Vivant Denon's Re-discovery of Ancient Egypt. Part 2

A few miles upriver from Elephantine Island was an even more important ancient site of worship, the Island of Philae; home to the goddess Isis. Its inhabitants were not welcoming though, and it was only when General Belliard had troops sent to the island that Denon got the opportunity to visit its magnificent temples.

Denon first step was to form a general idea of the island’s geography, to sketch a plan of the ruins. Clearly he was looking at the work of not one but several nations as well as diverse forms of worship. Worship of Isis on Philae extends far back in Egypt’s history, though the majority of the island’s buildings were erected in the late Ptolemaic period. Isis was an extremely popular goddess and the ancient Egyptians were expected to make an annual pilgrimage to the island, a practice that continued well into the 6th century AD.

Denon scrutinised the giant figures of kings and gods spread out over the two towers of the First Pylon. One of the kings stood poised to smite a bunch of unfortunate individuals whom he holds by their hair. The king represents Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysus (r. 80-51 BC), the father of Cleopatra, depicted in the act of killing his vanquished enemies as he presents them to Isis, Hathor and Horus – the very same royal pose so often repeated throughout Egypt’s temples, a standard symbol of victory over chaos.

As Denon continued through to the Sanctuary the chambers successively diminished in height. At the back of the temple in the centre chamber he found an overturned pedestal. It was here that the statue of Isis would have stood, though the exact physical form of the gods was still a mystery to Denon. He had long since realised that the temple rituals, displayed in great detail in all the temples he had visited, were literal reproductions from religious life.

When the king was displayed knocking on the door to the sanctuary it was because ritual dictated that he knock on that door in real life too. Just what the priests actually used to symbolise the god during the rituals was a different matter though and one that Denon was clueless about. He imagined it might possibly have been a living animal, a bird perhaps. Surely that would explain the images of food offerings. The pedestal is still to be found in the centre chamber.

Denon also had time to study some of the island’s other structures. He admired Trajan’s Kiosk, small, harmonious yet unfinished, and in particular its floral pillars and the images of Emperor Trajan (r. 98-117 AD) offering incense to Isis, Osiris and Horus. At this point in history Isis was the most popular god in Egypt and the Romans’ erecting a shrine at Philae, demonstrating Trajan’s subjection to Isis, was the equivalent of saying that the Roman Emperor had adopted the Egyptians’ religion.

Meanwhile the soldiers emptied the island’s storehouses. Day turned to night and it was time for the expeditionary force, savants included, to leave the island. It would prove one of the few tolerable partings Denon was ever to experience in Egypt. He had accomplished everything he had set out to do and thus pleasantly exhausted he walked to the rafts. Others had spent the day ensuring that the French visit would be remembered. On the gateway of the First Pylon, a rather large French inscription commemorates Bonaparte’s as well as Desaix’s victories over the Mamelukes.