Ancient Egyptian faience inlay depicting a falcon with spread wings. Artist unknown; 4th cent. BCE (Late Period or early Ptolemaic). Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

~ Statue of a Crocodile with the Head of a Falcon.

Culture: Egyptian

Date: ca. 380-250 B.C.

Period: Late Period-early Ptolemaic Period; 30th Dynasty

Medium: Steatite

Gold diadem with herakles knot, crafted in Alexandria, Egypt, 220-100 BC

Antony and Cleopatra - art by J. C. Leyendecker (1910)

Vase in the shape of a duck, Ptolemaic Egypt (c. 3rd-2nd century BCE; crafted in Alexandria), faience wit a polychrome glaze

Currently in the collection of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. accession no. 48.421

just ran across this perfect 2000-year-old portrait of a pet who knows what he did.

"Dog Mosaic," Ptolemaic period, 2nd century BCE, floor of a house in Alexandria, Egypt. 3.25x3.25m. (Pitcher is probably gold.)

Isis-Aphrodite

* 2nd century BCE - 1st century CE

* terracotta

* Turin Egyptian museum

Turin, June 2023

Posting the girls on this beautiful Flower Thursday

Read Flower if you haven’t already!

The Pharos of Alexandria by Roy Krenkel

Statue of a goddess, probably Nehemetaui or Nebethetepet Late Period–Ptolemaic Period Dynasty 27–30 550–300 B.C.

The shrine-shaped sistrum sound-box worn as a crown by this figure indicates that either the goddess Nehemet-aui, the consort of Thoth, or Nebethetepet, a manifestation of Hathor, is represented. The features of the goddess suggest a date to the end of the 26th dynasty, or the 30th dynasty. As the kings of the 30th Dynasty built important buildings including a temple to the goddess Nehemet-aui at Hermopolis, the seat of the god Thoth, it is plausible this statue is Nehemet-aui.

H. 17.8 × W. 4.3 × D. 10 cm (7 × 1 11/16 × 3 15/16 in.). H. (with tang): 20 cm (7 7/8 in.).

Ptolemaic (プトレマイオス) is so moe lol

Ancient Egyptian depiction (gold with stone inlay) of the ba. One of the components of the multipartite soul in Egyptian thought, the ba, normally depicted as a human-headed bird, represented an individual's distinct personality. Artist unknown; early 3rd century BCE (=beginning of the Ptolemaic period). Now in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Photo credit: Walters Art Museum.

~ Decor: Isis

Period: Late Period-Ptolemaic Period

Date: 664-30 B.C.

Medium: Cardboard (glued and stuccoed canvas), Painting

Bronze statuette intended to hold a mummified cat, Ptolemaic Egypt, 330-30 BC

from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Day 7: Cleopatra Selene!

Cleopatra Selene and her brother, Alexander Helios, were born to Cleopatra VII and Marc Antony in 40 BC; the twins were named for the moon and sun. As her parents formed their Mediterranean empire, they named six-year-old Cleopatra Selene Queen of Cyrenaica and Libya - but those plans crumbled to dust with the defeat and suicides of her parents. She and her young brothers were paraded in triumph through Rome as war prizes by Caesar Augustus, who then had them raised in the household of his sister (and Marc Antony’s former wife) Octavia.

The fate of her brothers is one of the great mysteries of the era; they simply disappeared from history. Cleopatra Selene, however, did not. She married Juba II of Numidia, a vassal king of Rome, who after Numidia’s direct annexation was granted the neighboring North African kingdom of Mauretania. The marriage was a success, and the couple essentially acted as co-rulers. Together, they created new infrastructure, expanded trade routes, and promoted the arts.

Cleopatra Selene also brought old allies and advisors of her mother’s to her new court at Caesaros, in modern-day Algeria. She promoted Egyptian influence in architecture and religion, including a version of the famous Pharos lighthouse, and firmly defended Cleopatra VII’s legacy. Defiantly, she named her son Ptolemy.

The date of her death is uncertain, with proposed dates ranging from 5 BC to 17 AD. Augustus’ court poet, Crinagoras of Mytilene, composed a poetic epigraph in which the moon goddess herself veils her face in mourning at the Queen of Mauretania’s passing.

Head of a lion, Late Period–Ptolemaic Period, 400–300 B.C.

Gypsum plaster,

H. 42.5 x W. 40 cm (16 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.)

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue