Sunday, June 26, 2011
"A Little Piece of the Puzzle"
1:31pm


Wedjat-Eye Amulet (at the Brooklyn Museum)
Glazed faience
Egypt
Late Period, ca. 664-305 B.C.E.
02.235, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

There's a fascinating thing in Egyptology that has mystified me. The eye of Horus is called the Wadjet and there is a serpent goddess called Wadjet. How did they both have names so similar?

(From Wikipedia)
"The Eye of Horus (Wedjat)[1] (previously Wadjet and the Eye of the Moon; and afterwards as The Eye of Ra)[2] or ("Udjat")[3] is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and royal power from deities, in this case from Horus or Ra. The symbol is seen on images of Horus' mother, Hathor, and on other deities associated with her. In the Egyptian language, the word for this symbol was "Wedjat".[4][5] It was the eye of one of the earliest of Egyptian deities, Wadjet, who later became associated with Bast, Mut, and Hathor as well. Wedjat was a solar deity and this symbol began as her eye, an all seeing eye."


From Budge's two-volume dictionary, "the goddess of the eye of Horus"

I was still confused. I came across Coffin Text Spell 313 in which Horus states: "I created my Eye in flame... I made my Eye, a living serpent." That clarified it some. Today I came across a tomb scene via Flicker, which demonstrates this:


Photo from which I traced for this illustration. We can see Horus to the left of the eye which is producing flames
As I study the original photo, the flames are going up into Osiris' crook and flail,
perhaps it is saying Horus is lending strength to Osiris for him to rule in the Underworld?

Forward...
Go Back to Archives...
Go Back to Main Journal Index Page...
Go to Index of Joan's pages...


© Joan Ann Lansberry