The gate of the year

Bronze statuette, showing a king kneeling in front of the Apis bull, dating to the Late period (after 600 B.C.), now in the British Museum, London. The pharaoh identified himself with a bull, as image of strength and virility. In Pre-Dynastic times, the tail of a bull was part of the royal regalia as a symbol of kingship. Subsequently, among the epithets with which the rulers were designated were those of “Mighty Bull” and “Bull of Horus”. In some inscriptions pharaohs, like Amenhotep III in the New Kingdom, announced their prowess in the hunting of wild bulls, an act which established their superiority in power and worth with respect to all other men (Remler 2010).

[Image: http://www.julianspriggs.com/Pages/61EgyptBM.aspx]




Animals

Back

Bronze statuette, showing a king kneeling in front of the Apis bull, dating to the Late period (after 600 B.C.), now in the British Museum, London. The pharaoh identified himself with a bull, as image of strength and virility. In Pre-Dynastic times, the tail of a bull was part of the royal regalia as a symbol of kingship. Subsequently, among the epithets with which the rulers were designated were those of “Mighty Bull” and “Bull of Horus”. In some inscriptions pharaohs, like Amenhotep III in the New Kingdom, announced their prowess in the hunting of wild bulls, an act which established their superiority in power and worth with respect to all other men (Remler 2010). [Image: http://www.julianspriggs.com/Pages/61EgyptBM.aspx]