Fecundity Figure

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The city of Sebennytos (Sammanud) in the central Delta was the origin place of the kings of Dynasty 30. Remains indicate that they undertook a major temple to the god Onuris-Shu there. After the hiatus of the second Persian invasion, the work was continued by Alexander the Great’s immediate successors in order to identify themselves closely with the native dynasty. The temple was built of hard stone and apparently had granite columns over thirty feet high. Fecundity figures like this one often decorate the lowest register of temple walls, where they represent the fertility of the nomes of Egypt being rendered to the gods. The original scene would have shown a file of fecundity figures in compartments in between the slightly raised bands of inscription. This figure bears one of the names of Nectanebo II on the offering table, and another cartouche of the king appears in the inscription along with the name of Onuris-Shu, lord of Sebennytos. In an unusual touch, the figure’s heel dips below the ground line of the relief.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art