Ancient Egyptian culture, throughout its many ups and downs, was consistently fixated around two features of their ethos: pharaohs and religion. In actuality, these two aspects go hand in hand, as the pharaoh was typically believed to be a living god. These ideals stood the test of time throughout the dynastic Egyptian kingdom's period of influence, an era spanning from approximately 3000BCE until 30BCE. It was during the later part of this reign that the Statue of Isis, a funerary work that demonstrates the intransigence of these principles, was believed to have been created. Created during the Late Period's Twenty-sixth Dynasty (664-525BCE) out of the material greywacke, this work has been preserved by the Egyptian Museum in Cairo as yet another testament to the culture and style of Egyptian art. One can deduct this through both visual examinations and investigating the piece's significance as an Egyptian sculpture. For that reason, through a formal analysis of the statue as well as a look at the background of the statue and its time period, the Statue of Isis' relation to the ideals of Egyptian mythology and the entitlement of the pharaohs will become unmistakable.
             The "Statue of Isis" contains several elements that work together to portray a self-contained image of the mother goddess, Isis. The work is said to be self-contained because it is very solid and compact, with Isis sitting firmly against the back of her seat with her hands and legs resting close to her seat as well. At dimensions of 89 x 21 x 46 cm, this closed-form figure was sculpted in such a fashion that it is easy to imagine the entire unchiseled block of greywacke from which the sculpture was originally fashioned. Moreover, the statue's texture is extremely smooth and polished almost to the point of being reflective, which is surprising considering greywacke is one of the more coarse mediums with which to create sculpture. This sleekness combined with ...