a mouse, living forever

Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915
metmuseum.org

Usually ancient Egyptian seal amulets were fashioned in the form of scarab beetles.  This one, set into a ring, is a mouse.  Its seal is the cartouche of Menkheperre, the throne name of Pharaoh Thutmose III (reigned 1479-1425 B.C.).  Across the mouse's shoulders are inscribed the words "Menkheperre, living forever."  Was there a link between the sentiment and the creature?  Mice and rats raided Egyptian grain stores, but that very ability to be small and destructive gave them top billing in a passage from Herodotus in which they devoured the bowstrings of an invading army.  Did this mouse remind the wearer not to discount the insignificant?

running golden, 11th c

www.metmuseum.org Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1964

This earthenware bowl dates from Fatimid-era (909-1171 CE) Egypt, a time and place of dynamic, luxuriant creation in Islamic art.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art identifies it at first quarter 11th century, yet the metallic luster painting of this running hare remains bright with barely any wear.  The exact significance of rabbits in this culture is not precise, but I did find this passage that proposes that rabbits, like mankind, seek to preserve their life. Rabbits do it by running away; humans do it by any means they can devise, including running away, and in that we're in fellowship with our fellow creatures.  Not a bad thing to remember as you dine from your gold-enhanced bowl.

awaken like a hedgehog

Rogers Fund and Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1920. https://www.metmuseum.org

Here's a tiny glazed soapstone hedgehog scaraboid (roughly beetle-shaped amulet) from Egypt ca. 1981–1295 B.C.  Right about now I wouldn't mind a hedgehog amulet:  because they hibernated, and survived the desert terrain, the Egyptians took them for symbols of resurrection.  That is something I particularly like in these days just past the winter solstice, as we navigate the cold and the dark and look for the days to lengthen oh just a little.  Here's another hedgie from the Met, this one on a string.

a family on one ring!

www.themet.org  Purchase, Patricia A. Cotti and Friends of Egyptian Art Gifts, 2017

How funny I find it that after coming up for air after a holiday weekend of family travel, the first thing I should find is this Egyptian ring upon which an entire cat family perches neatly. From circa 1295-664 B.C. and made of faience, this ring probably celebrated a particular festival.  Have a look at its page over at the Met for more info.

a greek dog on egyptian soil

www.mfa.org Egypt Exploration Fund by subscription

This terracotta dog is all of 1 15/16" x 1 5/8", but the roughness of his modeling gives him a big presence.  Isn't it amazing how a few well-placed pushes and pulls on a lump of clay create something that's unmistakably a dog? 
He lives at the Boston MFA, where they don't have a date of manufacture listed for him, but they know where he was found (by the great Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, no less).  He's from Naukratis, which was a Greek trading post in the Nile Delta established in the 7th century BC.  The British Museum has a research project about Naukratis; you can read more about it here.  If you search the research project catalog for "dog" you'll see this guy and a number of his fellows pop up, as the project worked with museum collections worldwide.  I learned there that he might be a representation of Sirius the Dog Star, whose rising happened around the yearly flooding of the Nile.

the official's other dog!

By Karen Green (IMG_6422) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

Here's the companion dog to yesterday's, as found on a wall at the tomb of Sarenput I.  He's a she, and she's lactating - I wonder if there's ever been any tomb reliefs of tiny Egyptian puppies?

the official's dog, 12th dynasty

By Karen Green (IMG_6415) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

Sarenput I was an official in 12th-dynasty Egypt under Pharaoh Senusret I (1971-1926 BC.  That's okay, I hadn't heard of that pharaoh either).  His tomb in the Qubbet el-Hawa complex contains several reliefs of his relatives -  and his dogs, of whom we see one here.  Over at the left you can see the snout of another pup.  I'll show you that one tomorrow - it's so enjoyable it deserves a post all its own!

cat and mouse, with a twist

Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, www.brooklynmuseum.org (CC-BY)

Is it difficult to think that ancient people had a sense of humor?  The Egyptians certainly did, which isn't a surprising trait in such a rational and life-affirming civilization.  Here's a sketch to prove it:  a cat - note its lovely dotted coat, typical of an Egyptian Mau - offers goodies to an imperious mouse.  Wait, what? (There's more on the object record page at the Brooklyn Museum's site.)  It's sketched on an ostracon, which is a scrap of pottery or stone  used for notes or sketching; much cheaper than papyrus for tomfoolery.  Date on this funny scene? Around 1295-1075 B.C.E.

otter admiration, egypt

Gift of Lily S. Place, 1923 www.metmuseum.org

Look at this otter!  Isn't he the greatest? It is just as well, Museum friends, that you are not in my office right now listening to my high-pitched squeals of delight.  According to the record page at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this fellow (made of cupreous metal, that is, copper or mostly-copper alloy) dates from Late Period or Ptolemaic Egypt, 664-30 B.C.  It seems that what the Egyptians knew, and we have forgotten, is that when otters do this adorable paws-up move that they are actually adoring the sun.  Is that a sun disk on his head?  Yes, along with the cobra symbolizing Wadjet, the goddess of Lower Egypt.  Otters were part of Wadjet's identification as one of the goddesses called "Eye of Ra" (or eye of the sun).  Here's another otter in worship from the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna.

precious hedgehog

Gift of Helen Miller Gould, 1910 www.metmuseum.org

This gold hedgie on his snug little box is a piece of jewelry - a pendant.  He is thought to have been made in Egypt sometime in the Late Period to the Ptolemaic Period (4th century BC to about 30 AD).  This piece's page at the Metropolitan Museum of Art notes that hedgehog amulets were often worn by Egyptians, possibly because they thought of its hibernation and waking as a symbol of rebirth.  I find the thought of someone in ancient days occasionally touching their hedgehog jewel, taking comfort in the idea of new beginnings, is a warm and pleasant one.  Perhaps I need a hedgehog pendant.  Of course you'll see that the Met's page says that they also admired the animal's ability to roll into a small ball - what's that about?  The orb of the Sun?  Just Egyptian goodnatured humor?  Who doesn't like cute animals that roll up into tiny balls?

ode "on a cat mummy"

In this gloriously odd vintage poem, a mummified puss leads the poet to muse upon the fall of empires and the ascendancy of Christianity.  Hang on for this ride through the ancient sands, won't you?

On a Cat Mummy.
PREPOSTEROUS cat, from Egypt's soil arisen,
Where thou hast lain beneath the sand seas flat,
The countless years had power thy face to wizen,
But not to wreck, for thou art still a cat.

I will not point at thee with jesting finger,
Nor pass thee by as though unworthy thought,
For there is much in thee to make me linger;
Those sightless eyes are with high meaning fraught.

'Tis hard indeed for modern thought or notion
To move along on ancient Koptic line,
Or hold, by any sort of weird devotion,
Grimalkin clothed in attributes divine.

We upstarts have a curious way of linking
Puss with old dames and flights upon a broom,
But Egypt's reverential mode of thinking
Ere Homer's day ran back to earlier gloom.

How very modern is our prophet Moses!
Our Christ himself but theme for recent talk,
While we are few when counted with the noses
That owned the sway of Horus and of hawk.

Five thousand years! The brain grows sick and dizzy.
But long ere then Phtah ruled beside the Nile,
And swarming millions, brown and blithe and busy,
Throve in the dreamy splendor of his smile.

Most ancient cat! When thou were swathed and twisted
In costly shroud and laid in sacred grave,
Apis and Pharaoh vainly were resisted,
And gentle Isis deigned to bless and save.

Those gods are dead, and faded is their splendor;
Their countless years are but a day that's done,
While Bethlehem's star, with radiance pure and tender,
Outshines in glory Egypt's fiercest sun.

The granite statue of sublime Rameses
On Memphis plain stands desolate to-day,
And years drift by, like summer's cloudy fleeces,
Forever changing and the same for aye.

Broad lotus leaves still on Nile's bosom quiver,
Still lives the Sphinx in many a Koptic face,
But never Pharaoh drifts across the river
In golden boat to his long resting-place.

O wondrous cat! Time leveled many a city,
Pantheons fell, great nations were forgot,
But thou wast hid, and now, in scorn and pity,
Comest to taunt me with my fleeting lot.

Out of my sight! I will no more abide thee.
Thy weird grotesqueness makes me chill and faint;
Thou art too hoar*; I cannot well deride thee,
But I will spurn thee ere I suffer taint.

Curse on those old Egyptians and their science!
Types live, and change doth keep this old world sweet.
We pass and come again: why bid defiance
To Nature, and be spurned beneath her feet?

Voices of nature join in ceaseless paean!
Death is but change and joyful motherhood;
And through the chorus whisper, Galilean,
"Why live at all except for doing good?"

*hoar: grayish-white, aged

- Horton, G. (1892). Songs of the lowly, and other poems. Chicago, F. J. Schulte & company. 124-6.  George Horton (1860-1942) was an author and journalist appointed by President Cleveland as consul to Athens.  At first glance I find his work earnestly likeable - here's the last stanza of his poem "To an English Sparrow," same book as above:

Your enemies say you're a fighter.
Ah well, what of that? So am I.
I will sing if 'tis darker or lighter
You have taught me a gay battle-cry.
When Fortune's against me, despite her
I will wait for the days that are brighter,
Singing " Cheer up! Cheer up! "
I will fight and will sing till I die.

here, iknht, good boy

not at the met, but the brooklyn museum  --  Stela of Intef and Senettekh, ca. 2065-2000 B.C.E. Limestone, 11 3/4 x 13 15/16 x 15/16 in. (29.8 x 35.4 x 2.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 54.66. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 54.66_detail_slide.jpg

 What a treat to find an entire article on ancient Egyptian dog names (and a few other creatures thrown in!). It's in a Metropolitan Museum of Art publication from 1977, "More Ancient Egyptian Names of Dogs and Other Animals" by Henry G. Fischer.  Each name has a citation, and I would love to find images to match, though the article has a few.

You'll hear of Nfr (a common name), Hknw, Hknn and Hnf.

'Ikni is also a common name from the Middle Kingdom and later, though it seems to be a name that references Nubia.  Were they Nubian dogs?  Fascinating.

But wait, there's more!  Fischer notes these horse names found in battle scenes from the late New Kingdom: "Amun Decrees Valor for Him," "Amun, He Gives Might," and "Amun Has Given Might." Then, hold on, we get to the war lion (yes, I said war lion):  "Slayer of His Foes."

two ancient kittens

Kitten Coffin, 850-540 B.C.E. Bronze, animal remains (2 individuals), linen, 3 1/8 x 2 3/8 x 6 1/4 in. (8 x 6 x 15.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.369Ea-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum (Gavin Ashworth,er), 37.369Ea_Gavin_Ashworth_photograph.jpg)

Though I recently posted an ancient Egyptian cat piece, and wouldn't immediately offer you another, I ran across this item at the Brooklyn Museum website.  This is a bronze coffin for two kittens, the whole measuring only 3" by 2" by 6".  Made during the Late Period (roughly 712-332 BCE), the modeling shows the natural, more informal portrayal of that time.  Look at the one on the right with its big ears, slender tiny legs, wobbly baby body.  Who met the kittens of Egypt when they toddled into paradise?

a cat handles it

www.metmuseum.org.  gift of Darius Ogden Mills, 1904

At some point from 664-30 B.C., a cat took up watch on this vessel handle in ancient Egypt.  Crafted from cupreous (copper-based) metals, this little guardian has mellowed to a plush finish; here's another view.

see above, www.metmuseum.org

This piece belongs to The Met, and its collection page suggests it was part of an offering to Bastet, a goddess whose alertness and power was on an approachable scale.  You wouldn't own a lion to catch your household mice, so you might not choose lion-headed Sekhmet for your daily troubles.  Bastet, fierce yet friendly and fond of a comfortable and happy house, was the goddess for you.

cat luck

the metropolitan museum of art, Bequest of Mary Anna Palmer Draper, 1915 1891 www.metmuseum.org 

This little creature is 7/8th of an inch high, if you can imagine that.  Even so, within that tiny scope, its long lost Egyptian creator (26-29th dynasty, 664-380 BC) made a cat amulet with presence and physicality.  Look how stout it appears; this is a miw (Egyptian for cat) ready to do you some good, you bet.  Bastet, the cat-headed goddess, was invoked for fertility, and perhaps that's the good fortune this amulet brought to someone.

bark bark

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1940. www.metmuseum.org. OASC 

He's only 3000 years old.  This beautiful toy dog was carved from ivory during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt's New Kingdom (around 1390-1353 B.C.), and the handle on his chest makes his mouth open and shut.  Howard Carter owned him once; what lucky long-ago child played with him before that?  The Egyptian word for dog was "iwiw," which sounds like a bark. Imagine making his jaw flap and saying "Iwiw, iwiw."

color ancient egyptian cats!

all images copyright and by kindest permission of l. a. vocelle

Pet Museum friend, The Great Cat (L. A. Vocelle) has created a wonderful coloring book of ancient Egyptian cat imagery!  It's called Ancient Egyptian Cats: A Coloring Book for Adults and Children (and the link takes you to its Amazon page for the getting thereof). 

The images are inspired by statues and wall bas-reliefs.  Don't you want to get to coloring right now?  

I went looking for a poem to Bast (the cat goddess) and this one pops up a great deal:

Hail Bast! Hail Bast! Hail Bast,
coming forth from the secret place,
may there be given to me splendor
in the place of incense, herbs,
and love-joys, peace of heart in the
place of bread and beer.

a winsome game marker

from the walters art museum, PD: CC-BY

This small dog figure dates from Egypt ca. 2850 BCE (Early Dynastic Period, late 1st-2nd dynasty).  He was found in Abydos, and made of hippo ivory.  He is identified as a game piece, and I thought he might be part of a set for an ancient Egyptian game we call Hounds and Jackals.  That can't be though because as you see here Hounds and Jackals is like cribbage. Perhaps it's from the game Menet.  Even so, look how personable he is with a minimum of detail but the cleanest and most understandable of forms.  Nothing extra, but all dog.

naps: good even millenia ago

Figure of a Reclining Dog, ca. 1938-1700 B.C.E. Faience, glazed, 13/16 x 1 15/16 x 1 1/2 in. (2 x 4.9 x 3.8 cm).
Brooklyn Museum, Museum Collection Fund, 14.659. Creative Commons-BY

This little guy is about 4000 years old.  He's a simple portrait of a dog; not a fancy dog, but that doesn't matter.  He's here to be your eternal sidekick, another of the figures the Egyptians placed in tombs to take on their role in the great beyond.  (There are some other photos of him here.  By the way, if you like Egyptian art and are ever in Brooklyn, run, don't walk to the Brooklyn Museum. Yes, I had that flipped until I edited it.  My bad. - curator)  Curious as to what Egyptian dogs were named?  The Brooklyn link has a few names, and in this 2012 post I have a few more.