Khnumhotep Receiving Offerings


Statuette of Khnumhotep Receiving Offerings
Late Dynasty 12-Dynasty 13 (ca. 1850 - 1640 BCE)
Diorite, h. 19 cm (7 1/2 in); w. 12.4 cm (4 7/8 in)
H.O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, 1929 (MMA 29.100.151)

From info card:
"The inscription is a prayer for offerings to the funerary god Ptah-Sokar for Khnumhotep, son of Tasen (?). The figure's position, with the cloak drawn tightly over squatting legs, is echoed in a number of similar small images that were inserted into offering slabs (there is another example in gallery 10)."

At first I wasn't sure if I had the right description, for he appears to be seated crosslegged, (a much more comfortable position for the ages than squatting!), but I don't have the side view. However, my rudimentary reading skills can pick out the words 'hotep', 'to offer' and 'given', so I think I have him. I wonder if Khnumhotep's huge ears have something to do with Ptah's title, 'the great hearer':

"Many votive stelae have been found in the area of Ptah's temple at Memphis and elsewhere in Egypt carved with representations of human ears and dedicated to the god as mesedjer-sedjem, 'the ear which hears', who would hear the petitions of his devotees." (From _The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt_ by Richard H. Wilkinson, page 125)