The Eye of Horus, also known as the wedjat-eye, is a potent symbol from ancient Egyptian religion that embodies well-being, healing, and protection. It is typically depicted as the left wedjat-eye, with the right wedjat-eye representing the Eye of Ra.
Mythological Origins
The origins of the Eye of Horus are rooted in a mythical conflict between the god Horus and his rival, Set. In this ancient tale, Set tore out or damaged one or both of Horus's eyes. With the assistance of other deities, such as Thoth, the eye was subsequently healed and restored to Horus. Horus then offered this revitalized eye to his deceased father, Osiris, which sustained Osiris in the afterlife. This act led to the Eye of Horus being equated with funerary offerings and all offerings made to deities in temple rituals.
Symbolism and Protective Power
The Eye of Horus symbol, characterized by a stylized eye with distinctive markings, was believed to possess protective magical power. It was a ubiquitous motif in ancient Egyptian art and one of the most common forms for amulets. Its usage spanned from the Old Kingdom (circa 2686-2181 BC) through to the Roman period (30 BC - 641 AD).
During the First Intermediate Period (circa 2181-2055 BC) and the Middle Kingdom (circa 2055-1650 BC), pairs of Horus eyes were painted on coffins. The symbol also appeared on carved stone stelae and the bows of boats, serving as a protective emblem. As a hieroglyph, it is represented by 𓂀.
The Solar and Lunar Eyes
Horus, as a sky deity, was associated with celestial bodies. Many Egyptian texts state that Horus's right eye represented the sun, and his left eye represented the moon. These solar and lunar eyes were sometimes metaphorically linked to the red and white crowns of Egypt, respectively. In some contexts, the Eye of Horus is used interchangeably with the Eye of Ra, which is often seen as an extension of the sun god Ra's power and personified as a goddess.
Egyptologist Katja Goebs suggests that the myths surrounding both the Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra share a common core element. She posits that instead of a single original myth, it is more beneficial to consider a flexible myth based on the structural relationship of an "Object that is missing, or located far from its owner." This concept is also evident in the myths of the Eye of Ra, where the goddess flees Ra and is later brought back by another deity.
The Conflict Between Horus and Set
The Pyramid Texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom (circa 2686-2181 BC), are among the earliest sources detailing Egyptian mythology. These texts prominently feature the conflict between Horus and Set, with the Eye of Horus appearing in approximately a quarter of the recorded utterances. According to these texts, Set stole and sometimes trampled and consumed the Eye of Horus. Despite this, Horus eventually reclaimed his eye, often through force.
These texts also frequently mention the theft of Horus's eye in conjunction with the loss of Set's testicles, which were also healed. The conflict over the eye is further elaborated in numerous later texts. In most of these accounts, another deity, most commonly Thoth, restores the eye, having brokered peace between Horus and Set. Some versions describe Thoth reassembling the eye after Set had torn it into pieces.
In the New Kingdom's Book of the Dead, Set is depicted as transforming into a black boar when striking Horus's eye. The text "The Contendings of Horus and Set" from the late New Kingdom narrates a version where Set tears out both of Horus's eyes, buries them, and they subsequently grow into lotuses by the next morning. The restoration of the eye was often referred to as "filling" the eye.
Egyptologist Herman te Velde links the Eye of Horus to another episode in the conflict, where Set sexually assaults Horus. In retaliation, Isis and Horus cause Set to ingest Horus's semen. This narrative is most clearly presented in "The Contendings of Horus and Set," where Horus's semen appears as a golden disk on Set's forehead, which Thoth then places on his own head. Other Egyptian texts suggest that in some versions, Thoth himself emerged from Set's head after Set was impregnated by Horus's semen. A passage in the Pyramid Texts even states that the Eye of Horus originated from Set's forehead. Te Velde argues that this disk emerging from Set's head is, in fact, the Eye of Horus. If this interpretation is correct, the episodes of mutilation and sexual abuse coalesce into a single story: Set assaults Horus and loses semen to him, Horus retaliates and impregnates Set, and Set comes into possession of Horus's eye when it appears on his head.
Offerings and Rituals
Upon becoming king after Set's defeat, Horus presented offerings to his deceased father, Osiris, thereby reviving and sustaining him in the afterlife. This act served as the mythic prototype for the offerings to the dead, a significant aspect of ancient Egyptian funerary customs. It also influenced the conception of offering rites performed for deities in temples.
Among the offerings Horus gave was his own eye, which Osiris consumed. As a part of Horus, the eye was ultimately derived from Osiris himself. In this context, the eye symbolizes the Egyptian concept of offerings. The gods were believed to be the source of all goods they received as offerings, meaning offerings were, in essence, part of the gods' own substance. By accepting offerings, deities were replenished by their own life force, much like Osiris was when he consumed the Eye of Horus.
The offering of the Eye of Horus to Osiris in the Osiris myth is considered the prototype for all funerary offerings and, indeed, all offering rites. The act of a human giving an offering to a deity was likened to Horus, and the deity receiving it was likened to Osiris. Furthermore, the Egyptian word for "eye," jrt, bore a resemblance to jrj, the word for "act." Through wordplay, the Eye of Horus could therefore be equated with any ritual act.
Festivals and Healing
The ancient Egyptians observed several monthly festivals tied to the phases of the moon, including the Blacked-out Moon Festival (the first of the month), the Monthly Festival (the second day), and the Half-Month Festival. During these festivals, living individuals made offerings to the deceased, and these events were frequently mentioned in funerary texts.
Ancient Egyptian medicine integrated practical treatments with rituals invoking divine powers, with little clear distinction between the two in medical papyri. Healing rituals often equated patients with Horus, implying that the patient would be healed in the same manner as Horus in the myths. For this reason, the Eye of Horus is frequently invoked in such spells. For instance, the Hearst papyrus equates the physician performing a ritual with "Thoth, the physician of the Eye of Horus" and the instrument used to measure medicine with "the measure with which Horus measured his eye." The Eye of Horus was particularly invoked for protection against eye diseases.
One text, Papyrus Leiden I 348, assigns a deity to each part of a person's body for protective purposes. Horus himself was depicted as a falcon, such as a lanner or peregrine falcon, or as a human with a falcon's head. The Eye of Horus symbol is a stylized representation of a human or falcon eye, often featuring an eyebrow, a dark line extending behind the eye's rear corner, a cheek marking below the center or forward corner of the eye, and a line extending downward and backward, ending in a curl or spiral. The cheek marking is particularly reminiscent of markings found on many falcons.
Artistic Representations and Makeup
Ancient Egyptian art commonly features the Eye of Horus. The makeup style often involved a line extending from the corner of the eye towards the sides of the face, with eyebrows painted black. This artistic rendering is seen as an inspiration for the "pin-up" liner style of the 1950s and the modern "cat-eye" look. There appear to be variations in liner styles, with some incorporating the design of Horus, where black was used for lash lines and brows, and green was applied between the lash line and the brow. The green pigment used was derived from Green Malachite, a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral.
In ancient Egypt, both men and women applied cosmetics, irrespective of their social standing, believing these powders held magical properties. The almond shape of the eye makeup mimics the eye of the God Horus, the patron deity of ancient Egyptians, associated with the sun, sky, and kingship. The application of black kohl and green paints around the eyes was intended to ward off evil spirits and protect the eyes from disease.
Kohl: Ancient and Modern
Kohl is a traditional cosmetic that remains relevant today, albeit in modified forms. Traditionally, kohl was made by grinding galena (lead sulfide) and antimony sulfide, mixed with other minerals and oils. Less conventional ingredients included tree sap, frankincense, cow dung, and goose fat. Kohl is known for its high pigmentation, creamy texture, and ease of application. Authentic kohl is primarily found in North Africa and the Middle East, often in homemade versions. In Western countries and China, cosmetic companies typically use amorphous carbon or organic charcoal instead, as traditional kohl containing lead is not FDA-approved due to the severe health risks associated with lead poisoning, including anemia, convulsions, developmental defects, and potentially death.
Ancient Egyptian Eyeliner: More Than Just Beauty!
The Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb
The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 had a significant impact on Western culture, widely publicizing images of his impressive coffin. This event is credited with introducing the use of eyeliner to the Western world.
The Eye of Horus as a Mathematical Symbol
In the New Kingdom, certain hieroglyphs representing parts of the Eye of Horus were used in conjunction with the hieratic writing system, a cursive script derived from hieroglyphs. These hieratic signs represented fractions of a hekat, the basic Egyptian unit of volume. Georg Möller hypothesized that the Horus-eye hieroglyphs were the original forms of these hieratic fraction signs, with specific parts of the eye symbolizing different fractions: the inner corner for 1/2, the pupil for 1/4, the eyebrow for 1/8, the outer corner for 1/16, the curling line for 1/32, and the cheek mark for 1/64.
T. Eric Peet later suggested that these hieroglyphs appeared before the New Kingdom and that the hieratic fraction signs had a separate origin, only being reinterpreted with a connection to the Eye of Horus during the New Kingdom. Although Möller's hypothesis was included in standard reference works, Jim Ritter, a historian of science and mathematics, analyzed the evolution of these hieratic signs. His research indicated that the signs diverged further from their supposed Horus-eye counterparts the further back in time one looked, casting doubt on Möller's hypothesis. Ritter also re-examined the "votive cubits" (inscribed stone objects of one cubit length) and argued that they did not clearly equate the Horus-eye signs with the hieratic fractions, making even Peet's weaker theory unlikely.
Despite these scholarly debates, the hieroglyph for the Eye of Horus is recognized in the Unicode standard for encoding symbols in computing, designated as U+13080 (𓂀).