Statue of King Montuhotep II

Statue of King Montuhotep II

Short Introduction:

1-  This remarkable statue belongs to king Montuhotep II from the 11^th dynasty.

2-  The name of king Montuhotep means “God Montu is satisfied” and Montu was the god of war in Thebes.

3-  Before the appearance of king Montuhotep II, there were internal political struggles in Egypt because there were two strong dynasties which were fighting each other to obtain full domination over Egypt. These two powers are represented in:

(a)   The kings of the 10^th dynasty who ruled in the north [1].

(b)  The princes of Thebes which is Luxor nowadays and they represented the 11^th dynasty [2] that controlled the south.

4-  King Montuhotep II belonged to the Theban princes of the 11^th dynasty and he defeated the king of the 10^th dynasty and succeeded in uniting Egypt under his control. Therefore king Montuhotep II is considered the founder of the Middle Kingdom.

5-  King “Montuhotep II” ruled Egypt 41 years [3] during which he made Egypt a strong country after restoring the internal order. He also protected Egypt from the attacks of the Libyans from the western desert, the Bedouins in the eastern desert and the Nubians from the south.

Remarkable Points of the Statue and its Owner:

1-  Looking to the statue it is made out of painted sandstone [4] and it represents the king seating while wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt [5].

2-  In this statue the king is completely identified with god “Osiris” the lord of the netherworld because:

a-   He is painted in the black color that symbolized death and fertility.

b-  He is crossing his arms upon his chest like “Osiris” [6].

c-   He is having the divine curved beard worn by the kings in the afterlife.

3-  The face of the king looks calm as if he was happy and satisfied as a king in the afterlife.

4-  It is noticed that the legs and the feet of the king are made thick in very exaggerating way [7]. Probably the king was suffering from the elephantine disease and the artist followed the realism style in making the legs. There is another opinion that the king was shown with fat legs and feet to assure his strong and stable control over Upper and Lower Egypt.

5-  The king is wearing a white garment used to be worn in a royal festival called“heb-sed” to renew the rule of the king for 30 years. So the purpose of representing the king wearing this garment was to assure his kingship in the netherworld.

6-  The king with black face might refer to his Nubian origin.

7-  The statue of king Montuhotep II was found in the mortuary temple of the king at Thebes. It was foundby Howard Carter the famous excavator who discovered the tomb of king Tutankhamun. It was said that while Carter was riding his horse, the leg of the horse trampled in a rock. After removing the rock an entrance was found leading to a room inside which the statue was found [8]. From this time the entrance to the chamber is called as the gate of the horse.

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Good Luck

D. Hesham Ezz Eldin

Appendix

Brief Historical points about King Montuhotep II(2046-1995 BC):

1-      King Montuhotep II belonged to the 11^th dynasty that was found by prince Enutef I.

2-      He spent 10 years as a prince of Thebes and he took the title of nb-HD (Lord of the White Crown). This title expresses the domination of Montuhotep II over Upper Egypt.

3-      After defeating the Ehnasian king and uniting Egypt, he took the title of the %mA-&Awy (the Unifier of the Two Lands). His Horus name is %anx-ib-&Awy (Who causes life to the heart of the two lands). For the name Montuhotep MnTw-Htp, it means (god Montu is satisfied) and his name Nb-Hpt-Ra means (Lord of the Rudder of Re).

4-      As a king of Egypt Montuhotep II he ruled Egypt for about 41 years. He is the first king who ruled Upper and Lower Egypt from Thebes.

5-      King Montuhotep II performed certain essential procedures to consolidate his rule through spreading his control over the governors of the nomes.

6-      He sent many expeditions to exploit the mines.

7-      He made military campaigns against the Bedouins in the east and the west. He also fought the Nubians in the south to restore order and to expand the Egyptian domination. There is a story that Montuhotep II made a sailing to the south in the Nile accompanied with his family and retainers until he reached Gabal El-Selsela where he rested in a place known as Shat El-Regal. It was suggested that the king was waiting to receive his eldest son who was probably making a certain mission at Nubia.

8-      He celebrated the Heb-sed in year 39 of his reign.

9-      His most famous monument is his marvelous mortuary temple at the area of Deir Al-Bahari in Thebes in which he wanted to combine between the tomb and the temple. The mortuary temple consists of two terraces and it is surmounted by a small pyramid shape. The tomb of the king was located in the rock behind and under the temple. He has monuments in El-Kab, El-Gabalen, El-Tod. He is shown before goddess Satet at Elephantine.

10-  His mother is named Iah. He has many wives; the principal one is called Tem. There are other wives like Kawet and Ashet whose sarcophagi are in the Egyptian Museum.

11-  The role of Montuhotep II in uniting Egypt was glorified during the 19^th dynasty. In the Ramesseum, his name was inscribed between the names of kings Menas and Ahmos because of their important works towards Egypt; Menas is the unifier of Egypt and the founder of the First Dynasty, Montuhotep II is the one who saved Egypt from its disorder and re-united Egypt founding the Middle Kingdom, Ahmos expelled the Hyksos out of Egypt and established the New Kingdom.Therefore Montuhotep II was considered the founder of the Middle Kingdom.

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Appendix

Some Information about God Montu:

a-   God MontuMnTw was the falcon god who was worshipped in Armant, Tod, Midamod.

b-   Then he became the main god of Thebes in the Middle Kingdom.

c-   He was shown as falcon headed man wearing sun disk with two feathers.

d-   As a war god, kings visited him before going to war to obtain his blessing. He was believed to accompany the king in battle to provide him with power and protection.

e-   In the battle of Qadish Ramesses II described himself as Montu who attacked the enemies.

f-    He has a consort represented in goddess Raet-tawy.

g-   A temple was made for him at Armant and Karnak.

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Appendix

Some Information about God Osiris:

a-   God “Osiris”  was one of the most famous deities in ancient Egypt.

b-   He was member in the “Heliopolitan Ennead” as son of “Geb” god of earth and “Nut” goddess of the sky.

c-   He was the lord of the netherworld. According to a dramatic story he was the king of Egypt and the husband of his sister “Isis”. Osiris was a kind and beloved king who taught the Egyptians agriculture and how to be civilized. He taught them how to eat, how to worship gods and set laws and order to organize their life. But he was murdered by the hands of his envious brother Seth in a conspiracy. Then Seth threw the body of Osiris in the Nile River. Isis with the help of Nephthys succeeded in finding the body of Osiris and brought it back. Then she resurrected him and got from him their child Horus. Unfortunately, Seth knew about Osiris so he attacked him and cut his body into fourteen pieces and threw them in different places in Egypt. Therefore, Isis with the help of the deities like Anubis and Horus searched for the members of Osiris and reassembled them. When Horus after that defeated Seth, Osiris became the lord of the netherworld and his son Horus became the king of Egypt. According to this any living king was considered Horus and after his death he became Osiris.

d-   Osiris was shown as a man colored in black or green which were signs of fertility. His body was wrapped in white linen. He used to wear the atef crown and held the heqa scepter and the nekhekh flail sign of authority. His original cult center was Abusir (south west of the city of Semtu at Delta). His cult was flourished at Abydos and replaced Khenty-imentyw who became an epithet for Osiris.

e-   “Osiris” usually took the human form while wearing the so called “atef” crown, divine curved false beard and garment completely wrapping the mummified body. He was equipped with the “heqa” scepter sign of rule and the “nekhekh” flail symbol of authority. He was colored in black as god on the underworld with the green because he was originally god of agriculture who taught the Egyptians how to cultivate their lands.

f-    Osiris has two main cult centers represented in “Abusir” and “Abydos.

g-   As lord of the netherworld he was described with the title “Khenty-imntyw” or “the foremost of the westerners” where the dead people entered the underworld.

h-   Among the scenes of “Osiris” he was shown either lying on his funerary bed and his body was embalmed by “Anubis” or “Horus”. He was also surrounded by the great mourners “Isis” and “Nephthys”. As lord of the netherworld, he was shown seating upon his throne in the hall of justice while watching the weighting of the deceased’s heart. Behind him “Isis” and “Nephthys” used to stand. There are numerous scenes for the dead people while worshipping or presenting offerings to Osiris to gain his blessings.

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[1]The kings of the 10^th dynasty were known as the Ehnasian kings because they ruled from Ehnasia. This city was called Henen-nesut means “house of the royal child”. Then it was called Hnas in Coptic and Ihnas in Arabic before being Ehnasia nowadays. Its local god was called Hesrshef who was the god of water and fertility and he took the form of ram-headed man. The last of the Ehnasian king was named Khety.

[2]The Theban princes who formed the 11^th dynasty included Enutef I, Euntef II, Euntef III, Montuhotep I and Montuhotep II They wrote their names inside cartouches and considered themselves as kings of Upper and Lower Egypt. King Montuhotep II was followed by king Montuhotep III, Snusert and Montuhotep IV.

[3]Montuhotep II spent almost 10 years as prince of Thebes and another 41 years as king of Upper and Lower Egypt.

[4] The sandstone used to be brought from Gabal Al-Selsella.

[5]The Red Crown was called deshret. Some scholars suggested that there was another statue for the king while wearing the white crown of Upper Egypthedjet.

[6] The hands of the king have holes to hold the heka scepter and the nekhekh flail signs of royalty.

[7]There is another statue of Montuhotep II in the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art that depicted him with the thick legs.

[8]Therefore the entrance to the chamber used to be called the gate of the horse.