A Late Period Statuette
Reviewed by Kerry A. Shirts
Dr. H. S. K. Bakry’s article in the Annales Du Service (Tome LX (1968): 1-6, has a few salient points I would like to note, which are of interest to the LDS student of the scriptures, and the Book of Abraham in particular.
He notes that the inscription on the statuette has the temple of the bee mentioned on it. Bakry shows that the temple of the bee is connected with the temple of Neith. Both Neith and Osiris held one title in common in ancient Egypt, that is, "the one prominent in the House of the Bee." (p. 2). Osiris is given the epithet of "ntr ‘3" on the Urbino obelisk, Osiris here being the one prominent in the House of the Bee. (p. 3)
What makes this so interesting is Hugh Nibley has described the figure 6 of facsimile 2 as involving bees! And Bees were a prominent subject and indicator of the resurrection of mankind. (Hugh Nibley, "Figure 6 of Facsimile 2" Brown Bag Lecture, FARMS, 1995). This is the old riddle of Sampson, "out of the killer came strength," which involves the bees. (Nibley, p. 29) In the legend of the lady finding Egypt when it was under water, the one prominent thing she brought with her and her people was the huge swarm of bees, which helped get the land going again. ( Nibley, p. 30-31) It is of more than passing interest that Mercea Eliade, the world renowned mythologist/historian, in his fabulous work, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, p. 256, note 124 says that in some Shamanistic traditions, the human soul manifests itself as a bee. Louis Charbonneau-Lassay in the text The Bestiary of Christ, which I have reviewed on this website, notes, among other things, that the priestesses at Ephesus and Eleusis were called "Melissai," "the honeybees." (p. 320)
So bee connections are available with our Book of Abraham in a direct way, though we have to look hard to find it.
Another point that Bakry brings out in his little study is the theme of immortality and deification. The deceased king will rise and be spiritualized. There is only one meaning to this, which is becoming a God. "Spiritualization which implies the deification of the deceased occurs in heaven…" (Bakry, p. 5). So I say again, a neat little article with a few interesting points an LDS student of the scriptures enjoys seeing.