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"Sphinxes are legion in Egypt what is so special about this one? .
. . We shall take a stroll around the monument itself, scrutinizing
its special features and analyzing the changes it experienced
throughout its history. The evidence linked to the statue will
enable us to trace its evolution . . . down to the worship it
received in the first centuries of our own era, when Egyptians,
Greeks, and Romans mingled together in devotion to this colossus,
illustrious witness to a past that was already more than two
millennia old." from the IntroductionThe Great Sphinx of Giza is
one of the few monuments from ancient Egypt familiar to nearly
everyone. In a land where the colossal is part of the landscape, it
still stands out, the largest known statue in Egypt. Originally
constructed as the image of King Chephren, builder of the second of
the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx later acquired new fame in the guise
of the sun god Harmakhis. Major construction efforts in the New
Kingdom and Roman Period transformed the monument and its environs
into an impressive place of pilgrimage, visited until the end of
pagan antiquity.Christiane Zivie-Coche, a distinguished
Egyptologist, surveys the long history of the Great Sphinx and
discusses its original appearance, its functions and religious
significance, its relation to the many other Egyptian sphinxes, and
the various discoveries connected with it. From votive objects
deposited by the faithful and inscriptions that testify to details
of worship, she reconstructs the cult of Harmakhis (in Egyptian,
Har-em-akhet, or "Horus-in-the-horizon"), which arose around the
monument in the second millennium. "We are faced," she writes,
"with a religious phenomenon that is entirely original, though not
unique: a theological reinterpretation turned an existing statue
into the image of the god who had been invented on its basis."The
coming of Christianity ended the Great Sphinx's religious role. The
ever-present sand buried it, thus sparing it the fate that overtook
the nearby pyramids, which were stripped of their stone by medieval
builders. The monument remained untouched, covered by its desert
blanket, until the first excavations. Zivie-Coche details the
archaeological activity aimed at clearing the Sphinx and, later, at
preserving it from the corrosive effects of a rising water table."
In their wide-ranging interpretation of the religion of ancient
Egypt, Francoise Dunand and Christiane Zivie-Coche explore how,
over a period of roughly 3500 years, the Egyptians conceptualized
their relations with the gods. Drawing on the insights of
anthropology, the authors discuss such topics as the identities,
images, and functions of the gods; rituals and liturgies; personal
forms of piety expressing humanity's need to establish a direct
relation with the divine; and the afterlife, a central feature of
Egyptian religion. That religion, the authors assert, was
characterized by the remarkable continuity of its ritual practices
and the ideas of which they were an expression.Throughout, Dunand
and Zivie-Coche take advantage of the most recent archaeological
discoveries and scholarship. Gods and Men in Egypt is unique in its
coverage of Egyptian religious expression in the Ptolemaic and
Roman periods. Written with nonspecialist readers in mind, it is
largely concerned with the continuation of Egypt's traditional
religion in these periods, but it also includes fascinating
accounts of Judaism in Egypt and the appearance and spread of
Christianity there."
In their wide-ranging interpretation of the religion of ancient
Egypt, Francoise Dunand and Christiane Zivie-Coche explore how,
over a period of roughly 3500 years, the Egyptians conceptualized
their relations with the gods. Drawing on the insights of
anthropology, the authors discuss such topics as the identities,
images, and functions of the gods; rituals and liturgies; personal
forms of piety expressing humanity's need to establish a direct
relation with the divine; and the afterlife, a central feature of
Egyptian religion. That religion, the authors assert, was
characterized by the remarkable continuity of its ritual practices
and the ideas of which they were an expression.Throughout, Dunand
and Zivie-Coche take advantage of the most recent archaeological
discoveries and scholarship. Gods and Men in Egypt is unique in its
coverage of Egyptian religious expression in the Ptolemaic and
Roman periods. Written with nonspecialist readers in mind, it is
largely concerned with the continuation of Egypt's traditional
religion in these periods, but it also includes fascinating
accounts of Judaism in Egypt and the appearance and spread of
Christianity there."
English summary: This Presentation takes Egypt's entire history
into account. Reaching from the beginning to the end of this
culture, it also takes the end of the religion of the pharaohs into
account. Next to Greeks, Judeans, Syrians and Christians came to
Egypt. How did the people of this poly cultural Old Egypt define
the relationship to the gods during their lives and after their
death? How did they construct the relationship between the real
physical world and the invisible world, that was seen as just as
real as the physical world. Along the questions these issues
follow: relationship between the political and the religious, the
term godly, service to the gods and personal devotion, the world of
the dead and burial traditions. German description: In dieser
Darstellung wird die gesamte Geschichte Agyptens in den Blick
genommen: von ihren Anfangen bis zum Ende dieser Kultur, mit dem
auch die Praxis der Religion der Pharaonen endete. Schon in fruhen
Zeiten hatte Agypten Fremde und ihre Gotter aufgenommen, vor allem
Gottheiten syro-palastinischen Ursprungs. Neben den Griechen lebten
seit mehreren Jahrhunderten auch Judaer im Land, schliesslich kam
das Christentum nach Agypten. Wie haben die Menschen dieses
plurikulturellen Alten Agypten ihr Verhaltnis zu den Gottern, die
sie sich gegeben hatten, zu Lebzeiten und nach dem Tod gesehen? Wie
haben sie die Beziehungen zwischen ihrer realen physischen Welt und
der Welt des Unsichtbaren, die als ebenso real galt wie die
sichtbare, gestaltet? Unter diesen Fragestellungen ergeben sich die
Themen: die Beziehungen zwischen dem Politischen und dem
Religiosen; der Begriff des Gottlichen; der Dienst fur die Gotter
und die personliche Frommigkeit; die Welt der Toten und die
Bestattungspraktiken.
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