Benson, Margaret; Gourlay, Janet: The temple of Mut in Asher: an account of the excavation of the temple and of the religious representations and objects found therein, as illustrating the history of Egypt and the main religious ideas of the Egyptians (London, 1899)

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CHAPTER XVII.

conclusion.

We have but isolated bits of evidence for the
subsequent history of the temple.

It is difficult to found any conclusion on the few
remains of true Greek work which we found in the
temple.

These bring us at once to the modern world—the
foot in Pentelic marble, the arm in bronze, with
thumb and first finger lightly touching, are, in all
their free curves and living reality, as different from
the studied Egyptian work of Ptolemaic times as the
fossil or skeleton from the breathing animal. The
pure idealism of earlier days had become stark and
dead. In these fragments of Greek art we see the
new birth of the modern world.

When and why these were brought into the
temple we cannot tell. It is tempting to think
that the statue to which the beautiful marble
foot belonged was placed in the temple among
the AVstatues of the old world, for we found with
this a piece of the robe, showing in all probability
that the statue had been broken in the temple.

During the time of the Saites, Greek settlers