Erotic scene. Ancient Egypt, Ptolemaic Period,... Lot 5

Erotic scene. Ancient Egypt, Ptolemaic Period, 323-30 BC. Limestone. Good state of preservation. Provenance: Spanish private collection. Measurements: 9.5 x 14 x 3 cm. In the Ptolemaic period, erotic pieces proliferated in Greco-Egyptian sculpture. They often functioned as votive offerings, and numerous have been found in tombs. These figures can be linked not only to eroticism, but also to fertility and prosperity, as well as to the god Min, represented as ithyphallic (with a large erect phallus). An ithyphallic is an amulet that preserved from certain evils. It was used for this purpose by the emperors and was placed on their triumphal chariots. The god Min was one of the oldest Egyptian deities, coming from the Copts, for whom he was the protector of travellers and merchants. Min was a lunar god and ensured abundance. Legend has it that, because he was missing a leg, he was unable to go to war. Left alone with the women, he got them all pregnant. On his return, the men punished him, but later turned him into two because they realised that he had ensured the offspring of the people with his sexual disaffection. The Ptolemaic dynasty is the dynasty founded by Ptolemy I Soter, general of Alexander the Great. This dynasty ruled Egypt during the Hellenistic period from the death of Alexander until 30 BC, when it became a Roman province. It is also known as the Lagid dynasty, after the name of Ptolemy I's father (or presumed father) Lagos. Ptolemy I established the capital of this kingdom in Alexandria, a small town at the time that became the main commercial and intellectual centre of antiquity. This dynasty adopted Egyptian customs from the beginning and was a constant enemy of the Macedonian Seleucid dynasty. It was during the reign of one of its monarchs (Ptolemy V) that a decree was published (in 197 BC) in three types of writing on a black stone known today as the Rosetta Stone. At some points in its history, the dynasty dominated Cyrenaica (northeast of present-day Libya), as well as southern Canaan and Cyprus. Its last ruler was the famous Cleopatra. After her death and that of her son, Caesarion (Ptolemy XV), the dynasty ended and Egypt was annexed by Augustus to the Roman Empire.