DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4863#0033
Puyemre
sacrifices to
the gods
Details of the
scene
CEREMONIAL AID
kinds of fragrant oil are at his disposal. The flesh and fowl heaped up
on two circular stone stands have already been treated in the same way
and a light applied; for we see the flames curling about them.1 One
table is probably for Osiris, one for Hathor; for the inscription runs,
"Presenting the meal of a god, offering resinous oil2 and incense, and
feeding the braziers for Hathor, lady of carousal, and for Osiris, lord
of Eternity."
On this side of the tables lies a collection of food, flowers, and beer; on
the other a group of four handsome vessels. Two of them are of a type well
known to us in picture (see Volume I, page 99 and Plates XXXVIII, LV).
Made less for use than to exhibit beauty or ingenuity of design, the rims
of these cups are furnished with a balustrade of open metalwork, in
which the craftsman uses familiar decorative elements in new and often
charming combinations, sometimes harmonizing with the use of a cup as
a reservoir of liquid, but not infrequently having no reference to, or con-
sideration for, its employment. Thus in the two present examples the
rim supports a series of miniature cups (a form of decoration in use in
Egypt from prehistoric times to the present day), alternating with open
green lotus-flowers. As all these are lightly connected, they present a
wall sufficiently strong to be carried out in the thin sheet metal out of
which the cup is beaten. The second example has lotuses crowned with
mandrake (?) fruit in the lower rank and Hathor-emblems in the higher
—a fitting decoration for a cup, since she is the goddess of jollity. The
other two bowls (green?) may be glaze vessels, for such cups are known
in that material and form. The plain walls rising from the rim probably
imitate the contents of the bowl; for one sees such in the tombs filled
1 The regular shapes of these tongues of flame (still stiffer on the opposite wall) may be due to the
sculptor's limitations, but it may be that the edge of the offering-table was sometimes furnished with imi-
tation flames which served to keep the contents in, and perhaps saved the inconvenience of real fire. The
table was sometimes fitted with [_J arms for the same purpose. The lesser height of the further flames
might be due in part to a sense of perspective; for such effects were suppressed, not unperceived, by
the Egyptian artist.
2 Anti is a tree gum (colored a deep maroon in PL XXXII); but, as it is poured out of a jar in
ceremonial use and is often determined by a vase, it has evidently been reduced by admixture or other-
wise to a viscous or fluid state, instead of being made into pastilles like sntr. It is shown as a medium
on the painter's palette in Naville, Eleventh Dyn. Temple, III, PI. VIII.
l8
sacrifices to
the gods
Details of the
scene
CEREMONIAL AID
kinds of fragrant oil are at his disposal. The flesh and fowl heaped up
on two circular stone stands have already been treated in the same way
and a light applied; for we see the flames curling about them.1 One
table is probably for Osiris, one for Hathor; for the inscription runs,
"Presenting the meal of a god, offering resinous oil2 and incense, and
feeding the braziers for Hathor, lady of carousal, and for Osiris, lord
of Eternity."
On this side of the tables lies a collection of food, flowers, and beer; on
the other a group of four handsome vessels. Two of them are of a type well
known to us in picture (see Volume I, page 99 and Plates XXXVIII, LV).
Made less for use than to exhibit beauty or ingenuity of design, the rims
of these cups are furnished with a balustrade of open metalwork, in
which the craftsman uses familiar decorative elements in new and often
charming combinations, sometimes harmonizing with the use of a cup as
a reservoir of liquid, but not infrequently having no reference to, or con-
sideration for, its employment. Thus in the two present examples the
rim supports a series of miniature cups (a form of decoration in use in
Egypt from prehistoric times to the present day), alternating with open
green lotus-flowers. As all these are lightly connected, they present a
wall sufficiently strong to be carried out in the thin sheet metal out of
which the cup is beaten. The second example has lotuses crowned with
mandrake (?) fruit in the lower rank and Hathor-emblems in the higher
—a fitting decoration for a cup, since she is the goddess of jollity. The
other two bowls (green?) may be glaze vessels, for such cups are known
in that material and form. The plain walls rising from the rim probably
imitate the contents of the bowl; for one sees such in the tombs filled
1 The regular shapes of these tongues of flame (still stiffer on the opposite wall) may be due to the
sculptor's limitations, but it may be that the edge of the offering-table was sometimes furnished with imi-
tation flames which served to keep the contents in, and perhaps saved the inconvenience of real fire. The
table was sometimes fitted with [_J arms for the same purpose. The lesser height of the further flames
might be due in part to a sense of perspective; for such effects were suppressed, not unperceived, by
the Egyptian artist.
2 Anti is a tree gum (colored a deep maroon in PL XXXII); but, as it is poured out of a jar in
ceremonial use and is often determined by a vase, it has evidently been reduced by admixture or other-
wise to a viscous or fluid state, instead of being made into pastilles like sntr. It is shown as a medium
on the painter's palette in Naville, Eleventh Dyn. Temple, III, PI. VIII.
l8