NUDITY IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Author(s): Ogden Goelet

Source: Source: Notes in the History of Art, Vol. 12, No. 2, ESSAYS ON NUDITY IN ANTIQUITY
IN MEMORY OF OTTO BRENDEL (Winter 1993), pp. 20-31
Published by: Ars Brevis Foundation, Inc.
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NUDITY

IN ANCIENT
Ogden

Nudity, our primal state, evoked complex

and subtle reactions among the ancient
Egyptians.1 In their art and literature, the
Egyptians used nudity to convey more than
social status. The nude or partially nude
human figure could express several emo
tions, serve cultic functions, or show a per
son's

age. Nudity reveals a fundamental

characteristic of Egyptian culturethe in
tricate interweaving of subtlety and sim
plicity, the ability to see the complexities
in the simple. Yet, at the same time, be
cause

and
they were also a purposeful
matter-of-fact people, they used nudity de
liberately, even with a measure of restraint.
This seeming modesty was an aspect of the
ancient Egyptians that appealed most to the
Victorians.2

The Abjectness of Nudity. Although nudity

appears in Egyptian art long before it does
in texts, the earliest appearance of the word
hjy, "the naked (one)," reveals much about
the ancient Egyptians'
of it.
conceptions
their
the
standard
Throughout
history,
autobiography usually introduced a list of
the good deeds of the deceased
with the
phrase "I gave bread to the hungry, beer to
the thirsty, and clothes to the naked."3 This

reflects an attitude also found in the Bible,

hunger and nakedness are signs of

where

abject poverty and extreme deprivation. In

the words for
texts, however,
Egyptian
"nakedness"
and their derivatives
rarely
appear outside of this common topos.
Yet it is in association
ultimate deprivationthat

with deaththe

nudity initially

EGYPT

Goelet

in historic Egypt.
makes its appearance
Most Egyptologists
agree that the famous
Narmer Stela is probably the first recog
written document
from ancient
nizably

Egypt.4 In the top register of the recto, the

triumphant Narmer, in full royal regalia,
views his slain enemies, who are lying in
two neat rows, bound and naked, their
heads
between
their
placed
decapitated
feet. In the Second Dynasty, the same mo
on the statue of King
tif is repeated
the
relief drawings on the
Khasekhem.5
In
the king's
slain foes, nude, are
sprawled in wildly contorted positions. In
death, their nakedness strips them of dig
nity and magnifies the pathos of their de

base,

feat. This primitive method of expressing

victory by laying bare enemies'
corpses
continued into the New Kingdom and the
Late Period.6 Dead foes were not the only
ones thus humiliated, however; battle and
victory scenes of all periods will occasion
ally show stripped and bound enemies be
ing led away by their clothed Egyptian
miscreants
were also
captors.
Egyptian
humiliated
in this fashion: their clothes
were first stripped off; then they were tied
and beaten

thus became

in front of an official.7 Nudity

a uniform of defeat and hu

miliation.
One

of the most powerful examples

of
a
as
of
an
and
de
nudity
symbol
abject
fenseless state appears at the end of the
Fifth Dynasty in the so-called
"Famine
Reliefs" from the causeway to the pyramid
of King Unas at Abusir.8 This moving and
pathetic

scene

depicts

an

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unidentified

21
group of obviously starving skeletal men
and women, each nude except for a waist
band about their hips and an occasional
collar, all so weak that they must prop each
other up in order to sit erect upon the
ground.
an
Costume.
Nudity As
Occupational
Given the association
of nakedness
with
destitution, it is hardly sur
to
find
that nudity was frequently
prising
connected with class differences in Egypt.
During the Old Kingdom especially, there
are many relief scenes and statues that de
poverty

and

pict common laborers working in the nude.

Although at times there is little to distin
guish the costume of a high official from a

lesser functionary or even from an ordinary

of the upper
worker, men and women
classes appear without clothes only in the
rarest of circumstances.
the
Nonetheless,
to
have been a relatively
Egyptians seem
modest

people, for nudity among laborers

is largely restricted to certain genres in
Egyptian art and tends to diminish with the
passage

of

time.

Nudity

is

common

only

among those whose work was particularly

hot, dirty, or wet: farmers, field hands,
boatmen,
fishermen,
potters, herdsmen,
and men working close to fires or ovens.
Undress was not obligatory, however, and
except where actual immersion in water
was required, versions of the same scenes
exist with the laborers clothed. On occa
sion, some workers apparently felt that
their leg movement was encumbered
by
their garments and so would reverse their
short kilts, covering only their buttocks
and exposing their genitals.9
Although it is much less common than
its female counterpart, male nudity is occa
sionally found in connection with enter
tainment. On the whole, men danced in
special

costumes

or a short kilt and most

often in connection with religious or fes

tive occasions.10 Nude dancing among men
was not common; most instances seem to
have involved
dwarfs,11 perhaps playing
the role of the god Bes, or else were of
normal men performing a dance with hu
morous
as
masked
intenti.e.,
gro

tesques.12

female
By comparison, work-connected
is
far
less
with
the
common,
excep
nudity
tion of dancers, servants, and entertainers.
If the nature of their work required women
to undress, then normally just the breasts
were bared; working women only rarely
stripped entirely. In some
occupations,
women

wore

a short kilt or loincloth

ex

garment. On the
actly like the men's
there
seems
to
have been some
whole,
sense of propriety involved in occupational
nudity.
and Rebirth. As
The Nudity of Innocence
in many other societies, the normal cos
tume of Egyptian children was nudity. As

an additional mark of their age, children of

both sexes usually wore their hair plaited
into a characteristic sidelock.
Nudity was
typical of children whether they were
playing outdoors or were depicted with
their parents in formal portraits. Although
young children of the wealthy are some

times shown wearing such ornamentation

as necklaces or bracelets, they continued to
wear no clothes before they reached pu
At this time,
berty or slightly beyond.
young men apparently also underwent cir

a practice that distinguished the

from
many of their neighboring
Egyptians
and
that
also can be useful in de
peoples
cumcision,

termining the age of some male nudes, as

we will see below.13
Since we all come into this world naked,
it is not surprising that the Egyptians
thought that in the next world they would

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22
be reborn nude. This belief may explain
the uncommon
epithet h]y "the naked
the deity who sym
to
Osiris,
given
(one),"
bolizes

life after death par excellence.

A
number of Old Kingdom reliefs depict the
manufacture of nude statuary as part of the
funerary equipment, presumably to provide
the tomb owner with a youthful and pure
new body for his existence after death.14
However, this rebirth would not be as a

child, but in the full vigor of youth since

nearly all the examples show the subject in
a striding posture and circumcised. Wood
en nude statuary of this type has actually
been found in situ in a serdab
(statue
The practice is also
chamber) at Saqqara.
attested at Giza, where a few similar ex
amples have been found, some of which
are

in stone.15 Since there was no free

space between the sides and arms of such

statuary, it would have been difficult to

cover these works with clothing, as may
have been done with some royal and divine
statuary. Instead, the private statues appear
to have been created with the intention of
with a means of
providing the deceased
rejuvenation in the afterlife. Three wooden
sculptures of a Sixth Dynasty official from
Sedment
makes this purpose
especially
clear since his nude statues depict him, in

varying sizes, first as a child with his

hands at his side, then as a youth with a
staff, and, finally, presumably as a mature
young man with both a scepter and a staff

(Fig. 3).16
Royal Rebirth in the Afterlife. Many modes
of representation
among
private people
have their counterparts in the royal sphere,
including the nudity of rebirth. Because of
the special position of the king not only as
the temporal ruler but as a religious figure
as well, there was a pronounced tendency

to treat him with greater decorum. As a

several royal examples
ap
consequence,
in
the
af
show
the
of
rebirth
type
parently
terlife, with the king in a distinctly childish
squatting posture, sucking on his index
finger which is placed at the corner of his

mouth, his hair in the usual sidelock, like

the "child" determinative; but he is none
theless dressed instead of nude. The con
nection of these examples with the afterlife
is best seen on a cosmetic box from the
tomb of Tutankhamun in which one of the
squatting figures appears with a black face.
Although black skin can represent a racial
type in Egyptian art, in instances where the
subject is depicted primarily as a ruddy
skinned individual, black color is associ
ated with Osiris, whose skin normally ap
pears either black or green, colors associ
ated with vegetation
and rebirth. In the

case of other monarchs, the king is shown

naked in the same posture just described,
with his knees apart just enough to reveal
that he is circumcisedand
thus not a
childat his rebirth.17 The private statuary
associated with rebirth, however, does not
use black skin.
Nude

and Kings. The

Gods, Goddesses,
of divine and royal nudity in
subject
Egyptian art is difficult because, just as it
is in the private sphere, nudity is closely
connected with the complex
problem of
rejuvenation and rebirth in the next world.
Unlike the private sphere, there is some
textual material from royal mortuary texts
that may cast light upon the phenomenon.
In the case

of royal statuary, however,

is
made more complex
problem
by
varying posture of the figures.
Beginning with the Old Kingdom,
eral representations of kings in relief
in the round depict

him squatting

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the
the

sev
and

on the

23

Fig. 1 Acrobatic female dancer. Probably Nineteenth

from Deir el-Medineh. Turin Museum 7052

ground. Many, but not all, of these also

show the king unclothed and with several
attributes associated with childhood. In this
the squatting posture, his
genre, besides
childlike characteristics
are reinforced by
depicting him with a child's sidelock and
sucking his index finger, yet, at the same
a crown or diadem
and
time, wearing
holding either a crook or a flail.
Although the young sons and daughters
of the king were occasionally
shown with
out clothes, the mature, ruling monarch is
rarely, if at all, depicted nude. The only
of adult royal nudity in art are
examples
either questionable
or depict the monarch
as a youthful god. In the Old Kingdom, for

Dynasty.

Painted

limestone

ostracon

a pair of copper statues show

King Pepi I and his son (?) without cloth
both
However,
ing or ornamentation.18
are
shown
in
the
normal
figures
posture for
a striding statueleft
foot forward and
right arm extended in frontand in both,
the hands have a hole in each clenched fist,
probably to allow the figures to hold a staff
and a scepter. The nudity of these pieces
may be explained either by their compari
son to similar private works, discussed
above, or by the inscription of the Middle

example,

official Ikhernofret,19 who de

Kingdom
scribes how, in his office of stolist, he
tended the statue of the god Osiris
adorning it, bedecking it with collars, jew

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24
elry, and other finery.20 Several reliefs of
the New Kingdom
at Abydos
and else
where depict the king himself engaged in
similar activities while tending a divine
statue. Nonetheless, there are no relief rep
resentations of nude royal sculpture com
parable to the private pieces of the Old
discussed
nor did the
above,
Kingdom
texts cited above mention any dressing of

divine statuary beyond jewelry and oint

ments. The question remains open as to
whether some nude cult statues may have
been made so that the god or king could be
costumed according to the requirements of
the occasion.
A much-discussed
colossal statue of the
"heretic
Akhenaten
seems
to
pharaoh"
the
monarch
nude.
The
other
fea
portray
ture of this puzzling statue is more remark
able: the monarch seems
to be shown
without genitals, leading to a great deal of
concerning the king's medical
pathology.21 Even if this piece has been
correctly identified as representing Akhen
aten, it is more likely that the intent was
rather to depict him as a fertility deity,
speculation

perhaps in the manner of the androgynous

known as
fecundity figures (erroneously
"Nile
in
frequently encountered
gods")

doll."
Middle
Fig. 2 "Paddle
Kingdom.
Wood with mud beads forming the "hair."
Provenance
unknown. (Photo: courtesy of
the Brooklyn
Wilbour
Museum,
Fund,
Brooklyn

16.84)

Egyptian temple reliefs. These beings

more personifications
than true godsare
normally shown clothed, albeit scantily.22
An unusual statuette of unknown date and
attributed to
provenance but convincingly
the early part of the Amarna period by
Bianchi
the Aten.23 A
may represent
standing male figure holds a hrp-scepter
and is nude except for a penis sheath. In
stead of a neck or head, the figure seems to
have what appears to be a solar disk.
A few important but specialized
deities
were naked. The gods Harpokrates and Ne
fertem were generally shown as nude chil

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25
dren and embodied

childhood, youth, and

was associated
with
Bes,
and
took
the
children, childbirth,
music,
form of a nude dwarf.24 The sky goddess
Nut usually appears naked, stretched out
protectively on the ceiling of tombs, tem
lids. Often, her mate
ples, and sarcophagus
and cosmological
counterpart, the earth
will
be
shown
naked and falling
god Geb,
beneath
her, presumably having
prostrate
just engendered their children. In the Late
innocence.

who

Period, this motif seems to diminish slowly

but surely until Nut is almost always
shown garbed in a tight-fitting star-studded
dress. In the case of Astarte and Qudshu,25
two goddesses
of foreign origin, their nu

dity seems connected with fertility. Qud

shu, who appears standing upon the back
of a lioness on some stelae, is striking not
only for her youthful, voluptuous
nudity,
but also because her body appears frontally
rather than in profile, a rare mode of relief
under any circumstances.
representation
Her association
with fertility seems as
sured by the presence of the ithyphallic
god Min at the side of some of these stelae.
Nudity, Dress, and Fertility in the Repre
sentation
Women.
Where
of Egyptian
women are concerned, nudity reveals more

than their bodies: it also indicates a funda

mental
ambivalence
about
their place
within ancient Egyptian society. On one

hand, Egyptian women apparently enjoyed

a relatively high status, particularly com
pared to other societies of the ancient (and
modern) Near East. On the other hand,
they lived in a distinctly male-dominated
world.26 It is not surprising that the depic
tions of unclothed
females
should
be
overwhelmingly connected with male plea
sure, sex, and fertility. Like its male coun
terpart, female nudity took many forms

statue of Merire-hashetef
Fig. 3 Wooden
from Sedment. Sixth Dynasty. In W. M. F.
Petrie and G. Brunton, Sedment, I (Lon
don: 1924), pi. 7. Cairo JE 46992

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26
and is best understood
women's

Even
women

in connection

with

costumes.

when

dressed,
they are shown
almost as if they are un
clothed.
Throughout
Egyptian
history,
most women's
garments left the wearer
either
or
bare
partially
completely
appear

breasted. Although the preference seems to

have been for dresses covering the body
right to the ankles, leaving only the shoul
ders

and

arms

costumes
bare, women's
often appear either so transparent or so
formfitting that nothing is left to the
imagination. This is especially true during
the Amarna period and the late Eighteenth
Dynasty, when even female members of
the royal family are depicted in elaborate
but diaphanous dresses. Although men are
shown aged or portly, depic
occasionally
tions of women in anything but an ideal
Nude
or
izing fashion are uncommon.
women
will
be
rendered
dressed,
normally

so as to emphasize

their sexuality and fer

tility: pretty, youthful faces, full breasts set
off by a small waist and wide hips, and

the pubic triangle

buttocks;
callipygian
usually distinct, even prominent. Unless
they are shown working or embracing a
family member, freestanding representa
tions of women in the round, whether these
females

are

dressed

or

not,

almost

always

depict them with feet together and arms

held tightly at their sides. This typical fe
male posture lends a distinctly passive ap

to the subject and was probably

adopted to indicate the static, limited role
in society that men envisioned for women.

pearance

Above

all, Egyptian art stressed the fertil

ity of women.
Many of the most striking representa

tions of nude womenthose

clay objects
once thought to be "concubine
figures"
have been found not only in the tombs of

men, but in burial tombs of women and

children as well. Yet, from the context, it
seems that these objects may be connected
with a desire not merely to ensure the
owner's fertility, but to aid in supplying an
erotic life in the afterlife since both wigs
and body ornamentation play an important

role in Egyptian eroticism. Even when they

are associated
with female burials, these
do not represent the
figurines probably
tomb owners themselves, for the statuettes
usually have no feet and often the wigs are
not the types worn by noble ladies.2' Fur

thermore, a number of both types of fig

urine seem to be adorned with tattoos, a
practice limited to servants and the lower
classes.28

In

several

the women,
cases,
and
exe
wearing
elaborately
cuted wigs and sometimes accompanied
by
an infant, recline on a bed with their heads
upon a headrest.29 These slender women
all have exaggerated, small waists that set
necklaces

off broad hips against which the arms and

hands lie closely. The legs are invariably
close together, but the pelvic region is usu

ally emphasized
by indicating pubic hair
and labia; and, in most examples where the
woman is not shown lying on a bed, the
feet have been deliberately omitted, per
haps to ensure that the statuettes could on
ly lie prone.
From the early Eleventh Dynasty, there
are wooden figurines grotesquely stylizing
this genre of statuette. Known as "paddle

dolls," these enigmatic wooden objects not

only omit the arms and legs, but also re
duce the head to a featureless point from
which dangles
a large mass of "corn
rowed"
hair made
of strings of mud
beads.30

not just fertility in

Reproduction,
is
the
general,
clearly
point here, for the
breasts are minimally depicted while the
genitals are disproportionately
large and

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27
carefully drawn. The emphasis on the coif
fure is striking; it gives us another example
of the importance of wigs and hair in
Egyptian eroticism.31 As in the later, more
refined examples,
these strange objects
often have brightly colored necklaces, bead
girtlets, and tattoos indicated on the ele
in the
mentary torso. In one example
Brooklyn Museum (Fig. 2), the figure has
an erotic scene drawn on the back.

Female
The
Nudity and Entertainment.
most charming and familiar female nudes
in Egyptian art are found in tomb paintings
and statuettes of the Eighteenth and Nine
teenth Dynasties.32
Judging from numer
ous

of banquets
in Theban
paintings
a
dinner
tombs,
well-appointed
party
would include scantily clad or nude girls
and young women who would either serve
the guests food and drink or entertain them
with dancing and music. The representa
tions of these servants were given great
freedom of motion, pose, and dress, in
cluding partial or complete nudity. Few
aspects of Egyptian culture express the vi
tality and love of life of these New King
dom tomb scenes. As in the case of male
nudity, there was undoubtedly some notion

of status involved here because women of

the upper classes were seldom shown nude
with childbirth or
except in connection
nursing.33 Interestingly enough, when they
were naked, these servant women seem to
have attended other women

primarily, per
haps out of a sense of propriety. The dif
is expressed
ference in status occasionally
in the degree of transparency of the gar
ments worn by the servants and the pre

the
sumably noble guests. Nevertheless,
erotic element is always present in this
evidently
type of nudity. The Egyptians
had discovered the psychological
principle

that nudity is even more alluring when it is

not total, for these women often wear such
ornaments as elaborate coiffures or wigs,
and beaded
earrings, garlands, necklaces,
that must have rustled seduc
waistbands
tively as they moved. This kind of waist
band, found even in the tombs of wealthy
ladies, may have been the ancient equiva

lent of designer lingerie.34

In many ot the banqueting scenes, some
of the female musicians are completely or
partially undressed, a motif that occurs in
tomb paintings. At
other genres besides
combination
of
the
first,
nudity and music

or gratuitous, yet
may seem incongruous
music and
between
the interconnection
As literary
eroticism is well established.
evidence shows, the goddess Hathor is not
only the patron deity of music, but of love
as well.

This same costume ot nudity is repeated

in many New Kingdom wooden statuettes
of young women. The women shown in

one genre of standing figures immediately

convey something on a higher plane than
the fertility figurines of the Middle King
dom. The caliber of the objects alone, with
their skillful craftsmanship as well as supe
rior quality of wood and stone, speaks of
artistic creation combined with the intent
of the
the aesthetic senses
of pleasing
been
works
have
viewer.
Comparable
the
names
and
show
with
found inscribed
in
the
elegant finery
young women dressed
ladies. As in painting, the
of upper-class
wear
are virtually
the women
dresses
transparent, more so than the garments
worn by women depicted accompanying
their husbands. Unlike the passive postures

of the fertility figurines

of the Middle Kingdom, in these statuettes
the women's
bodies are fully formed, and
the figures appear to be striding forward
and footless bodies

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28
or, in one instance, coyly adjusting the
headdress.
The coquettishness
of some
women is enhanced by scented perfume
cones on the head or by an object in the
handsin one case, a pet duckling.35 The
bodies are slender and do not have the

A striking confirmation of the

closeness of Egyptian language and art can
of feminine
be found in the iconography
beauty, nudity, and allure in the love po
etry of the New Kingdom, most of which

large breasts and hips of earlier depictions.

Since several such pieces were found near

themes

the site of Amenophis

Ill's harem, they
fa
may represent some of the pharaoh's
6
vorites.
are a number
of
Equally
charming
wooden cosmetic spoons or containers in
the form of a young woman swimming
nude with her hands outstretched. In the
loveliest examples, she grasps the legs of a
duck that apparently pulls her across the

surface of the water.37 Even these swim

mers wear jewelry or waistbands,
lending
the work a subdued touch of eroticism.
Female

dancers

were

often

acrobats

as

well and wore at least a small kilt or loin

cloth while they performed their act, a mo
tif encountered in many wall paintings and
some

decorated

ostraca.

The

most attrac

is found on a painted lime

from Deir el-Medineh
and
to
dates
the
Nineteenth
probably
Dynasty
(Fig. I).38 The slim young woman, dressed
only in a short kilt open at the front for
greater ease of leg movement, is executing
a backward somersault. A cruder version
tive example
stone flake

of the same scene, sketched only in black

that such dancer-acrobats
paint, shows

were nude beneath their kilts and that their

costume was probably intended more for
decoration

than modesty.39

in the New King

Nudity and Literature
dom. Ancient Egyptian culture shows an
cohesion between its art and
unparalleled

The
its writingthe two are inseparable.
term for an artist was ss kdw, "scribe of the

outline."

to the Ramesside
period. Certain
of the
are strongly reminiscent
The
paintings and statues just discussed.
dates

dress and the undress, the music and the

and the am
dancing, the ornamentation
biance of nudity, the transparent garments,
even the perfect body type that we have
described also appear in the rich vocabu
lary and imagery of Egyptian lyric, which
has been rightfully compared to the Song
of Songs. In the first stanza of a seven-part
cycle of love poems, a man describes his

lover in a way that, even if the poem does

not say so, makes us feel that the woman
must be naked at the time. "Shining bright,
fair of face, lovely the look of her eyes,
sweet the speech of her lips, she has not a
word

too much. Upright neck, shining

breast, hair true lapis lazuli; arms surpass
ing gold, fingers like lotus buds. Heavy
thighs, narrow waist, her legs parade her
beauty."40 The last few words recall the
female figure of the Victorian era.
the overall
Ironically, while commending
the
Victorians
of
Egyptian art,
modesty
been
have
admiring
subconsciously
may
an ancient parallel to their model of nudity
ideal

and beauty.

to contempo
Nudity and Sex. Compared
in
the
ancient
societies
world, the
rary
modest
about
Egyptians were remarkably
their sexual life in literature and art.41 The
only work that could be considered porno
graphic by any standard depicts sexual acts

not so much with an intent to arouse as to

amuse and parody.42 The sex as sex is un
and unerotic; both men and
convincing

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29
women

are unattractive and slovenly; the

actors are contorted, or the act takes place
in improbable places such as the back of a
chariot.

Most

of the

men

are

not

undressed

but are still wearing their kilts, which have

been twisted around backward, just as they
are shown when they are working in the

fields or doing other vigorous

physical
labor. The tendency everywhere is not to
ward the deliberately erotic or even the
sudden passion of the "quickie"; rather, the
intent appears to be to depict sex as a com
ical activity that can show people in all
their baseness and weakness. Significantly,
on the verso of the same papyrus is a series
of delightful scenes of a topsy-turvy world
in which animals are engaged in human
activities:
a hippopotamus
perches in a
soldier-mice
tree;
besiege cats in a fortress;
a bird climbs a ladder to get into a tree.

Taken as a whole, the intent of the papyrus

is distinctly satirical.

At the same time, a number of ostraca

and other graffitolike sketches have been
preserved that have a more erotic intent
and depict sex with genuine feeling and
tenderness. In these examples, the couple
is usually undressed, but occasionally
the
women
wear
elaborate
hair
jewelry,
dresses, and waistbands.

Conclusions.
than bodies

Nudity reveals much more

it ex
among the Egyptians:
one
of
their
chief
characteristics.
In a
poses
culture in which we encounter so much of
the stereotypical, it is easy to find great
a
subtlety of thought and, simultaneously,
striving
though
modest
sarily a

for balance
the Egyptians

and symmetry. Al
were an essentially
nakedness was not neces

people,
shameful

state. Nudity has many

often
aspects,
complemented by a counter
factor:
the pathetic nakedness
of
vailing
the slain enemy can be measured against
the vigorous, youthful nudity of rebirth; the
nude adolescent appears next to his or her

well-dressed

parents; the almost-foppish

of the lord of the manor is shown
watching his undressed peasants laboring
in the fields; the full-bodied nudity of the
goddess Nut arches over deities and kings
costume

in their formal garments beneath her; the

provocative,
yet innocent, nudity of the
servant girls, dancers, and musicians
en
hances the atmosphere of the elegantly at
tired banquet guests; and, perhaps most

telling of all, there is the enticement of or

namentation, in which an elaborate hairdo,
a dazzling bead collar, or a small, rustling
bead girtlet is used to accentuate the erotic
appeal of a woman in her undress.

NOTES
1. For a general
in ancient

Egypt,

treatment
see

of the subject

P. Behrens,

of nudity
LA 4

"Nacktheit,"

(1980):292-294.
2. On

ments

of Egyptian
monu
prudery and censorship
from ancient times through the Christian,
Is

and modern
"The
lamic,
eras, see H. G. Fischer,
Mark of a Second
Hand on Ancient Egyptian
Antiq
with references,
and S.
uities," MMAJ 9 (1974):11,
Schott,

"Ein

Fall

von Pruderie

zeit," ZAS 75 (1939):100-106.

aus

der Ramessiden

3. Many examples
have been collected
for the pe
riod spanning
the Old Kingdom
to the Middle
King
J. Janssen, De traditioneele
dom; see, for example,
vodr

Autobiografie

1946), pp. 78-81.

4. Cairo

Sourouzian,
Museum,

JE 32169:
The

Cairo,

Jacquet-Gordon
with references.

het
PM

Nieuwe
V

193.

Rijk,
M.

(Leiden:

Saleh

and

H.

The Egyptian
Official Catalogue:
trans. P. Der Manuel ian and H.
(Mainz

am Rhein:

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1987),

cat. no. 8,

30
5. Saleh

and Sourouzian,
cat. no. 14, with refer
A good line drawing of the slain enemies
can
be found in W. S. Smith, The Art and Architecture
of
Ancient
rev. W. K. Simpson
York:
Egypt,
(New
ences.

1981), p. 51.
6. For a discussion

emies

in ancient

80-88.
7. P.

Duell

et al.,

OIP

31 (Chicago:
Tombs
of Deir

1902), pi. 8.
8. The

reliefs

most

have

'Affames'

of dead

Egypt, see K. Zibelius-Chen,

toten Feindes,"
WdO
15

des

Schmahung

of the desecration

The

Mastaba

recent

discussion

done

d'Ounas

by

(1984):

(London:

of these
J.

"Zur

I,
of Mereruka,
The Rock

1938), pi. 37; N. Davies,

el Gebrawi,
11
I, ASE

been

puzzling
"Les

din Mokhtar, II (Paris: 1985), pp. 327-337.

9. For some typical examples
of such scenes,
W. S. Smith, A History of Egyptian
Sculpture
in

Painting

the

Old

Kingdom,

2d

ed.

de
Ed
see

(London:

1949), pp. 313 (fig. 175), 314 (fig. 177), 322 (fig.
196a).
10. For

a summary
of dancing
in ancient
Egypt,
see E. Brunner-Traut,
LA 6 (1985):215-231.
"Tanz,"
11. An example
in the round is provided
by a
Middle
Kingdom
group of small ivory figurines that
depict nude dwarfs
ures were originally
found

at Lisht.

and singing. These

dancing
mechanical
part of a child's

See

W.

C.

Hayes,

The

Scepter

fig
toy
of

Egypt, I (New York: 1953), p. 223 (fig. 139), and

and Sourouzian,
cat. no. 90.
of such a male nude dancer
12. A rare example
to make it suit
(before it was retouched,
presumably
can
able for viewing
by the museum-going
public)
be seen in Fischer,
10 (fig. 8). The partially
pre
Saleh

served
scroll

leather
which appears
on a painted
scene,
from Deir
el-Bahri
and dates
to the New

have

been

collected

the list of Old Kingdom

on pp. 40-41.
examples
the statue of the Fifth Dynasty of
See, for example,
ficial Snofru-nefer
from Giza, in W. Seipel,
Bilder
fur dieEwigkeit
(Constance:
1983), p. 54 (no. 34).
esp.

16. W.

M.

F. Petrie

and

BSAE

34 (London:

series

represents
the middle-sized

1924),
the man

G. Brunton, Sedment,
I,
pi. 11. The smallest of the
as a child, but, curiously
statue
shows
him at a

greater age than the largest.

17. For discussions
of the iconography
of the re
born king as a child, see M. Eaton-Krauss,
"Eine
rundplastische
Darstellung
ZAS 110 (1983):
127-132;
und Wiedergeburt,"
SAK

Achenatens
E.

Feucht,

11

"Der
Rossier-Kohler,
Konig
und Maat-Opfer,"
in Studien

ed. F. Junge (Gottingen:

gion Agyptens,
pp.
1984),
929-946.
There is an example
of this type of repre
sentation
on a stamp seal of a private person;
see
S.

R.

JEA
with

Glanville,

"An

17

(1931):98-99.
amuletic
purpose

Unusual
Since

of Statuette,"
Type
seals
often are made

for the afterlife, this object

genre as the royal examples.
JE 33034;
PM V 193. Smith, Art and
p. 146 (figs. 141, 142), and Saleh and
cat. no. 63, with references.

to the same

may belong
18. Cairo
Architecture,
Sourouzian,
19. Berlin

PM V 97. This inscription

is
1204;
to all studies of the religious
use of statuary
in Egypt and has been translated
and discussed
of

central

Museums,
Agyptischen
Mitteilungen
tischen
8, ed. H. W.
Sammlung

C.

tiens,"
Phyles

de

Circoncision
chez les Egyp
Wit, "La
99 (1972):41-48;
A. M. Roth, Egyptian
in the Old Kingdom,
48 (Chicago:
SAOC
and E. Wente and J. R. Harris, X
pp. 62-72;

ZAS

1991),
Ray Atlas of the Royal
pp. 236-237.

Mummies

(Chicago:

1980),

U.

Konigsname
zu Sprache
und Reli

are various opinions

as to when circum
the onset
took place among the Egyptiansat
rite.
of puberty, at age fourteen, or as an initiation
See

Kind,"

Kind,

Berichte
Anthes, "Die
ernofret
iiber
das

13. There

als

"Verjungung

(1984):401-417;

als

nude man
seems
to show a small-sized
Kingdom,
ex
with an outsized
(pigmy?)
penis that strangely
in front of a fully
trudes behind him as he dances
dressed woman
harpist.
cision

and discussed

it was one of three statues

the
scepter;
depicting
same man at different stages of his life.
15. H. Junker, Giza, 7 (Vienna:
1944),
pp. 38-44,

enough,
and

scenes

of a striding nude statue of a Sixth Dynasty

example
official can be found in Saleh and Sourouzian,
cat.
no. 62. The man is shown with a walking stick and a

Vercoutter,

et le changement
climatique
in Melanges
Gamal
Empire,"

la fin de I'Ancien

en

14. Such

The Representations
of Statu
by M. Eaton-Krauss,
Tombs of the Old Kingdom,
AA 39
ary in Private
(Wiesbaden:
1984),
p. 33 (section
39). A striking

ten. Two

Festschrift

of the most

zum

treatments are R.
important
des Neferhotep
und des Ich
Osirisfest
in
in
Abydos,"

150jahrigen

Bestehen

des
aus

Berliner

dem

Mtiller

and M. Lichtheim,
Ancient
pp. 15-49,
1974),
tian Autobiographies
Chiefly of the Middle
dom, OBO 84 (Freiburg:
1988), pp. 98-100.

Agyp
(Berlin:
Egyp
King

20. The wooden

fcj-statue of the Thirteenth
Dy
PM III, 2 888)
nasty monarch Hor (Cairo JE 30948;
to have been a statue of this type. Although
appears

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31
the statue

it originally
had a girdle
unclothed,
sheath
an ancient
attached,
garment
worn by gods; see Saleh
and Sourouzian,
cat. no.
Cairo
117, and E. R. Russmann,
Egyptian Sculpture:
and Luxor (Austin:
On the pe
1989), pp. 77, 95-96.
with

nis

is now

a penis

sheath

Baines,

as

an

archaic

costume,
god's
Belt and Penis Sheath,"

"Ankh-Sign,

(1975): 1-24.

see

J.

SAK

21. See, for example,

C. Aldred, Akhenaten:
King
of Egypt (New York: 1988), p. 235, with fig. 33, and
J. R. Harris, "Akhenaten
or Nefertiti?" Acta Orien

talia 38 (1977):5-10.

22. For an extensive

treatment

of these

beings

and

see J. Baines,
aspects,
Fecundity
and the Iconog
Egyptian
Personification
raphy of a Genre (Chicago:
1985).
23. See R. S. Bianchi,
"New
Light on the A ten,"

29. For

an extensive
discussion
of such objects,
and Female
at
Pinch, "Childbirth
Figurines
Deir el-Medineh
and el-'Amarna,"
Or 52 (1983):
405-414.
see

G.

30. For

such objects,
see Bourriau,
pp. 126-127,
and Hayes, pp. 219-223,
with fig. 135. Ac
dolls" exhibit Nu
cording to Hayes, several "paddle
bian characteristics.
no. 121,

31. On this topic, see especially

P. Derchain,
"La
Perruque et le crystal," SAK 2 (1975):56-74.
32. Nudity in such scenes
was apparently
altered
during the Nineteenth
Dynasty,
has been attributed to a sense

a phenomenon
that
of "prudery"
during
period but may simply be a reuse of
with modifications
to reflect a change

their androgynous

the Ramesside

Figures:

the paintings
of style since the furniture in the paintings was
altered. On this question,
see Schott, 100-106,
Fischer, 11, n. 36.

GM

114 (1990):35-42,
and E. Cruz-Uribe,
"Another
Look at an Aton Statue," GM 126 (1992):29-32.
24. For
see

a discussion

J. F. Romano,

of the iconography
"The Origin of the Bes

BES 2 (1980):39-56.
25. The

of Bes,
Figure,"

are
Anat, Astarte, and Qadesh
and are even occasionally
distinguishable
see C. Clamer,
"A Gold Plaque
from

syncretized;
Tel I^achish,"

of the Tel Aviv Institute of Ar

7 (1980):152-162.
also known
Qudshu,

chaeology
as Qadesh,

34. See

M. Eaton-Krauss,
in W. K. Simpson
et al.,
Golden
in the New
Age: The Art of Living
1558-1085
B.C.
Kingdom
(Boston:
pp.
1982),
242-243
(no. 325).

Journal

35. The object serves as an unguent container;

see
C. Aldred, New Kingdom
Art in Ancient Egypt dur
1570
to 1320
B.C.
ing the Eighteenth
Dynasty:
(London:
ures.

Raume

Wallert,

im

overview
tian

Rollen
in Aufgaben,
und
Agypten,"
Frau
und Mann,
ed. J. Martin and R.
a very brief
(Munich:
1989), pp. 239-306;
alten

von

Zoepffel
discussion

of nudity appears
on p. 243. A general
of the representation
of women
in Egyp

literature

has

been

made

der

mann,

"Ikonographie
in Schdne
Agypten,"

recently
Schonheit

FrauenSchdne

erarische

Schdnheitsbeschreibungen,
ler (Mannheim:
1988), pp. 12-32.

by J. Ass
im
alten
Manner:

Lit

ed. T. Stemm

27. The
In the

wig type varies with the period, however.

New
noble
ladies
are shown
in
Kingdom,

similar

wigs while nursing in the nude; see E. Brun

"Die
MIO
3 (1955):
ner-Traut,
Wochenlaube,"
and J. Bourriau,
Pharaohs
and Mortals:
25-26,
Art in the Middle
Egyptian
Kingdom
(London:
no. 118.
1988), pp. 124-125,
28. For a discussion
of such
riau,

pp.

220-221,

Wochenlaube,"

11-30.

is a Palestinian
import; see R. Stadel
LA 5 (1983):26-27.
mann, "Qadesch,"
26. For a general overview
of the role of women
in Egyptian society, see E. Feucht, "Die Stellung
der
Frau

"Die

Brunner-Traut,

and

Egypt's

goddesses

not always

33. See

also

nos.
124127,
with fig. 137.

figurines, see Bour

and Hayes,
118-126,
pp.

36. See
ures.
37.

p. 91,

1961),
ibid.,

Saleh

p. 91,

nos.
nos.

166
168

and

Der

Sourouzian,
verzierte Loffel,

and

168,

with

fig

and

169,

with

fig

cat.

no.

AA

16

157,

and

I.

(Wiesbaden:

1967).
38. Museo

Turin:
7052.
See
W. Peck,
Egizio,
Egyptian Drawings
(New York: 1978), pi. VI.
39. See ibid., p. 130 (fig. 68).
40. From the P. Chester Beatty I Collection.
The
translation
is from M. Lichtheim,
Ancient Egyptian
II (Berkeley:
Literature,
p. 182. Both the
1976),
number 7 and the allusions
to gold connect
the po
ems with the goddess
the patron deity of
Hathor,
love. On this passage,
see also M. V. Fox, The Song
of Songs

and

the Ancient

41. On

"Some
Acta

this

Aspects
Orientalia

topic, see especially

of Ancient
Egyptian
38 (1979):ll-23.

42. J. Omlin,
Satirisch-erotischen

Der

Love

Egyptian

(Madison: 1985), pp. 52, 56 (f).

Papyrus
Zeichnungen

(Turin: 1973).

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Songs

L.

Manniche,
Sexual
Life,"

55001
und

und

seine

Inschriften