The Cippus of Horus -- Episode 7 -- Egyptian Object Stories

Welcome back to Ancient Egyptian Object Stories. In this episode, we will look at a magical healing stela, referred to as the Sipis of Horus on the Crocodiles, commissioned by a priest named S. Atum. This episode moves us much further into Ancient Egyptian history than the previous object stories. This time, we will visit the end of the Late Period and the Ptolemaic Period in the 300s The particular object we are examining in this video dates to the reign of Noct Horheb II, or, more commonly, Nectanebo II, a king from the 30th dynasty and the very last Egyptian to rule Ancient Egypt. The object in this object story belongs to a format of stela known as a Sipis or Horus stela, which is a stela bearing an image of the god Horus and which has magical or healing properties. The conventional iconographic structure of such stelae features Horus as a child, identified as such by his side block, nude body, and the right forefinger pressed upon his lips. In this format, he is known by the name Horpacherid, meaning Horus the Child, or by the Greek name, Horpocrates. He is depicted frontally, facing the viewer, and stands upon two crocodiles. In his hands, he securely holds snakes and scorpions, as well as a lion and an antelope. Often, the head of the god Bess appears directly above the head of Horus. Though a child, Horus is powerful, able to subdue dangerous and aggressive animals of the desert and Nile, as well as swift antelope that are associated with the desert. The ancient Egyptians believed the desert, or as the Egyptians called it, the Red Land, was a dangerous place both in reality and symbolically. It was the domain of the god Seth, the uncle of Horus who had killed Osiris, Horus' father, so he could take the throne for himself. Seth was a god of chaos, storms, and violence, and took the form of a man with the head of an as yet unidentified animal. In one part of a story detailing the battle between Horus and Seth, Seth takes the form of an aggressive hippopotamus, who is then speared by Horus. Despite Seth's dangerous attributes, he is also instrumental in positive ways, such as protecting the sun god's journey through the afterlife by killing the evil snake Apep. Before Horus battled and defeated Seth and became the new king of the gods, he endured a harrowing childhood. To protect him from Seth, Isis hid with Horus in the marshland of northern Egypt. While hiding, Horus was poisoned by a snake or scorpion and fell gravely ill. It was the god of wisdom, Thoth, who took the form of a man with the head of an ibis, who magically cured Horus of the poison. The text of the Stele recounts the events of Horus' illness in well-composed rows and columns of exquisitely carved hieroglyphs. The story details how Isis first realized Horus had been injured, her pleas for help to Raharakti, god of the rising sun, and finally Thoth's intercession. All of these figures appear in high-raised relief on either side of Horus the child, each of the three standing on top of coiled snakes. Raharakti and Isis stand on his right and Thoth on his left. Between Horus and Thoth is a water lily flower in bloom, from which rise two falcon feathers. This motif probably represents another child god, Nefertem, whose headdress comprises the same iconography and who was associated with regeneration as well as the While not taking a particularly prominent position in the narrative, the presence of Nefertem creates physical symmetry in the number of gods flanking Horus as well as symbolic symmetry by corresponding to Raharakti's connection with the rising sun. The image of the head of Bess above Horus' head must refer to Bess's role as a protector god, often depicted frontally as in this relief. He was associated with the protection of the home but even more importantly with protecting children. On either side of Horus are the solar and lunar eyes. The solar eye, right eye, is often applied to various goddesses who were the daughters or eyes of Ra. According to Egyptian mythology, the eye of Ra fled southward in anger and had to be pacified by Thoth to convince her to return. But the solar and lunar eyes also refer to the eyes of Horus. The lunar eye, or wedjat eye, commonly the left eye of Horus, was a protective emblem. In the battle of Horus and Seth, Seth injured Horus' left eye and it was later restored by Thoth, the same god who healed Horus the child. It came to be associated with the lunar cycle, where the waning of the moon represented the injury to the eye and the waxing of the moon represented the healing of the eye. The eyes on this stela, combined with the pictorial representation of the story of Horus the child, emphasize the healing powers connected with the stela. More arcane images are carved in low-sunk relief in the lunette portion of the stela, on the front and the back. These images reveal the many stages in the dangerous nighttime journey of the sun through the underworld. During this journey, crocodiles, scorpions, and a composite Seth animal are speared or trampled to protect the sun god. Isis, Thoth, and Horus appear many times, pictorially relating the narrative of Horus the child. In the top register of the lunette, on the front and back, and occasionally in the registers below, an elaborate composite form of the sun god appears. Here he has four ram heads of Amun, the Atif crown of Osiris, and two pairs of wings. The elaborate composite deity format began to appear and become popular in the Late Period and Ptolemaic Period, depicted in relief on temple walls and stelae, and they were also carved as statues. The composite sun god on the reverse of the stela stands above an oval enclosing dangerous desert and Nile animals, and he holds various staves and weapons indicating his triumph over chaos. The purpose of this stela and other Horus on the crocodile stelae was a magical or a healing device for people who suffered from scorpion stings or snake bites, and perhaps even crocodile attacks. An afflicted person need only have read the inscription or, since most Egyptians appear to have been illiterate, have the text read to them. Otherwise another method was to drink water that was poured over the stela. By these methods, the protective forces imbued in the stela could then be consumed by the afflicted individual and be healed as a result. In the case of this particular stela, it may not have been a device used by the common crowd due to the appearance of King Nectunebo II at the top of the lunette. It may have been a ceremonial stela not to be used, or maybe it could have been used specifically by the king or priesthood as the commissioner, Esatun, was a priest. Thank you for watching, and I hope you will join me again for my next ancient Egyptian object story. For further reading, please see the description box below. If you liked this video, don't forget to click the like button and subscribe to be notified of future content.