tour 16 of 18
A kind of magic
Faience wedjat eye
The
wedjat
is associated with
Horus,
the god of the sky, who was depicted as a falcon or as a man with a
falcon's head. In a battle with
Seth,
the god of chaos and confusion, Horus lost his left eye. But the
wound was healed by the goddess
Hathor
and the wedjat came to
symbolise the process of 'making whole' and healing
- the word wedjat
literally meaning sound. The left eye of Horus also represented the
moon. The waxing and waning in the lunar cycle therefore reflected
Horus losing and regaining his sight.
The first use of a
wedjat eye as an amulet
was when Horus used one to bring Osiris back to life. Their
regenerative power meant that
wedjat eye amulets were
placed in mummy wrappings in great numbers.
Faience
is a type of ceramic, commonly used to make
amulets.
