Neck from a vessel depicting the goddess Hathor flanked by felines

Neck from a vessel depicting the goddess Hathor flanked by felines

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Though fragmentary, the decoration on this gold band from the neck of a mostly missing silver vessel suggests the vessel held intoxicating drink. The Hathor heads point to the vessel's close association with Hathor, daughter of the sun-god Re, and the flanking animals, in this case lion cubs rather than the usual cats, are a reference to Sakhmet / Bastet. All these goddesses are associated with the tale of the Distant Goddess. The Distant Goddess myth subsumes that of the Destruction of Mankind - a tale of the rampaging goddess who was only halted by intoxication. Additionally, particular festivities associated with Eye of Re goddesses seem to encourage drunkenness as a way of transcendence and association with divinity.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Neck from a vessel depicting the goddess Hathor flanked by felinesNeck from a vessel depicting the goddess Hathor flanked by felinesNeck from a vessel depicting the goddess Hathor flanked by felinesNeck from a vessel depicting the goddess Hathor flanked by felinesNeck from a vessel depicting the goddess Hathor flanked by felines

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.