Statuette of a Child God, probably Horus the Child (Harpocrates)
Late Period–Ptolemaic Period (664–30 BCE)
- Medium
- Copper alloy
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 18.8 × 6.9 × 5.1 cm (7 3/8 × 2 11/16 × 2 in.)
- Culture
- Egypt
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Africa
- Credit line
- Purchased with funds provided by Henry H. Getty, Charles L. Hutchinson, Robert H. Fleming, and Norman W. Harris
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The child god Horus was worshipped as the hero-to-be who would avenge his father’s murder. Horus also symbolized eternal life through his role as the sun, battling evil at night to rise triumphant every morning. The Greek form of the Egyptian “Horus the Child” is “Harpokrates.” The god’s youth is indicated by his side lock of hair and his finger touching his mouth. The Greeks and later the Romans worshipped him with his parents as part of a growing interest in mystery cults promising a true and real life after death.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
