Aegis of a Goddess (Hathor?)
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University

40-Aegis of a Goddess (Hathor?)

Title Aegis of a Goddess (Hathor?)
Era Egyptian, Late Period to Ptolemaic Period, 722–30 BCE
Medium Bronze
Credit Gift of the Georges Ricard Foundation. 2018.10.768

An aegis was a divine emblem composed of a deity’s head and a large, broad collar. It could be carried on a processional standard or placed on the prow of a sacred bark. This head, missing its collar, represents a goddess wearing a modius with rearing cobras. Her crown is composed of a sun disk between cow horns. On her forehead is a cobra wearing a horned crown and a disk. The goddess depicted could be Isis, Hathor, or another female deity.1

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Bibliography

Ivanov 2003
Ivanov, Sergej. 2003. “The Aegis in Ancient Egyptian Art: Aspects of Interpretation.” In Egyptology at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century: Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists, Cairo, 2000, volume 2, edited by Zahi Hawass and Lyla Pinch Brock, 332–339. Cairo and New York: American University in Cairo Press.
Aegis of a Goddess (Hathor?)
© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University