This impressive statue represents Egypt’s most beautiful bird of prey: the falcon. According to Egyptian belief, the falcon was an incarnation of the sky god Horus, who was also the god of kingship. Here, Horus stands in a dignified, upright position, with his wings folded. He wears the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, symbolizing the union of the Nile Valley in the south and the Delta in the north.

Between the falcon's legs stands a miniature pharaoh. The inscription on the base provides his name: Nakhthorheb, which means "The Forceful One of Festive Horus." Following the ancient Greek version of his name, Egyptologists call this king Nectanebo II. Nectanebo's position under the bird’s powerful breast implies that Horus offers him protection. The closely-knit group of god and pharaoh could also be understood as one entity with a divine and a human aspect. This idea of divine kingship—in which the pharoah was both protected by the god and an incarnation of him—was fundamental to Egyptian concept.

Nectanebo II was Egypt’s last indigenous ruler. A brief interval of Persian domination followed his reign, after which Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 B.C. In such precarious times, this statue’s emphasis on the age-old belief in a divine ruler was surely an excellent way to bolster the morale of the country. Other works of the same type were distributed all over Egypt.