DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4859#0067
THE TOMB OF TWO SCULPTORS AT THEBES
Banqueting artist, wishing to produce large effects in inadequate space, leaves cer-
scenes in
general tain features distant and out of focus, so Egyptian faith knew when to
eschew system and dogma and pass to unoutlined dreams. A repetition
of the pleasant social relations of the past might certainly be enjoyed
by the dead, since no happening in earth or heaven, no escapade or
adventure, was forbidden or beyond his reach. But hope is at enmity
with dogma. The pictures, then, that we meet with in the outer halls of
tombs do not definitely represent or secure such a reunion. Those who
regarded them with satisfaction would assuredly not have welcomed
ghostly presences in their homes and merry-makings. The scenes are
primarily memories of the part which the dead might enjoy beyond
cavil, and hopes surpassing these are only disclosed by a phrase, an
epithet, an exaggeration which, being scarcely applicable to life here,
might be regarded as hyperbole or as prophecy, according as mood or
mentality inclined. Such scenes of feasting often occur more than once
in different parts of one tomb, and a distinction needs to be made
between them, even when the ancients failed to observe it and added
elements of confusion. Three separate classes of banquets are perhaps
depicted. One is the regular meal of the dead, which he would hope to
enjoy daily, but which, for the common man at least, could only be so
provided pictorially or by written spell. This is pictured repeatedly;
above all, near the stela or in the shrine. It shows the dead pair sitting
before offerings which a priest consecrates to their use (Plates XVII,
XVIII, XXVII). The second depiction reflects an actual presentation of
food and a real assembly of living relations on the occasion of the New
Year, or some other anniversary. Here, too, the food was ritually offered
to the dead; not in privacy and silence, however, but in the company of
friends and to music and laughter. The third kind of meal is such as we
are now to consider. Placed in the chamber of records, it commemorates
primarily the pleasures of the past. No priest needs to intervene here,
and no further regard is had to religious thought than had place in the
banquets of long ago. The daughters of the house come forward with
the cup, the garland, the ointment, the joy-bringing emblems of Hathor.
52
Banqueting artist, wishing to produce large effects in inadequate space, leaves cer-
scenes in
general tain features distant and out of focus, so Egyptian faith knew when to
eschew system and dogma and pass to unoutlined dreams. A repetition
of the pleasant social relations of the past might certainly be enjoyed
by the dead, since no happening in earth or heaven, no escapade or
adventure, was forbidden or beyond his reach. But hope is at enmity
with dogma. The pictures, then, that we meet with in the outer halls of
tombs do not definitely represent or secure such a reunion. Those who
regarded them with satisfaction would assuredly not have welcomed
ghostly presences in their homes and merry-makings. The scenes are
primarily memories of the part which the dead might enjoy beyond
cavil, and hopes surpassing these are only disclosed by a phrase, an
epithet, an exaggeration which, being scarcely applicable to life here,
might be regarded as hyperbole or as prophecy, according as mood or
mentality inclined. Such scenes of feasting often occur more than once
in different parts of one tomb, and a distinction needs to be made
between them, even when the ancients failed to observe it and added
elements of confusion. Three separate classes of banquets are perhaps
depicted. One is the regular meal of the dead, which he would hope to
enjoy daily, but which, for the common man at least, could only be so
provided pictorially or by written spell. This is pictured repeatedly;
above all, near the stela or in the shrine. It shows the dead pair sitting
before offerings which a priest consecrates to their use (Plates XVII,
XVIII, XXVII). The second depiction reflects an actual presentation of
food and a real assembly of living relations on the occasion of the New
Year, or some other anniversary. Here, too, the food was ritually offered
to the dead; not in privacy and silence, however, but in the company of
friends and to music and laughter. The third kind of meal is such as we
are now to consider. Placed in the chamber of records, it commemorates
primarily the pleasures of the past. No priest needs to intervene here,
and no further regard is had to religious thought than had place in the
banquets of long ago. The daughters of the house come forward with
the cup, the garland, the ointment, the joy-bringing emblems of Hathor.
52