W1982

W1912 The Devourer at the Throne of Osiris

This is one of the characters who appears on the coffin of the lady musician which is on display in the downstairs gallery of the Egypt Centre. Other pages are available describing the other characters depicted on the coffin.

Here you can see the Devourer which is part lion, part hippopotamus and part crocodile. She is looking up as Osiris seated on his throne, though on other coffins may appear in the weighing of the heart scene waiting to see if the deceased was found ‘true of voice’. If she/he was found wanting the Devourer would eat the heart of the deceased and they would not go to heaven. In this example the Devourer is shown in a typical 21st Dynasty style. The body is slimmer than earlier depictions and her teats can be seen (Seeber 1976: 164). Elsewhere on our coffin she appears on the scene showing Osiris enthroned on the mound, though perhaps a slightly different character is intended there.

References

Seeber, C., 1976. Untersuchungen zur Darstellung des Totengerichts im Alten Ägypten. Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag

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