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| Painted wooden "ear stela" of Bai with three pairs of ears representing divine hearing of the worshipper's prayer. From Deir el-Medina. Ramessid Period. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. |
Statues given as gifts to the Egyptian gods or placed where shipfully before them were produced in large numbers in many periods. Most of the statues to have survived from ancient Egypt are in fact various pieces donated to the gods by kings, nobles, priests and various officers of the state, and even as gifts from cities and towns. Such items usually comprised individual or group figures of gods, sometimes with the inclusion of an intermediary royal or priestly figure, and these divine images could range from individually crafted works to mass-produced figures of gods and goddesses utilized by the less wealthy. In the Later Period and Ptolemaic Period, the private donation of votive bronze statues grew tremendously, and the development of casting techniques led to the production of countless metal images of deities and sacred animals for devotional purposes and as offerings to temples and shrines.
Votive stelae were of different types, though many bore texts requesting favours from the gods and sometimes gave thanks for their help when it
seemed that a request had been granted. The styles of such stelae varied geographically and changed over time but usually depicted the donor, sometimes together with members of his or her family, worshipping the deity to whom the stela was dedicated.
In New Kingdom times in particular, such stelae also often depicted one or more large pairs of ears as symbolic listening devices to ensure that the supplicant's prayers were "heard" by the god. Such "ear" stelae may be almost completely covered with these depictions or decorated with the representation of a single, huge, pair of ears - presumably increasing the "auditory" effectiveness of the stelae.
