29-Seated Statuette of Wadjet

The goddess Wadjet was one of the oldest deities in ancient Egypt, whose cult was celebrated at Buto in the Egyptian Delta. She could take the form of a cobra or a lioness with the body of a woman. As a cobra, she embodied the fire-spitting uraeus worn on the royal crown. As a woman with a lion head, numerous Late Period bronzes depict her sitting on a throne, wearing a sun disk and uraeus headdress as a “Daughter of Re.”¹

This masterwork of bronze casting depicts Wadjet with one hand flat and the other fisted on her thighs. Wadjet’s face is beautifully rendered and framed by her mane. The goddess’s ears poke out from her striated wig, and she wears a calf-length dress. Wadjet’s throne and solar disk crown are now missing.²

MH

1. Fischer-Elfert 1986, 906–911. ↩︎

2. Cf. crowns on MMA 30.8100; Louvre E14719. ↩︎