New Kingdom Faience Amulet of Isis and Horus, 1600 BCE - 1100 BCE
Faience
PF.4423
Further images
This charming amulet is in the form of a seated statuette of the goddess Isis. On her head is a sun disc surrounded by a pair of cow horns. She...
This charming amulet is in the form of a seated statuette of the goddess Isis. On her head is a sun disc surrounded by a pair of cow horns. She holds the infant god Horus, who nurses at her breast. In Egyptian myth, Isis is the sister and spouse of Osiris. They are descended from the sun god re through the Heliopolitan ennead. The child of Isis and Osiris, Horus, was embodied in the pharaoh. According to the myth, Seth, the brother of Horus, murdered his father Osiris. In one version, the pieces of Osiris's body were buried throughout Egypt. Isis searched for them and reunited the pieces. The union between Isis and the deceased Osiris produced the child Horus. The living king was identified with Horus, but when he died, he was identified with Osiris, who was king of the netherworld. The deceased king's successor then became the Horus.