the body of a man, in the striding stance typical of royal iconography. It is from Dynasty 11. As the personification of the god who made the sky he was called Heru (“he who is above”). The forms of Horus mentioned in Egyptian texts are numerous. Here we have Heru sma taui (“Horus, the uniter of the South and North”). 24.4cm inheight it comes from Herakleopolis (O.K. Tomb).
Instantly recognizable, the Udjat Eye (also wedjat, uzat) remained one of the most popular amuletic symbols from the Old Kingdom to Roman times. Although Egyptians designed countless variations on the theme over this 2500 year period, the basic design remained constant: the eye of the God Horus, drawn as a human eye with a cosmetic line extending from the outer corner of the eye, an enhanced eyebrow line, and a stylized marking below the eye evoking the cheek of a falcon.
The amulets to the right are 1.4cm from the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BCE) from a royal tomb in Saqqara and 5.6cm from the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom (1410-1293 BCE) from Thebes.
The Egyptian word udjat means “sound”, “whole”, or “undamaged” and the eye was reputed for its great healing and protective power. But it has many meanings, including “The strength of the monarch, the concept of kingship, protection against Seth [chaos], royal purification agent, wine, and offerings at the festival of the waxing moon.”
In a myth Seth gouged out Horus' left eye during the fight over who should be king. Hathor or Thoth (depending on which version) intervened and healed the eye with gazelle milk (Hathor) or royal saliva (Thoth). The eye thus became a symbol of miraculous healing. The plucked and then restored left eye symbolized the moon, with the phases of the moon reflecting the damaged, plucked, healing, and healed conditions of the eye over time. Despite this udjat eyes can be left or right or even a pair.
This large bronze statuette (22cm) from the New Kingdom (probably Dynasty 18, 1570-1200 BCE) represents the falcon god, ‘lord of the sky', elemental Horus, and primordial symbol of kingship. As ‘Lord of the Two Lands,' he wears the double-crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. The level of craftsmanship exhibited not only in the general modeling, but also in the delicate engraving of the plumage is simply extraordinary.
The Four Sons of Horus
Their names are Imsety (imsti), Hapy (hpy, not to be confused with the Nile river god, Hapi), Duamutef and Kebehsenuef. All references we have to these deities are funerary in context, and it appears that no cults ever honored them. The earliest extensive religious text, known as the Pyramid Texts (5-6th dynasty, 2350-2175 BCE), mentions them a total of fourteen times. Spell 2078 and 2079 describe them as, "friends of the king, (who) attend on this King... the children of Horus of Khem (letopolis); they tie the rope-ladder for this King. they make firm the wooden ladder for this King, they cause the King to ascend to Khepri when he comes into being in the eastern side of the sky". From Spell 1333, we learn that they, "spread protection of life over your father the Osiris King, since he was restored by the gods", while Spell 552 tells us that, "I will not be thirsty by reason of Shu, I will not be hungry by reason of Tefnut; Hapy, Duamutef, Kebehsenuef, and Imsety will expel this hunger which is in my belly and this thirst which is on my lips".
From the Middle Kingdom through the Greco-Roman era, these deities are referenced in almost every tomb, and their powers are invoked upon almost all coffins and canopic equipment. On canopic equipment, their heads were originally depicted as human. Between the early 18th and the middle 19th Dynasty, their heads began to be depicted differently, with Imsety's head remaining human, while Hapy became an Ape, Duamutef a Jackal, and Kebeshsenuef a falcon. They continued to appear until as late as the 4th century CE.