Mourning Nephthys

Mourning Nephthys

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The goddess Nephthys, identifiable by her hieroglyph on her head, kneels and raises a hand before her face in a gesture of mourning. The figure forms a pair with the figure of Isis 12.182.23b. Figures of the two mourning goddess accompany the body of Osiris in representations. In Late Period and Ptolemaic burials kneeling figures of the goddesses may be among the wooden figures in a burial. Presumably they were placed at either end of the sarcophagus of the deceased as they appear at either end of the body of Osiris.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.