Which reminds me to mention a statue that I first saw at twelve in a National Geographic magazine. It is Chefren, from Giza at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It's made of a dark green diorite. The Pharaoh is seated on a throne, and behind his head is a small falcon whose wings are spread to embrace the formal head scarf. The falcon is the consciousness of Pharaoh, his connection to some netherworld in eternity. Of course it is a symbol of divine power, but it is also a metaphor for reflection and guidance. In some completely unconscious way I understood this sculpture at twelve in the same way I do now. It opened my mind to the idea that there was an entire universe beyond my own imagination. It was like reading a science fiction story.
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Here's a handsome image of the statue:
<http://www.aegyptenfans.de/Aegypten/Reise2003/04Museum/grossChefren.jpg>
The falcon is Horus, the ancient Egyptian sky god who was sometimes depicted as a man with a falcon's head and other times, as in the statue, a stylized falcon.
Here's another way Horus was represented:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Egypte_louvre_091_aigle.jpg>.
A good Wikipedia article about Horus:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horus>
I imagine the statue's 'message' as being precisely what you described: the god whispering hidden truths to the Pharaoh; just as Krishna, in the role of supreme charioteer advised Arjuna, Horus teaches Cheprhen. But there's more - Horus is also protecting the ruler and, therefore, the state itself, providing a bridge from the mundane to the supra-mundane.
Ah well, back to arguing with co-workers about the unique perfidies of the Bush administration.
.d.
Well sure he's a corpse but a reanimated one. Who says the dead can't be fully contributing members of society huh?
Dr. Venture ...................... http://monroelab.net/blog/
