Fig. 211.
Some of the Egyptian divinities also appear as symbolic ornaments. The figures of the goddess Maat with spread wings adorned the ark of Amen-ra under Tahutimes II.; and in earlier times similar cherubic figures stand guarding the name of Antef V. on a scarab.
Hathor also appears on various objects. A mirror handle carved in wood during the XIIth dynasty has the head of Hathor (P. [1]. xiii.); columns with heads of Hathor, crowned with a shrine occupied by a uraeus, are found introduced by Amenhotep III. in his temples at El Kab and Sedeinga, and were copied by Ramessu II. at Abu Simbel. The similar head of Hathor was frequently made in glazed pottery as a pendant in the time of Akhenaten. And in later times these Hathor headed capitals became usual under the Ptolemies, as in the well-known case of the portico of the great temple at Dendera.
212.—L.D. I. 100.
Bes was one of the favourite popular deities of the Egyptians; restricted to no place in particular, every votary of music and the dance patronised Bes. The little statuette of a dancing girl with a Bes mask on, besides an actual mask in cartonnage, found at Kahun, show the popularity of the god in the XIIth dynasty. In later times his figure is frequently seen. At Tell el Amarna ornaments for necklaces made in glazed pottery followed two types of Bes, the god dancing with the tambourine seen in side view, and the earlier grotesque front view, with arms akimbo. These familiar little figures continued to be made till late times; and in the Roman age Bes was elevated to architectural dignity on the dies above the columns at Dendereh in the small temple of the Mammeisi.
Another and more artificial mode of symbolical decoration was by means of the hieroglyphic signs. Having a mode of writing in which a single mark could express an abstract idea, it was possible to adapt writing to a purely decorative design. Even with alphabetic characters this has been done, as in the elaborate crossing patterns of the earlier Arab period in Egypt, in which no untrained eye would see anything but a complex ornament.
213.—Ankh.