Seated Khonsu or Osiris-Moon
Description
Object Label: Many deities in the official Egyptian pantheon can be recognized by their headdresses. The Double Crown of the beneficent goddess Mut, whose name means “mother,” characterizes her as a conveyor of kingship and the divine mother of pharaoh. Amun, whose name means “hidden,” is portrayed as a man wearing a tall, plumed crown. When he appears with a solar disk at the base of the crown, he is known as Amun-Re, who possesses both hidden and solar creative powers. When shown in tightly enveloping garb and with an erection, he may be called Amun-Re-Kamutef, associated with fertility and regeneration. An amulet in this virile attitude would have held the promise of eternal rebirth after death. Monthly rebirth is also invoked by the full and crescent moons of Khonsu, the divine heir of Amun and Mut. In popular religion the protection of pregnancy and birth was entrusted to such deities as Taweret and Bes. The appearance of Taweret, “The Great One,” as a pregnant hippopotamus with lion and crocodile features is a dramatic symbol of protective motherhood. The dwarf with a lion’s face and legs likely represents Bes, who was worshipped in the home as a protector of motherhood, birth, and rebirth. Caption: Seated Khonsu or Osiris-Moon, ca. 664–525 B.C.E. or later. Bronze, 6 3/8 x 1 9/16 in. (16.2 x 4 cm) mount (display dimensions): 9 x 2 x 4 in. (22.9 x 5.1 x 10.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 05.396.
AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06
Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A statue of an ancient Egyptian deity wearing a headdress.
The image depicts a statue of an ancient Egyptian deity, characterized by a traditional headdress consisting of a sun disk and horns. The figure sits on a platform with arms resting on its legs. The carving is detailed, capturing the traditional attire and stylistic features typical of Egyptian statuary.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 05.396 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3224 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.