``Here's a handsome image of the statue ...'' .d.
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Yes, he's the one I had in mind.
I was pretty smashed by the end of that post, so it was almost incoherent toward the end.
I forgot to mention something that I only realized much, much later. The golden mask of Tutankhamun was on tour with many artifacts from his tomb and I saw it at the De Young Museum about ten years ago. It is relatively small, about the size to fit a young teenager and it is utterly stunning. It really is awe inspiring.
And then as I was gazing at this thing which is beyond compelling, I realized this was not Tutankhamun. It was the creation of some nameless craftsman, an underling, nobody. He was Tutankhamun because he made Tutankhamun for us (or the gods).
Chephren was not Chephren. None of the Pharaohs were who they appear to us to be. Our awe with the vastness of these creations have little or nothing to do with the actual men and women depicted and named. These were the creations of a whole class of nameless workers (for want of a better name) who invented these unimaginably rich treasures.
This realization goes to many different levels of discourse, but also to one of Chomsky's points that ordinary people are masters of their language. I suppose this is put badly, but it goes to the charge of elitism. That's a pretty empty condemnation when you finally realize that a small group of nobodies created the Chephren we see. Somebody had the creative imagination to make Horus, the falcon councilor. That might not seem like much, but consider all the various ways that the falcon could have been incorporated into the statue. Most obvious is simply depict Chephren as a falconer, with the falcon on his arm, or perched on a small stand by his side. It's apparent from the angle of this photo and others that the falcon is almost unseen. Many photos for example depict this statue from its frontal plane where the falcon is completely unseen. This would have been especially so if this statue which is about five and a half feet high were placed on a pedestal raising it to say eight or nine feet.
Other dimensions to the falcon, or Horus relate to the strange Egyptian concept of mind and body. There were three parts, the body, the ka, and the ba. The ba was more or less the personality. The ka was something like a life force, a vitality. Horus is associated with Ka, which I have never been able to really understand. It isn't a soul per se, but is what makes us alive. You get some idea of Ka from the primary mythology (or at least one version).
Osiris and Isis were brother and sister. In a jealousy over the choice of succession, Seth (or Set), killed his brother Osiris, cut him up and threw the pieces into the Nile for the crocodiles to eat. Isis with her sister Nephthys (also Seth's wife) retrieve the remains and seek the help of the jackal, Anubis to resurrect Osiris. (Consider the jackal who endlessly paces over the barren waste in search of carrion, and brings pieces back to his lear). The trio succeed in bringing Osiris back from the dead---all of course except his penis. (Funny how it works out that way.) For this, Isis must make a likeness so that she can fertilize herself and give birth to Horus. Despite Osiris's resurrection, he can not leave the underworld where Isis, Nephtys and Anubis have brought him back to life. So he remains or part of his psyche (ba, ka, or akha, I could never tell which) remains to rule and judge all those who must pass before him, make their confession and weigh their ba(?) on the balance.
In other dimensions, Osiris becomes the eternal re-growth of the plant kingdom from the fecund mire of river silt... the primordial ooze from which all life springs forth. Osiris, like seeds, bugs, and other remnants of the harvest cycle, slumbers, their ka is waiting to be awakened.
Horus once grown, sets out to avenge his father and kill Seth, that is defeat evil and restore order to the world. So in some respects, the measure of ka-ba, its balance, is the counsel of Horus. The ka of Osiris, which is the fertilizing element that Isis sought, is passed on to the children, so Horus is in some fashion Osiris restored. In turn Horus passes his ka to Pharaoh. As far as I have been able to tell, Horus's journey does not end and Seth is defeated but not killed. A council of older gods enthrones Horus to restore the proper line of ascension.
Among the more curious aspects of this mythology is the extraordinary passivity of Osiris. His resurrection cannot really be complete since he lacks the signature emblem of his fertility---which is also the icon of Atum who in his quivering ecstasy in the primordial darkness of the waters, ejaculated and gave birth to the life of the world.
The Egyptians are a kinky lot. In the end I do not understand them, even while I admire their arts. They remain alien in some indefinable way, and yet, who could argue that they did not understand eternity? After all, we are still trying to grasp them through the implacable surface of their polished stone. It is as if we can not dissemble them through rational means at all. And not even the most penetrating of all our thoughts can quite reach back far enough into the well of time to meet them.
Their cultural relationship to western civilization is ambiguous, even though they may be the origin of much of our metaphysics, down to the absurd detail that the door is a metaphor, for the portal to knowledge. That idea was given formal expression when a statue was framed walking through a portal, as if entering an imaginary realm. Or alternatively, as some divine personage entered our realm.
CG