💖🙏🦋

Mark Zuckerberg (the 32-year-old creator of Facebook) said in an interview with the New York Times that he considers himself shy and introverted and prefers to hang out only with people like him.

A new study has found that people with high IQs tend to spend less time with close friends and have difficulty socializing.

Evolutionary psychologists from Singapore and London have found that intelligent people struggle to interact socially, even with close friends.

“What makes people happy today?” – How is happiness measured?

Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics & Political Science and Norman Li of the University of Singapore Administration wanted to answer the question, “What makes people happy today?”

Scholars assume that the way of life of our ancestors, who were hunter-gatherers, is the cornerstone of the perception of today’s happiness.

So, they studied 15,000 people aged 18 to 28 years. The couple found that people living in densely populated areas were more likely to report less satisfaction with their lives than those living in more sparsely populated areas. In other words, the higher the population density, the less happy they said being participants.

The researchers also found that respondents’ more significant interaction with close friends gave them more joy.

So, they applied the concept of “The Savanna Theory of Happiness” to explain their findings. The results, however, surprised them as the correlations for intelligent people were reversed.

“The Swiss psychiatrist and writer Elisabeth Kübler-Ross has stated quite rightly: The most beautiful people are those who have known defeat, pain, struggle, and loss and found their way. These individuals have an appreciation, sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, kindness, and a deep love interest. In other words, good people were not born good – they chose to be.“

I prefer to be alone!

The team measured people’s intelligence and ingenuity even though they did not reveal the exact levels of their IQ (respondents’ IQ). The two researchers found that the effect of population density on life satisfaction was more than twice as high for people with a lower IQ than for people with a high IQ.

In fact, the most intelligent people were less satisfied with their lives when they were forced to socialize, even with their closest friends.

In other words, intelligent people tend to need more time and isolation. If they spend too much time with friends, they feel less satisfied with their lives.

Carol Graham of the Brookings Institution, an expert on the economics of happiness, explains:

“The findings here show – and not surprisingly – that people with greater intelligence and the ability to use it. They are less likely to spend so much time socializing because they focus on other long-term goals. “

In other words, the most intelligent person might prefer to spend their time evolving their science or knowledge or even taking part in organizations with goals rather than feeling that she/he is wasting their time with socialization. , which not only does not offer them anything since it does not evolve this way but on the contrary, it hinders them as they abuse their “useful” time, which could be much more creative.

The relationship with our prehistoric ancestors

However, Kanazawa and Li’s explanation of the “happiness theory” is as follows:

They begin with the assumption that the human brain evolved to meet the demands of the then-primitive environment in the African savannah, where population density was similar to that of rural Alaska, with less than one person per square kilometre.

Our prehistoric ancestors, who were hunter-gatherers, lived in small groups of 150 people, where to survive and reproduce, they had to have as friendly relations with each other as possible.

Researchers have concluded that intelligent people may be better equipped to cope with the evolutionary changes of modern living in a densely populated area, with less and less impact on overall mood and well-being.

The study, meanwhile, states that it determines happiness in terms of self-reported satisfaction rather than the more objective sense of well-being or happiness through sentences such as: “When was the last time a person laughed?” Or “How many times did he get angry last week, since this definition does not matter to their theory. The Savanna Theory of Happiness is not bound by a specific purpose as it is compatible with any rational conception of happiness, with subjective well-being and life satisfaction.

The study was published in the British Journal of Psychology.

Marina Moscha (Μαρίνα Μόσχα)

The art images are all by Carrie Ann Baade.

source: https://marinamoscha.life /

With thanks to SearchingtheMeaningofLife

This painted Linen, offered to the goddess Hathor by the priest Tjanefer, weaves together a family history with historical memory. The goddess, shown here in her guise as a cow, shelters in a shrine on the deck of a boat moving through a papyrus marsh. Tjanefer faces her, hands raised in reverence, while three generations of his family, including his wife, children, and mother-in-law, carry gifts for the goddess. Below Hathor’s head is a small figure, identified by a hieroglyphic inscription as the deified Nebhepetre Mentuhotep, founder of the centuries-older Middle Kingdom (ca. 2051–2000 BCE). Like Hathor, Nebhepetre Mentuhotep was honoured with his own cult at Deir el-Bahri, and Tjanefer served as a priest in both.

The superb preservation of the textile allows us to see that it was cut from a larger piece of Linen. The artist then stiffened and smoothed its surface with huntite (an intensely white mineral), sketched the scene in red and black, and used different colours to fill the decorative scheme. (Metmuseum)

Let’s read Marie Grillot‘s brilliant description of the fascinating work of this Artisan’s Masterwork.

A piece of Linen from the priest Tjanefer as an offering to Hathor…

égyptophile

This fine piece of Linen, delicately painted, is 54 cm long and 32 cm wide. The irregular contours signify that it was cut, not very meticulously, from a more significant piece. Its upper part and right side are bordered with fringes: perhaps this is the upper right corner of this votive fabric?

The scene represented there, rich in symbolism, is presented in a rectangular “vignette” whose space is harmoniously composed.

It takes place under a floral garland which features a succession of lanceolate lotus petals pointing downwards. As for its lower part, it is delimited by a black line.

On the left, occupying a third of the surface and most of the height, is the goddess Hathor in her cow form. Standing on an elegant green and gold boat with a curved bow and stern, she is sheltered by a canopy of predominantly red mesh with diamond patterns (which recalls, in particular, the mesh covering the goddess Mehet-Ouret in the tomb of Irynefer). The top of this canopy is decorated with a floral garland of the same type as the previous one.

The sacred cow emerges from the marsh, symbolised by a thicket of tall papyrus, wonderfully treated in soft tones of green and blue. Her gold coat is dotted with black patterns, and she wears her characteristic headdress: cow horns enclosing the solar disk. Above the goddess is inscribed in hieroglyphics: “Hathor, mistress of the sky who is at the head of Thebes”. Under his muzzle stands a figure in a walking attitude, left leg advanced. The painted cartouche in front of him identifies him as Pharaoh Nebhepetre (Montuhotep II). His flesh is black because it is his deified representation. We also find him kneeling under the celestial cow, drinking from its udder.

We can only compare this scene to that of the “chapel of the sacred cow of Hathor” discovered on February 7, 1906, in the temple of Tuthmosis III, in Deir el-Bahari, by Edouard Naville for Egypt Exploration Found ( Egyptian Museum in Cairo – JE 38574 – JE 38575). In “Symbols of Egypt”, Christiane Desroches Noblecourt interprets it as follows: “When buried, the mummified deceased unites with the Great Cow. The little breast-fed child represents the fetus of the celestial placenta. Having accomplished the in the lap of the cow during its gestation, the child will be reborn and therefore appears protected by its celestial ‘mother’, emerging like her from the swamps of the beyond, still all black from the fertilising silt”…

Montuhotep II (“Montu is satisfied”) reigned between 2061 and 2010 B.C., and this linen piece is dated to the 19th Dynasty, around 1300 – 1250 BC. It testifies that in Deir el-Bahari, Hathor and the deified pharaoh were jointly honoured. Tjanefer, who dedicated this votive cloth to them, was a priest of both religions. Placed in front of them and at the table of offerings which he dedicates to them, he is accompanied by his family, who stands behind him.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where this piece of Linen is exhibited under the number 2022.332, thus describes the “family procession” which occupies two-thirds of the decor, taking place under ten short columns of hieroglyphs identifying the “participants”: “Tjanefer faces Hathor, hands raised in respect, while three generations of his family, including his wife, children and mother-in-law, carry gifts for the goddess.

The priest and his three sons are treated almost identically. Depicted standing, their heads are shaved, and their slim bodies are simply dressed in a pleated white linen loincloth. The sons wear a blue necklace and hold a bunch of grapes in their right hand and a giant papyrus stem in the other. We will observe that if the first and the third are designated by their names, the second, on the other hand, has remained strangely anonymous, as indicated by his quality of “son” by an ample space left empty in the column.

The three women (two behind Tjanefer and one bringing up the rear) are lovely. Their dark wig, which ends in fine braids, is adorned with a blue floral garland, as is the necklace that adorns their neck. Their white, transparent linen dress reveals their anatomy. They also hold a bunch of grapes in their right hand (one of which has leaves), and on their left, the same papyrus stem as the brothers. The whole thing makes up a charming procession, advancing in descending order of size and nicely punctuated by floral touches…

The Metropolitan Museum highlights the “superb conservation of the textile”. It indicates its creation: “The artist stiffened and smoothed its surface with huntite (an intense white mineral); he sketched the scene in red and black and used different colours to complete the decorative scheme.”

What was the role of the destination of this piece of Linen? If “the whole” from which it was detached had reached us, it would obviously be more accessible to interpret and define it… but this information remains unknown…

Nigel Strudwick (“Masterpieces of Ancient Egypt”) states that: “Many types of votive objects were placed in temples throughout Egypt as gifts expressing devotion to deities, which it was hoped would promote their turn the donor…”

The “probable” provenance indicated for this piece of Linen by the Metropolitan Museum is as follows: “site of the temple of Hathor at Deir el-Bahari”; it then entered the collection of Robert de Rustafjaell in 1906.

The work of Edouard Naville (mentioned above), carried out at the beginning of 1906 in the temple of Tuthmosis III, “rightly” delivered “a certain number of fabrics and other votive textiles (as well as numerous other votive objects) linked to the later cult of ‘Hathor, practised there at least from the New Kingdom onwards’ specifies the British Museum which has acquired several. At the same time, the same year, the London museum acquired, from Reverend Chauncey Murch (then a member of the American Presbyterian Mission of Luxor), a linen tunic with an image of Hathor (EA4307)… He did not exclude the possibility “that it could have been discovered during a contemporary clandestine excavation carried out on the same site”…

This could possibly be the case for this magnificent fragment… whose “eventful” history has continued to be written…

Its “first owner”, Robert de Rustafjaell, specifies the Metropolitan, “presented it at Sotheby’s in London in January 1913, then at the Anderson Galleries in New York in November-December 1915, where G. M. Heckscher acquired it, then by the Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, Long Island in 1959. It was exhibited at the Dallas Museum of Art between 1993 and 2005, then transferred and sold at Christie’s in 2012 to Hilary David. It entered the collections of the Metropolitan in 2022, thanks to a donation from Liana Weindling”.

Marie Grillot

Sources:

Painted Linen Depicting the Priest Tjanefer and his family before the Goddess Hathor https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/591133 Gaston Maspero, Essays on Egyptian art, E. Guilmoto Editor, Paris, 1912? https://archive.org/details/ssaissurlartg00maspuoft Georges Foucart, Note from M. Naville on his discoveries at Deir el Bahari (Egypt), Reports of the sessions of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, 50th year, N. 2, 1906. p. 110; https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1906_num_50_2_71782 Statue of the goddess Hathor in the appearance of a cow and chapel http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/record.aspx?id=15118 http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/record.aspx?id=15654 .textImage# William C. Hayes, The sceptre of Egypt. A background for studying Egyptian antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, c. II, The Hyksos period and the New Kingdom (1675-1080 B.C.), New York, 4th revised edition, 1990 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Scepter_of_Egypt_Vol_2_The_Hyksos_Period_and_the_New_Kingdom_1675_1080_BC?Tag=&title=&author=&pt=0&tc=%7bAD9356EC-5405-4B7F-8553-AE512ADC84F1%7d &dept=0&fmt=0 Geraldine Pinch, Votive offerings to Hathor, Oxford, 1993 https://www.academia.edu/3645492/_Votive_Practices_with_Geraldine_Pinch_ Fernand Schwarz, The sacred cave, Pharaon magazine, n° 4, http://fernand.schwarz.free.fr/IMG/pdf/Ph4_grotte_sacree_FS.pdf Nigel Strudwick, Masterpieces of Ancient Egypt, London 2006, pp. 208-9
Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, Symbols of Egypt, Le Livre de Poche, 2008
Christian Leblanc, Angelo Sesana, The Beautiful West of Thebes, Imentet Neferet, L’Harmattan, 2022
Miniature linen tunic; painted representation of the Hathor cow and Hieroglyphic text https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA43071