Une grande reine et deesse

• Authors: Zsolt Kiss

Title variants

EN

A Great Queen and Goddess

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

During the research led by the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology at Heracleion a huge statue of black diorite was found on the site of the Temple. Preserved in four parts, the sculpture is nearly complete (2.20m). It represents a woman standing, with arms on her sides down and slightly forward. In her left hand she hold the sign ankh and on the chest of her garment she bears the ‘knot of Isis’. Also the hair, arranged in long, rolled-up curls, are characteristic for the goddess. But the broad flat diadem is clearly a royal one, therefore it is possible to see in this sculpture an image of a ptolemaic queen assimilated with Isis. Certain is that Berenice II, the wife of Ptolemy III, wore on some portraits this kind of ‘isiac’ hairdress. Close to the Heracleion statue are portraits of Cleopatra II, sister-wife of Ptolemy VI, and of her daughter – Cleopatra III. Distinction of the portraits of the mother and daughter is difficult, but considering the long reign of the last one, the Heracleion statue seems more probably an image of Cleopatra III as Isis.

Keywords

EN

sculpture; Isis iconography; Ptolemaic queens; Cleopatra III; underwater archaeology; Heracleion; Ptolemaic Egypt

• Publisher: Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN
• Journal: Études et Travaux (Institut des Cultures Méditerranéennes et Orientales de l’Académie Polonaise des Sciences)
• Year: 2014
• Issue: 27
• Pages: 185–194

Contributors

author

Zsolt Kiss

• Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN, Warszawa

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