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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: DEM-DIO |
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DENDERA , a village
capital of the Tentyrite nome, the sixth
worship of Hathor [Aphrodite] the cow-goddess of love and joy. The old Egyptian name of Tentyra was written'Int (Ant), but the pronunciation of it is unknown: in later days it was 'In.t-t-ntrt, " ant of the goddess," pronounced Ni-tent6ri, whence TEvrupa, TEvruprs. The temple of Hathor was built in the 1st century B.c., being begun under the later Ptolemies (Ptol. XIII.) and finished by Augustus
rectangular enclosure of crude bricks, measuring about goo X 850 ft., contains the sacred buildings: it was entered by two stone gateways, in the north and the east sides, built by Domitian. Another smaller enclosure lies to the east with a gateway also of the Roman period. The plan of the temple may be supposed to have included a colonnaded court in front of the present facade, and pylon towers at the entrance; but these were never built, probably for lack of funds. The building, which is of sandstone, measures about 300 ft. from front to back, and consists of two oblong rectangles; the foremost, placed transversely to the other, is the great hypostyle hall
hall
worship of Osiris. Inside and out, the whole of the temple is covered with scenes and inscriptions in crowded characters, of ceremonial and religious import; the decoration is even carried into a remarkable series of hidden passages and chambers or crypts made in the solid walls for the reception of its most valuable treasures. The architectural style is dignified and pleasing in design and proportions. The interior of the building has been completely cleared: from the outside, however, its imposing effect is quite lost, owing to the mounds of rubbish amongst which it is sunk. North-east of the entrance is a " Birth House
Augustus
original
inscriptions on the present structure. Petrie's excavation of the cemetery behind the temple enclosures revealed burials dating from the fourth dynasty onwards, the most important being mastables of the period from the sixth
The zodiacs of the temple of Dendera gave rise to a consider-able literature before their late origin was established by Champollion in 1822: one of them, from a chamber on the roof, was removed in 182o to the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Figures of the celebrated Cleopatra VI. occur amongst the sculptures on the exterior of the temple, but they are purely conventional, without a trace of portraiture. Horns of Edfu, the enemy of the crocodiles and hippopotami of Set, appears sometimes as the consort of Hathor of Dendera. The skill displayed by the Tentyrites in capturing the crocodile is referred to by Strabo and other Greek writers. Juvenal, in his seventeenth satire, takes as his text a religious riot between the Tentyrites and the neighbouring Ombites, in the course of which an unlucky Ombite was torn to pieces and devoured by the opposite party. The Ombos in question is not the distant Ombos south of Edfu, where the crocodile was worshipped; Petrie has shown that opposite Coptos, only about 15 M. from Tentyra, there was another Ombos, venerating the hippopotamus sacred to Set. See A. Mariette, Denderah (5 vols. atlas and text, 1869188o) ; W. M. F. Petrie, Denderah (1900) ; Nagada and Ballas (1896). (F. L1,. G.) End of Article: DENDERA If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/DEM_DIO/DENDERA.html"> DENDERA </a> |
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