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A child god, probably Harpokrates

Ptolemaic Period
1st century BCE or earlier
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 134
This small statuette of a child god was found in the catacombs of the Falcon Complex in the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara, where offerings made in the shrine were buried after an undetermined period. Inscribed material suggests this branch of the catacombs was sealed in about 89 B.C., dating the statuette to that time or earlier.
Although child gods are difficult to distinguish from one another in the absence of an inscription or highly specific iconography, the falcon spread across the back of this figure's headcloth tends to support his identification with Horus-the-Child, that is, Harpokrates, as indeed does the particular deposit context at Saqqara, since falcon was the sacred animal of Horus.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: A child god, probably Harpokrates
  • Period: Ptolemaic Period
  • Date: 1st century BCE or earlier
  • Geography: From Egypt, Memphite Region, North Saqqara, Sacred Animal Necropolis, Falcon Catacomb Gallery 6, niche 6a, EES excavations 1969-71
  • Medium: Leaded bronze, formerly gilded
  • Dimensions: h. 16 cm (6 5/16 in); w. 5.6 cm (2 3/16 in); d. 2.4 cm (15/16 in)
  • Credit Line: The Adelaide Milton de Groot Fund, in memory of the de Groot and Hawley families, 1976
  • Object Number: 1976.63.2
  • Curatorial Department: Egyptian Art

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