About Landscape With Polyphemus And Galatea

This fresco from the Imperial villa at Boscotrecase combines two separate events in the life of the monstrous Cyclops, Polyphemus. In the foreground, he sits on a rocky outcrop tending his goats. The Cyclops holds his panpipes in his right hand as he gazes at the beautiful sea nymph Galatea, with whom he is hopelessly in love. In the upper right part of the fresco, Polyphemus is depicted hurling a boulder at Odysseus and his companions, who have just blinded the Cyclops. Odysseus’ ship is seen sailing away at the far right. The fresco’s blue-green background unifies the differing episodes from the myth of Polyphemus, and must have lent a sense of coolness to the room.

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About King Sahure And A Nome God

This is the only preserved three-dimensional representation that has been identified as Sahure, the second ruler of Dynasty 5. Seated on a throne, the king is accompanied by a smaller male figure personifying the local god of the Coptite nome, the fifth nome (province) of Upper Egypt. This deity offers the king an ankh (hieroglyph meaning “life”) with his left hand. The nome standard, with its double-falcon emblem, is carved above the god’s head. Sahure wears the nemes headcloth and straight false beard of a living pharaoh. The flaring hood of the uraeus, the cobra goddess who protected Egyptian kings, is visible on his brow. The nome god wears the archaic wig and curling beard of a deity.

The statue may have been intended to decorate the king’s pyramid complex at Abusir, about fifteen miles south of Giza. At the end of the previous dynasty, multiple statues of this type were placed in the temple of Menkaure (Mycerinus) to symbolize the gathering of nome gods from Upper and Lower Egypt around the king. However, since no other statues of this type are preserved from Sahure’s reign, it is possible that this statue was a royal dedication in one of the temples in Coptos (modern Qift).

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