Images

This offering table, from a temple or a tomb, bears a depiction of a mat laid with food offerings; loaves, water vessels, and fowl. Ritual libations were poured over the images to purify them for the magical consumption by the owner's spirit...

This is a rare example of an Egyptian temple sculpture, in which the figures face in 4 different directions. This suggests that it stood in the middle of a room. Three persons are represented twice. King Thutmose III (now headless) stands...

Detail from the west window of Bath Abbey showing Moses receiving the tablets of the Commandments from the hand of God.

A beautiful series of windows depicting the Genesis account of Creation in the church of Christ the King, Gordon Square in London.

The owner of this sarcophagus was a high-priest of the god Ptah in the city of Memphis. The crossed arms, the emblems he holds, and the rest of the decoration partly repeat those of the sarcophagus of Setau. From the tomb of Pahemnetjer at...

The King is shown in the pose, beard and robe of Osiris, the god of rebirth. This expressed a wish for eternal sed festivals: jubilees in which Amenhotep was to be rejuvenated. The King wears the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. Amenhotep's...

The owner was "a great commissioner of the palace" for Osorkon II, whose cartouches of birth and throne names appear on the upper arm. The shrine he presents contains a figure of Atum, the creator god of Heliopolis. The statue stood in the...

Monumental lists of past kings expressed the living ruler's legitimacy. Originally, Ramesses II was shown on the far right, honoring previous kings and the god Osiris. The kings were represented by their throne names, written inside oval...

Setau, a viceroy of Nubia for Ramesses II, assumes the pose of Osiris, god of the afterlife. His crossed hands claps a djed (right) and tit (left), symbols of performance and life linked to Osiris and consort Isis. Below, the sky goddess...

Sekhemt was a lion goddess, whose name means "the mighty one", and she personified the aggressive aspects of other goddesses. Sekhmet was a daughter of the sun-god Ra. She usually wears the sun-disc on her head. A famous myth recounts how...