Eye of Horus

This article is about the ancient Egyptian symbol. For the video game, seeEye of Horus(video game).

The leftwedjateye, symbolizing the Eye of Horus

TheEye of Horus,also known asleftwedjateyeorudjateye,specular to theEye of Ra(rightwedjateye), is a concept and symbol inancient Egyptian religionthat represents well-being, healing, and protection. It derives from themythical conflictbetween the godHoruswith his rivalSet,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 asThoth.Horus subsequently offered the eye to his deceased fatherOsiris,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 intempleritual. It could also represent other concepts, such as the moon, whose wa xing 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 haveprotective magical powerand appeared frequently inancient Egyptian art.It was one of the most common motifs for amulets, remaining in use from theOld Kingdom(c. 2686–2181 BC) to theRoman period(30 BC – 641 AD). Pairs of Horus eyes were painted on coffins during theFirst Intermediate Period(c. 2181–2055 BC) andMiddle Kingdom(c. 2055–1650 BC). Other contexts where the symbol appeared include on carved stonestelaeand on the bows of boats. To some extent the symbol was adopted by the people of regions neighboring Egypt, such asSyria,Canaan,and especiallyNubia.

The eye symbol was also rendered as ahieroglyph(𓂀). Egyptologists have long believed that hieroglyphs representing pieces of the symbol stand for fractions inancient Egyptian mathematics,although this hypothesis has been challenged.

Origins

Amulet from thetomb of Tutankhamun,fourteenth century BC, incorporating the Eye of Horus beneath a disk and crescent symbol representing the moon

Theancient Egyptian godHoruswas a sky deity, and many Egyptian texts say that Horus's right eye was the sun and his left eye the moon.The solar eye and lunar eye were sometimes equated with theredandwhite crownof Egypt, respectively.Some texts treat the Eye of Horus seemingly interchangeably with theEye of Ra,which in other contexts is an extension of the power of the sun godRaand is often personified as a goddess.The EgyptologistRichard H. Wilkinsonbelieves the two eyes of Horus gradually became distinguished as the lunar Eye of Horus and the solar Eye of Ra.Other Egyptologists, however, argue that no text clearly equates the eyes of Horus with the sun and moon until theNew Kingdom(c. 1550–1070 BC);Rolf Krauss argues that the Eye of Horus originally representedVenusas themorning star and evening starand only later became equated with the moon.

Katja Goebs argues that the myths surrounding the Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra are based around the samemytheme,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 godSet,in their struggle for the kingship of Egypt after the death of Horus's fatherOsiris.

Mythology

Further information:Osiris myth § Conflict of Horus and Set

Figurine ofThoth,in the form of a baboon, holding thewedjateye, seventh to fourth century BC

ThePyramid Texts,which date to the lateOld Kingdom(c. 2686–2181 BC), are one of the earliest sources for Egyptian myth.They prominently feature the conflict between Horus and Set,and the Eye of Horus is mentioned in about a quarter of the utterances that make up the Pyramid Texts.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.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 commonlyThoth,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.In theBook of the Deadfrom the New Kingdom, Set is said to have taken the form of a black boar when striking Horus's eye.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 goddessHathorwho restores Horus's eyes, by anointing them with the milk of agazelle.In Papyrus Jumilhac, a mythological text from early in thePtolemaic Period(332–30 BC), Horus's motherIsiswaters the buried pair of eyes, causing them to grow into the first grape vines.

The restoration of the eye was often referred to as "filling" the eye. Hathor filled Horus's eye sockets with the gazelle's milk,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.The process of filling the Eye of Horus was likened to the wa xing of the moon, and the fifteen deities in the Greco-Roman texts represented the fifteen days from the new moon to the full moon.

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.

Beginning in the New Kingdom,the Eye of Horus was known as thewḏꜣt(often rendered aswedjatorudjat), meaning the "whole", "completed", or "uninjured" eye.It is unclear whether the termwḏꜣtrefers to the eye that was destroyed and restored, or to the one that Set left unharmed.

A personified Eye of Horus offers incense to the enthroned godOsirisin a painting from the tomb ofPashedu,thirteenth century BC

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 ofancient Egyptian funerary customs.It also influenced the conception of offering rites that were performed on behalf of deities intemples.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.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.The eye's restorative power meant the Egyptians considered it a symbol ofprotection against evil,in addition to its other meanings.

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.Moreover, the Egyptian word for "eye",jrt,resembledjrj,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.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.The eye was often equated withmaat,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.

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 infunerary texts.Beginning in the time of the Coffin Texts from theMiddle Kingdom(c. 2055–1650 BC), funerary texts parallel the progression of these festivals, and hence the wa xing of the moon, with the healing of the Eye of Horus.

Healing texts

Ancient Egyptian medicineinvolved both practical treatments and rituals that invoked divine powers, andEgyptian medical papyrido not clearly distinguish the two. Healing rituals frequently equate patients with Horus, so the patient may be healed as Horus was in myth.For this reason, the Eye of Horus is frequently mentioned in such spells. TheHearst 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.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.

Symbol

Shard of afaiencethrowing stickpainted with thewedjateye

Horus was represented as afalcon,such as alannerorperegrine falcon,or as a human with a falcon head.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 EgyptologistRichard H. Wilkinsonsuggests that the curling line is derived from the facial markings of thecheetah,which the Egyptians associated with the sky because the spots in its coat were likened to stars.

The stylized eye symbol was used interchangeably to represent the Eye of Ra. Egyptologists often simply refer to this symbol as thewedjateye.

Amulets

A variety ofwedjateye amulets

Amulets in the shape of thewedjateye first appeared in the late Old Kingdom and continued to be produced up to Roman times.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 Kingdommummies,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, funerarywedjatamulets 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.

Wedjatamulets were made from a wide variety of materials, includingEgyptian faience,glass, gold, and semiprecious stones such aslapis 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: auraeus,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.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 thewedjateye on one side and the figure of a goddess on the other.TheThird 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.

The eye symbol could also be incorporated into larger pieces of jewelry alongside other protective symbols, such as theankhanddjedsigns and various emblems of deities.Beginning in the thirteenth century BC, glass beads bearing eye-like spots were strung on necklaces together withwedjatamulets, which may be the origin of the modernnazar,a type of bead meant to ward off theevil eye.

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 thewedjateye on linen or papyrus to serve as a temporary amulet.

• 
  Wedjatamulet with a cobra,Cairo Museum
• 
  Amulet of thewedjatwith the goddessesNekhbetandWadjet
• 
  Wedjatamulet with a cobra and the wing and legs of a bird

Other uses

Wedjateyes appeared in a wide variety of contexts in Egyptian art. Coffins of theFirst Intermediate Period(c. 2181–2055 BC) and Middle Kingdom often included a pair ofwedjateyes 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.Wedjateyes were sometimes portrayed with wings, hovering protectively over kings or deities.Stelae,or carved stone slabs, were often inscribed withwedjateyes. In some periods of Egyptian history, only deities or kings could be portrayed directly beneath thewinged sunsymbol that often appeared in the lunettes of stelae, and Eyes of Horus were placed above figures of common people.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 severalwedjateyes.

Some cultures neighboring Egypt adopted thewedjatsymbol for use in their own art. Some Egyptian artistic motifs became widespread in art fromCanaanandSyriaduring theMiddle Bronze Age.Art of this era sometimes incorporated thewedjat,though it was much more rare than other Egyptian symbols such as theankh.In contrast, thewedjatappeared frequently in art of theKingdom of KushinNubia,in the first millennium BC and early first millennium AD, demonstrating Egypt's heavy influence upon Kush.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 thewedjateye on boats.

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  Wedjateyes on the coffin of Irinimenpu, twentieth to seventeenth century BC
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  Wingedwedjateyes on the coffin of Henettawy, tenth century BC
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  Wedjateyes atop the stela of Uhemmenu, sixteenth century BC
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  Crown from the post-Meroitic period in Nubia,c. 350–600 AD,incorporating multiplewedjateyes

Hieroglyphic form

wedjator Eye of Horus inhieroglyphs
Gardiner:D10

Ahieroglyphicversion of thewedjatsymbol, labeled D10 in thelist of hieroglyphic signsdrawn up by the EgyptologistAlan Gardiner,was used in writing as adeterminativeorideogramfor the Eye of Horus.

The Egyptians sometimes used signs that represented pieces of thewedjateye hieroglyph. In 1911, the EgyptologistGeorg Möllernoted that on New Kingdom "votive cubits", inscribed stone objects with a length of onecubit,these hieroglyphs were inscribed together with similarly shaped symbols in thehieraticwriting system, a cursive writing system whose signs derived from hieroglyphs. The hieratic signs stood for fractions of ahekat,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 Peetpointed 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 asÄgyptische GrammatikbyAdolf ErmanandEgyptian Grammarby 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.

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.Nevertheless, the 2014 edition ofJames P. Allen'sMiddle Egyptian,an introductory book on the Egyptian language, still lists the pieces of thewedjateye as representing fractions of ahekat.

The hieroglyph for the Eye of Horus is listed in theEgyptian Hieroglyphsblock of theUnicodestandard for encoding symbols in computing, as U+13080 (𓂀). The hieroglyphs for parts of the eye (𓂁,𓂂,𓂃,𓂄,𓂅,𓂆,𓂇) are listed as U+13081 through U+13087.

Character information

Preview	𓂀		𓂁		𓂂		𓂃		𓂄		𓂅		𓂆		𓂇
Unicode name	EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH D010		EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH D011		EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH D012		EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH D013		EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH D014		EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH D015		EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH D016		EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH D017
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	77952	U+13080	77953	U+13081	77954	U+13082	77955	U+13083	77956	U+13084	77957	U+13085	77958	U+13086	77959	U+13087
UTF-8	240 147 130 128	F0 93 82 80	240 147 130 129	F0 93 82 81	240 147 130 130	F0 93 82 82	240 147 130 131	F0 93 82 83	240 147 130 132	F0 93 82 84	240 147 130 133	F0 93 82 85	240 147 130 134	F0 93 82 86	240 147 130 135	F0 93 82 87
UTF-16	55308 56448	D80C DC80	55308 56449	D80C DC81	55308 56450	D80C DC82	55308 56451	D80C DC83	55308 56452	D80C DC84	55308 56453	D80C DC85	55308 56454	D80C DC86	55308 56455	D80C DC87
Numeric character reference	𓂀	𓂀	𓂁	𓂁	𓂂	𓂂	𓂃	𓂃	𓂄	𓂄	𓂅	𓂅	𓂆	𓂆	𓂇	𓂇

Works cited

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• Goebs, Katja (2002). "A Functional Approach to Egyptian Myth and Mythemes".Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions.2(1): 27–59.doi:10.1163/156921202762733879.
• Griffiths, J. Gwyn(1960).The Conflict of Horus and Seth.Liverpool University Press.
• Ikram, Salima;Dodson, Aidan (1998).The Mummy in Ancient Egypt: Equipping the Dead for Eternity.Thames & Hudson.ISBN978-0-500-05088-0.
• Kaper, Olaf E. (2001). "Myths: Lunar Myths". InRedford, Donald B.(ed.).The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt.Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. pp. 480–482.ISBN978-0-19-510234-5.
• Krauss, Rolf (2002). "The Eye of Horus and the Planet Venus: Astronomical and Mythological References". In Steele, John M.; Imhausen, Annette (eds.).Under One Sky: Astronomy and Mathematics in the Ancient Near East.Ugarit-Verlag. pp. 193–208.ISBN3-934628-26-5.
• Lorton, David (1999). "The Theology of Cult Statues in Ancient Egypt". In Dick, Michael B. (ed.).Born in Heaven, Made on Earth: The Making of the Cult Image in the Ancient Near East.Eisenbrauns. pp. 123–210.ISBN978-1-57506-024-8.
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• Potts, Albert M. (1982).The World's Eye.University Press of Kentucky.ISBN978-0-8131-1387-6.
• Ritter, Jim (2002). "Closing the Eye of Horus: The Rise and Fall of 'Horus-eye Fractions'".In Steele, John M.; Imhausen, Annette (eds.).Under One Sky: Astronomy and Mathematics in the Ancient Near East.Ugarit-Verlag. pp. 297–323.ISBN3-934628-26-5.
• Robins, Gay (2008).The Art of Ancient Egypt, Revised Edition.Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-674-03065-7.
• Shafer, Byron E (1997). "Temples, Priests, and Rituals: An Overview". In Shafer, Byron E (ed.).Temples of Ancient Egypt.Cornell University Press. pp. 1–30.ISBN0-8014-3399-1.
• Teissier, Beatrice (1996).Egyptian Iconography on Syro-Palestinian Cylinder Seals of the Middle Bronze Age.Academic Press Fribourg / Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen.ISBN978-3-7278-1039-8/ISBN978-3-525-53892-0
• Turner, Philip John (2013).Seth: A Misrepresented God in the Ancient Egyptian Pantheon?.Archaeopress.ISBN978-1-4073-1084-8.
• te Velde, Herman (1967).Seth, God of Confusion.Translated by G. E. Van Baaren-Pape. E.J. Brill.
• "Unicode 13.0 Character Code Charts: Egyptian Hieroglyphs"(PDF).Unicode Consortium. 2020.Retrieved28 March2020.
• Watson, Traci (12 May 2016)."Intricate animal and flower tattoos found on Egyptian mummy".Nature.53(155): 155.Bibcode:2016Natur.533..155W.doi:10.1038/nature.2016.19864.PMID27172024.S2CID4465165.
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Further reading

• Rudnitsky, Günter (1956).Die Aussage über "das Auge des Horus"(in German). Ejnar Munksgaard.
• Westendorf, Wolfhart (1980). "Horusauge". In Helck, Wolfgang; Otto, Eberhard; Westendorf, Wolfhart (eds.).Lexikon der Ägyptologie(in German). Vol. 3. Harrassowitz. pp. 48–51.ISBN978-3-447-02100-5.

External links

• Media related toEye of Horusat Wikimedia Commons