LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 664-332 B.C.

Although the episode of the young god Horus avenging the murder of his father Osiris forms one of the central myths of ancient Egyptian religion, depictions in three dimensions of Horus attacking one of the animals associated with the chaotic force of god Seth are extremely rare. This relatively large example represents Horus in falcon-headed form as “the Behdetite,” wielding his harpoon against a diminutive figure of a hippo or boar at his feet. Unlike any other deity the god wears purely royal iconography: the double crown with uraeus cobra, and the tripartite royal kilt, signaling his conceptual identification with the reigning king. The iconography shown here closely relates to the scenes of the Horus cycle at Edfu Temple, where the Seth animal is similarly shown at small scale in order to nullify any potential harmful effects. Although the speared animal is usually identified as a hippopotamus, texts and some depictions also allow the interpretation of the animal symbolic of Seth as a black boar; the markings on the body of this animal resemble the bristles of a boar more than the smooth skin of the hippo (cf. P. E. Newberry, “The Pig and the Cult-Animal of Set.” JEA 14, 1928, pp. 211-225). Two smaller amulets of Ptolemaic date depict Horus spearing a similar animal, which he holds captive with a rope (Hannover, Kestner-Museum 1935.200.767, M. von Falck in Pharao Siegt Immer. Krieg und Frieden im alten Ägypten, Bönen, 2004, Cat. 10, p. 23; and Freiburg, ÄFig. 1983.1, M. Page-Gasser in O. Keel and T. Staubli, Im Schatten Deiner Flügel:Tiere in der Bibel und im Alten Orient, 2001, cat. 93, pp. 92-3). At a scale and in a style more comparable to the present example are a bronze figure of Horus spearing a trussed antelope rendered in relief on the top of the base (Walters Art Museum 54.2069, dated to Dynasty 26-27), and an example in Cairo showing Horus standing directly atop a trussed antelope (Cairo CG 38.618, Daressy, Statues de Divinités vol II, pl. XXXIV, there dated to Dynasty 26).

The inscription on the base of this statuette invokes “Horus the Behdetite, the Great God, Lord of Heaven” and names it’s dedicator as “Harsomtus (Hor-sema-tawy), son of Ankh-sema-tawy, born of the Lady of the House Iret-erou.” The personal name Harsomtus means “Horus the Uniter of the Two Lands,” a name especially appropriate for the dedication of a statuette to this god. While this individual cannot be identified precisely in any known inscriptions, a Dynasty 26 torso of a man called Ankh-sema-tawy was formerly in a Swiss private collection, (K. Jansen-Winkeln, Inschriften der Spätzeit IV, part II, no. 400, pp. 963-4), and inscriptions of the same date of a man named Hor-sema-tawy relate to priests of the god Sobek (Berlin 11471), while the name Ankh-sema-tawy also occurs on a group statue from Kom Faris, the center of the Sobek cult in the Fayum district (Jansen-Winkeln Inschriften der Spätzeit IV, part II, no. 404, pp. 965-6).