WILLY CLARYSSE - HAYING YAN

Two Ptolemaic Stelae for the Sacred Lion of Leonton Polis (Tell Moqdam)
1. STELA OF KLEOPATRA IN THE PEKING UNIVERSITY MUSEUM (FIG. 1)
Peking University Museum inv. 95.0879 Height: 34 cm. Width: 25 cm (bottom), 23.7 cm. (top). Thickness: 5.7 cm max. Material: limestone.

The Museum of Archaeology of Peking University houses several Egyptian stelae, of which the one presented here is one of the most interesting. They were brought to China by Duan Fang, ambassador of the Chinese emperor in the early 20th century, together with nearly one hundred other antiquities. He may have bought them during his short stay in Egypt, where he visited Port Said and Cairo in the summer of 1906(1). Round-topped limestone stela with winged sun-disc at the top, from which hang two uraei. The scene in the second register represents a pharaoh with double crown and cartouche offering the hieroglyphic sign for field to a lion crouching on a pedestal. To the left and right of the scene are two ws sceptres; that on the left stands on a bottom line, which is set slightly too high. On the lions head is a sun disk with a large uraeus. Over the back of the lion stand the hieroglyphs Wsir p my Osiris the lion. There are traces of red paint on the legs, arms and chest of the king(2). The front leg of the pharaoh has apparently been reworked. The name of the pharaoh in the cartouche above his head is damaged towards the end, but the first five signs are clear. and must refer to the name Kleopatra, even though the traces at the end cannot be identified with certainty. Nothing similar is found among the examples of the name Kleopatra in H. GAUTHIER, Livre des rois dEgypte IV, MIFAO 20 (1916).
(1) On Duan Fang, see the article Tuan-Fang (by H. MOMOSE) in A.W. HUMMEL, Eminent Chinese of the Ching Period (1644-1912) II, Taipei 1991, pp. 780-782. On his Egyptian collection, see W. CLARYSSE - Haying YAN, Aegypten in der verbotenen Stadt, Antike Welt 37 (2006), pp. 45-51. (2) No doubt all such stelae were originally painted. Traces of the original painting are best preserved in the stela from Fribourg (no. 14 in the list below; see the coloured photograph in the edition by S. Bickel).

77

GYPTE PHARAONIQUE

Fig. 1. Peking University Museum inv. 95.0879 (no. 8).

The contours of pharaoh, lion and sun disc are cut deeper than the other elements, including the hieroglyphic signs. The contrast between the sun disk and the uraeus hanging from it is very clear. 78

TWO PTOLEMAIC STELAE FOR THE SACRED LION OF LEONTON POLIS (TELL MOQDAM)

Under this scene is a one line demotic inscription reading p .wy n t qs.t n p my the house of the burial of the (divine) lion. 2. STELA OF A PTOLEMY IN THE LOUVRE (FIG. 2)(3)
Louvre inv. E 14226 Height: 29.5 cm. Width: 20.5 cm. Thickness: 2.4 cm. Material: limestone.

The stela was offered to the Louvre by Perdrizet in 1931. It represents a king, who is identified by his cartouche as Ptolemy , wearing the double crown and offering a field hieroglyph to a lion with sun disc crouching on a pedestal. Over the lion is written in hieroglyphs Wsir p my Osiris the lion. Two ws scepters delineate the scene to the left and to the right. The top of the stela represents a winged sun disc with uraei under the curved sign for heaven. * * A series of similar limestone stelae appeared upon the antiquities market in the late 19th and early 20th century(4). Most of them represent a pharaoh offering to a lion god on a pedestal; only four bear an inscription: the stelae of Amsterdam, Beijing, Hildesheim and Leipzig (nos. 3, 8, 9 and 13 in the following list). The stelae have been listed by H.P. BLOK, Drei Stelen im Haagner Museum, Acta Orientalia 8 (1930), p. 222; B. PORTER R.L.B. MOSS, Topographical Bibliography IV, Oxford 1934, p. 38; C. DE WIT, Le rle et le sens du lion dans lgypte ancienne, Luxor, s.d., pp. 276-280; and more recently by D. MEEKS, Les donations aux temples dans lgypte du 1er millnaire av. J.-C., in: E. LIPINSKI, State and Temple Economy in the Ancient Near East II, OLA 6, Leuven 1979, pp. 685-686. Some addenda are given by J. YOYOTTE, Annuaire de lcole Pratique des Hautes tudes, 5e section, 96 (1987-1988), p. 158. The following table adds three new items to the earlier listings(5).
(3) We thank M. tienne, conservator of the Louvre, for permission to publish this document here. (4) There are no clear indications that the stelae belong to the same find as the bronze statuettes of lions found in the ruins of the temple of Leonton polis in 1884, though at least one stela (no. 14) comes from the Fouquet collection, like the bronzes. For this find, see E. CHASSINAT, Les antiquits gyptiennes de la collection Fouquet, Paris 1922 and P. PERDRIZET, Antiquits de Lontopolis, Monuments Piot 25 (1921-22), pp. 349-385. (5) We thank S. Bickel, H. De Meulenaere, P. Dils and D.J. Thompson, who have helped us with new documents and/or checked our data against the originals.

79

GYPTE PHARAONIQUE

Fig. 2. Louvre inv. E 14226 (no. 17).

80

TWO PTOLEMAIC STELAE FOR THE SACRED LION OF LEONTON POLIS (TELL MOQDAM)

81
Fig. 4. Alexandria 399 (no. 2).

Fig. 3. Cairo 22177 (= Beni Suef 1519) (no. 1).

GYPTE PHARAONIQUE

82
Fig. 6. Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg AEIN 311 (no. 4).

Fig. 5. Amsterdam, Allard Pierson 7772 (no. 3).

TWO PTOLEMAIC STELAE FOR THE SACRED LION OF LEONTON POLIS (TELL MOQDAM)

83
Fig. 8. Bonn, Akadem. Kunstmuseum (no. 6).

Fig. 7. Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg AEIN 309 (no. 5).

GYPTE PHARAONIQUE

inv. 1 Beni Suef 1519, formerly Cairo CG 22177 (FIG. 3) Alexandria 399 (712A) (FIG. 4) Amsterdam, Allard Pierson 7772 (FIG. 5) Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg AEIN 311 (FIG. 6) Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg AEIN 309 (FIG. 7) Bonn, Akadem. Kunstmuseum (lost in world war II) (FIG. 8) Cairo JE 87841 (FIG. 9)

lion crouching lion Wsir p my striding lion p my n striding lion p my n crouching lion Wsir p my standing god with lions head and atef crown crouching lion Wsir p my

king king with pshent offering field P<t>wrmys n king with pshent offering field s R nb .w Ptwrmys king with pshent offering Maat nsw.t-bty Ptrmys n t no king

2 3

priest offering field

king with pshent offering field

crouching lion Wsir p my

king with pshent offering field cartouche Ptlm[ys]

8 9

Beijing 95.0879 (FIG. 1) Hildesheim 1897 (FIG. 10)

crouching lion Wsir p my striding lion and lion-headed god My-s pty nb iw-nw.t (?) crouching lion crouching lion

king offering field cartouche Qliwptr king (damaged) offering field

10 11

Cairo CG 22225 (FIG. 11) Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg AEIN 312 (FIG. 12)

king offering field 4 illegible lines, with two cartouches

84

TWO PTOLEMAIC STELAE FOR THE SACRED LION OF LEONTON POLIS (TELL MOQDAM)

others 1

text

h. w. 58 38 cm

date of find or purchase Bought in 1885 (JE 26923) before 1900 copied in 1896

2 3

small altar with flower small altar with flower no sun disc at top

Greek

66 31 14.5 cm 51 28 cm.

18 15 cm

bought in Egypt around 1890 bought in Egypt around 1890 bought in Cairo before 1906

29 19 cm

17 15 cm

flower

33.5 27 cm (thicker below than above) 34 25 cm 48 31 cm

acquired by exchange from the dealer Abd el-Rahman el-Sadiq, 1946 acquired in 1906 before 1914

8 9

small altar with flower

Demotic Demotic

10 11

offering table with flower small altar with flower

Hieroglyphic

26.5 21 cm 18 15 cm

1900 (JE 34201) bought in Egypt around 1890

85

GYPTE PHARAONIQUE

inv. 12 Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg AEIN 310 (FIG. 13)

lion crouching lion

king

13

Leipzig, gyptisches Museum 1668 (FIG. 14) Fribourg (Switzerland) Fig 1999.6 (FIG. 15)

crouching lion Wsir p my striding lion and lion-headed god. Above the lion two vertical hieroglyphic lines p my n My-s pty crouching lion Wsir p my

king offering field, before him an empty cartouche (horizontal) king with hands held up in adoration empty cartouche (vertical)

14

15

Stockholm, Medelhavsmuseet 1981:13 (FIG. 16) unknown (FIGG. 17-18)

king with pshent offering field empty cartouche

16

two registers: king with pshent offering field above crouching lion, below the god Tutu striding, with private worshipper in front crouching lion Wsir p my lion king with pshent offering field, with cartouche Ptwlmys Ptolemy

17 18 19

Paris, Louvre E 14226 (FIG. 2) unknown Hehya 1955

86

TWO PTOLEMAIC STELAE FOR THE SACRED LION OF LEONTON POLIS (TELL MOQDAM)

others 12 lion between Isis-Hathor, Bastet as a lion-headed cobra and Miysis with atef crown(6)

text

h. w. 25 25 cm.

date of find or purchase bought in Egypt around 1890

13

Greek date year 3 (?), 9 Mechir a few Greek signs are added on the winged sun-disc and on the piedestal

31.2 16 9.4 cm

arrived in Leipzig before 1908 from the Fouquet Collection

14

41 29 2,5 cm

15

30 22 cm

unknown

16

private person offering to a striding Tutu sphinx in the lower part of the stela Greek

34 23,5 cm

whereabouts unknown; former collection of P. Morabito

17 18 19

29.5 20.5 2.4 cm gift by P. Perdrizet 2.4 cm (1931) ? seen in Cairo in 1905 or 1906

(6) For the identification of the divine figures, we follow J. YOYOTTE, Annuaire de lcole Pratique des Hautes tudes 96 (1987-1988), p. 158.

87

GYPTE PHARAONIQUE

88
Fig. 10. Hildesheim 1897 (no. 9).

Fig. 9. Cairo JE 87841 (no. 7).

TWO PTOLEMAIC STELAE FOR THE SACRED LION OF LEONTON POLIS (TELL MOQDAM)

89
Fig. 12. Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg AEIN 312 (no. 11).

Fig. 11. Cairo 22225 (no. 10).

GYPTE PHARAONIQUE

90
Fig. 14. Leipzig, gyptisches Museum 1668 (no. 13).

Fig. 13. Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg AEIN 310 (no.12).

TWO PTOLEMAIC STELAE FOR THE SACRED LION OF LEONTON POLIS (TELL MOQDAM)

91
Fig. 16. Stockholm, Medelhavsmuseet 1981:13 (no. 15).

Fig. 15. Fribourg (Switzerland) Fig 1999.6 (no. 14).

GYPTE PHARAONIQUE

92
Fig. 18. Unknown private collection (no. 16).

Fig. 17. Unknown private collection (no. 16).

TWO PTOLEMAIC STELAE FOR THE SACRED LION OF LEONTON POLIS (TELL MOQDAM)

Publications:
1. A. BEY KAMAL, Stles ptolmaques et romaines (Catalogue gnral du Muse du Caire), Cairo 1905, p. 156 and pl. 51. The stela is illustrated and discussed by M. EL-WESHAHY, Ptolemaic Lion-god Stelae at Cairo and Copenhagen Museums, in: M. ELDAMATY - MAI TRAD, Egyptian Museum Collections around the World II, Cairo 2002, pp. 1225-1228. The spelling of the royal name is strange: first the scribe wrote rmys n, followed by pw, which no doubt stand for P<t>w, the beginning of the name. 2. G. DARESSY, ASAE 5 (1904), p. 119, XVI, no. 8. C.E. Wilbour saw the stela in an antiquarians shop in Cairo May 1886 (information H. De Meulenaere on the basis of Wilbours Notebook L.f 2.49). In 1900 the monument was already in Alexandria, cf. G. BOTTI, Notice des monuments exposs au Muse Grco-romain dAlexandrie, Alexandria 1893, p. 17. The stela is heavily damaged, especially below. The pedestal on which the lion stands is lower than usual; the sun disk on its head and the hieroglyphs above his back are barely visible. On top of the rounded stela is the usual winged sun disk with uraei. We thank Marvat Seif el-Din and J.-Y. Empereur for the photograph of this stela. 3. G. LEFEBVRE, BCH 26 (1902), pp. 453-454 (= SB I 26). A plate is given by P. PERDRIZET, Monuments Piot 25 (1921-22), p. 372 (at that time the stela belonged to the collection von Bissing in Munich). The most recent publication is by W. VAN HAARLEM, Corpus Antiquitatum Aegyptiacarum, Allard Pierson Museum Amsterdam II, Mainz 1995, pp. 53-55 (inv. 7772). The stela is also shown in four recent exhibition catalogues: R. BIANCHI, Cleopatras Egypt. Age of the Ptolemies, New York 1989, no. 106; La gloire dAlexandrie, Paris 1998, no. 140, p. 193; In gyptischer Gesellschaft. Aegyptiaca der Sammlungen Bibel+Orient an der Universitt Freiburg Schweiz, Freiburg 2004, p. 52, Abb. 12c; E. WARMENBOL, Sphinx. Les gardiens de lgypte, Bruxelles 2006, pp. 204-206, no. 46 with plate. The text is discussed, with further bibliography, by E. BERNAND, Le culte du lion, Dialogues dhistoire ancienne 16 (1990), pp. 78-80, no. 7. 4. O. KOEFOED-PETERSEN, Glyptothque Ny Carlsberg. Les stles gyptiennes, Copenhagen 1948, p. 62, pl. 84. This stela is not described on p. 62 (where under no. 84/AEIN 311 a description is given of AEIN 312). For a description, see M. MOGENSEN, Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Den Aegyptiske Samling, Kopenhagen 1930, pp. 333-334 (A755) and M. EL-WESHAHY, Ptolemaic Lion-god Stelae at Cairo and Copenhagen Museums, in: M. ELDAMATY - MAI TRAD, Egyptian Museum Collections around the World II, Cairo 2002, pp. 1221-1234. Perhaps there are some faint traces of a demotic (?) text under the scene. 5. Ibidem, p. 62, no. 86 and pl. 86. 6. A. WIEDEMANN - B. PRTNER, Aegyptische Grabsteine und Denksteine aus verschiedenen Sammlungen III, Strassburg 1906, pp. 30-32, no. 27, pl. X. The original was lost in the second world war. 7. Unpublished; briefly discussed by D. MEEKS, OLA 6 (1979), p. 686, no. 7. The item was checked for us in the Journal dEntre of the Cairo Museum by S.P. Vleeming. 8. Stela published here; the item is discussed by W. CLARYSSE - Haying YAN, Aegypten in der verbotenen Stadt, Antike Welt 37 (2006), pp. 45-51, with photo-

93

GYPTE PHARAONIQUE

graph p. 47, pl. 3; a photograph is also shown in E. WARMENBOL, Sphinx. Les gardiens de lgypte, Bruxelles 2006, p. 204-206, no. 46 with plate. 9. W. SPIEGELBERG, Recueil de Travaux 36 (1914), pp. 174-176 and pl. VIII; his plate is reproduced in L.V. ZABKAR, Apedemak. Lion god of Meroe, Warminster 1975, pl. XXII, and ZPE 158 (2006), plate on p. 297. H. KAYSER, Die gyptischen Altertmer im Roemer-Pelizaeus-Museum in Hildesheim, Hamburg 1966, p. 130 gives a description; YOYOTTE, BIFAO 52 (1953), p. 186; CHRISTIEs, New York Catalogue December 1996, no. 58; S.P. VLEEMING, Some Coins of Artaxerxes and other Short Texts in the Demotic Script Found on Various Objects and Gathered from many Publications, Studia Demotica 5 (2001), p. 218, no. 216 reproduces the demotic text under the scene, reading: p tp-ntr Mi-s p ntr the gods domain of Miysis, the great god. This text is also included in C. LEITZ, Lexikon der gyptischen Gtter und Gtterbezeichnungen III, OLA 112, Leuven 2002, p. 212, no. 29. 10. A. BEY KAMAL, Stles ptolmaques et romaines (Catalogue gnral du Muse du Caire), Cairo 1905, p. 211 (no plate). There are some traces of red ink on the winged sun disc. Most conspicuous in this stela are the shallow vertical grooves covering the background of the stone. 11. O. KOEFOED-PETERSEN, Glyptothque Ny Carlsberg. Les stles gyptiennes, Copenhagen 1948, pl. 85; in the description on p. 62 this stela is wrongly numbered 84 and AEIN 311. For a description, see M. EL-WESHAHY, Ptolemaic Lion-god Stelae at Cairo and Copenhagen Museums, in: M. ELDAMATY MAI TRAD, Egyptian Museum Collections around the World II, Cairo 2002, pp. 1229-1230. The lions head is not surmounted by a sun-disc. 12. O. KOEFOED-PETERSEN, Glyptothque Ny Carlsberg. Les stles gyptiennes, Copenhagen 1948, p. 61, no. 83 and pl. 83. Described by M. EL-WESHAHY, Ptolemaic Lion-god Stelae at Cairo and Copenhagen Museums, in: M. ELDAMATY MAI TRAD, Egyptian Museum Collections around the World II, Cairo 2002, pp. 1230-1231. The pedestal is exceptionally high and narrow. 13. First mentioned by U. WILCKEN, AfP 4 (1908), pp. 241-242. A plate is given by S. BICKEL in In gyptischer Gesellschaft. Aegyptiaca der Sammlungen Bibel+Orient an der Universitt Freiburg Schweiz, Freiburg 2004, p. 51, Abb. 12b. In the empty space below the offering scene is one line of a badly carved text, which may perhaps be read as ( Etouv) g Mexer q. The year sign g is particularly uncertain. The 9th of Mecheir may have been an important festival date in Leonton polis, see below pp. 181-186. For the photo and for the permission to publish it we thank Dr. Friederike Seyfried. 14. Presented in the auction catalogue of SOTHEBYs New York, 12.6.1993, no. 287. The stela was acquired in 1999 from the Royal Athena Galleries, and once belonged to the Fouquet Collection in Egypt. It is illustrated by O. KEEL - T. STAUBLI, Im Schatten deiner Flgel, Freiburg 2001, pp. 85-86, and published by S. BICKEL, In gyptischer Gesellschaft. Aegyptiaca der Sammlungen Bibel+Orient an der Universitt Freiburg Schweiz, Freiburg 2004, pp. 50-53, no. 12 with Abb. 12a. 15. Stela Stockholm MME 1981:13, published by B. GEORGE - O. KANEBERG, Krlek till Egypten. Konst och konsthantverk fran faraonernas tid I Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm 1999, p. 90.

94

TWO PTOLEMAIC STELAE FOR THE SACRED LION OF LEONTON POLIS (TELL MOQDAM)

16. O. KAPER, The Egyptian god Tutu, OLA 119 (2003), pp. 352-353: S-55. We thank O. Perdu for a full description and a photograph of this very damaged stela, which was sold at Drouot-Richelieu on Feb. 18, 1990 (no. 286 of the sale catalogue). The upper part is a normal lion stela, the offering scene to Tutu may have been added in the empty field below at a later stage. 17. Exhibited in the Egyptian galleries of the Louvre (salle 19, vitrine 6) and thus far unpublished. There are traces of red paint on the legs of the king and of ocre paint on the wings of the sun at the top and in the sun disc on the lions head. The stela is briefly mentioned by E. DRIOTON, Bulletin des Muses de France 4.2 (1932), p. 20 and in the Guide du visiteur, 1997, p. 104. We thank the conservators of the Louvre Marc tienne and Christiane Ziegler for permission to publish the text here. 18. E. CHASSINAT, Les antiquits gyptiennes de la collection Fouquet, Paris 1922, p. 14 mentions a stela he saw in the shop of a Cairo antiquities dealer, with a Greek inscription reading taf ev tn plin tn lentwn. His description is reproduced by E. BERNAND, Le culte du lion, Dialogues dhistoire ancienne 16 (1990), pp. 77-78, no. 6. 19. Hehya 1955 is the reference given by YOYOTTE, Annuaire de lcole Pratique des Hautes tudes, 5e section, 96 (1987-1988), p. 158. Hehya is the village north-east of Zagazig where the inscription SEG 24 [1969].1193 = SB X 10696 was seen in 1960; cf. BERNAND, loc. cit., pp. 68-69. It has not been possible to identify this object in the Cairo Museum. Perhaps it is identical with one of the stelae which turned up on the antiquities market later on; no.16, for instance, is also based upon information given by Yoyotte.

* *

The stelae are said to come from Tell Moqdam in the Delta, called Leonton polis by the Greeks, where the cult of a male lion flourished in the Greco-Roman period. The first copies turned up in antique dealers shops in Cairo in 1885 (no. 1) and 1886 (no. 2, where Wilbour already notes the provenance as Tell el Mukhdam). Spiegelberg tentatively reads the name of the city on no. 9. The locus classicus for this lion cult is AELIANUS, De animalibus XII.7 (= TH. HOPFNER, Fontes Historiae Religionis Aegyptiacae III, Bonn 1923, pp. 427-428): In Egypt they worship lions and there is a city called after them. It is worthwhile to record the peculiarities of the lions there. They have temples and very many spaces in which to roam (diatribein); the flesh of oxen is supplied to them daily and it lies, stripped of bones and sinews, scattered here and there, and while the lions eat songs are sung in the Egyptian language. - - - Many lions are deified in Egypt7, and
(7) A lion cult is also attested in Saqqara, by a late Ptolemaic papyrus and animal remains. The papyrus mentioning taf ka trof lentwn, is still unpublished. It is

95

GYPTE PHARAONIQUE

dwelling places consecrated to their use are face to face. The windows of some open to the east, others to the west, making life more pleasant for them. And to preserve their health they have places to exercise (gumnsia) and wrestling-grounds (palastrai) near by, and their adversary is a well-nourished calf. And after practising his skill against the calf, the lion brings it down (this takes time, for he is lazy and unused to hunting), he eats his fill and returns to his own stable. (translation of A.F.Scholfield in the Loeb edition, slightly adapted). Leonton polis - Tell Moqdam is rarely mentioned in the documentary sources. A Greek agonistic inscription listing the ephebs of the city still shows an abundance of names derived from lwn (lion) and sxurv (strong) as late as AD 220(8). Perhaps worth mentioning is a letter in the Zenon archive, which oddly corresponds with the date of 9 Mecheir given on the Leipzig stela (no. 13 above). On the 4th of Dystros of the 28th year of Ptolemy Philadelphos the dioiketes Apollonios and Zenon are present in Leonton polis, as is clear from the docket on the back of P.Lond. VII 1938. This letter about financial matters was sent to Zenon on Mecheir 9 (2 April) and reached Zenon on Dystros 4 (7 April, corresponding to 14 Mecheir)(9). The party of the dioiketes was in Boubastos from 16 to 26 March and moved to Mendes on 11 April. They may very well have been present at Leonton polis on the 2nd of April and planned their visit there to participate in the local festival of 9 Mecheir. The coincidence in the dates for such an obscure place is at least remarkable. For a more detailed discussion, see our article in this volume, pp. 201-206. The stelae are generally attributed to the Ptolemaic period; this is confirmed by the royal names in nos. 1, 3, 4, 8 and 16 and by OGIS II 732, a building inscription for the temple of the lion god Ornymenes, dated to the reign of Ptolemy V, which was acquired by the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek before 1899, probably together with nos. 4, 5, 11 and 12. The Greek name Ornymenes apparently translates Egyptian my-s, Miysis

quoted by J. RAY in P. Hor, p. 154 and a photograph is published in JEA 59 (1973), p. 153, no. 59. For the discovery of lion mummies in the animal cemetery of that same place, see P. CHARRON, Des momies de lions Saqqarah, BSEG 21 (1997), pp. 5-10. A mummified lion was found in the same area, near the Bubasteion, see C. CALLOU - A. SAMZUN A. ZIVIE, A lion found in the Egyptian tomb of Maa, Nature, January 15, 2004. (8) SEG 51 2159, with the onomastic commentary by J. BINGEN, CdE 76 (2001), pp. 225-226. (9) For the dates and the correspondence of Zenon in year 28, see P.W. PESTMAN, A Guide to the Zenon archive, pp. 224-225.

96

TWO PTOLEMAIC STELAE FOR THE SACRED LION OF LEONTON POLIS (TELL MOQDAM)

fierce looking(10), which is attested on the Hildesheim stela (no. 9)(11) In our text the hieroglyphic inscription identifies the pharaoh as a Kleopatra, who is represented as a male. Whereas in official inscriptions and on the walls of the temples, Kleopatra is always presented as a queen(12), private dedications from her reign show her as a male pharaoh. Unlike the famous queen Hatshepsut, Kleopatra did not officially adopt a policy of representing herself as a male pharaoh. Usually she is shown as a queen with her son Caesarion(13), sometimes also without a male companion(14). But local sculptors just went on using the traditional motif of the offering pharaoh, even when the reigning king happened to be a queen. Thus Kleopatra is shown as a king on the Greek stelae I.Fay. III 205 (= I. Louvre 21), dated in year 1 (July 2, 51 BC) (the scene may have been cut when her father was still alive)(15), and I.Fay. I 14, dedicated jointly
(10) Proposed by P. PERDRIZET, Comptes Rendus de lAcadmie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres 1922, p. 322, and accepted by both YOYOTTE, loc. cit., p. 158 and BERNAND, loc. cit., pp. 71-73. (11) For the god My-s - Miysis, see now C. LEITZ, Lexikon der gyptischen Gtter und Gtterbezeichnungen III, OLA 112, Leuven 2002, pp. 211-212, where the Hildesheim stela is quoted as Belegstelle 29. The god is also mentioned in the magical papyrus SB I 5620 (= K. HERBERT, Greek and Latin Inscriptions in the Brooklyn Museum, New York 1972, no. 24; R. MERKELBACH, Abrasax. Ausgewhlte Papyri religisen und magischen Inhalts, Papyrologica Coloniensia XVII.4, pp. 123-126) with the names Mios and Miosis. For the nome coins of the Leontopolites, representing Harmiysis as a youthful Ares and once only as a lion, see now A. GEISSEN - M. WEBER, Untersuchungen zu den gyptischen Nomenprgungen VIII, ZPE 158 (2006), pp. 271-275. (12) As far as official representations are concerned, I here agree with S.-A. ASHTON, Cleopatra: Goddess, Ruler or Regent?, in: S. WALKER and S.A. ASHTON, Cleopatra Reassessed, The British Museum Occasional Paper 103 (2003), p. 25: Despite the masculine title, Cleopatra does not appear in the guise of a male ruler or even with the crown of a pharaoh. - - - Neither the inscriptional evidence, nor her presentation on temple reliefs supports the idea that it was acceptable for Cleopatra to appear as a male pharaoh. Instead the Queen chose to associate herself with an earlier prominent female from the dynasty. This is confirmed by the survey of queens in temple scenes given by M. MINAS, Macht und Onmacht. Die Representation ptolemischer Kniginnen in gyptischen Tempeln, AfP 51 (2005), pp. 127-154. (13) For instance on the wall of the Denderah temple, but also on the stela in honour of Kallimachos, where a New Kingdom stela was reworked (I.Prose 46 = R. HUTMACHER, Das Ehrendekret fr den Strategen Kallimachos, Beitrge zur Klassischen Philologie 17, 1965, with plates). (14) O. PERDU, Souvenir dune reine ptolmaque officiant seule, ZS 127 (2000), pp. 141-152, has collected the documents where a queen is represented alone in temple reliefs. He does not consider these as indications of exceptional political power, but rather as part of scenes recalling the royal couple acting together before the gods. But he does not discuss private monuments. (15) G. HLBL, A History of the Ptolemaic Empire, London - New York 2001, p. 281. See also the plate in La gloire dAlexandrie, Paris 1998, no. 290, p. 244, and J. ROWLANDSON, Women and society in Greek and Roman Egypt. A sourcebook, Cambridge 1998.

97

GYPTE PHARAONIQUE

to Kleopatra VII and Caesarion (44-30 BC). Similarly a male pharaoh is shown offering on the hieroglyphic stela Cairo JE 55941, which was recently redated to year 20 = 9 of Kleopatra by M. Chauveau(16). On the stela London, British Museum 1325, recently published by A. Farid(17), a pharaoh is shown twice. Though the cartouches are empty the double date (year 22 = 7) can only refer to Kleopatra. That some stelae were made in advance is confirmed by nos. 13-15 above, where the royal cartouche was never filled in. The Beijing stela may date from the early period of Kleopatra VIIs reign (51-50 BC), when she expelled her brother from the joint kingship and ruled alone for one and a half years(18) or from a later phase of her reign, when she was de facto sole ruler. An earlier date, under Kleopatra III, however, cannot be ruled out(19). Where a hieroglyphic inscription identifies the animal, the standing lion is called the living lion (nos. 2, 3, 14), whereas the crouching lion is Osiris-the-lion (nos. 1, 4, 6-8, 13, 15). It is not certain, however, that this difference really indicates a living vs. a deceased animal. In the stelae from the Bucheum of Hermonthis, the bull can be shown standing on a pedestal or lying down and mummified (the latter position is only found in the Roman period). All stelae were found in the tombs and therefore refer to the deceased Buchis, which was at the same time Osiris-Buchis and living ba of Re(20). In the Serapeum stelae of Saqqara of the Saite period and before, as published by M.MALININE, G.POSENER and J.VERCOUTTER, Catalogue des stles du Srapum de Memphis, Paris 1968, standing bulls and mummified bulls appear in roughly the same numbers. Among the titles given to the bull 21 call him living Apis vs. 67 Osiris-Apis. As one would expect the standing bulls are more often called living Apis (16 instances against only 5 for the mummified bull),
(16) M. CHAUVEAU, Un stratge indigne contemporain de la dernire Cloptre, Rev. dgypt. 50 (1999), pp. 273-274 (with plate). The most recent edition of the text, by S.P. VLEEMING, Some coins of Artaxerxes and other short texts in the demotic script, Studia Demotica 5 (2001), no. 157, incorporates Chauveaus correction. (17) A. FARID, Fnf demotische Stelen aus Berlin, Chicago, Durham, London and Oxford, Berlin 1995, no. 4, pp. 33-76 with pl. X; a coloured plate also in S. WALKER, Cleopatra of Egypt. From History to Myth, London 2001, p. 175. For the text, see S.P. VLEEMING, Some coins of Artaxerxes and other short texts in the demotic script, Studia Demotica 5 (2001), no. 158. (18) G. HLBL, op. cit., p. 231 and p. 280. (19) The growing power of the queens in the later Ptolemaic period is well-known; for a succinct recent description, see G. HLBL, op. cit., p. 206. (20) See R. MOND - O.H. MYERS, The Bucheum II, 1934, pp. 1-44 and III, pl. XXVIIXLVII.

98

TWO PTOLEMAIC STELAE FOR THE SACRED LION OF LEONTON POLIS (TELL MOQDAM)

but for the indication Osiris-Apis, there is no such preponderance for the mummified bulls (35 instances against 32 for the standing bull). Among the later Apis stelae on show in the Louvre there is no clear identification of the standing bull as a living Apis and the crouching bull as Osiris-Apis. In any case the stelae with the standing bulls and those with the mummified bulls were all found in the Serapeum and therefore all dedicated to the Osirified Apis. Since the lion stelae apparently come from a single find, they were probably also funerary in character. In some of these the god is represented as Osiris, in others as the sacred animal resurrected by the funerary rituals and therefore living in a higher, religious sense. The demotic inscription on the Beijing stela is closely parallelled by the Amsterdam stela no. 3, where a Ptolemy offers Maat to a lion standing on a pedestal with a similar sun disc with uraeus hovering over its head. There are several differences, however, e.g. the standing lion, the small altar and the title nsw.t-bity in front of the king. The hieroglyphic inscription above the back of the lion in the Amsterdam inscription reads: p my n the living lion, against Osiris the lion i.e. the dead lion in the Beijing stela. The general lay-out of the two stelae, however, is remarkably similar. Under the offering scene the Amsterdam stela also has an inscription, not in demotic this time, but in Greek: oka tv tafv tn lentwn er house of the tomb of the lions. (This is) sacred. Except for the plural the first part of this is a perfect Greek equivalent for the demotic text on the Beijing stela and shows that the stela for the living lions of Amsterdam was probably also used for the deceased lions. The last word er is separated from the main text by a blank. As was shown by Nachtergael, this excludes the usual translation sacred house of the tomb of the lions(21). By its sacred character the place was also inaccessible except for those who were authorised. MEEKS, loc. cit., pp. 654 and 683-685, lists the stelae where the king offers a field hieroglyph to the god as pseudo-donation stelae, because in contrast to the donation stelae of the XXIInd-XXVIth dynasties, no real royal gift of land to the temple is involved. Many of these pseudo-donations are addressed to sacred animals. Comparing the text of the Amsterdam stela with that of Hildesheim (no. 9), which reads tp-ntr n My-s the sacred revenue of Miysis, YOYOTTE, loc. cit., pp. 158-159 concluded that the house of the lions pointed to the temple possessions
(21) G. NACHTERGAEL, propos de deux inscriptions grecques dgypte, Ricerche di Egittologia e di Antichit Copte 7 (2005), pp. 9-11.

99

GYPTE PHARAONIQUE

rather than to the actual tomb of the sacred animal and that these stelae might be les enseignes, ou mieux, les stles-chapelles, des offices o taient gres et prpares les offrandes, annexes de briques incluses dans les tmnos. In our opinion the very similar expressions oka tafv in no. 9 and .wy n qs.t in the Beijing stela point to a real tomb with a houselike superstructure. In the embalmers archives of Memphis and Hawara, tombs are often called .wy n rmt house of man(22). No doubt the dedication stelae were standing in front of or inside the tombs of the sacred lions and they form a series to be compared with the Buchis stelae in Hermonthis, where the king is also shown offering a field hieroglyph. The main difference is that, with a few exceptions, the lion stelae were left uninscribed, unless the texts were painted in ink on the large blank surface under the hieroglyphic scene and have now disappeared. K.U.Leuven Peking University Willy CLARYSSE Haying YAN

(22) See e.g. P.Louvre E 3266, published by F. DE CENIVAL, BIFAO 71 (1972), pp. 1165 passim, and P.Hawara Lddeckens XI ll.6, 7; XXII l.8; P.Ashm. Reymond, passim.

100