Five mummy cases.
Case B (right): The interior is painted—an eerie receptacle. By the head, a winged serpent; along the sides, a serpent with the sign of Life (cf. the Coptic Cross, Room 1, No. 106, also p. [69]), and genii, mostly serpent-headed. The mummy lay on the sun-goddess Neith, on a serpent entwined round a lotus, and on the soul as a bird. The outside of the case is also painted. From Deir el Bahri, Upper Egypt.
Case E (centre): Richly painted mummy with the goddess Neith on its breast. Very effective. Date—about B.C. 600.
3 (back wall): Relief from over the door of a tomb. Left the deceased, enthroned between two bouquets of lotus: to one of them a couple of ducks are tied. Then comes an old harpist, who is singing, accompanied by a girl on a drum, and by two others who clap their hands. To the right, a man preparing drink; then two dancing girls. Beautiful work. From Heliopolis.
ROOM 9: Ancient Egypt: Crocodile worship.
The contents of this room, though not Alexandrian, are Ptolemaic, and well illustrate that dynasty in its Egyptian aspect. They come from the Temple of Petesouchos, the crocodile god of the Fayoum. The temple was adorned by Agathodorus, a Greek official there B.C. 137, in honour of Ptolemy VII (Physkon) and of his two wives, one his sister, one his niece, and both called Cleopatra. (For the marriage arrangements of this unattractive monarch, see tree, p. [12]). The temple itself has been in part brought to the Museum, and well set up in the North Garden (see below).
Centre of room: Wooden stretcher on which is a mummied crocodile. It was carried thus in procession by the priests, as the water colour below (copy of a fresco) shows. The stretcher rests on a wooden chest, also found in the shrine.
Back wall: Wooden door of the outer gateway (see North Garden). Greek inscription. Here are some photographs by which the temple can be reconstructed.
39 (right of the chest): an offering table to the god, ornate and unpleasing. He lies in a little tank.
Left of the entrance door: Relief of a priest adoring the god, who crawls upon lotus flowers.