Abstract
A few representations of a divine couple enthroned, the female figure sitting in the lap of the male, have survived in Mesopotamian iconography, on terracotta and stone plaques, on the Ur-Namma stela from Ur, and on a Syrian cylinder seal of the 19th–18th centuries BCE. In Egypt, the motif is mostly restricted to the reign of Akhenaten, with a few objects probably figuring Akhenaten and Nefertiti in this fashion. The ancient oriental motif may have traveled to Egypt at a time when Mesopotamian mythological texts were used in Amarna schools, and other motifs of eastern origin seem to have been favored. The representation of a divine/royal couple sharing the same throne in a position usually reserved in Mesopotamian and Egyptian art for an adult figure with a child hints at a shared thematic surrounding the throne as a royal emblem, a locus of divine apparition and erotic symbolism.
How to Cite
David, A., (2017) “A Throne for Two: Image of The Divine Couple During Akhenaten’s Reign”, Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 14(1), 1-10.
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