This statuary group depicts a boy and a girl of equal age and size, both wearing the royal diadems; the sun disc for the boy and the moon disc for the girl which may suggest the deified figures of Cleopatra VII and Marcus Antonius' children. Under their feet, there is an inter-wind serpent perhaps for protection. This twin was more fortunate in the moments of defeat, murder and suicide in Alexandria in 30 BC. Octavia the ex-wife of Marcus Antonius adopted the twin, till Cleopatra Selene married Juba II King of Numidia (Western Algeria).
Sandstone
Ptolemaic Period (40-30 BC)
Provenance Dendera
This information is from Christina Pearn / Em Hotep BBS / Facebook group:
"Normally pharaonic propaganda and claims to legitimacy are depicted on temple walls. If Giuseppina Capriotti Vittozzi is correct in her hypothesis, this unusual statuary was commissioned by Pharaoh Cleopatra VII, and has a very interesting story behind it, that gives us insight into aspects of her life and times. It is made of sandstone, stands 100.5cm high and is 60.5cm wide. It was found at Dendera on 5th May 1918 and was thought to have originally stood within the temple. There is quite a lot of damage to this unusual dyad statuary, which makes exact identification of all elements speculative. It is thought to date between 50 – 30 BCE. It depicts two naked children under the age of 5 years, a boy and a girl, each with an arm around the other. With their outer hands, each would have embraced a massive Pythonesque snake, which are completely enveloping their legs up to their thighs in their thick coils. The boy has a solar disc on his head, inscribed with a wadjet eye, and the girl has a crescent moon, with the sun behind it, also inscribed with the wadjet eye. The back of the statuary, is covered in stars. Capriotti Vittozzi, in 2011 postulated that this is a personification of a solar eclipse, and that the children are the three-year-old twins of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony; Cleopatra Selene and Alexander Helios.The solar eclipse was reported by Grenier (2001), to have occurred whilst Mark Antony was in Antioch, in the winter of 37/36 BCE. (Plut. Ant. 36.3; Cassius Dio XLIX 32 4-5) Antony was there to plan his war on Parthia. He sent for Cleopatra and the twins to accompany him a short time after his arrival. It was during this visit, that they supposedly viewed the solar eclipse, leading Antony to finally formally acknowledge paternity of the twins. This also, supposedly, was when the twins gained their second names of Selene and Helios. Capriotti Vittozzi suggests that it was after this event, the statue was commissioned.The Events started at Antioch were certainly fateful for Cleopatra and Antony, leading directly to infuriating Rome and the fateful sea battle of Actium. Firstly, the war with Partha was not the great success Antony had envisaged. However, Cleopatra allowed Antony to arranged a Roman style triumph at Alexandria. As part of the celebrations, known as the Donations of Alexandria, he symbolically gave: Cleopatra: Egypt, Coile Syria and Libya (which she already ruled ). He announced Alexander Helios King of Armenia (conquered that year by Antony for Rome) and also ‘gave’ him Media and Parthia (still to be conquered!). He announced Selene, queen of Cyrene. To Cleopatra’s youngest, Ptolemy Philopater, Syria, Phoenicia and Cilicia. He declared Caesarian (son of the late Julius Cesar and Cleopatra) the legitimate son and heir of Julius Caesar, despite Caesar having already legally adopted Octavian (in Rome) and willing him most of his fortune. Antony had divorced his Roman wife Octavia (Octavian’s sister) and married Cleopatra. In his will, (discovered by Octavian, before battle of Actium) Antony left instructions to be buried with Cleopatra in Egypt. No wonder Rome probably granted his last wish!The Ptolemies had a history of theatrically linking eclipses with important events. Alexander the Great and his army allegedly saw a lunar eclipse before the battle of Guargamela. By convincing his Egyptian soothsayers to tell his troops that it foretold a victory for them, it roused them into defeating Darius III. To the Greeks, Roman and most of the Mediterranean, eclipses were expected to accompany dramatic events, being regarded as a sympathy between heaven and earth (Duncan Cameron, Page 4). It was expected that any great event would be followed by a heavenly sign. So much so, that ‘accurate chronology is often disregarded in order to synchronize celestial and terrestrial events…’ Cameron Page 5). Mica Ross (2016, p.99) suggests that ‘to connect an event with an eclipse, was to connect it with the forces of the universe and to imbue it with reverence.’ The ancient Egyptians however, regarded eclipses, especially lunar, as very inauspicious (Derchain 1992:31-2) and the birth of twins were equally undesirable events (Baines1985), possibly a paradoxical denial of the twins, so Cleopatra really had to use all of her intellect and understanding of Egyptian culture to turn these events to her advantage. Perhaps she embraced the eclipse to signify royalty, with the couples of Antony and Cleopatra and the twins being considered as mutual reflections, enabling Cleopatra to use the birth of her twins to mythologise herself and her relatives (Capriotti).Grenier (2001) notes the existence of a cobra crowned by a lunar crescent and a six-pointed star (possibly the sun) in the coins from Caesaria, of Juba II, King of Mauretania. On the reverse is the name of Cleopatra Selene, his wife, who may be linked to Isis-Thermouthis, as she is surrounded by fruit-bearing plants (Bricault 2008: 225-228. Caesarea 15b).The statue dating by Capriotti Vittozzi was based on, amongst other things, the hair style of the girl. She was noted to have the typical ‘melon rib’ style, popular from 4th century BCE to 1st century AD. It also matched that of Cleopatra VII in the Vatican, and on coins at the end of the Ptolemaic period. Stylistically, the statue is very similar to that of Pakhom (Detroit Institute of Arts no. 51.83), who was governor of Dendera between 50-30 BCE (H. Meulenaere).The snakes encircling the children undoubtedly have a protective meaning. Capriotti suggests that they may be Uraei, symbolizing the replenishment by the flood and rhythmic re-appearance of the sun and moon, personified by the children. Predating this statue, there is a scene at Armant, of Cleopatra VII performing a ritual before the twins Ha para pa Khered (Hellenised to Harpocrates) and Har shu pa khered with the same celestial insignia.Marie-Lys Arnette thought that the children may be ‘emerging’ from the snake coils, based on other similar representations, so this may actually represent the celestial bodies emerging from the un-created. A. Abdalla thought the children may represent Shu and Tefnut and their cult at Dendera, as they have a close link with the solar deity and are often identified with the two lions of the horizon, Ruty (rwty), or possibly Harpocrates and a female counterpart. He also thought the snakes may be Isis-Thermouthis and Serapis Agathodaimon, the Ptolemaic equivalent of the ancient Egyptian Shay and Renenutet.In the late period, the sun and moon were regarded as the two brothers, ‘in particular the union of the two bulls, or the two luminaries, the moment of greatest brightness in the sky’, i.e. during the full moon. (Berlandini1995;35-6; Baines 1984:476) At Dendera, Hathor was identified with the right eye, Re with the left, when united, forming the triumph of solar divinity. Offering the wadjet eye, allows daily regeneration of the two stars (Preys 2002:382).Dunand (1969:42) thought of them as two children with astral quality, again, alluding to Shu and Tefnut, with the two snakes, probably cobras, having a protective role of divine figures, closely connected to them. He thought it was a typical Egyptian way of representing two different aspects of a divinity, with the embrace representing the culminating moment in the path of the two celestial bodies.Without heads, it is not possible to identify the snakes, but the cult of the Agatho Daemons was embraced by the Ptolemies and is depicted all over the temple of Dendera, where they were regarded as not only protective deities, but also of fate and fortune. (R. Preys 2002)The back of the statue has stars on it, which would be in keeping with Dendera, as a temple dedicated to the goddess Hathor, with its strong astral connotations and would also align with this unusual statuary. Abdalla thinks it may have originally been a re-used block from a star ceiling, however, the traces of possible re-working cannot be dated, so this theory cannot be proved.Whoever created the statuary, it is clearly very symbolic, and the theory of it representing Cleopatra’s twins to facilitate their acceptance and legitimacy to kingship and divinity is compelling. It demonstrates a deep understanding of the ancient Egyptian culture, fused with the modern Ptolemaic principles. The eclipse may be dramatic addition, but to the people of Egypt it sent a powerful message.Giuseppina Capriotti Vittozzi Ungruppo scuttoreo da Dendera al Museo del Cairo: due Fanciulli divini ei due luminari . Classica Orientalis, Studies in honour of W.A. Daszewski, Warsaw, 2011,115-127. Marie-Lys Arnette Alexandre Hélios et Cléopâtre Séléné (règne de Cléopâtre VII): une representation d’un couple gémellaire au Musée égyptien du Caire? 2018 Rosalind Park The Eclipse of Queen Cleopatra and the Dendera Zodiac. Hathor journal, 29th April 2014.Duncan Cameron Target Fixation and the Eclipse of Josephus: Towards a re-dating of the death of Herod the Great."
Graeco-Roman Period
Alexandria Egypt