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Granite Head of a Ptolemaic King
as a Pharaoh
Egypt, late 2nd or early 1st century B.C.
H. 24.8 cm (9 3/4 ")
Gift of Frederick Stafford, 59.44
At the Alexandrian court, the Ptolemies promoted their Greekness; elsewhere
in the Egypt, they presented themselves to the native population as the
heirs of the pharaohs. This youthful head made of Egyptian granite bears
traces of blue pigment on the pupils. The protective head cloth (nemes) and
its frontlet of the double-coiled, rearing cobra (uraeus) are
part of the pharaonic costume. The upward thrust of the head and of the nemes' pigtail
at the back provides evidence that it belonged to a sphinx statue. Sphinxes
were part of sculptural settings of temples and shrines connected with
royal cults; as guardians of the tomb, they lined entryways and processional
alleys.
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