Statue of Seti II

This colossal sandstone statue depicts king Seti II and is over five meters high! The statue was originally placed on the religious path of the sacred boats of the Theban triad (Amun, Mut and Khonsu) and it was essential that, also by means of a statue, the king presented himself to the entire population engaged in ritual gestures for the gods.

Seti II wears a kilt decorated with the head of a panther and an uraei; a cap wig surmounted by a very elaborate crown with ram’s horns, feathers, uraei and solar discs, all elements endowed with symbolic significance. In his left hand he holds a stick with a divine image on top, little of which survived.

The striding king wears an enormous crown composed of the Lower Egyptian crown surmounted by an elaborate Atef crown over a wig. His shendyt kilt is decorated with a belt and girdle with a panther head, sun-disk and uraei cobras. The King carries a standard with an image of the god Amun.

The Louvre has an identical statue of the same ruler, and it is likely that they provided a monumental frame for the main entrance to a chapel in the first courtyard of the great temple of Amun in Karnak where the sacred boats of the Theban triad Amun, Mut and Khonsu (father, mother and son) were housed.

From there the boats were carried in a procession along the rivers to the other great Theban temple, Luxor, during a great festival celebrated every year.

New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, reign of Seti II, ca.1203-1197 BC. Sandstone, from the Temple of Amun, Karnak. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Turin. Cat. 1383