Horus-the-Child, heir to the king, Dyn. 26
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Links to others from Dynasty 26Amulet of Pataikos, Dyn. 26Amulet of Shu, Dyn. 26 Bronze of a king as Osiris, Dyn. 26 Bronze of a king as Osiris, Dyn. 26 Bronze of King Psamtik I as Osiris, Dyn. 26 Bronze of King Psamtik I as Osiris, Dyn. 26 Bronze statuette of Bastet, Dyn. 26 Cartouche of King Nekau II, Dyn. 26 Djed pillar, amulet of powers, Dyn. 26 Face from a sarcophagus lid, Dyn. 26 Face from a sarcophagus lid, Dyn. 26 Faience shawabti of Hekamsaf, Dyn. 26 Falcon sarcophagus with Osiris mummy Glass necklace terminal, Dyn. 26 King Ahmose II (?) as Osiris, Dynasty 26 King Nekaw II as Horus-the-child, Dyn.26 Large wooden Ka statue, Dyn. 26 Light blue faience shawabti, Dyn. 26 Osiris with Djed pillar on back, Dyn. 26 Sarcophagus and mummy of Taosir, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Admiral Hekaemsaf, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Hor, son of Rurer, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Hor-sa-Iset-Mut-f, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Hor-Wdja, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Khonsu-Hor, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of King Psamtik I, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of King Psamtik I, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of King Psamtik II, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of King Psamtik II, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of King Psamtik III, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Mery-Seth-Hor-Mes, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Mery-Seth-Hor-Mes, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Neith-M-Hat, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Prince Horiraa, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Prince Horiraa, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Prince Horiraa, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Prince Ir-Irw, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Prophet Wahibre, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Prophet Wahibre, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Psamtik-mry-imn, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Psamtikmeryptah, Dyn. 26 Shawabti of Royal Prince Ahmes, Dyn. 26 Staff finial, Thoth as a baboon, Dyn. 26 Two-fingers mummy amulet, Dyn. 26 Udjat eye amulet-pendant, Dyn. 26 Udjat eye amulet-pendant, Dyn. 26 Udjat eye amulet-pendant, Dyn. 26 Upper Egypt crown amulet, Dyn. 26 Wooden sarcophagus lid, circa 650 BC Wooden sarcophagus lid, Dyn. 26 Links to others representing HorusBronze Horus sarcophagus, Dyn.18Falcon sarcophagus with Osiris mummy Horus, Lord of the Two Lands. N.K. Horus-the-Child, 1070-774 BC Horus-the-Child, Alexandria, 100-30 BC Horus-the-Child, Alexandria, 304-30 BC Horus-the-Child as a ruling king, Dyn. 18 Horus-the-Child as Amun, 776-656 BC Horus-the-Child, Dyn.19, 1300-1200 BC Horus-the-Child, Dyn. 25, 776-656 BC Horus-the-child, Meroe, 590-300 BC Horus-the-Child, Ptolemaic, 200-100 BC Horus-the-Child, Ptolemaic, 304-30 BC Horus-the-Child riding a swan, 304-31 BC Pair of udjat eyes of Horus, Dyn. 18 Wood statuette of Horus stiding, Dyn. 11 Wooden sarcophagus lid, Dyn. 26 Links to others of type Statuette-manBacchus the child, Roman, 100 BC-200 ADBes in terra-cotta, Dyn. 27 Bronze athlete, Rome, 96-192 AD Bronze Etruscan warrior, Etruria, 480 BC Bronze Herakles, Etruria, 500 BC Bronze Imhotep seated, Dyn. 25 (?) Bronze ithyphallic god Bes, Ptolemaic Bronze of a king as Nefertem, N.K. Bronze of a king as Orisiris, Dyn. 18-19 Bronze of a king as Osiris, Dyn. 18 Bronze of a king as Osiris, Dyn. 22 Bronze of a king as Osiris, Dyn. 26 Bronze of a king as Osiris, Dyn. 26 Bronze of King Psamtik I as Osiris, Dyn. 26 Bronze of King Psamtik I as Osiris, Dyn. 26 Bronze of King Sethi I as Nefertem, Dyn. 19 Bronze of King Shabaka ? as Osiris, Dyn. 25 Bronze of Ptah, Memphis, Dyn. 25 Bronze ritual pendant of Osiris, Dyn. 25 Bronze Samnite gladiator, Rome, 30 BC-68 AD Bronze statuette of Anhur, Dyn. 20 Bronze statuette of Ptah, Dyn. 25 Bust of Zeus, Macedonian Dynasty Disrobing ephebe, Roman World, 50-300 AD Enameled feathers of Amun, Dyn. 18 Gilded wooden statuette. Early Dynastic God Bes as a Roman soldier 30 BC-200 AD Head, realistic portrait in stone, Dyn 18 Horus-the-Child, 1070-774 BC Horus-the-Child, Alexandria, 100-30 BC Horus-the-Child, Alexandria, 304-30 BC Horus-the-Child as a ruling king, Dyn. 18 Horus-the-Child as Amun, 776-656 BC Horus-the-Child, Dyn.19, 1300-1200 BC Horus-the-Child, Dyn. 25, 776-656 BC Horus-the-Child, Ptolemaic, 200-100 BC Horus-the-Child, Ptolemaic, 304-30 BC Horus-the-Child riding a swan, 304-31 BC Imhotep, vizier and architect of King Djoser Ivory head of Emperor Constantine King Ahmose II (?) as Osiris, Dynasty 26 King Amenemope (?) as Osiris, Dyn. 21 King Amenhotep II (?) as Amun-Re, Dyn. 18 King as Horus-the-Child, Dyn. 12 King Horemheb as Amun-Re, Dyn. 18 King Nekaw II as Horus-the-child, Dyn.26 Osiris, King of the Afterlife, Dyn. 18 Osiris, King of the Afterlife, Dyn. 22 Osiris of an unknown king, Dyn. 18 (?) Osiris-Neper, god of agriculture, Dyn. 18 Osiris-Neper, god of agriculture, Dyn. 22 Osiris-Neper, god of agriculture, Dyn. 25 Porphyry statue of Alexander The Great Pottery child head, Phoenicia, 1000-500 BC Pottery silenus (satyr), Greece, 350-300 BC Priest of Hapy, temple of Aswan, Dyn. 20 Ptah-Min of Memphis, Dyn. 20 Queen as Goddess Neith seated, Dyn. 25106 Ruling king as Khonsu, Dyn. 20 Sept, local prince of Nubia, Dyn. 12-13 Statue pedestal of Osorkon II, Dyn. 22 Statuette of a privileged man, Dyn. 18 Stone bust of a scribe, Dyn. 18 Stone head of a king, Dyn. 12 Stone statue of King Thutmose III, Dyn. 18 Tall bronze Osiris, Ptolemaic Period Unfinished stone statue, Dyn. 19 Wood statue of Amenemhat II, Dyn. 12 Wood statue of King Smenkhkare, Dyn. 18 |
This exquisite bronze statuette in a remarkable state of preservation represents Horus-the-child (also known by his Greek name of Harpokrates), as denoted by the side lock of hair, and one finger brought to his mouth. Here, he is shown striding, wearing the hememhet crown. The general style is indicative of the best artists of Dynasty 26 (664-525 BC). It appears to have been created as a portrait of the heir of a Saite King, possibly Nekaw II, son of Psamtek I. A hieroglyphic text runs all around the massive pedestal. From the front to the left, it reads: “Khonsu: may ‘he’ live the son of the king! Shu, who protects the seat of his fathers Amun and Ptah—the born of the lotus flower may ‘he’ allow Sokar to open the foreign region, the gold papyrus roll” (Hnsw di anh sa nsw s saw st itwy imn pth ms yt ha rdi wn skr ds pa nbwt nbw sat rdi f n). Horus The falcon god Horus embodies one of the most fundamental tenets of Egyptian religious and political beliefs. “According to the Turin Canon [a papyrus from the time of Ramses II], the late Predynastic rulers of Egypt were ‘followers of Horus’. By the time of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in 3000 BC, the ruler was Horus” (Hart 1986:89). Therefore unlike, say, medieval European kings, Egyptian kings were not ‘kings by the grace of God.’ They were not born as gods either. Instead, it is upon their enthronement that Egyptian kings became the embodiment on earth of the god Horus. They would remain the earthly manifestation of Horus throughout their lives, until the next king became inhabited by the god. As central as he is to Egyptian thought, Horus often escapes our comprehension and frustrates our modern want for clear unique explanations of concepts. Egyptians were perhaps more comfortable than we are with some fifteen different manifestations of Horus (Horus the Elder, Horus the Child, Hariese, Harakhti, Horus of Behdet, Harmachis, Horus of Nekhen, Horus of Mesen, etc.), his various forms (falcon, falcon-headed man, sun disk, and child with a side lock of hair), and his ever changing filiation (son of Geb and Nut, or son of Hator, or son of Ra, or son of Isis and Osiris) (Armour 2001:71). Some of this confusion arises from geographical and temporal variations which have been flattened from our current vantage point. Yet, some of the complexity remains. “. . . at Edfu, Horus appears as the consort of Hathor and the father of another form of himself, Harsomtus” (Redford 2002:166). Few Egyptian gods remained important in all periods, in all regions, and in all strata of society. Horus may be a rare exception. He was prominent at the birth of the nation, and was still prominent three thousand five hundred years later when the last Egyptian temple—the temple of Philae—was shut down by Justinian in 550 AD. In all his variations, Horus was not only present in both upper and lower Egypt, but could be claimed as a ‘local god’ in many places. More importantly, although Horus was the quintessential official god of the powerful, he was also a god close to ordinary Egyptians, as demonstrated by the popularity of ceppis (Horus the child standing over crocodiles) and Udjat eyes (the eye of Horus) as devices to ask the god for help warding off pain, disease, and fears. “The iconography of Horus either influenced, or was appropriated, in early Christian art. Isis and the baby Horus may be seen as the precursor for Mary and the infant Jesus; Horus dominating the beasts may have a counterpart in Christ Pantokaor doing the same; and Horus spearing a serpent may survive in the iconography of Saint George defeating the dragon” (Redford 2002:167). “As a cosmic deity Horus is imagined as a falcon whose wings are the sky and whose right eye is the sun and left eye the moon” (Hart 1986:94). Dynasty 26 Born in times of weakness, when Egypt was regularly invaded and generally controlled by the Assyrians, Dynasty 26 (‘the Saite Dynasty’) was installed at the head of the tiny kingdoms of Sais and Athribis in the Delta by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. This turned out to be a bad move for Assyria. Within 12 years, in an astonishing reversal of fortunes, the Saite king Psamtik would reunify Egypt under his crown and liberate his nation from Assyrian domination. Weaving the clear threat of his military power with extremely agile diplomacy and carefully orchestrated ideology, Psamtek brought about the political reorganization that had eluded his predecessors for four hundred years. At last, Egypt was once again led by a centralized authority—an all powerful king, a guardian of order, a living god. It was a true rebirth for Egypt, with a once again thriving economy, a recovered sense of national identity, and a new-found opening to the outside world—most particularly to the Greek World. Under Psamtik’s agile leadership, Egypt was simultaneously moving forward and drawing strength from its glorious past—most particularly that of the Old and Middle Kingdoms. This was particularly manifest in the arts. Craftsmen of the Saite period aspired to equal, and hoped to surpass, their Middle Kingdom predecessors, while adhering closely to the classic canons of aesthetic tradition—a scenario that would play out again 2200 years later when artists of the Italian renaissance sought to rise to the standards set by their Ancient Greek predecessors. Managing their new prosperity with great skill, while keeping the Babylonians at bay, the Saites embarked on an ambitious program of building, restoring, and embellishing. Commerce flourished under dedicated military protection and ambitious public works projects, such as the digging of a canal from the Nile to the the Red Sea—2500 years before the Suez Canal. Although brilliant by its achievements and the remarkable period of peace and stability it carved within the context of an increasingly turbulent Mediterranean world, the Saite Dynasty was somewhat short-lived (139 years). Its increasing reliance on foreign mercenaries caused tensions, and eventually infighting within the military establishment. Militarily weakened, Egypt became easy prey for the Persian juggernaut. In 525, Persia took over Egypt, putting a sudden end to the Saite period. Egypt would never again shine so brightly. Bibliography (for this item)Khalil, Hassan M.1976 Preliminary Studies on the Sanusret Collection. Manuscript, Musée l’Egypte et le Monde Antique, Monaco-Ville, Monaco. ([2]24-25) Shaw, Ian, and Paul Nicholson 1995 The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. British Museum Press, London, United Kingdom. (133) Bibliography (on Horus)Hart, George1986 A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, United Kingdom. (94) Redford, Donald B. 2002 The Ancient Gods Speak. Oxford University Press, New York, NY. (166) |
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