This stele is known in Egyptian art as a cippus (pl. cippi) or magical stele. The instructions found on some cippi indicate that they were used to heal afflictions caused by snake or scorpion venom. Specifically, Egyptians believed that the water poured over these cippi would be transformed into a curative remedy that the afflicted...
The Metternich stela belongs to a group of stelae known as the “Cippi of Horus” or ‘Stelae of Horus on the crocodiles’. The top half of this stela was skillfully carved in the hard dark stone. On the part below the central figure panel, rows of hieroglyphs record thirteen magic spells to protect against venomous...
This is a solid-cast silver statuette of a falcon headed deity with a plaited wig inlaid with lapis lazuli. The figure almost definitely would have been used as a cult statue and was originally covered in sheet gold, some of which still remains. Hieroglyphic texts and temple reliefs show that the ancient Egyptians included divine...
According to the myth the sister goddesses Isis and Nepthys cared for the body of Osiris and later they protected his son Horus as a young child. The three deities depicted in this triad amulet are some of the main protagonists in the Osiride myth that tells the murder and revival of the god Osiris...
Limestone seated statue of Horus wearing Roman military costume; traces of paint; arms lost. The figure originally wore a crown, probably of another material, inserted into the top of the head. The falcon head is rendered with careful attention to the feathering around the face; the eyes are human and the pupils are incised. The...
Lord of the sky, solar god, and god of kingship — Horus is among Egypt’s oldest deities. The falcon soaring in the sky embodied the god’s qualities, and Horus was represented as a falcon or falcon-headed man. As heir to the divine kingship of Egypt, he appears here with the royal uraeus (cobra) and the...
This group of objects was found in a plundered chamber in Tomb MMA 840, excavated by Herbert Eustis Winlock (1884-1950), an archeologist who worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, reached by a shaft in the portico of a rock-cut tomb in the Asasif section of the Theban necropolis. Among the finds were parts of...
In this statuette of Isis suckling Horus, the goddess is seated on a throne whose hieroglyphic sign is used to write her name. She wears a lovely three-part “raven black” wig with tubular locks covering her shoulders with the remains of a vulture; it is surmounted by a mortar ringed with uraei. In its center...
This bronze mirror portrays Isis as a figure of fertility and maternity. She holds her son, Horus, who appears as a miniature adult. As the mother of Horus, the protector of the king, Isis was essentially the queen of the gods, and thus the universal mother. The form above her head looks much like the...
In this decoration showing the theme of the unification of the Two Lands ‘Sema Tawy’, Horus and Seth replaced Hapi, which was associated with the Nile god. Detail on the side of the throne of King Senusret I. Furthermore, we have here one of the rare cases in which the image of Seth, god of...
