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MayThe ARCE Library Book Club #3: “Ancient Egyptian Animal Fables: Tree Climbing Hippos and Ennobled Mice” by Dr. Jennifer Miyuki Babcock.
Registration is Required
- 8 PM Cairo Time/ 1 PM ET
- ZoomOnline
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We are pleased to announce the third book club discussion hosted by ARCE, this time as a virtual session! Our featured selection is “Ancient Egyptian Animal Fables: Tree Climbing Hippos and Ennobled Mice” by Jennifer Miyuki Babcock. Join us as we delve into the fascinating world of ancient Egyptian storytelling and discover how artists brought animals to life through imaginative portrayals filled with human traits and social insight.
Book Blurb:
One group of ancient Egyptian drawings has captured the curiosity of scholars and laypeople alike: images of animals acting like people. They illustrate animal fables originally from a larger mythological narrative, making them an integral part of New Kingdom Thebes’s religious environment. This book examines the purpose of animal fables, drawing cross cultural and temporal comparisons to other storytelling and artistic traditions. This publication is also the first thorough art historical treatment of the ostraca and papyri. The drawings’ iconography and aesthetic value are carefully examined, providing further nuance to our understanding of ancient Egyptian art.
Author Bio:
Jennifer Miyuki Babcock, a graduate of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, is a faculty member in the art history departments at Pratt Institute and the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY. She also advises graduate students in NYU’s Visual Arts Administration Program. Previously, she has held research and curatorial positions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU.
In addition to authoring Animal Fables in Ancient Egypt: Tree Climbing Hippos and Ennobled Mice (Brill, 2022), Dr. Babcock was a co-editor of Rethinking Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honor of Ann Macy Roth (Brill, 2025). Her scholarship focuses on the ancient Egyptian depictions of animals, the role of animals in ancient Egyptian religion, and the modern reception and interpretation of ancient Egyptian culture. Additionally, she is interested in how ancient Egyptian female divinities are depicted across different geographical and environmental contexts.