Polycephaly – Some Remarks on the Multi-Headed Nature of Late Egyptian Polymorphic Deities

One of the most intriguing motifs of Egyptian religious iconography is the representation of ‘pantheos’, a composite deity with additional animal heads and other animal attributes, as well as magical and religious symbols. This group is commonly described in Egyptology as pantheistic, although the...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal:	Grzegorz First
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN FR
Publicado:	Ksiegarnia Akademicka Publishing 2014
Materias:	religion magic Late Egyptian religious iconography Ancient history D51-90 History of the arts NX440-632
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/0ad7e4219ff54455ac8210c04c57e0ef
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:0ad7e4219ff54455ac8210c04c57e0ef
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:0ad7e4219ff54455ac8210c04c57e0ef2021-11-27T13:19:32ZPolycephaly – Some Remarks on the Multi-Headed Nature of Late Egyptian Polymorphic Deities10.12797/SAAC.18.2014.18.131899-15482449-867Xhttps://doaj.org/article/0ad7e4219ff54455ac8210c04c57e0ef2014-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.akademicka.pl/saac/article/view/3089https://doaj.org/toc/1899-1548https://doaj.org/toc/2449-867X One of the most intriguing motifs of Egyptian religious iconography is the representation of ‘pantheos’, a composite deity with additional animal heads and other animal attributes, as well as magical and religious symbols. This group is commonly described in Egyptology as pantheistic, although the new definition of ‘polymorphic’ has recently been proposed. This term does not lean towards any particular area of interpretation, but simply refers to a single visual aspect of the motif. The group of Late Egyptian, Ptolemaic and Roman objects with this type of representation consists of statuettes, magical stelae, amulets, illustrations on papyri and gems. The main feature of polymorphic deities is their additional animal elements, which are attached to the basic corpus. These elements are mostly heads, wings and other parts of the animal’s body, although polymorphic depictions also sometimes contain ithyphallic or androgynous elements. The most important element of polymorphic iconography and its interpretation is the multi-headed nature of the images. This suggests both that complicated thought processes created the composition of the depictions and that they had a close relationship to magic and religion. A polymorphic representation was not a simple visualisation of just one religious idea or god, but was testament to the diverse thinking behind popular and official beliefs in ancient Egypt in the second half of the 1st millennium BC and in later times. The debate on polymorphism centres either on the possible search for a personal, universal god with a solar, hidden aspect or focuses on the magical, practical dimension, which provided protection for the people from evil powers and dangers. Grzegorz FirstKsiegarnia Akademicka PublishingarticlereligionmagicLate Egyptian religious iconographyAncient historyD51-90History of the artsNX440-632ENFRStudies in Ancient Art and Civilization, Vol 18 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN FR
topic	religion magic Late Egyptian religious iconography Ancient history D51-90 History of the arts NX440-632
spellingShingle	religion magic Late Egyptian religious iconography Ancient history D51-90 History of the arts NX440-632 Grzegorz First Polycephaly – Some Remarks on the Multi-Headed Nature of Late Egyptian Polymorphic Deities
description	One of the most intriguing motifs of Egyptian religious iconography is the representation of ‘pantheos’, a composite deity with additional animal heads and other animal attributes, as well as magical and religious symbols. This group is commonly described in Egyptology as pantheistic, although the new definition of ‘polymorphic’ has recently been proposed. This term does not lean towards any particular area of interpretation, but simply refers to a single visual aspect of the motif. The group of Late Egyptian, Ptolemaic and Roman objects with this type of representation consists of statuettes, magical stelae, amulets, illustrations on papyri and gems. The main feature of polymorphic deities is their additional animal elements, which are attached to the basic corpus. These elements are mostly heads, wings and other parts of the animal’s body, although polymorphic depictions also sometimes contain ithyphallic or androgynous elements. The most important element of polymorphic iconography and its interpretation is the multi-headed nature of the images. This suggests both that complicated thought processes created the composition of the depictions and that they had a close relationship to magic and religion. A polymorphic representation was not a simple visualisation of just one religious idea or god, but was testament to the diverse thinking behind popular and official beliefs in ancient Egypt in the second half of the 1st millennium BC and in later times. The debate on polymorphism centres either on the possible search for a personal, universal god with a solar, hidden aspect or focuses on the magical, practical dimension, which provided protection for the people from evil powers and dangers.
format	article
author	Grzegorz First
author_facet	Grzegorz First
author_sort	Grzegorz First
title	Polycephaly – Some Remarks on the Multi-Headed Nature of Late Egyptian Polymorphic Deities
title_short	Polycephaly – Some Remarks on the Multi-Headed Nature of Late Egyptian Polymorphic Deities
title_full	Polycephaly – Some Remarks on the Multi-Headed Nature of Late Egyptian Polymorphic Deities
title_fullStr	Polycephaly – Some Remarks on the Multi-Headed Nature of Late Egyptian Polymorphic Deities
title_full_unstemmed	Polycephaly – Some Remarks on the Multi-Headed Nature of Late Egyptian Polymorphic Deities
title_sort	polycephaly – some remarks on the multi-headed nature of late egyptian polymorphic deities
publisher	Ksiegarnia Akademicka Publishing
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/0ad7e4219ff54455ac8210c04c57e0ef
work_keys_str_mv	AT grzegorzfirst polycephalysomeremarksonthemultiheadednatureoflateegyptianpolymorphicdeities
_version_	1718408481162133504

Polycephaly – Some Remarks on the Multi-Headed Nature of Late Egyptian Polymorphic Deities

Ejemplares similares