This molded amulet of gray-green-glazed faience portrays Horus, the son of Osiris, flanked by Nephthys (left) and her sister Isis (right). Both goddesses are shown with the high, round breasts, very narrow waists, and long legs characteristic of the Late Period. Their slender bodies are clad in tight-fitting dresses that reach their ankles. They are identified by their headdresses. Horus is naked and wears his hair in a side lock. The three hold hands and step confidently forward as the goddesses escort the young god.1

As is typical of Egyptian art, Horus’s youth is not indicated by his height or his physique (which resembles that of an idealized adult male) but rather by standard artistic conventions of nudity and the “side lock of youth” on the right side of his head.^[1] This sort of mold-made amulet was produced in large numbers in Dynasty 26. Some examples show the goddesses reversed, with Isis on Horus’s right and Nephthys on his left. Here, the two goddesses’ bodies are not fully engaged with the slab-like back pillar, their shoulders and parts of their arms and legs extending beyond it, while other examples show the goddesses entirely contained within the frame.^[2] On the reverse of the amulet at about the level of the deities’ head is a loop of faience scored with four lines, perhaps in imitation of a cord. This loop could have been used to attach the amulet to another surface.2

In the Osiris myth, Isis and Nephthys act as the mourners for Osiris; they are often shown positioned at either end of the god’s funerary bier (see cats. 98, 100). Here, in an allusion to their protection of Osiris, they flank his son Horus.3

These amulets are usually found on the lower part of the torso of the mummy, sometimes in multiples.^[3] 4

Additional Views of Cat. 74

For more on amulets, see About Amulets.5

Provenance

The Art Institute of Chicago, acquired in 1910.6

Publication History

Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923), 127.7

Roberta Casagrande-Kim, ed., When the Greeks Ruled Egypt: From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra, with contributions by Mary C. Greuel et al., exh. cat. (New York: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, 2014), 99, no. 85.
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