Abstract
The study of different types of statuary groups allows us to glimpse, when we know their exact position in a given part of a temple, the role and interference of the figures represented.
King and deities
For the most part, the statuary group represents the king in the presence of one or more deities, depending on the precise episode on the king's journey through the temple, which the sculpture is supposed to reproduce in the round.
- The king is welcomed by the deity.
- The king is led by two deities to the supreme god.
- The king is protected or crowned by the gods.
- The king is admitted to the divine sphere, where he appears as a god in his own right.
Special cases
- Dyads or triads of divinities with no royal presence.
- The royal couple, with its corollary: the royal family.
Investigation of divine manifestations outside temples
- In royal form: in front of the pylons, the divinity manifests itself in the form of the king through colossal statues.
- In animal form: zoomorphic, in the form of lion, ram, falcon, baboon or other, lining the processional avenues or placed on the temple forecourt.
- In hybrid form: the sphinx, i.e., androcephalic lion (with human, royal head) or animal, most often with ram's head (criocephalic sphinx or criosphinx), falcon's head (hierocephalic sphinx or hieracosphinx), or even the head of Set's animal.
This category necessarily implies a statuary group that places the king under the protection of a zoomorphic divinity (lion, ram, falcon, jackal) or in the hybrid form of androcephalic sphinx (with divine human head), criocephalic or hierocephalic, presenting the king in front of his chest.
