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DENDERA

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 19 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DENDERA , a See also:

village in Upper See also:Egypt, situated in the See also:angle of the See also:great westward See also:bend of the See also:Nile opposite See also:Kena. Here was the See also:ancient See also:city of Tentyra, See also:capital of the Tentyrite See also:nome, the See also:sixth of Upper Egypt, and the See also:principal seat of the See also:worship of See also:Hathor [See also:Aphrodite] the cow-goddess of love and joy. The old See also:Egyptian name of Tentyra was written'In•t (See also:Ant), but the See also:pronunciation of it is unknown: in later days it was 'In.t-t-ntr•t, " ant of the goddess," pronounced Ni-tent6ri, whence TEvrupa, TEvruprs. The See also:temple of Hathor was built in the 1st See also:century B.c., being begun under the later See also:Ptolemies (Ptol. XIII.) and finished by See also:Augustus, but much of the decoration is later. A great rectangular enclosure of crude bricks, measuring about goo X 850 ft., contains the sacred buildings: it was entered by two See also:stone gateways, in the See also:north and the See also:east sides, built by See also:Domitian. Another smaller enclosure lies to the east with a gateway also of the See also:Roman See also:period. The See also:plan of the temple may be supposed to have included a colonnaded See also:court in front of the See also:present See also:facade, and pylon towers at the entrance; but these were never built, probably for lack of funds. The See also:building, which is of See also:sandstone, See also:measures about 300 ft. from front to back, and consists of two oblong rectangles; the foremost, placed transversely to the other, is the great See also:hypostyle See also:hall or pronaos, the broadest and loftiest See also:part of the temple, measuring 135 ft. in width, and comprising about one-third of the whole structure; the facade has six columns with heads of Hathor, and the See also:ceiling is supported by eighteen great columns. The second rectangle contains a small hypostyle hall with six columns, and the See also:sanctuary, with their subsidiary See also:chambers. The sanctuary is surrounded by a See also:corridor into which the chambers open: on the See also:west See also:side is an apartment forming a court and kiosk for the celebration of the feast of the New See also:Year, the principal festival of Dendera. On the roof of the temple, reached by two staircases, are a See also:pavilion and several chambers dedicated to the worship of See also:Osiris.

Inside and out, the whole of the temple is covered with scenes and See also:

inscriptions in crowded characters, of ceremonial and religious import; the decoration is even carried into a remarkable See also:series of hidden passages and chambers or crypts made in the solid walls for the reception of its most valuable treasures. The architectural See also:style is dignified and pleasing in See also: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 " See also:Birth See also:House " for the cult of the See also:child Harsemteu, and behind the temple a small temple of See also:Isis, dating from the reign of Augustus. The See also:original See also:foundation of the temple must date back to a remote See also:time: the See also:work of some of the See also:early builders is in fact referred to in the inscriptions on the present structure. See also:Petrie's excavation of the See also:cemetery behind the temple enclosures revealed burials dating from the See also:fourth See also:dynasty onwards, the most important being mastables of the period from the sixth to the See also:eleventh dynasties; many of these exhibited a See also:peculiar degradation of the contemporary style of See also:sculpture. The zodiacs of the temple of Dendera gave rise to a consider-able literature before their See also:late origin was established by See also:Champollion in 1822: one of them, from a chamber on the roof, was removed in 182o to the Bibliotheque Nationale in See also:Paris. Figures of the celebrated See also:Cleopatra VI. occur amongst the sculptures on the exterior of the temple, but they are purely conventional, without a trace of See also:portraiture. Horns of See also:Edfu, the enemy of the crocodiles and hippopotami of Set, appears sometimes as the See also:consort of Hathor of Dendera. The skill displayed by the Tentyrites in capturing the See also:crocodile is referred to by See also:Strabo and other See also:Greek writers. See also:Juvenal, in his seventeenth See also:satire, takes as his See also:text a religious See also: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 See also:south of Edfu, where the crocodile was worshipped; Petrie has shown that opposite See also:Coptos, only about 15 M. from Tentyra, there was another Ombos, venerating the See also:hippopotamus sacred to Set.

See A. See also:

Mariette, Denderah (5 vols. See also:atlas and text, 1869–188o) ; W. M. F. Petrie, Denderah (1900) ; Nagada and Ballas (1896). (F. L1,.

End of Article: DENDERA

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