Statue of a Man

664 B.C.E. or later

Each morning in the temple, the pharaoh, or a priest playing the role of pharaoh, cared for the image of a god in order to protect it from the forces of chaos and assist the god’s daily rebirth. Temple Statue of Pawerem holds a shrine containing an image of the goddess Bastet, while Kneeling Statue of a Man holds a seated figure of Osiris, the god of the dead. Such statues (called naophoros, or “shrine-bearing”) link their owners to the daily temple ritual and associate them permanently with the divine cycle of death and rebirth.