Day 38 - Hercules in Egypt
March 28, 2018
For a moment, I feel choked up as I enter Gallery 138, the last of the Egyptian galleries. This is quite a journey that I have set out for myself, and the first leg is now ending.
But the gallery is an excellent introduction to the phase to follow. If anything, it's a bit odd to see this gallery's many funerary images of men and women with hairstyles I recognize as classically Roman and dressed in Roman clothes, but who are flanked by images of Horus, Anubis, and other Egyptian gods. (This is, of course, before Constantine and the conversion of the Empire to Christianity.) Interestingly, I learn that Dionysus came to be associated with Osiris and, less surprisingly, Aphrodite with Isis.
A display case shows several objects of blown glass, stunning in the purity of their lines. The caption explains that the technique of glass-blowing developed in the area of Syria and Palestine around 70 B.C. and quickly became the dominant means of glass production in the ancient world.
Today's image launches me squarely into the Greco-Roman arena. It is an iron knife or razor with an ivory handle, about 4 inches tall and dating from the 2nd to 4th century A.D. The iron is terribly rusted, but the image incised into the ivory is quite distinct. The implement is curved on top, and the curvature is emphasized by the sleek form of what I take to be a rampant lioness. I imagine that the tool's user grasped hold of the animal in using the instrument -- although perhaps the tool was purely decorative in function. Given the detail of the carving, whoever possessed it must have been quite wealthy, whatever the purpose to which the tool was put.
The body of the handle is mostly occupied by the seated form of a male who appears to be nude, or perhaps is wearing a loincloth. He has a cap of curly hair. His body appears quite pudgy, with thick arms, a chubby belly, and rounded breasts. and at first I think that he is a child. But then I look more closely, and he seems to be holding a club, or maybe an animal skin. And I suddenly think, "Hercules!" I am, I confess, quite pleased with myself when I read the caption and discover that the figure is indeed Hercules, or Herakles, as the caption terms him, shown resting after cleaning the Augean stables. I think maybe the lioness is a reference to the Nemean lion-- but then reread the caption, which describes the creature as a tiger or panther. Oh well.... But it is nice and comforting to see an image grounded in myths that I know somewhat better than those of ancient Egypt (although I have certainly learned a lot over the past three months).
The caption further says that a number of closely related knives are known to have come from Italy; the provenance of this particular knife isn't mentioned. This bespeaks the role of trade as well as cultural exchange in the Roman Empire. So it's fitting that Charly and I are soon off to Italy! But first, more of the Met, and Greece.
But the gallery is an excellent introduction to the phase to follow. If anything, it's a bit odd to see this gallery's many funerary images of men and women with hairstyles I recognize as classically Roman and dressed in Roman clothes, but who are flanked by images of Horus, Anubis, and other Egyptian gods. (This is, of course, before Constantine and the conversion of the Empire to Christianity.) Interestingly, I learn that Dionysus came to be associated with Osiris and, less surprisingly, Aphrodite with Isis.
A display case shows several objects of blown glass, stunning in the purity of their lines. The caption explains that the technique of glass-blowing developed in the area of Syria and Palestine around 70 B.C. and quickly became the dominant means of glass production in the ancient world.
Today's image launches me squarely into the Greco-Roman arena. It is an iron knife or razor with an ivory handle, about 4 inches tall and dating from the 2nd to 4th century A.D. The iron is terribly rusted, but the image incised into the ivory is quite distinct. The implement is curved on top, and the curvature is emphasized by the sleek form of what I take to be a rampant lioness. I imagine that the tool's user grasped hold of the animal in using the instrument -- although perhaps the tool was purely decorative in function. Given the detail of the carving, whoever possessed it must have been quite wealthy, whatever the purpose to which the tool was put.
The body of the handle is mostly occupied by the seated form of a male who appears to be nude, or perhaps is wearing a loincloth. He has a cap of curly hair. His body appears quite pudgy, with thick arms, a chubby belly, and rounded breasts. and at first I think that he is a child. But then I look more closely, and he seems to be holding a club, or maybe an animal skin. And I suddenly think, "Hercules!" I am, I confess, quite pleased with myself when I read the caption and discover that the figure is indeed Hercules, or Herakles, as the caption terms him, shown resting after cleaning the Augean stables. I think maybe the lioness is a reference to the Nemean lion-- but then reread the caption, which describes the creature as a tiger or panther. Oh well.... But it is nice and comforting to see an image grounded in myths that I know somewhat better than those of ancient Egypt (although I have certainly learned a lot over the past three months).
The caption further says that a number of closely related knives are known to have come from Italy; the provenance of this particular knife isn't mentioned. This bespeaks the role of trade as well as cultural exchange in the Roman Empire. So it's fitting that Charly and I are soon off to Italy! But first, more of the Met, and Greece.
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