42. Relief with Defeated Soldiers 

This relief is part of a battle or prisoner composition from an Egyptian temple at Sesebi, which honored Amun and, at one point, the Aten. It depicts two opponents of Egypt, with large earrings and characteristic ‘Kushite folds’ (prominent nasolabial lines): the one on the left is holding a bow, seen in front of the other figure. The figure on the right is injured, as evidenced by his arm wrapped around the neck of the left figure, who supports him. The same motif is found in other late Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasty temples with themes of Egyptian campaigning in Nubia. The present relief fragment arguably dates to a post-Amarna construction phase at the site, during the reign of Seti I. Despite the broader intentions of the theme, i.e. reminding people in Nubia about the ever-present risk of crushing defeat by Egypt, the scene inadvertently humanizes the ‘enemies’ by inviting the viewer inside their anguished emotional world. In Regarding the Pain of Others, the writer Susan Sontag posits that the viewers of war images give them their power. This emotive scene was possibly included in the temple iconography in the spirit of a similar schadenfreude and/or to construct Egyptian victory as a historical event.