Egyptian wood amulet depicting Bes

E101

£175.00

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A carved hardwood amulet depicting the god Bes.

Bes was a minor god of ancient Egypt, represented as a dwarf with large head, goggle eyes, protruding tongue, bowlegs, bushy tail, and usually a crown of feathers. The god’s figure was that of a grotesque mountebank and was intended to inspire joy or drive away pain and sorrow, his hideousness being perhaps supposed to scare away evil spirits. He was associated with music and with childbirth and was represented in the “birth houses” devoted to the cult of the child god.

Culture
Egypt, 1st Millennium BC

Size
3.2 x 1.2 cms

Condition
Surface wear and losses as seen in the photographs

Provenance
Ex. private collection, Midlands, UK; acquired by family inheritance from a collection formed in Birmingham, UK, during the 1940’s-1950’s.

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