Ancient Egypt
Elements of its Cultural History

  by Sjef Willockx

  
 


23. Other uses of the heraldic plants: the "Nile gods"

In temples, we regularly find rows of symbolic figures that look exactly like the personifications of the Two Lands:  generously proportioned, and with an identifying tuft of the heraldic plant on their head. They are however not engaged in the act of uniting the Two Lands, but shown presenting offerings.

This picture comes from the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut (18th dynasty) at Deir el-Bahri. We see a man with on his head the flowering sedge. In his hands he holds a platter, on which he brings gifts: two water jars, and a scepter. The scepter stands for “dominion”. From his hands and arms hang stalks, ending in Ankh-signs, meaning “life”. Taken together, we may perhaps see this as a recognition of the notion that to have water, is to have dominion, and life.
 

(This representation is on an octagonal pillar on the south side of the court on the third and highest level of the temple. )

Next is an example from much later date: the Ptolemaic Period (the last three centuries BC). It comes from the outer walls of the Opet temple at Karnak, next to the temple of Khons. The figures in this particular row all carry Lower Egypt’s papyrus plant on their heads. (The zigzags that evoke the water from which the plants sprout are visible on the 1st and 3rd.)


Opet temple, Karnak (Ptolemaic Period).

Again, the gifts that each of these figures brings are two water jars, with a scepter between them. Of each pair of jars, one is decorated with a lotus flower and bud, while the other has a papyrus flower and bud. Their appearing in a long row - much longer than is visible here - is characteristic: they come like supplicants, offering their gifts to the king.

Because of the dominance of water in the symbolism, these characters are usually referred to as “Nile gods”. They are actually personifications of the Upper and Lower Egyptian Nile - but that makes for rather unwieldy nametags.


As aquatic plants, lotus and papyrus were evocative of the watery element that is a prerequisite for all life. As such, they were highly suited to identify the Upper and Lower Egyptian Nile. Although the sedge is not aquatic, it is a plant from the wetlands, and could therefore also be used to identify the Upper Egyptian Nile - see the example of Hatshepsut above.

 

A closely related theme is that of the offering nomes. The example below is part of a long frieze on the lower end of the outer walls of the so-called Red Chapel of Hatshepsut: a reconstructed bark shrine, now in the Open Air museum at Karnak. The photograph shows - from right to left - the personifications of the 8th till 12th nome of Upper Egypt.

The 10th and 12th nome are represented by a woman, because the names of these nomes are of feminine gender. This grammatical distinction was not always followed in the sex of the personifications.

The men in this row again closely resemble the personifications of the Two Lands - having the same physique - but they carry very different stuff on their heads. Each figure is identified by a “nome sign”: the “coat of arms” of a nome. Which means that these are personifications of nomes (provinces).
The gifts that the nomes bring are again water jars, and the scepter of dominion. But the texts speak of neither dominion nor water. The nomes say that they bring:

§         all things good and sweet;

§         every food, every provision;

§         all good provisions for [every] festival;

§         every good thing, that [I] may satisfy your heart therewith;

§         etcetera.

So here, the notion that water equals sustenance is even more articulate.

In a comparable row of nomes on the inside of Alexander the Great’s bark shrine at Luxor, the nomes bring alternately water jars and stacks of foodstuffs.

  
 

    

←10th nome of Lower Egypt 11th nome of Lower Egypt→


Because here, like in the case of the “Nile gods”, the symbolism focuses on the life-giving qualities of water, we should perhaps not understand these figures as the personification of a nome, but of the local stretch of the Nile in a nome.


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