Oxyrhynchus Fish with Donor

 Oxyrhynchus Fish with Donor


Late Period, ca. 712-332 B.C. Bronze, Lapis Lazuli, Red Glass. Gift of the Connoisseurs, 1987.1
From the Late Period on, it became common to dedicate appropriate bronze images in the temples and shrines of deities. Many such statues take the form of deities themselves, while others represent animals sacred to different deities. The oxyrhynchus fish (an African freshwater fish; the name means "sharp nosed" in Greek) was sacred to the goddess Hathor, and is usually shown wearing her crown of cow's horns and sun disk on its head, an image that may have reproduced an actual temple cult statue. Sometimes, as here, a kneeling figure of the donor was included.


 http://carlos.emory.edu/COLLECTION/EGYPT/egypt04.html