The History of Antiquity, Vol. 1 (of 6)Duncker, Max
History
The History of Antiquity, Vol. 1 (of 6)
Duncker, Max
History, Ancient
Sakkarah belonging to "a priest of Chufu, and Chafra."[151] On a
monumental stone of the time of the Ptolemies (found in the Serapeum,
and now in the Louvre) mention is made of the temple of Harmachu on the
south of the house of Isis, and of a certain Psamtik, the prophet of
Isis, of Osarhapi (p. 67), of Harmachu, of Chufu and Chafra.[152]
The temples of Osiris and Isis, near the three great pyramids, and the
inscription on the sarcophagus of king Menkera are evidence that the
cultus of Osiris, the belief in his rule in the next world, in the
return of the soul to her divine origin, and her deification after
death, was already in existence at the time when these monuments were
erected. The use not of hieroglyphics only, but also of the hieratic
alphabet, in red and black colours, in the pyramid of Chufu, and the
graves around it, in the sculptures of which writing materials and rolls
of papyrus are frequently engraved, the forms of domestic and household
life, of agriculture and the cultivation of the vine, of hunting and
fishing, preserved on the tombs of Gizeh, are evidence of the long
existence and manifold development of civilisation, no less than those
great monuments, or even the graves themselves with their artistic mode
of construction, their severe and simple style of execution, and the
pleasing forms of their ornaments. Of the seven statues of Chafra,
discovered in the temple of the Sphinx, one, chiselled out of hard green
and yellow basalt, has been preserved uninjured. The king is represented
sitting, and naked, with the exception of a covering on the head and a
girdle round the loins. The lower arms rest on the thighs, the left hand
is outstretched, the right holds a fillet. The sides of the cube, on
which Chafra is seated, are formed by lions, between the feet of which
are stems of papyrus. On the high back of the chair, behind the head of
the king, sits the hawk of Horus, whose wings are spread forwards in an
attitude of protection. The execution of the statue of the king is a
proof of long practice in sculpture. The natural form is truly and
accurately rendered, and though even here Egyptian art displays its
characteristic inclination to severity, and correctness in the
proportions of the body, to repose and dignity, yet in the head there is
an unmistakable attempt to individualize an outline already fixed--an
attempt not without success. Still more distinctly individual are two
statues found near the pyramids of Meidum, from the reign of the
predecessor of Chufu, a wooden statue, and certain pictures in relief
from the tombs near the great pyramids. The architecture, no less than
the sculpture, of these most ancient monuments, displays a high degree
of experience and a knowledge of the principles of art, a conscious
purpose and effort existing together with a fixed obedience to rule.
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