Seth animal protecting a king
Nineteenth to Twentieth Dynasty
Cairo Museum, CG42993
Scanned from _Reading Egyptian Art_, by Richard H. Wilkinson
From Ibeca Francisco Jose Neves we get this photo and the additional info that the king is Rameses II
(Photo slightly color-adjusted)
Heidi Kontkanon got some good shots of this piece.
The British Museum has an amulet with the Set animal in a similar pose:
Wooden amuletic figure of a seated Seth animal, Ramesside Period Width: 2.02 centimetres, Height: 5.82 centimetres, Depth: 3.93 centimetres Registration number: 1899,0314.12 BM/Big number: 30460 Published: Andrews, Amulets of Ancient Egypt (1994): p.79
"Wooden amuletic figure of a seated Seth creature; the edge of the base(damaged) is inscribed with an offering formula to Seth." Carol Andrews mentions this offering formula is "naming the god with unusual epithets", but she does not elaborate further. Not just the base is damaged, the ears and tip of snout have been lost. I try to imagine what it might have looked like when new:
Ramesses II had built a temple to Set in Matmar, and although it didn't survive, there is enough evidence that it was there. (Matmar: British Museum Expedition to Middle Egypt, by Guy Brunton, (Quaritch Ltd, 1948), page 72) TeVelde gives a photo of a wooden statue of Set, this time, not in animal form, but seated on a throne, which seems to fit with these:
"Leiden A 423. Photograph of the Museum of Antiquities at Leiden"
"PI. ix, no. 14. Limestone figure of the god Set."
PI. ix, no. 15. Small dyad of the gods Ptah and Bast in glazed steatite. PI. ix, no. 16. Green glazed figure of the goddess Ta-urt. The figure is really a pot, so constructed that when filled with water, it runs out through holes in the breasts. Beneath the stomach is the Sa amulet, which this goddess is usually seen holding in the hand. The original is about 74 inches high. Nos. 14, 15, and 16 are now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford." _Riqqeh and Memphis VI_ by R. Engelbach, with chapters by M.A. Murray, H. Flinders Petrie and W.M. Flinders Petrie (Online at Etana.org)
I still have not found a decent picture of this Set piece, but I did find a mention and a tiny photo of the Taweret:
I like her grin!
It's in bad shape, but still recognizable: |
Detail of Set,
He is wearing the double crown of Egypt like he is is the large bronze statue and in the small standing amulets
The Cairo Museum recently has allowed photography. A colleague went there, with his camera. And he found a lovely little faience statuette:
These photos is by a colleague who calls himself "Setken"
It is a small faience amulet, in the Cairo Museum
There was no info card regarding this piece, but I would surmise it is from the New Kingdom.