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Cette chapelle est consacrée essentiellement à Khonsou, dieu lunaire. La jambe gauche d'Osiris y était fictivement conservée dans un reliquaire en forme d'obélisque. Elle mesure 4,15 m par 2,52 m., sa porte se trouvant au sud et donnant à l'est sur l'arrière de la chapelle.
Sur la paroi nord (cf. la photo), le roi Ptolémée IV Philopator fait brûler de l'encens devant une assemblée de dieux : Khonsou d'Edfou, Ba vénérable qui est sur sa barque, Isis de Shemy, dite Sechat la grande, Nephtys, Sechat de Behedet qui fixe le décret du magistrat, Lâh le grand, second du disque au ciel, Maât la grande qui réside à Outjeset-Hor et Khoum-Rê maître de la cataracte, grand dieu résidant à Edfou (cf. temples-egypte,fr, merci Philippe Touzard pour la photo).
Originally, this bronze statue of the god Horus was covered with precious materials; inlays of glass or colored faience; and gilt coating or gold plate, to evoke the eternal indestructible flesh of the gods. These elements also concealed the joints between the various sections cast using the lost-wax technique. The statue has no text, but the style and craftsmanship date the work to the Third Intermediate Period.
Royal purification
This statue represents Horus in a hybrid form - a falcon-headed man - and was probably part of a scene that included three figures: Horus and Thot on either side of the king, pouring a purifying offering over him. Horus held the vase containing the ritual water in his raised hands; this vase is now missing.
The scene was sculpted in relief on temple walls, and metal or stone statues were arranged around it to perpetuate this rite, which was performed for the king during his coronation ceremonies and before he entered the sanctuary of the gods.
Techniques and materials
The statue, produced in several parts using the lost-wax bronze casting process, is hollow, as the clay core was removed. Inlays of glass paste or colored faience filled the eye sockets, the hair of the wig, and the folds in the kilt. Given the granular aspect of the metal surface, the nude sections of the body were probably gilded, to represent the indestructible flesh of the gods.
As early as the predynastic period, Egyptian craftsmen used copper, and later bronze, to create domestic utensils, weapons, jewelry, and statues. Their mastery of technique reached a peak during the Third Intermediate Period. They produced large numbers of statuettes - the ex-votoes presented by worshippers near their gods - in the workshops linked to the temples. Lost-wax bronze casting was the most common technique for these remarkable works, while solid casting was the preferred method for small, mass-produced figurines.
A body in keeping with artistic canons
The figure's shape fully complies with the artistic canons of the Third Intermediate Period: a slender, graceful and strong shape, with a long bust, highly placed pectorals, and narrow waist. It stands firmly atop long, muscular legs.
During this period, Egyptian bronzesmiths fully mastered all the techniques of their art. This statue of Horus is one of the greatest examples of their work.
Bibliography
Les Antiquités égyptiennes : guide du visiteur, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1997, p. 39.
Bovot Jean-Luc et Ziegler Christiane, Art et archéologie : l'Égypte ancienne, Paris, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2001, pp. 260-261 et fig. 156.
Manniche Lise, L'Art égyptien, Paris, Flammarion, 1994, p. 275.
Notice n 78, in Les Collections du Louvre, 1999, p. 89.
Pierrat-Bonnefois Geneviève, L'Égypte au Louvre, Paris, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1997, p. 11.
Ziegler Christiane, Revue du Louvre, 1996, p. 34.
Saker Falcon
Falconry is the subject of some of the oldest Egyptian wall paintings. English playwriter William Shakespeare was a falconry fan who introduced falconry terms into popular speech: the word "Hag" or "Haggard" is the term for a mature wild hawk or falcon.
Horus, an Egyptian god, was a Peregrine falcon: the "Eye of Horus" is clearly a stylized Peregrine falcon's eye.
Steps leading outside from the depths of the Temple of Horus at Edfu, Egypt.
The temple was built between 237 BC and 57 BC. It is claimed to be the best preserved ancient temple in Egypt and is the second largest after Karnak.
This is a hadheld, 1/4 sec shot. The roofs are in place on the temple so the interior is poorly lit and flash photography tends to "wipe out" the hieroglyphs and images carved on all the walls and columns.
Tenuous Link: Steps in a place or worship
The temple of the goddess Isis at Philae is one of the most beautiful in Egypt, not as large as some but structurally largely complete, which is fitting for the temple believed to be the last to operate under the ancient Egyptian religion, having only formally closed for pagan worship in the 6th century AD.
It was also the first of Egypt's great temples I ever saw in person and left me spellbound, and thus it was fitting that this should again be the first we visited on this trip.
The temple sits in a uniquely picturesque setting on a small island in the Nile south of Aswan and thus has only ever been approached boat. The complex consists of the main temple building dedicated to Isis (wife of Osiris and mother of Horus) whose inner sanctum is entered via a forecourt with towering pylons guarding the inner and outer entrances. All this is approached from the Nile through an open court flanked by lengthy colonnades making an unforgettable first impression.
There are several subsidary buildings of note around the site, the most imposing of which is undoubtedly the large rectangular colonnaded structure known as 'Trajan's Kiosk', which features some beautifully carved capitals.
The temple is relatively new by Egyptian standards, begun under one of the last of the native pharoahs, Nectanebo I (c380-62 BC) but mostly dating to the Ptolemaic period (as do many of the better preserved temples in the south of the country).
The temple's long use and later conversion to a church along with its remote location helped preserve it more or less completely over the centuries, but in the 20th century it faced its biggest threat, the construction of the Aswan dams which are located either side and caused Philae island to flood. The first dam (built 1902) caused the temple to be inundated for much of the year (thus washing away all the remaining paintwork from the interior; 19th century watercolours record what a loss the coloured details were). The bigger threat came in the 1960s when the Aswan High Dam was built to the south, causing the water levels to rise enough to completely submerge most of the temple. For some years all that could be seen of Philae were the four main towers and the columns of Trajan's Kiosk emerging from the waters.
Fortunately salvation came in the 1970s following the campaign to rescue and relocate the Nubian temples further south also threatened by the rising waters. Following the construction of a coffer-dam around the temple the entire temple complex was dismantled and rebuilt on higher ground on the adjoining island of Agilkia where it can be enjoyed in its full splendour today.
For more on this wonderful site see below:-
Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, June 2022
A bust of the god Horus wearing a Roman cuirass. Variously described as "Horus as legionary" or "Horus as emperor".
Inv. 1960.8. Roman Period, 1st or 2nd century CE. Basalt.
Leiden, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, November 2018
On loan from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, as part of the exhibition Goden van Egypte ("Gods of Egypt"), 12 October 2018 – 31 March 2019.
A limestone double statue (152 cm tall) of Horemheb and Horus, the Protector of his Father (Harendotes). The outer arms of both figures, the feet, the king's nose, beard and left hand and the god's beak have been restored in modern times.
The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power and good health. It is also known as ''The Eye of Ra''.
La grande cour du côté est est consacré à la haute Égypte et lde l'autre côté à la Basse Égypte. Une colonnade la borde sur trois côtés, avec au fond la façade de la première salle hypostyle (non visible ici), aux colonnes végétales. Cette cour à l'air libre évoque le marais des origines où naquirent les premières formes de vie et où le faucon venait s'ébattre et chercher des proies.
Elle était remplie de statues dédiées par des particuliers, pour les représenter auprès du dieu leur permettant ainsi d’être accueillis à l'intérieur du temple. Les profanes qui n'avaient pas accès aux mystères pouvaient ainsi bénéficier du culte. Leurs noms vivaient ainsi et participaient indirectement aux rites. La décoration effectuée sous Ptolémée IX Soter II, nous montre des scènes de divinités en présence d'Horus, d'offrandes, de défilés de nomes, de la monté royale vers le naos et de la fête de la parfaite union où, au terme d'un voyage en barque, Hathor venait passer deux semaines avec son divin époux, offrant ainsi des "vacances" aux paysans (cf. egypte-eternelle.org).
Edfu Horus Temple, Egypt.
Built between 237 and 57 BC.
Horus was a god of kingship and the sky. He was most often depicted as a falcon or as a man with a falcon head.
Rays of light cascade over a neighbouring ridge at dawn: photo from somewhere on the way to Point 4478...
The group represents King Ramesses the Third, the god Horus and the god Seth.
Ramesses III is wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt with the royal cobra on the front, a wide collar of many rows, and the royal pleated kilt, the shendyt, with a long belt hanging down to the bottom of it. He is holding the ankh sign of life in his right hand and the roll of power in his left hand. His left leg is forward.
The statues of the gods, Horus and Seth, are in the same posture with the left leg forward; they are each holding the ankh, and wearing the Egyptian pectoral and the shendyt kilt. Each god has placed one hand on the crown of the king, performing the Coronation of Ramesses III.
20th dynasty
Pink granite
From Medinet Habu
JE 31628
Ground floor, room 14
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Les trésors du pharaon Toutânkhamon
faucon en bois doré coiffé d’un disque solaire
Solar Hawk Horus Figure Wood, Gesso, Gold Leaf
Le dieu Horus, l'une des plus ancienne divinité égyptienne. Protecteur lié à la dynastie monarchique des pharaons .
Le pylône haut de 38 m de haut est constitué de deux grands môles, les montagnes de l'horizon entre lesquelles le soleil se lève. Orientés nord-sud, ces deux môles sont symétriques, celui de droite (à l’est) symbolisant la Basse Egypte et le gauche (à l’ouest) la Haute Egypte. Sur ceux-ci, des bas-reliefs monumentaux organisés en trois registres, montrent Ptolémée XII Néos Dionysos figurant dans des scènes d’offrande et de massacre. Un escalier s'élevant sur six étages a été aménagé dans chaque môle et conduisait aux ouvertures destinées à mettre en place les mâts, ainsi qu'au balcon d'apparition où les prêtres présentaient à la foule le faucon sacré incarnant le dieu. Les deux môles étaient donc creux et comprenait plusieurs chambres réparties sur quatre étages. Sur la façade extérieure, on distingue bien les rainures servant de logement aux grands mâts de bois fixés par des griffes de métal. Les bas-reliefs des parois des deux escaliers représentent d'un côté la procession des prêtres et délégations qui portent les chapelles contenant les statues divines dans la cour du Nouvel an et qui redescendent de l'autre.
Sur le registre supérieur du môle ouest, le roi coiffé de la couronne de la basse Egypte faisait l'offrande de la Maât à Horus, Chou, Geb, Harsiesis, Thot et Maât. Plus loin, il offrait la double couronne (sud et nord) à Horus. Au registre médian, offre une étoffe à six divinités et un uraeus à Horus et Hathor.
Enfin au registre inférieur, la scène essentielle: était la victoire du roi sur ses ennemis. Suivi de son Ka, il les abattait devant Horus et Hathor. Chef de guerre, il "illuminait" de plus ses adversaires de l'intérieur, comme des ténèbres. Entre le roi et les dieux, se trouvaient les encoches des mats dans lesquels sont gravés des dieux protecteurs avec tout à fait en bas, le roi conduisant un défilé de génies du Nil à Horus (cf. egypte-eternelle.org).
Le Mammisi est un mot d'origine copte, inventé par J.-F Champollion, signifiant littéralement le "lieu de naissance" ou"d'accouchement". Il s'applique aux édifices, annexés aux sanctuaires à partir de la Basse Époque, dans lesquels, chaque année, était célébrée la naissance des dieux enfants. Par leur présence, ces héritiers devaient perpétuer l'ordre universel et terrestre. A Edfou (comme à Denderah), apparaissent sur les parois des mammisis des images relatives à la naissance, à l'allaitement, à l'enfance et à l'éducation du jeune dieu et bien souvent, le roi régnant n'hésite pas à s'identifier à lui. Le mammisi situé à l'avant de temple d'Horus d'Edfou a été construit par Ptolémée IX (-116 -107 av. J.C) (cf. passion-egyptienne.fr).
Sa façade est austère et fermée par des murs-bahuts la séparant de la cour. A l'intérieur, dix-huit colonnes étaient réparties en deux groupes de neuf afin de créer une nef centrale plus large. Sur les architraves des colonnes, trois cent soixante-cinq déesses représentent avec, aménagés tout contre les murs d’entrecolonnement, un Purgatorium et une Bibliothèque. Le plafond du pronaos, soutenu par douze colonnes à chapiteaux floraux composites, est quant à lui décoré de scènes évoquant le ciel étoilé.
Deux petites salles y avaient une importance considérable, à gauche la maison du matin et à droite la "maison des livres". C'est au matin, en effet, au soleil levant, que l'être humain accomplit son premier acte d'adoration envers la lumière naissante, dans la nature comme dans son propre cœur. La façade de la maison du matin est décorée de 4 scènes représentant Ptolémée VIII Evergètes, le linteau de sa porte représentant les dieux Baou, Pê et Nekhen. La bibliothèque avait des niches dans les murs pour les papyri, avec un court catalogue gravé dans son mur. En particulier, les recueils d'hymnes nécessaires aux prêtres chanteurs y étaient conservés (cf. egypte-eternelle.org).
The Eye of Horus, wedjat eye or udjat eye is a concept and symbol in ancient Egyptian religion that represents well-being, healing, and protection. It derives from the mythical conflict between the god Horus with his rival Set, in which Set tore out or destroyed one or both of Horus's eyes and the eye was subsequently healed or returned to Horus with the assistance of another deity, such as Thoth. Horus subsequently offered the eye to his deceased father Osiris, and its revitalizing power sustained Osiris in the afterlife. The Eye of Horus was thus equated with funerary offerings, as well as with all the offerings given to deities in temple ritual. It could also represent other concepts, such as the moon, whose waxing and waning was likened to the injury and restoration of the eye.
The Eye of Horus symbol, a stylized eye with distinctive markings, was believed to have protective magical power and appeared frequently in ancient Egyptian art. It was one of the most common motifs for amulets, remaining in use from the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC) to the Roman period (30 BC – 641 AD). Pairs of Horus eyes were painted on coffins during the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC) and Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BC). Other contexts where the symbol appeared include on carved stone stelae and on the bows of boats. To some extent the symbol was adopted by the people of regions neighboring Egypt, such as Syria, Canaan, and especially Nubia.
The eye symbol was also rendered as a hieroglyph (). Egyptologists have long believed that hieroglyphs representing pieces of the symbol stand for fractions in ancient Egyptian mathematics, although this hypothesis has been challenged.
Contents
1Origins
2Mythology
3In ritual
3.1Offerings and festivals
3.2Healing texts
4Symbol
4.1Amulets
4.2Other uses
4.3Hieroglyphic form
5Citations
6Works cited
7Further reading
8External links
Origins
Amulet from the tomb of Tutankhamun, fourteenth century BC, incorporating the Eye of Horus beneath a disk and crescent symbol representing the moon[1]
The ancient Egyptian god Horus was a sky deity, and many Egyptian texts say that Horus's right eye was the sun and his left eye the moon.[2] The solar eye and lunar eye were sometimes equated with the red and white crown of Egypt, respectively.[3] Some texts treat the Eye of Horus seemingly interchangeably with the Eye of Ra,[4] which in other contexts is an extension of the power of the sun god Ra and is often personified as a goddess.[5] The Egyptologist Richard H. Wilkinson believes the two eyes of Horus gradually became distinguished as the lunar Eye of Horus and the solar Eye of Ra.[6] Other Egyptologists, however, argue that no text clearly equates the eyes of Horus with the sun and moon until the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BC);[7] Rolf Krauss argues that the Eye of Horus originally represented Venus as the morning star and evening star and only later became equated with the moon.[8]
Katja Goebs argues that the myths surrounding the Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra are based around the same mytheme, or core element of a myth, and that "rather than postulating a single, original myth of one cosmic body, which was then merged with others, it might be more fruitful to think in terms of a (flexible) myth based on the structural relationship of an Object that is missing, or located far from its owner". In the myths surrounding the Eye of Ra, the goddess flees Ra and is brought back by another deity. In the case of the Eye of Horus, the eye is usually missing because of Horus's conflict with his arch-rival, the god Set, in their struggle for the kingship of Egypt after the death of Horus's father Osiris.[9]
Mythology
Further information: Osiris myth § Conflict of Horus and Set
Figurine of Thoth, in the form of a baboon, holding the wedjat eye, seventh to fourth century BC
The Pyramid Texts, which date to the late Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC), are one of the earliest sources for Egyptian myth.[10] They prominently feature the conflict between Horus and Set,[11] and the Eye of Horus is mentioned in about a quarter of the utterances that make up the Pyramid Texts.[7] In these texts, Set is said to have stolen the Eye of Horus, and sometimes to have trampled and eaten it. Horus nevertheless takes back the eye, usually by force. The texts often mention the theft of Horus's eye along with the loss of Set's testicles, an injury that is also healed.[12] The conflict over the eye is mentioned and elaborated in many texts from later times. In most of these texts, the eye is restored by another deity, most commonly Thoth, who was said to have made peace between Horus and Set. In some versions, Thoth is said to have reassembled the eye after Set tore it to pieces.[13] In the Book of the Dead from the New Kingdom, Set is said to have taken the form of a black boar when striking Horus's eye.[14] In "The Contendings of Horus and Set", a text from the late New Kingdom that relates the conflict as a short narrative, Set tears out both of Horus's eyes and buries them, and the next morning they grow into lotuses. Here it is the goddess Hathor who restores Horus's eyes, by anointing them with the milk of a gazelle.[13] In Papyrus Jumilhac, a mythological text from early in the Ptolemaic Period (332–30 BC), Horus's mother Isis waters the buried pair of eyes, causing them to grow into the first grape vines.[15]
The restoration of the eye was often referred to as "filling" the eye. Hathor filled Horus's eye sockets with the gazelle's milk,[16] while texts from temples of the Greco-Roman era said that Thoth, together with a group of fourteen other deities, filled the eye with specific plants and minerals.[17] The process of filling the Eye of Horus was likened to the waxing of the moon, and the fifteen deities in the Greco-Roman texts represented the fifteen days from the new moon to the full moon.[17]
The Egyptologist Herman te Velde suggests that the Eye of Horus is linked with another episode in the conflict between the two gods, in which Set subjects Horus to a sexual assault and, in retaliation, Isis and Horus cause Set to ingest Horus's semen. This episode is narrated most clearly in "The Contendings of Horus and Set", in which Horus's semen appears on Set's forehead as a golden disk, which Thoth places on his own head. Other references in Egyptian texts imply that in some versions of the myth it was Thoth himself who came forth from Set's head after Set was impregnated by Horus's semen, and a passage in the Pyramid Texts says the Eye of Horus came from Set's forehead. Te Velde argues that the disk that emerges from Set's head is the Eye of Horus. If so, the episodes of mutilation and sexual abuse would form a single story, in which Set assaults Horus and loses semen to him, Horus retaliates and impregnates Set, and Set comes into possession of Horus's eye when it appears on Set's head. Because Thoth is a moon deity in addition to his other functions, it would make sense, according to te Velde, for Thoth to emerge in the form of the eye and step in to make peace between the feuding deities.[18]
Beginning in the New Kingdom,[17] the Eye of Horus was known as the wḏꜣt (often rendered as wedjat or udjat), meaning the "whole", "completed", or "uninjured" eye.[3][19] It is unclear whether the term wḏꜣt refers to the eye that was destroyed and restored, or to the one that Set left unharmed.[20]
A personified Eye of Horus offers incense to the enthroned god Osiris in a painting from the tomb of Pashedu, thirteenth century BC[1]
Upon becoming king after Set's defeat, Horus gives offerings to his deceased father, thus reviving and sustaining him in the afterlife. This act was the mythic prototype for the offerings to the dead that were a major part of ancient Egyptian funerary customs. It also influenced the conception of offering rites that were performed on behalf of deities in temples.[21] Among the offerings Horus gives is his own eye, which Osiris consumes. The eye, as part of Osiris's son, is ultimately derived from Osiris himself. Therefore, the eye in this context represents the Egyptian conception of offerings. The gods were responsible for the existence of all the goods that they were offered, so offerings were part of the gods' own substance. In receiving offerings, deities were replenished by their own life force, as Osiris was when he consumed the Eye of Horus. In the Egyptian worldview, life was a force that originated with the gods and circulated through the world, so that by returning this force to the gods, offering rites maintained the flow of life.[22][23] The offering of the eye to Osiris is another instance of the mytheme in which a deity in need receives an eye and is restored to well-being.[24] The eye's restorative power meant the Egyptians considered it a symbol of protection against evil, in addition to its other meanings.[20]
In ritual
Offerings and festivals
In the Osiris myth the offering of the Eye of Horus to Osiris was the prototype of all funerary offerings, and indeed of all offering rites, as the human giving an offering to a deity was likened to Horus and the deity receiving it was likened to Osiris.[25] Moreover, the Egyptian word for "eye", jrt, resembled jrj, the word for "act", and through wordplay the Eye of Horus could thus be equated with any ritual act. For these reasons, the Eye of Horus symbolized all the sustenance given to the gods in the temple cult.[26] The versions of the myth in which flowers or grapevines grow from the buried eyes reinforce the eye's relationship with ritual offerings, as the perfumes, food, and drink that were derived from these plants were commonly used in offering rites.[27] The eye was often equated with maat, the Egyptian concept of cosmic order, which was dependent on the continuation of the temple cult and could likewise be equated with offerings of any kind.[23]
The Egyptians observed several festivals in the course of each month that were based on the phases of the moon, such as the Blacked-out Moon Festival (the first of the month), the Monthly Festival (the second day), and the Half-Month Festival. During these festivals, living people gave offerings to the deceased. The festivals were frequently mentioned in funerary texts. Beginning in the time of the Coffin Texts from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BC), funerary texts parallel the progression of these festivals, and hence the waxing of the moon, with the healing of the Eye of Horus.[28]
Healing texts
Ancient Egyptian medicine involved both practical treatments and rituals that invoked divine powers, and Egyptian medical papyri do not clearly distinguish the two. Healing rituals frequently equate patients with Horus, so the patient may be healed as Horus was in myth.[29] For this reason, the Eye of Horus is frequently mentioned in such spells. The Hearst papyrus, for instance, equates the physician performing the ritual to "Thoth, the physician of the Eye of Horus" and equates the instrument with which the physician measures the medicine with "the measure with which Horus measured his eye". The Eye of Horus was particularly invoked as protection against eye disease.[30] One text, Papyrus Leiden I 348, equates each part of a person's body with a deity in order to protect it. The left eye is equated with the Eye of Horus.[31]
Symbol
Horus was represented as a falcon, such as a lanner or peregrine falcon, or as a human with a falcon head.[32] The Eye of Horus is a stylized human or falcon eye. The symbol often includes an eyebrow, a dark line extending behind the rear corner of the eye, a cheek marking below the center or forward corner of the eye, and a line extending below and toward the rear of the eye that ends in a curl or spiral. The cheek marking resembles that found on many falcons. The Egyptologist Richard H. Wilkinson suggests that the curling line is derived from the facial markings of the cheetah, which the Egyptians associated with the sky because the spots in its coat were likened to stars.[1]
The stylized eye symbol was used interchangeably to represent the Eye of Ra. Egyptologists often simply refer to this symbol as the wedjat eye.[33]
Amulets
A variety of wedjat eye amulets
Amulets in the shape of the wedjat eye first appeared in the late Old Kingdom and continued to be produced up to Roman times.[20] Ancient Egyptians were usually buried with amulets, and the Eye of Horus was one of the most consistently popular forms of amulet. It is one of the few types commonly found on Old Kingdom mummies, and it remained in widespread use over the next two thousand years, even as the number and variety of funerary amulets greatly increased. Up until the New Kingdom, funerary wedjat amulets tended to be placed on the chest, whereas during and after the New Kingdom they were commonly placed over the incision through which the body's internal organs had been removed during the mummification process.[34]
Wedjat amulets were made from a wide variety of materials, including Egyptian faience, glass, gold, and semiprecious stones such as lapis lazuli. Their form also varied greatly. These amulets could represent right or left eyes, and the eye could be formed of openwork, incorporated into a plaque, or reduced to little more than an outline of the eye shape, with minimal decoration to indicate the position of the pupil and brow. In the New Kingdom, elaborate forms appeared: a uraeus, or rearing cobra, could appear at the front of the eye; the rear spiral could become a bird's tail feathers; and the cheek mark could be a bird's leg or a human arm.[35] Cobras and felines often represented the Eye of Ra, so Eye of Horus amulets that incorporate uraei or feline body parts may represent the relationship between the two eyes, as may amulets that bear the wedjat eye on one side and the figure of a goddess on the other.[36] The Third Intermediate Period (c. 1070–664 BC) saw still more complex designs, in which multiple small figures of animals or deities were inserted in the gaps between the parts of the eye, or in which the eyes were grouped into sets of four.[35]
The eye symbol could also be incorporated into larger pieces of jewelry alongside other protective symbols, such as the ankh and djed signs and various emblems of deities.[37] Beginning in the thirteenth century BC, glass beads bearing eye-like spots were strung on necklaces together with wedjat amulets, which may be the origin of the modern nazar, a type of bead meant to ward off the evil eye.[38]
Sometimes temporary amulets were created for protective purposes in especially dangerous situations, such as illness or childbirth. Rubrics for ritual spells often instruct the practitioner to draw the wedjat eye on linen or papyrus to serve as a temporary amulet.[39]
Other uses
Wedjat eyes appeared in a wide variety of contexts in Egyptian art. Coffins of the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC) and Middle Kingdom often included a pair of wedjat eyes painted on the left side. Mummies at this time were often turned to face left, suggesting that the eyes were meant to allow the deceased to see outside the coffin, but the eyes were probably also meant to ward off danger. Similarly, eyes of Horus were often painted on the bows of boats, which may have been meant to both protect the vessel and allow it to see the way ahead. Wedjat eys were sometimes portrayed with wings, hovering protectively over kings or deities.[6] Stelae, or carved stone slabs, were often inscribed with wedjat eyes. In some periods of Egyptian history, only deities or kings could be portrayed directly beneath the winged sun symbol that often appeared in the lunettes of stelae, and Eyes of Horus were placed above figures of common people.[40] The symbol could also be incorporated into tattoos, as demonstrated by the mummy of a woman from the late New Kingdom that was decorated with elaborate tattoos, including several wedjat eyes.[41]
Some cultures neighboring Egypt adopted the wedjat symbol for use in their own art. Some Egyptian artistic motifs became widespread in art from Canaan and Syria during the Middle Bronze Age. Art of this era sometimes incorporated the wedjat, though it was much more rare than other Egyptian symbols such as the ankh.[42] In contrast, the wedjat appeared frequently in art of the Kingdom of Kush in Nubia, in the first millennium BC and early first millennium AD, demonstrating Egypt's heavy influence upon Kush.[43] Down to the present day, eyes are painted on the bows of ships in many Mediterranean countries, a custom that may descend from the use of the wedjat eye on boats.[44]
Wedjat eyes on the coffin of Irinimenpu, twentieth to seventeenth century BC
Wedjat eyes on the coffin of Irinimenpu, twentieth to seventeenth century BC
Winged wedjat eyes on the coffin of Henettawy, tenth century BC
Winged wedjat eyes on the coffin of Henettawy, tenth century BC
Wedjat eyes atop the stela of Uhemmenu, sixteenth century BC
Wedjat eyes atop the stela of Uhemmenu, sixteenth century BC
Crown from the post-Meroitic period in Nubia, c. 350–600 AD, incorporating multiple wedjat eyes
Crown from the post-Meroitic period in Nubia, c. 350–600 AD, incorporating multiple wedjat eyes
Hieroglyphic form
D10
wedjat or Eye of Horus
Gardiner: D10
Egyptian hieroglyphs
A hieroglyphic version of the wedjat symbol, labeled D10 in the list of hieroglyphic signs drawn up by the Egyptologist Alan Gardiner, was used in writing as a determinative or ideogram for the Eye of Horus.[45]
The Egyptians sometimes used signs that represented pieces of the wedjat eye hieroglyph. In 1911, the Egyptologist Georg Möller noted that on New Kingdom "votive cubits", inscribed stone objects with a length of one cubit, these hieroglyphs were inscribed together with similarly shaped symbols in the hieratic writing system, a cursive writing system whose signs derived from hieroglyphs. The hieratic signs stood for fractions of a hekat, the basic Egyptian measure of volume. Möller hypothesized that the Horus-eye hieroglyphs were the original hieroglyphic forms of the hieratic fraction signs, and that the inner corner of the eye stood for 1/2, the pupil for 1/4, the eyebrow for 1/8, the outer corner for 1/16, the curling line for 1/32, and the cheek mark for 1/64. In 1923, T. Eric Peet pointed out that the hieroglyphs representing pieces of the eye are not found before the New Kingdom, and he suggested that the hieratic fraction signs had a separate origin but were reinterpreted during the New Kingdom to have a connection with the Eye of Horus. In the same decade, Möller's hypothesis was included in standard reference works on the Egyptian language, such as Ägyptische Grammatik by Adolf Erman and Egyptian Grammar by Alan Gardiner. Gardiner's treatment of the subject suggested that the parts of the eye were used to represent fractions because in myth the eye was torn apart by Set and later made whole. Egyptologists accepted Gardiner's interpretation for decades afterward.[46]
Jim Ritter, a historian of science and mathematics, analyzed the shape of the hieratic signs through Egyptian history in 2002. He concluded that "the further back we go the further the hieratic signs diverge from their supposed Horus-eye counterparts", thus undermining Möller's hypothesis. He also reexamined the votive cubits and argued that they do not clearly equate the Eye of Horus signs with the hieratic fractions, so even Peet's weaker form of the hypothesis was unlikely to be correct.[47] Nevertheless, the 2014 edition of James P. Allen's Middle Egyptian, an introductory book on the Egyptian language, still lists the pieces of the wedjat eye as representing fractions of a hekat.[45]
It costs US 5.55 (everything included).
It is wrong.
The Temple of Edfu is an Egyptian temple located on the west bank of the Nile in Edfu, Upper Egypt.
The city was known in the Hellenistic period as Koine Greek: after the chief god Horus, who was identified as Apollo under the interpretatio graeca. It is one of the best preserved shrines in Egypt.
The temple was built in the Ptolemaic Kingdom between 237 and 57 BC. The inscriptions on its walls provide important information on language, myth and religion during the Hellenistic period in Egypt. In particular, the Temple's inscribed building texts "provide details of its construction, and also preserve information about the mythical interpretation of this and all other temples as the Island of Creation." There are also "important scenes and inscriptions of the Sacred Drama which related the age-old conflict between Horus and Seth."
They are translated by the German Edfu-Project.
One of my favourite depictions of the god Horus (here, Horus the Behedite), from a loose stone in the temple of Khnum on Elephantine. I had photographed this block on my first visit to the island in 2001, but had not been able to find it any in of my return visits -- until now. (It's not hard to find, by the way, There's just so much to see.) Anyway, it was good to reconnect with an old friend.
Elephantine, Aswan, Egypt
Munich, Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst, September 2019
GL WAF 22. New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, reign of Amenhotep III (c. 1360 BCE). Probably from Amenhotep III's mortuary temple in Western Thebes, but discovered in Rome. Syenite. H. 168 cm.
De part et d'autre de la porte, deux magnifiques faucons hiératiques de 2 m en granit noir gardaient l'entrée du temple. Protecteur et image divine, le faucon Horus accompagnait Rê, l'astre solaire, et devenait ainsi le garant de l'ordre cosmique universel. Au-dessus du linteau un disque ailé encadré d'uræus, le représentait apparaissant entre les deux montagnes de l'horizon, évoquées par les deux môles du pylône. Sous sur le linteau, le roi Ptolémée XII Néos Dionysos offrait des tissus à Hathor, puis la Maât à Horus et Hathor, puis 2 miroirs à Hathor. Les montants montrent des scènes d’offrandes du roi à Horus, Hathor et Harsomtous, mais les battants de cèdre du Liban de la porte ont aujourd'hui disparu (cf. egypte-eternelle.org).
Designed and Folded by me from a Single Uncut 25cm square sheet of tracing paper.
32x32 grids box-pleating.
Horus - one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities, also known as the "Man with Falcon's head".
He was considered to contain the sun and moon, the sun being his right eye and the moon his left, and that they traversed the sky when he, a falcon, flew across it. (Source:Wikipedia)
Hope you all like it :)