Hetepheres II and daughter Meresankh III, “Shaking the Papyrus (Calling Hathor)”, c. 2550–2540 B.C. 🌿
▫️This tender Old Kingdom relief shows Hetepheres II and her daughter Meresankh III gliding through the marshes, gently pulling and shaking papyrus reeds. It is not a simple scene of leisure, but a sacred act known as “shaking the papyrus”; a ritual performed to summon the goddess #Hathor.
In Egyptian belief, the rustle of papyrus in the marshland was a language the gods could hear. By disturbing the reeds, the women called Hathor forth in her benevolent aspect as goddess of joy, music, fertility, and loving protection. The marsh itself was a liminal place (half land, half water) echoing the moment of creation and rebirth.
Mother and daughter are described as “seeing every good thing which is in the marsh,” a poetic assurance that abundance, beauty, and divine favour surround them. In life and in death, this gentle shaking promised not chaos, but communion: a soft invitation to the goddess, carried on the whisper of reeds, into eternity.
Transcripts from the Tomb (Mastaba of Meresankh, G 7530-40, Giza Necropolis): “Her mother, daughter of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Khufu, the great favourite, Hetep-heres. Her beloved daughter, the beholder of Horus and Seth, the great favourite, Meresankh.”
“She pulls papyrus for Hathor in the marshland with her mother. They see every good thing which is in the marsh.”
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