Menkaura with Hathor and Hare Nome Deity From Giza, Valley Temple of Menkaure, 2490–2472 B.C.E. Greywacke, W x H x D: 43.5 x 84.5 x 49 cm, (17 1/8 x 33 1/4 x 19 5/16 in.), Weight; 187.8 kg (414.02 lb.) "More than half a dozen triads were discovered in the ruins of Menkaure's (Mycerinus') Valley Temple. They depict the king, the goddess Hathor (with sun disk and cow's horns), and a minor nome, or province, deity." "Size corresponds to hierarchical position in Egyptian art, and while visually Hathor and Menkaura appear to be the same height, the seated goddess is significantly larger in scale." (From info card and website) Museum Expedition, MFA #09.200 Photo ©Joan Ann Lansberry, 2014 "Menkaura, beloved of Hathor, Mistress of the Sycamore" From museum photo Menkaure features in several similar triad statues. "It was first thought that there must have been about forty triads--one group for each Egyptian nome. Now it is supposed there were eight triads in all, symbolizing the principal sites where the goddess Hathor was worshipped." (_Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids_, (Metropolitan Museum of Art 1999), page 273)

Menkaura in the White Crown, symbolic of Upper Egypt... Photo ©Joan Ann Lansberry, 2014

"In his right hand he holds a mace, a weapon frequently wielded by kings in relief, but until now not reproduced in stone sculpture. Here, artists solved the problem of carving its thin and fragile shaft in the round by resting it on Hathor's throne."scale." (From museum website) Photo ©Joan Ann Lansberry, 2014

Hare Nome Deity (aka Wenut, 'The Swift One') "The Hare nome goddess, like Hathor and Menkaura, exhibits a body proportioned according to the Old Kingdom ideal of beauty and is modeled with the restrained elegance that makes this period a highpoint of Egyptian art."(From museum website) Photo ©Joan Ann Lansberry, 2014

The cartouche reading "MenKauRa", "Unlike the large pair statue of Mycerinus and his queen, the carving on this piece is complete, including the inscription.""The inscription on the sculpture's base clarifies the meaning of this complicated piece: 'The Horus (Kakhet), King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Menkaura, beloved of Hathor, Mistress of the Sycamore. Recitation: I have given you all good things, all offerings, and all provisions in Upper Egypt, forever.'" (From info card and website) Photo ©Joan Ann Lansberry, 2014

Another detail showing their hands and his kilt... "In Menkaura's left hand is a short implement with a concave end; it is generally interpreted as a case for documents."(From museum website) Or perhaps it's more related to the Seneb cord, perhaps meaning "possessing health"? Photo ©Joan Ann Lansberry, 2014

Menkaura with Hathor and a Nome Deity Photo ©Joan Ann Lansberry, 2014 Here's another example of a Menkaura triad statue, this one at Cairo: Menkaura with Hathor and Bat, a Nome Deity From Giza, Valley Temple of Menkaure, 2490–2472 B.C.E. Cairo JE 46499 Photo from "Royal Women as Represented in Sculpture during the Old Kingdom", by Biri Fay, in _Les criteres de datation stylistiques a I'Ancien Empire_, edited by Nicolas Grimal Trace of enlarged close-up found in Fay's article, ©Joan Ann Lansberry, 2015 "Bat was an early cow goddess whose name means 'female spirit' or 'female power' and who appears to have been an important deity of the late predynastic and early historical times." She was the deity of the 7th Upper Egyptian Nome, which is called "Mansion of the Sistrum" and is situated at "the Nile’s return to its south-north direction around Nag Hammadi", otherwise known as the "region of Hiw". The region of Dendara, whose deity is Hathor, neighbors it. Bat has horns as does Hathor, but her horns curve inward, rather than outwards. This distinction from Hathor wasn't enough to keep her from getting absorbed into the iconography of Hathor, by the Middle Kingdom, yet as we've seen, her characteristics continue onwards. Those lyre-shaped curves are kept in illustrations of the sistrum.(Sources: _The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt_, by Richard Wilkinson and _The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses_, by George Hart)