Online Lecture - Pantheon of Paradoxes: Ferocity and the Feminine

Bowers Museum presents an exclusive pre-recorded presentation with the American Research in Egypt (ARCE),  Pantheon of Paradoxes: Ferocity and the Feminine.

This online ARCE lecture is presented by Jacqueline Thurston, MA, artist, writer, and Professor Emerita in the School of Art and Design at San Jose State University.

The presentation is illustrated with original photographs taken by the presenter, an artist and writer who, as a Fulbright Scholar, found herself drawn by the enduring magnetism of ancient Egypt, as were earlier artists like Francis Frith.  Selected from her new book, Sacred Deities of Ancient Egypt, many of these intimate, interpretive portraits of the deities have never before been reproduced.

Why did the ancient Egyptians choose a pair of feminine deities—Nekhbet, a vulture that fed on the decaying flesh of dead creatures; and a cobra, Wadjet, a lethal serpent—as guardians of the pharaoh? How did the vicissitudes of nature, drought, floods, desert sandstorms, and pestilence shape the vision of ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses? How might our contemporary experience of living with the pandemic that has engulfed our land enrich and inform our understanding of the ancient Egyptian pantheon?

Sponsored by Michelle Evans and Cherie Rabideau in partnership with the ARCE OC Chapter.