Giger has displayed throughout his works that he has shown an interest in ancient Egyptian art and
mythology. Starting with Ron Cobb's Alien Life Cycle Tableau inspired perhaps by ancient South American culture shown in the side of his Alien birth temple painting, Giger has brought the ancient Egyptian mythology into the Alien Life Cycle tableau. The figure stretching around the edge of the tableau is inspired by depictions of the Egyptian sky goddess Nut, who often has Geb the god of the earth and fertility lying below, sometimes with his male member erect which so happens to be placed where it looks almost as if it inspired Giger with his depiction of the chest bursting from the victim image. Geb was also a god who imprisoned the dead in his body. The goddess is also often depicted being supported by the god Shu who raised the goddess into the heavens, but is replaced in Giger's painting by support bars instead.
Cobb's Alien life cycle tableau with a radiating ovoid form at the top of the painting. |
Stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu, dating to the late Dynasty 25/early Dynasty 26. This image is interesting in the way there's the winged sun disk placed beneath the arching body of the sky goddess and also there is the circular form in the centre of the biomechanoid goddess' body. This stele has been a source of fascination for Aleister Crowley and became a central point of his Thelema philosophy. HR Giger took a great interest in Aleister Crowley's works although was not a practicer of his magic rituals. (Source Wikipedia: Stele_of_Revealing) (association between paintings was discovered at theallseeingcat.tumblr.com so I first saw this image, 16th June 2014) |
Tomb carving of Nut very close to Giger's hieroglyphics, (located by Granolaboy in Taschen's the book of symbols reflections on archetypal images at shared at the forum Prometheus-movie.com 7th Sept , 2012) This carving shows two figures supporting the sky with their arms stretched out like horizontal scaffolding |
Shu, Nut and Geb. The standing human figure has his arms raised as if about to act as a supporting frame |
Nut and Geb. Geb positioned below the goddess Nut has his male member in an erect state and echoes the chest burster image in Giger's Hieroglyphics. |
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