The Type of the Crouching Child and the ‘Temple Boys’

Abstract

Statuettes of children crouching on the floor with one knee bent up or both legs folded have been found in many parts of Greece, in sanctuaries, graves, and living quarters. In the course of a study of the cult of the Greek Kourotrophos there arose the problem of their typology and interpretation, as such statuettes are common finds in the sanctuaries of deities concerned with child-care. Before one can come to any speculations about their meaning and use, the type must be examined; its origin, distribution, and variations.The crouching posture is not uncommon in eastern, especially Egyptian art. Child-Horus, crouching on the lotus, appears in Egyptianizing Phoenician ivories from the early first millennium B.C. Faience pendants of a squatting child, datedc. 900 B.C., were excavated in tombs in Lachish. Most interesting for this study is the small faience statuette of a crouching boy from an Egyptian grave, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Plate 20, 1). It is exactly in the posture that the Greek examples appear in: one knee bent up, the other on the floor; it has its finger on its mouth and bears the side-curl of youth. A real child is represented. This is also the case with three statuettes in the British Museum, one in copper and two in ivory, the latter inscribed with the names and titles of the owners. They too come from graves. All are dated around the beginning of the second millennium B.C. by a statuette of the same type coming from the tomb of the Pharaoh Pepi II. It is interesting to know that this posture and the hand on the mouth, as well as the nudity, are significant of young age in Egypt, since the hieroglyph for youth is a naked figure in this posture.