Petosiris

Tomb of Petosiris at Tuna el-Gebel

"he whom Osiris has given"; also  called Kliapakhonsu) was high  priest of Thoth and lesonis-priest  (oikonomos, head of finance) of the temple of Thoth at Hermopolis  during  the  second  half  of  the  fourth  century  BCE.  He  is  famous  today for the well-preserved family chapel that he erected at Tuna el-Gebel.

The family of Petosiris had been proteges and appointees of the  thirtieth dynasty. His father Es-shu had administered the temple at  royal behest, probably under Nektanebo II, and it was one of Es- shu's younger sons, Petosiris, who eventually took over his father's  estate as "Master of All His Property," and "Greatest of the Five,  Controller  of  the  Cult-seats,"  priestly  titles  of  the  fifteenth  (Hermopolitan) nome of Upper Egypt. With priesthoods at Horwer  and  Nefrusi,  as  well  as  the  sacerdotal  functions  for  Thoth  and  Amun-Re, Petosiris received his inheritance just when Egypt was  about  to  endure  the  second  Persian  occupation,  by  the  army  of  Artaxerxes III  in  342  BCE.  His  vivid  account  of  the  devastation  caused  by  this  invasion—  it  cannot  be  dated  later—is  now  graphically supported by the excavations at Mendes, which show  the fury and methodical demolition of the site by the Persians:

Painting from the tomb of
Petosiris depicting an ancient
Libyan or Syrian figure
struck by an arrow.

I have been faithful to the lord of HermopoUs since I was born, and his  every  counsel  was  in  my  heart.  [He]  selected  me  to  administer  his  temple  ...  and  I  passed  seven  years  as  le-sonis-priest  of  this  god,  adminstering  his  income  .  ..  when  all  the  while  a  foreign  ruler  was doniinus over Egypt, and nothing was in its former place. For war had  broken out in Egypt: the South raged and the North was in uproar, and  people went about bewildered. No temple had its staff, and the priests  were  dispersed(?);  there  was  no  telling  what  might  happen  therein  in  the future.

Petosiris shepherded his nome through this period of crisis and was  later revered as a leading man of his city, "with many dwellings  and fields and cattle without number."

For  the  art  historian,  the  tomb  and  family  chapel  loom  large  because  they  reflect  the  first  impact  of  Greek  art  and  culture  on  Egypt.  Petosiris  survived  the  arrival  of  Alexander  in  Egypt  and  witnessed  the  early  influx  of  Greek  settlers  and  their  influence.  Together  with  his  son  and  successor,  Tachos,  he  erected  the  bipartite tomb chapel, with an inner chamber over the sarcophagus  dedicated to his ancestors, and an outer transverse hall provided an  inter-columnar  screen  celebrating  himself.  While  the  inner  chamber is decorated in the traditional Egyptian canon, the outer  chamber features scenes from the traditional Egyptian repertoire of  agriculture, animal husbandry, and viticulture, rendered under the  strong influence of the classical Greek canon. Some aspects, such  as the use of profile, echelon, and stance, hark back to a Nilotic  past, but the musculature, individual likeness, irregular spacing, and costume point to the advent of a classical Greek style. The  reliefs  are  important  in  demonstrating  how,  at  the  beginning  of  Ptolemaic period,  in  contrast  to  what  was  to  come  later,  even  a  provincial city such as Hermopolis, far from the Nile Delta, was  open to external influence.

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