Egyptian terracotta figurines as a reflection of “popular” religion: cult devotees and female figurines of fertility from the collection of V.S. Golenischev (Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow)

Abstract

The article deals with ten Egyptian terracotta figurines of Graeco-Roman times from the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts acquired by V.S. Golenischev in Egypt around the 1890s. All the objects are kept at the storages of the Department of Ancient Orient; seven of them have never been published before. Three figurines depict devotee of Isis and lay celebrants, the other examples belong to two groups of figurines, one of which depicts the so-called “orans” (or female apotropaic deities), the other – naked women (“steatopygic” figures and figurines of “baubo”). The last group of terracotta is closely related to the cult of fertility in general and female fertility in particular. All considered terracotta figurines are related to the “woman’s” area in domestic and temple context. The images had apotropaic functions and were intended to protect woman and all aspects of her activities both in social and in economic fields: the preservation and prosperity of the household, the bearing and birth of healthy offsprings. Terracotta figurines depicting women participating in rituals, or the so-called “beneficent demons” were expected to be magical guaranty of well-being and protection of the house and its inhabitants. Figurines could be presented in temples as votive gifts, and also placed on home altars or even burials, as it is shown by some archaeological finds. For a number of analogies (primarily from the collection of the British Museum), it can be assumed that most of Moscow terracottas come from the Fayum oasis, which was famous in Greco-Roman times by significant number of urban centres and large settlements with their own temples (for example, in Karanis and Crocodilopolis). The simplicity and naivete/unsophistication of such products firmly connect them with the “popular” religion of Graeco-Roman Egypt, which, unlike the official temple cults, is extremely unknown to us.