Faience Ram with Lotus-Shaped Manger in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sept. 2007

Faience Group: Ram with Lotus-Shaped Manger; Two Theatrical Masks
2nd century AD
Said to be from Medinet el-Fayum (Arsinoe)

Accession Numbers: 26.7.1019-1021

This charming ram, with its almost prehensile muzzle, feeds from a lotus-form trough. The traditional Egyptian gods Amun or Khum were identified with curly-horned rams, but by this time several other divinities were as well. In terracotta statuettes and on coins Harpokrates can be seen riding a ram or sitting upon a lotus flower, the latter symbolic of rebirth. Perhaps this faience composition alludes to Harpokrates, who was an immensely popular god of fecundity and rebirth during the Roman era.

The pieces on view here are said to have been part of a find of numerous faience objects at Arsinoe, capital of the Fayum region.

Text abridged from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.