Statue of Ramesses III with Horus and Seth

The group statue represents King Ramesses III, the god Horus and the god Seth. The three statues are standing and are all approximately the same height. The statue of the king is between the other two, which are represented in profile.

The King is wearing the white Hedjet crown of Upper Egypt with the royal cobra on the front, a wide collar of many rows, named Usekh, and the royal pleated kilt, the shendyt, with a long belt hanging down to the bottom of it. He is holding the ankh sign of life in his right hand and the role of power in his left hand. His left leg is forward.

The statues of the gods, Horus and Seth, are in the same posture with the left leg forward; they are each holding the ankh, and wearing the Egyptian pectoral and the shendyt kilt. Each god has placed one hand on the crown of the king, performing the Coronation of Ramesses III.

According to Egyptian mythology, after the death of Osiris and the end of the war between Horus and Seth, the gods swore Egypt and the Nile valley to Horus and Seth was the ruler of the Deserts and foreign lands. Hence we see the double coronation of Ramesses III as king of Egypt and Foreign Lands.

New Kingdom, 20th Dynasty, reign of Ramesses III, ca. 1186-1155 BC. Granite, from Medinet Habu. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 31628