Scarab Inscribed with an Inscription Referring to Horus of Edfu

The upper right part of the base shows the forepart of a canine – representing the jackal of Anubis –, with raised arms; this hieroglyph can be used to write the verb ‘to shine’. Below are a sun disk and a seated figure of a king, with the royal beard and holding on his knees a tall and narrow object, probably a mace or papyrus stem.

The god of infinity and eternity, Heh, kneels with both arms raised in the upper left corner. On seal-amulets, Heh expresses the wish for a million years of life –or in the case of royal iconography, a million years of rule – because, in hieroglyphs, he also stands for the number. Below are three strokes indicating the plural. Therefore, the figure with raised arms is here probably not meant to represent Heh himself, but rather to be read as ‘the millions’, an epithet of Horus of Edfu. The reference to the falcon god is emphasized in the image of the falcon sitting on a standard, in the lower left corner. The entire composition likely calls upon the protection of Horus of Edfu ‘(he who is) the millions’, as a manifestation of the sun god.

Vanessa Boschloos, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Research Fellow, 2018.

psD ra nb HH.w (Hr-bHdty)

(May) the lord Re shine, Horus-of-Edfu, (he who is) the millions

Formerly in the collection of the Reverend Chauncey Murch (died 1907). Collected between 1883 and 1906 while Murch was a missionary in Egypt. Collection purchased by the Museum from the Murch family with funds provided by Helen Miller Gould, 1910.