DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17531#0028
128 D. G. HOGARTH, H. L. LORIMER, AND C. C. EDGAR
Mr. Hogarth's excavation produced the usual crop of these figures, some of
which were found by him in the trenches.
Statuettes of the same type, some of them much more elaborately
sculptured than the Naukratite examples, are fairly common in Egypt.
Several are said to have been found in tombs, and it was perhaps for the
requirements of the dead that the type was first invented. To place a
statuette of this sort in the tomb of a dead relative was symbolic of pro-
viding him with a wife for the other world—a less barbarous form of
piety than killing his widow. The marble idols which are found so frequently
in the cist-tombs of the Cyclades are good examples of the same practice.
With regard to the Egyptian statuettes M. Mallet, together with M. Maspero,3
has proposed a further explanation. As in Egypt the dead man was identified
with Osiris, the appropriate consort for him would be a corresponding em-
bodiment of Isis. M. Mallet thinks therefore that these small naked
figures represented Isis rather than a mere human being. A point in favour
of this view is that one or two of them wear the uraeus-circlet appropriate
to queens and goddesses. The whole subject, however, needs closer study
on the part of Egyptologists. One would like more evidence and information
about their use as burial offerings.
One finds at Naukratis another class of naked female figures, carved in
exactly the same style as the above-mentioned : a specimen from the recent
excavation is shown in the accompanying
j0T'~illustration (Fig. 8a; see also Naukr. i. PI.
XIX.). These figures are usually known by
the name of Baubo. Baubo, according to
the Orphic hymn, was the hostess of
M Demeter at Eleusis, and tried to amuse her
M I guest by the same sort of gesture which
the women of Egypt are said to have used
on their way to the great festival at Bou-
bastis.4 M. Mallet believes that the lime-
stone statuettes really refer to this legend,
11 and that the type was introduced into Egypt
___,----- by the Greeks of Naukratis. But it is very
FI0, sa. doubtful whether there is any connexion
between the Naukratite figures and this
particular Greek myth. More probably the ' Baubos' had the same general
significance as the other group of female figures, expressed in a still cruder
image. We cannot say whether they (or the other type either) were used
as burial offerings, as the necropolis of the period to which they belong
has not yet been discovered. But as so many specimens of both types
3 Mallet, Les premiers etablisscments ; Mas-
pero, Guide to Ca>ru Mus. (Eng. ed.), p. 296.
Just lately there has come into the Museum
from Memphis a figure of this sort holding a
small Apis against her bosom.
4 Herodotus ii. 60, cd 5e avaavpovrat aviara-
ixevtu. There are many Graeco-Egyptian terra-
cottas in which this action is represented, but
the figures which are commonly identified with
Baubo are undraped.
Mr. Hogarth's excavation produced the usual crop of these figures, some of
which were found by him in the trenches.
Statuettes of the same type, some of them much more elaborately
sculptured than the Naukratite examples, are fairly common in Egypt.
Several are said to have been found in tombs, and it was perhaps for the
requirements of the dead that the type was first invented. To place a
statuette of this sort in the tomb of a dead relative was symbolic of pro-
viding him with a wife for the other world—a less barbarous form of
piety than killing his widow. The marble idols which are found so frequently
in the cist-tombs of the Cyclades are good examples of the same practice.
With regard to the Egyptian statuettes M. Mallet, together with M. Maspero,3
has proposed a further explanation. As in Egypt the dead man was identified
with Osiris, the appropriate consort for him would be a corresponding em-
bodiment of Isis. M. Mallet thinks therefore that these small naked
figures represented Isis rather than a mere human being. A point in favour
of this view is that one or two of them wear the uraeus-circlet appropriate
to queens and goddesses. The whole subject, however, needs closer study
on the part of Egyptologists. One would like more evidence and information
about their use as burial offerings.
One finds at Naukratis another class of naked female figures, carved in
exactly the same style as the above-mentioned : a specimen from the recent
excavation is shown in the accompanying
j0T'~illustration (Fig. 8a; see also Naukr. i. PI.
XIX.). These figures are usually known by
the name of Baubo. Baubo, according to
the Orphic hymn, was the hostess of
M Demeter at Eleusis, and tried to amuse her
M I guest by the same sort of gesture which
the women of Egypt are said to have used
on their way to the great festival at Bou-
bastis.4 M. Mallet believes that the lime-
stone statuettes really refer to this legend,
11 and that the type was introduced into Egypt
___,----- by the Greeks of Naukratis. But it is very
FI0, sa. doubtful whether there is any connexion
between the Naukratite figures and this
particular Greek myth. More probably the ' Baubos' had the same general
significance as the other group of female figures, expressed in a still cruder
image. We cannot say whether they (or the other type either) were used
as burial offerings, as the necropolis of the period to which they belong
has not yet been discovered. But as so many specimens of both types
3 Mallet, Les premiers etablisscments ; Mas-
pero, Guide to Ca>ru Mus. (Eng. ed.), p. 296.
Just lately there has come into the Museum
from Memphis a figure of this sort holding a
small Apis against her bosom.
4 Herodotus ii. 60, cd 5e avaavpovrat aviara-
ixevtu. There are many Graeco-Egyptian terra-
cottas in which this action is represented, but
the figures which are commonly identified with
Baubo are undraped.