What's that thing on their heads?

September 11, 2011 8:07 PM

What is this weird (quasi?)-Egyptian headdress.

Okay, so I've been a fan of Sun Ra for a while, and I just noticed that a weird headdress he wears in Space is the Place is similar to one worn by Liz Taylor in Cleopatra.

Here's the Sun Ra version, and here's the Taylor one.

What on earth (or space) is this thing?

posted by You Can't Tip a Buick to Society & Culture (6 answers total)

Feathers represented truth, so I assume it's some variant of that.
posted by phunniemee at 8:10 PM on September 11, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks! "Feather" was the word I needed to google for this thing — a bunch of sites describe it as the "double feather crown." Apparently it was worn by Amun, which explains why Sun Ra would pick it up...
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 8:16 PM on September 11, 2011

Looks like Hathor.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:34 PM on September 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Well, I seem to actually know this. Here is an article on head dresses of the ancient Egyptian deities here Hathor was/is the goddess of love and beauty.
posted by jadepearl at 5:37 AM on September 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hmm. While I'm pretty sure the Liz Taylor one is indeed Hathor (Cleopatra was sometimes depicted like that), the Sun Ra one has feathers instead of horns, rather than both. Also, Sun Ra is a dude.

This bit from jadepearl's link is interesting:

When [Min] took the form of Min-Amen, he wore the solar disk between the two tall feathers on his headdress. Min was one of the most ancient of Egyptian deities and is always depicted with an erect phallus, sometimes ejaculating sperm, and wearing a crown topped by two straight plumes

posted by Sys Rq at 8:42 AM on September 12, 2011

Yeah, I rolled with the Elizabeth Taylor version where she is definitely sporting the love goddess connection. Sun Ra is manifesting Amen in one of his forms.
posted by jadepearl at 6:37 PM on September 12, 2011