Through the Eras

MusicMusicians from Egypt and abroad. Relief from the Akhenaten temple project in Karnak, 1350 B.C.E. New Kingdom. ERICH LESSING/ARTRESOURCE NY.there was room for disagreement and doubt aboutbasic beliefs.THE BLIND SOLO HARPIST. Representations ofthe blind solo harpist in the Ramesside Period perhapsdeveloped from Eighteenth-dynasty tomb representationsof musical ensembles at banquets. The characteristicsof the male blind harpists found in these tombsresemble the blind solo harpists found in Ramessidetombs. Egyptian artists represented the blind soloharpist as wealthy. As a fat man he was interpreted aswell fed and thus had access to greater resources thanthe average person. He was also well dressed in a linengarment with a shawl. The blind solo harpist was alsobald, a characteristic that associated him with priestswho shaved their heads to achieve ritual purity. He wasoften, though not always, represented with impaired vision,a fact that led to his usual designation by Egyptologistsas blind. However, L. Manniche estimates thatonly one-quarter of the known representations of theblind solo harpist were shown with unusual eyes. Theseunusual eyes are generally interpreted as blindness orvisual impairment. Blindness can be represented in oneof four ways. First, a normal eye can be representedwithout an iris. Second, the eye could be shown as aslit with an iris. Third, the slit-shaped eye could haveno iris. Fourth, only the upper curve of the eye can beshown, without any further representation of the eye.Manniche, however, observes that in cases where theiris appears to be omitted in the carving, it might havebeen painted in the original state. Moreover, even theslit eyes might only represent closed eyes. Thus it is notaltogether certain that the blind solo harpist was representedas blind.176 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)