In the Old Kingdom, Hathor was not only one of the Egyptian Goddesses but also an essential one like Isis after her in the New Kingdom. As we can read here:

Hathor (Ancient Egyptian: ḥwt-ḥr, lit. ‘House of Horus’, Ancient Greek: Ἁθώρ Hathōr, Coptic: ϩⲁⲑⲱⲣ) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky god Horus and the sun god Ra, both of whom were connected with kingship, and thus she was the symbolic mother of their earthly representatives, the pharaohs. She was one of several goddesses who acted as the Eye of Ra, Ra’s feminine counterpart, and in this form, she had a vengeful aspect that protected him from his enemies. Her beneficent side represented music, dance, joy, love, sexuality, and maternal care, and she acted as the consort of several male deities and the mother of their sons. These two aspects of the goddess exemplified the Egyptian conception of femininity. Hathor crossed boundaries between worlds, helping deceased souls in the transition to the afterlife.

Hathor was often depicted as a cow, symbolising her maternal and celestial aspect, although her most common form was a woman wearing a headdress of cow horns and a sun disk. She could also be represented as a lioness, cobra, or sycamore tree.

Cattle goddesses similar to Hathor were portrayed in Egyptian art in the fourth millennium BC, but they may not have appeared until the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC). With the patronage of Old Kingdom rulers, she became one of Egypt’s most important deities. More temples were dedicated to her than any other goddess; her most prominent temple was Dendera in Upper Egypt. She was also worshipped in the temples of her male consorts. The Egyptians connected her with foreign lands such as Nubia and Canaan and their valuable goods, such as incense and semiprecious stones. Some of the people in those lands adopted her worship. In Egypt, she was one of the deities commonly invoked in private prayers and votive offerings, particularly by women desiring children.

During the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BC), goddesses such as Mut and Isis encroached on Hathor’s position in royal ideology, but she remained one of the most widely worshipped deities. After the end of the New Kingdom, Hathor was increasingly overshadowed by Isis. Still, she continued to be venerated until the extinction of ancient Egyptian religion in the early centuries AD. Wikipedia

Here is a brilliant description, by Marie Grillot, of a fragment of Hathor sistrum image, as a glorious star, remained of the past.

Thanks to the generosity of a Polish count, this fragment of Hathor’s sistrum is in the Louvre!

via; égyptophile

Barely 11 cm high, dated to the XXVIth dynasty, this fragment of Hathoric sistrum is made of faience in a soft and icy blue. The Louvre website specifies what this “Egyptian” earthenware is: it is a: “siliceous ceramic product, that is to say, based on quartz (grains of sand, for example) and not ‘clay. The glaze of the surface is mainly blue-green, obtained from copper oxide.’ The shaping of the object is done: “cold either by the technique of modelling or by the technique of moulding”. The cooking takes place at around 900-1000°C. Over the centuries, the artisans of antiquity achieved a very high degree of mastery of this process.

The goddess wears a heavy straight wig, “which seems most common in the late period”, and whose hair texture is evidenced by fine regular streaks. It covers a good part of his forehead and then leaves in two thick masses, rejected behind the ears and back to frame the cheeks. The hairstyle is adorned – or disciplined – in five places by a triple ribbon.

Its cow’s ears are rounded, folded, striated in their interior, and released from the head. The face, perfectly symmetrical, is almost triangular, broad at the level of the cheeks, then narrower going towards the chin, which is gently rounded. The eyes are nicely treated, elegantly stretched by a line of makeup that matches the shape and length of the eyebrows. The nose, with marked nostrils, is of ideal proportions. As for the mouth with hemmed lips, it is relatively small.

Her neck is adorned with a comprehensive and voluminous usekh necklace with multiple rows. As if placed on this finery, an erect uraeus goes up on each side of the head, crowned with the solar disc.

On the top of her skull rests a cornice punctuated by vertical lines. It supports the representation of a naos or sanctuary. The centre is hollowed out, except for the presence, in the very centre, of an upright uraeus, sculpted in relief.

The top of the sistrum, as well as the handle, are missing.

Earthenware being a brittle material, one is entitled to wonder how these fragile instruments could be shaken and agitated to produce their sounds in a sustained rhythm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, on its website- which has several and somewhat similar examples of this type of sistrum -, puts forward the following hypothesis: “they could have been designed as gifts to a deity rather than as instruments that would have been used often by man. Because they would prove too fragile for frequent use”.

The sistrum is undoubtedly the musical instrument most closely linked to pharaonic Egypt. It is, in particular with the menat, one of the attributes of Hathor, essential divinity of the Egyptian pantheon. “Goddess of love and joy, she is the patroness of music. She embodies eros which allows the perpetual renewal of all forms of life, plant, animal, human and divine. She is the celestial mother” (Isabelle Franco).

If her aspects are multiple, she is most often represented as here, a woman with the ears of a cow wearing a voluminous wig (sometimes surmounted by a naos, horns and a solar disc) or in the form of a cow.

Thus, the rattling sound that the sistrum emits when it is agitated is supposed to reproduce that which it engenders, in its form of a cow, when it walks in the thickets of papyrus. Another interpretation “links its use to the rite of ‘tearing up the papyri’, originally reserved for the Hathoric cult”.

The ringing of the sistrum is adorned with magical virtues: it can appease the gods, attract their protection and ward off evil spirits. And, if ritualistic priests wave it during ceremonies, it is more generally a “feminine” instrument.

In the study “Petrified Sound and Digital Color: A Hathor Column in the New Ptolemaic Galleries”, published in August 2016 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dieter Arnold, Ann Heywood and Sara Chen develop this fascinating interpretation: “The instrument of music so characteristically represented the goddess that it inspired temple builders of the 18th dynasty to use columns in the form of this emblem in temples of female deities. The basic structure of the sistrum capital also appears in many variations and combinations with other forms of capitals on columns and square pillars. Such rows of sistrum columns could also be understood as a kind of “petrified sound barrier”, softly playing music around the sanctuary of Hathor and magically evoking the appearance of the goddess.”

It was thanks to the generosity of Count Michel Tyskiewicz that this fragment of sistrum joined the collections of the Louvre in 1862, where it was referenced E 3668. This archaeologist and great Polish collector of the second half of the 19th century, who even counted among his customers Napoleon III, settled in France and Italy after leaving his native land and devoted himself entirely to his passion.

In “Notes and Memories of an Old Collector – My Egyptian Collection”, the Count recalls: “I spent the winter from 1860 to 1861 in Egypt, making excavations at Sakkara, Karnak and Thebes; I had occasion, at the same time, to acquire two collections in Cairo, the most important of which was that of Dr Meymar. Wishing to make a gift to the Boulaq Museum, I chose, for this purpose, a beautiful basalt statue representing a young man standing, dressed in schenti. This statue was sent by the Egyptian government, with other important works, to the Paris Exhibition in 1867, where I had the pleasure of seeing it again. In 1869, I revisited the Boulaq Museum two years later: the statue had disappeared. Returning to Paris in the spring of 1861, I brought there many cases of antiquities. After unpacking everything, I invited MM. de Rougé and de Longpérier to come and see my collection. These two scholars pointed out that it contained several significant objects, the like of which were missing from the Louvre series; the conclusion of their speeches and the compliments they mixed with them was a purchase proposal in the name of the Museum. I refused to sell but was pleased to offer everything as a gift. The next day, the employees of the Louvre came to pack and move my objects.

His generosity thus made him known throughout the world: “thanks to his donation of one hundred and ninety-six Egyptian antiquities to the Louvre Museum, … his name is engraved among the greatest donors of the museum in the Rotunda of Apollo”.

Marie Grillot

sources:

Sistrum at naos

http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=3529&langue=fr

The technique of making Egyptian earthenware

http://jfbradu.free.fr/egypte/LES%20ANIMAUX/hippopotame/savoir-plus-faience-egypt.php3

Petrified Sound and Digital Color: A Hathor Column in the New Ptolemaic Galleries, August 12, 2016, Dieter Arnold, Curator, Department of Egyptian Art; Ann Heywood, Curator, Department of Objects Conservation; and Sara Chen, Draftsperson, Department of Egyptian Art

https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/2016/hathor-column

Faience Sistrum Inscribed with the Name of Ptolemy I

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/546038

Isabelle Franco, Dictionary of Egyptian Mythology, Isabelle Franco, Tallandier, 2013

Donors to the Louvre, Paris, Louvre Museum, 1989

The Tyszkiewicz Collection, W. Fröhner

https://www.persee.fr/doc/mefr_0223-4874_1893_num_13_1_6112

Michel Tyszkiewicz, Notes and Memories of an Old Collector, Archaeological Review, Paris, 1895-1897

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k203639h/f276.image.r=michel%20Tyszkiewicz,%20Notes%20et%20souvenirs%20d’un%20vieux%20collectionneur

As I caught a bit cold, 🥶I started my second story but somehow got stuck.😬 Therefore, I took a hand from Dr Jung to make a short post about dreams and attempts to find inner compromises. 💖🌹🙏

Die praktische verwendbarkeit der traumanalyse; (The practical use of dream analysis) From: Traum und Traumdeutung.

The fundamental error with regard to the nature of the unconscious is probably that one generally assumes that its contents are unambiguous and provided with unchangeable signs. In my opinion, this view is too naive. As a self-regulating system, the soul is balanced like the life of the body. For all excessive processes, there are immediate and inevitable compensations; without them, there would be neither a normal metabolism nor a normal psyche. In this sense, one can explain the theory of compensation as a basic rule for psychological behaviour in general. Too little here creates too much there. So the relationship between conscious and unconscious is a compensatory one. This is one of the best-established rules of crafting in dream interpretation. We can always usefully raise the question in the practical interpretation of dreams: Which conscious attitude is compensated by the dream?

Concerning Chopin in my previous post, I wish everybody a “healthy” weekend. 😉🌹💖

Part 1: George Sand & Chopin

Mallorca is one of the Spanish Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. It is known for its bathing resorts, sheltered coves, limestone mountains, and remains from Roman and Moorish times. Although, here in Germany, it has had its fame through Balermanns parties that the german young and older adults have hosted in a part of this beautiful island. Ballermann parties were the favourite funs only for drinking (Boozing), but they were finally reduced (because of exaggerations) considerably by the Spanish government. I didn’t want to travel there, but Regina, my wife, told me it’d be far away from such scenes and had nothing to worry about those parties.

Of course, I must say that we maybe could name Mallorca the seventeenth state of BRD (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) because almost all the Spanish residents there speak German! Although it was not so pleasant for me because I would prefer, when I take a journey to spend my holidays, I like to see and experience something different, including another language. You know, it is nice to live in Germany, but I sometimes need a break!

Anyway, let me begin my travel report with a remarkable encounter with an uncommercial loving pair: George Sand and Frédéric Chopin.

Mallorca is a lovely island to view and enjoy, but for me, such discoveries of such famous artists and geniuses are consistently ranked first. And with my luck, Regina, my adorable wife, cares about it; she was the one who told me that in Palma, the capital city of Mallorca, is a Chopin museum. It wasn’t easy to find out where it was, the signage was not clear, and google guide failed to find it. But finally, we reached the house. To my surprise, it was almost empty and wasn’t that crowded when we went in. I thought, well, it’s a pity that people aren’t that interested, but it was good to look at everything in peace.

Chopin and Sand spent almost nine years together and eventually ended their relationship. This was very unfortunate for Chopin because she protected and nursed the increasingly consumptive and irritable composer while attending to his every whim. In early 1837, Chopin fell seriously ill, and I was just stunned by how hard it could be for George Sand, as she was an artist herself and her challenge to care about her own artistic activity. However, the separation from George Sand and his ill health broke Chopin.

Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand, was a French novelist, memoirist, and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, being more renowned than both Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac in England in the 1830s and 1840s, Sand is recognised as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era. Wikipedia

She had chosen a masculine name; she couldn’t work her arts with her female name; why? Because we men were fools and are still! We have never recognised, and still never will, what a precious worthy jewel in the form of the feminine we could have as a gift and emotional teacher, but we hide in our stupid arrogance and remain blind!

She was not only a writer but had her own newspaper and wrote literary criticism, siding with the poor and working-class and women’s rights. Victor Hugo said in his eulogy at her funeral, “the lyre was within her.”

In this country, whose law is to complete the French Revolution and begin equality of the sexes, being a part of the equality of men, a great woman was needed. It was necessary to prove that a woman could have all the manly gifts without losing any of her angelic qualities, be strong without ceasing to be tender … George Sand proved it. — Victor Hugo, Les funérailles de George Sand

In the evening, when we rested at home. I turned the TV on and suddenly saw a report of one of her masterworks; Gabriel, which is currently were, or still is, performing on the stage in Stadttheater Karlsruhe, Germany. >In George Sand’s play Gabriel (1839), the eponymous hero is a woman who has been raised and educated as a boy by “his” tutor, Father Chiavari, in seventeenth-century Italy.<

Here are some pics from this “small in place but large in senses” museum. However, it was the lovely home of the two.

So it was a so-called high point (for me). I will share more about the landscape with other high and low points in the next post.

from the book: Ecce Homo

When I got to know Friedrich Nietzsche, I had never believed that I might have some similarities with him until I began to read his Ecce Homo; Behold the Man! It is a book about him himself, his feelings and his view of life.

He once said: Life is worth living, says art! The most beautiful seductress; life is worth being known, says science. He might somehow be misunderstood, as I held him like a rough and coarse man. But when I read this book, I understood that he had an open view of society:

The sentence (from my moral code) reads: The preaching of chastity is a public incitement to the unnatural. Every contempt for sexual life, contamination with the term “unclean”, is the crime itself alive – is the actual sin against the holy spirit of life.
Ecce Homo; Why I write good books.

“I have had Caiaphas put in fetters. Also, last year I was crucified by the German doctors in a very drawn-out manner. Wilhelm, Bismarck, and all anti-Semites (must be) abolished.” (Wikipedia)

He loved Zarathustra because he (Zarathustra) said; Don’t follow me! Follow your heart, and find yourself!

Let’s look at a part that he chose from his book”Thus spoke Zarathustra“:

On the other hand, he determines as strictly as possible what “man” can be for him alone – not an object of love or even pity – Zarathustra has also become master of the great disgust in man: man is a deformity for him, a substance, an ugly stone, in need of a sculptor.

No longer wanting and no longer appreciating and no longer creating: Oh, if this great weariness always stays away from me!

Even in recognising, I only feel my will’s joy in witnessing and becoming; and if there is innocence in my knowledge, it is because there is the will to spawn in it.

Away from God and Gods, lured me this Will; what could be done if Gods were there?

But he drives me to man, again and again, my more passionate Will to create, so it pushes the hammer towards the stone.

Ah, you people, an image sleeps in the stone, the image of images! Ah, that it must sleep in the hardest, ugliest stone!

Now my hammer rages cruelly against his prison. Pieces dust from the stone: I don’t give a damn!

I want to complete it because a shadow came to me – of all things, the quietest and lightest came to me!

The beauty of the superman came to me like a shadow: what do I care about the gods!…

I have one last point to emphasise: the underlined verse gives rise to this. For a Dionysian task, the hardness of the hammer; the desire itself to destroy are crucial prerequisites. The imperative: ‘Become hard!’ the lowest certainty that all creators are hard, is the real sign of a Dionysian nature.

A silent artist! Alessandro Ricci was a master of imitation of divinity like the craftsmen artisans, even though he had an inner connection to the Gods and Goddesses of Egypt to paint them. Although, he didn’t care to make himself as famous as he had earned.

Because of his unconcern, we find all of his works under the names of Belzoni, Ricci!

Anyway, here is another marvellous work of Marie Grillot to read. 🙏💖🙏

Alessandro Ricci, Doctor-Draughtsman, from Belzoni to Séthi, Bankes to Champollion…

https://egyptophile.blogspot.com/2020/03/alessandro-ricci-medecin-dessinateur-de.html

via; https://egyptophile.blogspot.com/

In July 1827, the outline of the Franco-Tuscan expedition to Egypt took shape. This project will receive the consent of King Charles X and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, with the well-defined missions of visiting the monuments of ancient Egypt and buying objects for the royal collections.

Around Jean-François Champollion and Ippolito Rosellini are grouped: “scholars and technicians both French and Italian”. This is how the French team brings together Antoine Bibent, architect; Nestor L’Hôte, Alexandre Duchesne, Pierre Lehoux, Edouard Bertin fils, designers and painters as well as Charles Lenormant, inspector of fine arts.

it is made up of the Tuscan team as follows: the designer Salvador Cherubini, the naturalist Raddi and his trainer Galastri, and the painter Angelelli… And a doctor – draftsman: Alessandro Ricci.

The presence of Alessandro Ricci, “born in Siena of a Florentine father,” a stonemason, is a real blessing for the expedition! Indeed: “apart from his medical profession, Ricci possessed a remarkable quality as a draughtsman, archaeologist and writer; he also had the adventurous ingenuity and the desire for new things which led him to travel”.

His date of birth remains uncertain; if 1795 maybe sometimes announced. This can in no way agree with certain writings presenting him as the expedition veteran “with his forty-five years”; it should be remembered that Jean-François Champollion had “37 and his collaborators, on average, 10 less”.

If he is probably one of the oldest, he is undoubtedly one of those who knows Egypt the best, having travelled through it several times. “Doctor Ricci, an old regular in the country, who thought of the necessary, made all the essential provisions for our trip to Upper Egypt”, relates Jean-François Champollion.

Alessandro Ricci seems to have arrived in Egypt in 1817. After a year devoted exclusively to practising medicine – which he had studied in Siena – he was contacted by Giovanni Battista Belzoni, but this time for his talents as an artist.

Indeed, on October 18, 1817, the Giant of Padua discovered the tomb of Seti I and wished to make a complete statement to publish the plates and drawings and organise an exhibition in London. “I had engaged Signor Ricci, a young man from Italy, very skilled in drawing, and who, with a little practice, became perfect in his imitations of hieroglyphs. He was to begin the drawings of the tomb on his arrival in Thebes .”

Thus: “from February to March, Ricci worked alone in the tomb to copy as many reliefs as possible. On May 10, Belzoni found him in the Valley of the Kings. He was amazed by the work carried out by this artistic doctor, decidedly very talented: most of the large mural paintings of the tomb of Apis (ed.: this was the name then given to KV 17 because its “owner” had not yet been identified) had already been copied, and he was waiting for Giambattista and his cargo of beeswax to take the impressions of all the bas-reliefs. Both camping in this hypogeum, they devoted the whole summer of 1818 to this exhausting task”.

The result was admirable, but it required a lot of skill and patience: “The most challenging thing was to take impressions of the figures without damaging the colours with which they were coated. In counting the life-size figures, I found all one hundred and eighty-two. As for the figures from one to three feet high, I have not counted them, but there could hardly have been less than eight hundred. There were in this tomb about two thousand figures. Hieroglyphics, whose size varied from one to six inches; I copied them all faithfully, with their colours.

It seems that this work is finally finished, the taste for adventure embraces them again… Thus: “After carefully storing drawings and wax prints at the bottom of the tomb, closing the entrance to it with a solid wooden door and left behind a trusted guard, Belzoni and Ricci loaded a boat full of antiquities, which they sent to Cairo. an expedition in the deserts bordering the Red Sea, in search of the ancient city of Berenike…”

At the end of 1818, Ricci was contacted by Sir William John Bankes. As brilliant as he was eccentric, this English aristocrat made a study trip to Egypt with his secretary, Henri William Beechey. The British consul Henry Salt brings him his precious support and presence: “Going up the Nile with the English consul and Baron Sack, (a learned Prussian naturalist and chamberlain to King Frederick-William II, Bankes), was preparing to continue his survey work until ‘ in Nubia. He had hired Doctor Ricci and the young Frenchman Linant de Bellefonds as designers.”

Thus, the draftsmen identify all the monuments leaving invaluable testimonies, constituting data of capital importance for Egyptology. Not only are their drawings beautiful and of high artistic quality, but they are exceptionally well “informed”. They provide precise information on the state of the monuments, their orientation, and their dimensions.

Among their sheets, there are also a large number of epigraphic records… In 1822, Ricci will be – like Linant de Bellefonds -asked for a new “expedition” of the aristocrat who wishes, this time, to join Dongola, enter Meroe, and why not, go in search of the sources of the Nile…

Alessandro Ricci, who had had the good fortune to “save Ibrahim-Pasha (son of Pasha Mohammad-Ali) from dysentery”, returned to Italy as a rich man. He settled in Florence and exhibited his collection of Egyptian antiquities in his home… This is how Champollion met him and asked him for the Franco-Tuscan expedition. In 1829, a scorpion sting forced him to interrupt his work…

“This injury later led to paralysis and dementia.” Alessandro Ricci died in Florence on January 11, 1834.

After the story of such a remarkable life, in the face of so much experience, skills, and adventures, one cannot help but wonder why “signor Ricci” has remained so little known… He did not sign his drawings so well that they have sometimes been attributed to Belzoni…. In contrast, even without having a trained eye when comparing the drawings of the tomb of Seti, one quickly distinguishes those of Belzoni from those due to the immense talent of Ricci… Did he prefer discretion? Did he want to stay in the shadows? The fact that on Angelelli’s painting representing the members of the Franco-Tuscan expedition, he is on the left, in profile and… from behind, is perhaps part of the answer.

Marie Grillot

Sources:

Travels in Egypt and Nubia, G. Belzoni
The harvest of the gods – The great adventure of Egyptology, Jean-Jacques Fiechter http://Letters of Champollion the Younger collected and annotated by H. Hartleben Volume 1, Letters are written from Italy, Paris, Ernest Leroux Publisher, 1909

Pharaoh: Reborn Exhibition in Bristol (Considerations on Belzoni and Ricci)

“Ricci, Alessandro” (astene)
“Ricci, Alessandro”, by Federico Tognoni
ancient-Egypt. co

A Treasure House of Egyptology. The Catalogue of William John Bankes’ Egyptian Portfolio A Treasure House of Egyptology. The Catalogue of William John Bankes’ Egyptian Portfolio  (1815-1822)

“Viaggi del dottore Alessandro Ricci di Siena fatti negli anni 1818, 1819, 1820, 1821, 1822 in Nubia, al Tempio di Giove Ammone, al Monte Sinai, e al Sennar“, Edizione critica e commento”The great Belzoni“, by John H Taylor
Travellers in Egypt, Paul Starkey, Janet Starkey, I.B.Tauris “William John Bankes (1786-1855) – Egyptologist and friend of Lord Byron“, by Rachel Knowles

“William John Bankes’ collection of drawings and manuscripts relating to ancient Nubia“

The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1820-1832, ed. D.R. Fisher, 2009
. Fisher, 2009

Just a comeback announcement, if one of you dears has ever noticed my absence, you can now compare me with this cartoon!? We arrived yesterday evening, and until now, I am trying to gather my thoughts to find out where I am! Oh yes, belong to the Earth but all over a foreigner. Anyway, with a heartfelt hello, I share my littleness with some help from Master Dr Jung.:

The unconscious is not a demonic monster but a morally, aesthetically and intellectually indifferent natural being. It only becomes hazardous when our conscious attitude towards it is hopelessly wrong. To the extent that we repress, the dangerousness of the unconscious increases. But at the moment when the patient begins to assimilate the unconscious contents, the dangerousness of the unconscious also decreases. The personality dissociation, the anxious separation of day and night, ends with progressive assimilation. What my critic fears, namely the overpowering of consciousness by the unconscious, is most likely to occur when the unconscious is prevented from living through repression, wrong interpretation and devaluation. C.G.Jung

Die praktische Verwendbarkeit der Traumanalyse (1931)

from “Traum und Traumdeutung”

Image: Art Gallery of Ontario.

Mephistopheles fly over the city; from Goethe’s Faust

Have a lovely WE, everybody. Have a great and wonderful Easter fiesta until we meet again… 💖🙏💖🙏🤗

The Externsteine are a striking sandstone rock formation in the Teutoburg Forest (Teutoburger Wald) and, as such, an outstanding natural attraction in Germany, which is a protected natural and cultural monument. The Wiembecketeich and a park-like area surround the rocks. The Externsteine are located in the area near the town of Horn-Bad Meinberg in the district of Lippe in North Rhine-Westphalia. Unique cultural and historical significance is ascribed to them.

Last Sunday, we took a tour to see these giant stones. Nature constantly shows her superiority again. And we went there to share in this fascination.

Around 70 to 100 million years old, this natural monument still puzzles scientists today and is considered the Teutoburg Forest’s giant magnet for visitors. The name “Externsteine” probably comes from the magpies (Elstern, in German), as many of these birds used to be found here.

It might be a landing place for the Goddesses and Gods of Olymp to take a rest?! Nobody knows.

Interestingly, this relief is not a stone engraving but made of other materials and set on stone. It is for sure that Christianity wanted to participate in this magnificent Nature formation. Rumours are saying that the legs have been taken away to show the suffering of the act. However, let’s read the description:

“It is divided into three parts or registers. The largest central register shows the Descent from the Cross scene itself. At the centre is the cross; to the right is a figure identified as Nicodemus. The legs of this figure have been lost since at least the 17th century, but it is shown at an elevated position, aiding in the recovery of Jesus’ body from the cross. The figure was standing on a supporting structure (identified either as a plant bent by Nicodemus’ weight or as a chair). Nicodemus lowers the body of Jesus towards Joseph of Arimathea, who is standing to the left of the cross. To the left of Joseph is the figure of Mary, Mother of Jesus (the head of this figure has been lost), with her hand supporting the head of her son’s corpse. Opposite Mary, on the right side of the scene, is John the Apostle, holding a book.

The upper register shows the torso of the ascended Christ wearing a cross halo and a victory flag. The figure holds a small representation of a human figure with raised hands alongside the flag. Anthropomorphic representations of the Sun and Moon are shown to the left and right, holding drapes.

The lower register shows two kneeling figures, a naked bearded man and a clothed figure of undetermined sex, both of them caught in the coils of the neck and tail of a two-legged, winged dragon. These figures were variously identified as Adam and Eve (representing the fallen state of man in general) or as a Saxon warrior and priest. (With some help from Wikipedia).”

Anyway, it was a fascinating observation of the wonder of Mother Nature.

With a greeting by a crocodile in the beginning!

With these last pictures, I wish you all a lovely weekend, and I only mention that we will probably be in Mallorca next weekend if everything goes well. Let’s see! 🙏💖🤗💖🙏🌹

(Die Externsteine  Sandstein–Felsformation im Teutoburger Wald und als solche eine herausragende Natursehenswürdigkeit Deutschlands, die unter Natur- und Kulturdenkmalschutz steht. Die Felsen sind vom Wiembecketeich und von einer parkartigen Anlage umgeben. Die Externsteine liegen im Gebiet der Stadt Horn-Bad Meinberg im Kreis Lippe in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Ihnen werden besondere kulturgeschichtliche Bedeutungen zugeschrieben. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externsteine)

We have seen a lot of such beautiful paintings as we willingly followed the fascinating history of the magic mythos of Egypt. And we might have never thought about how they have been made. In ancient Egypt, some true original artisans did practise these magnificent arts in their artisanship. They were experts and aware of their incredible skills.

Of course, these treasures did not remain intact, so the artisans of our times had to reconstruct them; we could call them all: Their “own” dwellings of eternity!

Here we read an article about a part of this operation with great thanks to Marie Grillot in companion with Ayman Amer. 🙏

via égyptophile

Pharaoh’s craftsmen and their “own” dwellings of eternity: Minister Khaled El-Enany inaugurates three new tombs in Deir el-Medina

On March 30, 2016, during his first visit to the west bank of Luxor as Minister of Antiquities, Khaled el-Enany came to Deir el-Medina to see the progress of the restoration and development of three tombs to be opened to the public.

The Antiquities Department has carried out the final fittings and fittings needed to welcome visitors; the Minister was able to proceed, on May 13, with their official inauguration. He was accompanied by many personalities, including Dr Mahmoud Afify, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector, Mostafa al Saghir, chief inspector of Antiquities on the west bank of Louqsor, … but also two officials from the Louvre museum, Jean- Luc Martinez, president and director, and Vincent Rondot, from the Department of Egyptian Antiquities.

In his speech, he specified that the restoration of the tombs of Deir El-Medina was implemented with the collaboration of the French Institute of Oriental Studies (IFAO). He also pointed out that: “The opening of these tombs is part of the efforts of the Ministry of Antiquities to protect the heritage of Egypt and to open new archaeological sites to promote tourism”.

And, it is under a crushing sun that he has, in a certain way, given new life to the dwellings of the eternity of three servants of the “Place of Truth”.

In antiquity, Deir el-Medineh was called Set Maât (the “Place of Truth”): the craftsmen lived who worked on digging and decorating the eternal abodes of the Valley of the Kings the Valley of the Queens. In his Necropolis, so far, only four tombs have been opened: Sennedjem (TT 1), Inerkhau (TT 359), Pached (TT 3) and Irinefer (TT 290).

It is now possible to visit TT 218 – tomb of Amennakh, TT 219 – tomb of Nebenmaat and TT 220 – tomb of Khaemter. Located in the western Necropolis and found by Bernard Bruyère in 1928, they date from the 19th dynasty, the reign of Ramses II). Contiguous, they belong to members of the same family: “Amennakht, his son Nebenmaât and his grandson Khaemter thus have three vaults benefiting from common areas and three adjoining surface chapels (TT 218-219-220).” (osirisnet.net)

The tomb of Amennakht – TT 218 – “servant of the Place de Vérité” has 2 vaults. It is of the “polychrome” type, and its rich iconography has retained its beautiful colours. There are stunning scenes mainly of adoration, offerings or funeral rites. On one of the eardrums, the celestial cow ‘meh-urit’, also called ‘the eye of Re’, appears in the form of the goddess Hathor, the mistress of the Amanti, with a falcon in front of her. Below, on each side, scenes declined under a doum palm tree. On one side, the deceased, dressed in a pleated white loincloth, is kneeling under a very lavish palm tree, drinking blue water from a basin. Behind him, with her back to him, a woman, beautifully dressed in pleated white linen, adorned with a necklace and bracelets, stands with her arms raised in adoration. On the other side, two women with long curly brown hair are under a much more delicate, almost “feminine” palm tree; the deceased’s wife is kneeling while her daughter is standing in adoration. The vertical text bands are written in black and stand out against an ocher background.

Another exciting scene represents Osiris seated with a falcon behind him and the ‘udjat’ eye emerging from the Theban mountain carrying a brazier. Below, a very well composed scene brings together three members of the deceased’s family in adoration. And finally, a very touching scene where Anubis has his two hands resting on the mummy, sleeping on a mummification bed. She is protected at the feet by Isis and at the head level by Nephthys, who are represented in the form of two kites. “Why did you choose these birds of prey as an icon of the goddesses? Perhaps because their stridulations recall the oriental laments which, punctuated by shrill cries, were bound to accompany funeral wakes. Following the well-known Osirian myth, the sisters watch over the deceased, new Osiris, as they watch over their brother (and husband for one, lover for the other) dead Osiris. (Thierry Benderitter – osirisnet.net).

The tomb of Nebenmaât – TT 219 – combines a polychrome chapel with a monochrome vault and is thus the first of this type to be opened. Bernard Bruyère, the ‘great discoverer’ of Deir el-Medineh, defines this type of tomb as follows: Medineh, in which the silhouettes that adorn the walls are made in yellow ocher on a white background, while the use of black and red is restricted to the outline of the representations, to the internal detail of the figures and objects and the layout of the hieroglyphic inscriptions .” Its walls offer beautiful scenes. Among them is the ritual opening of the mouth, which is different from those found in other tombs in the village. Anubis is leaning over the mummy, which rests on a mummification bed. Under the layer are a series of exquisite vases and a: “mirror with a handle, symbol of Hathoric beauty, intended to stimulate the reproductive ardours of the deceased”. The text strips are black on a white background. The scene is surmounted by a beautiful kneeling goddess Isis, who extends her protective wings and whose waist is deliciously and doubly girded with a red ribbon whose sides fall to the ground.

The tomb of Khaemter – TT 220 is monochrome and in less good condition, with particular significant gaps on the walls and the ceiling. On one of the eardrums, an exciting and perfectly symmetrical scene: two Anubis whose heads are partly missing, their necks surrounded by a cloth, face each other. In the centre, a pot surmounted by the three wavy lines standing for “Nun” (the primordial ocean from which the world came out), itself surmounted by the sign ‘shen’, the symbol of eternity. Below, occupying about a quarter of the wall is a curious Djed pillar. It is provided with two arms carrying vases which pour water while inside his elbow(s) a beautiful cross of life ‘ankh’ is hung. On the other part of the wall, the deceased (in Osiris) is seated, standing behind him, the goddess Isis. They are facing a table carrying food.

These three tombs offer us a new insight into the expression and sensitivity of the craftsmen – artists – of the Place de Vérité. No doubt they will delight the eyes of visitors… just as the tomb of Djehouty will not fail to do. (TT 110), opened that same day in the Necropolis of Sheikh Abd El-Gournah.

Marie Grillot & Ayman Amer (IFAO)

There was the time, the 50s and the 60s, with warrior youths who knew what they wanted: freedom! Within the mass of demos in which were (primarily) individuals, there were famous philosophers like Sartre and Russell among them. Russell has participated in these marches for rights and freedom, even in his aged years. I remember how I was surprised when I saw this older adult with his silvery-white hair marching in the first row along with many young people. I watched it on the TV; It was such an extra evet that the Persian Shah regime couldn’t censor this.

What years they were, those years. I am sure some of the friends here from my generation know what I am talking about; The years of excitement, innocent, and courage.

Here is about Liberalism, in which Russell found a solution to avoid chaos. That was a good idea, but that was! Those days after WWII, people were tired of war and looking for answers to social problems, tried many different ways. But these ways became extreme. It is always conceivable that the morale of social breakdown after any war. We can see and read in human history that the idea of Liberalism was the best way to achieve the goal. But now, it has become a way for political lobbyism, abusage and jobbery by all political parties. Gerhard Schröder’s calm hand with his politics of the middle! He is a member of SPD (Social Democratic Party) and was Chancellor of Germany for a while. The SPD was once an actual “social democratic” party, but after Schroder won the election in 1998, he had changed many social agendas of the party and had followed the idea of Liberalism; he called it “the politic of the middle” and enjoyed lobbyism until now that he is one of best friends Putin’s! I want to say that the pure ideas, either ultras or decent ones like Liberalism, are now all mixed up (as I see in the world politic, especially in Germany). It is a pity to see how they all wasted and trashed in a world of money-makers.

Now back to this great thinker; he had ten, not “commands” for sure, but suggestions, to free the minds and use the thoughts for a better world:

Bertrand Russell’s Ten Commandments for Living in a Healthy Democracy

Image by J. F. Horrabin, via Wikimedia Commons

Bertrand Russell saw the history of civilization as being shaped by an unfortunate oscillation between two opposing evils: tyranny and anarchy, each of which contains the seed of the other. Russell maintained that the best course for steering clear of either one is Liberalism.

“The doctrine of liberalism is an attempt to escape from this endless oscillation,” writes Russell in A History of Western Philosophy. “The essence of liberalism is an attempt to secure a social order not based on irrational dogma [a feature of tyranny], and insuring stability [which anarchy undermines] without involving more restraints than are necessary for the preservation of the community.”

In 1951 Russell published an article in The New York Times Magazine, “The Best Answer to Fanaticism–Liberalism,” with the subtitle: “Its calm search for truth, viewed as dangerous in many places, remains the hope of humanity.” In the article, Russell writes that “Liberalism is not so much a creed as a disposition. It is, indeed, opposed to creeds.” He continues:

But the liberal attitude does not say that you should oppose authority. It says only that you should be free to oppose authority, which is quite a different thing. The essence of the liberal outlook in the intellectual sphere is a belief that unbiased discussion is useful and that men should be free to question anything if they can support their questioning with solid arguments. The opposite view, maintained by those who cannot be called liberals, is that the truth is already known and that questioning it is necessarily subversive.

Russell criticizes the radicals who would advocate change at any cost. Echoing the philosopher John Locke, who had a profound influence on the authors of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, Russell writes:

The teacher who urges doctrines subversive to existing authority does not, if he is a liberal, advocate the establishment of a new authority even more tyrannical than the old. He advocates certain limits to the exercise of authority, and he wishes these limits to be observed not only when the authority would support a creed with which he disagrees but also when it would support one with which he is in complete agreement. I am, for my part, a believer in democracy, but I do not like a regime that makes belief in democracy compulsory.

Russell concludes the New York Times piece by offering a “new decalogue” with advice on how to live one’s life in the spirit of Liberalism. “The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows,” he says:

1: Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.

2: Do not think it worthwhile to produce belief by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.

3: Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.

4: When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.

5: Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.

6: Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do, the opinions will suppress you.

7: Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

8: Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a more profound understanding than the latter.

9: Be scrupulously truthful, even when the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

Wise words, then. Wise words now.

I know how dry it is to talk about politics! So, let’s enjoy a beautiful song from back then. 😉🤗🙏💖

Sources:

https://www.openculture.com/2021/11/bertrand-russells-ten-commandments-for-living-in-a-healthy-democracy.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell

A short foreword; It was an exhausting night! Our grandson, Ilias, spent last night with us. It may sound usual, but it was the first time he slept outside of the home and his mother’s arm. Our son Raphael wanted it because he wanted a breakthrough with that, and in the whole family, we were the only ones to take this challenging task!

Anyway, waking up hourly and trying to calm him was our changing duty, though I was scared of worse! We can be proud of this, and I am somehow awake to say some words more today. 😉🤓

Let’s make a final travel report from the last trip to Lanzarote because there may come a new one!😁

In the cities:

Here are some by Regina;

In between, we took a trip to the other side of the island to see more waves. Because where we lived, the sea was much calmer than the east part.

Here I have tried to make it live!

And we say cheers till the next trip! 🤗🙏💖