Through This Most Characteristic Temple One Roves In A Gaily
Attentive Mood, Feeling All The Time Hatshepsu's Fascination.
You may see her, if you will, a little lady on the wall, with a face
decidedly sensual - a long, straight nose, thick lips, an expression
rather determined than agreeable.
Her mother looks as Semitic as a Jew
moneylender in Brick Lane, London. Her husband, Thothmes II., has a
weak and poor-spirited countenance - decidedly an accomplished
performer on the second violin. The mother wears on her head a snake,
no doubt a cobra-di-capello, the symbol of her sovereignty. Thothmes
is clad in a loin-cloth. And a god, with a sleepy expression and a
very fish-like head, appears in this group of personages to offer the
key of life. Another painting of the queen shows her on her knees
drinking milk from the sacred cow, with an intent and greedy figure,
and an extraordinarily sensual and expressive face. That she was well
guarded is surely proved by a brave display of her soldiers - red men
on a white wall. Full of life and gaiety all in a row they come,
holding weapons, and, apparently, branches, and advancing with a gait
of triumph that tells of "spacious days." And at their head is an
officer, who looks back, much like a modern drill sergeant, to see how
his men are marching.
In the southern shrine of the temple, cut in the rock as is the
northern shrine, once more I found traces of the "Lady of the Under-
World." For this shrine was dedicated to Hathor, though the whole
temple was sacred to the Theban god Amun.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 73 of 135
Words from 19747 to 20024
of 36756
