Un gruppo scultoreo da Dendera al Museo del Cairo: due fanciulli divini e i due luminari

A group from Dendera in the Cairo Museum (JE 46278) represents two naked children flanked by two serpents. The two are male and female. The first has a sun-disc on his head, while the other has a crescent and a lunar disc; both discs are decorated with udjat-eyes. Each figure has an arm over the other's shoulder, while the other hand grasps a serpent. In Egyptian myth, Shu and Tefnet are twins, and they may represent the two cosmic eyes, the sun and the moon. The serpents, perhaps two cobras, would be different forms of sun and moon. The group was made by an Egyptian sculptor in the Ptolemaic period. We can compare the sculpture to the statue of Pakhom, governor of Dendera (50-30 B.C.): all the figures have round faces, little chins and big eyes; moreover the hair style of the female figure is similar to the "Melonenfrisur" and resembles that of Cleopatra VII in her portraits. In conclusion, we can suppose that the children represent the twins Alexander-Helios and Cleopatra-Selene, sons of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony.