Scene from a Magical Papyrus Late Period, Saite PeriodElephantine, Egypt
Description
Object Label: The standing winged creature seen here is known as the nineheaded Bes figure, a divine protector of the birth of the king and of the sun. This form of Bes was closely associated with the evening and the night part of the solar cycle. He thus also played an important role as guardian of sleeping women and children, particularly against the dangers of the night, represented here by the noxious creatures contained in the oval upon which he stands. The firebrands that surround him represent destructive forces directed at anyone who approaches. Caption: Scene from a Magical Papyrus, 664–525 B.C.E.. Papyrus, ink, c: Object: 29 15/16 × 4 7/8 in. (76.1 × 12.4 cm) c: Frame: 8 7/8 × 34 1/16 in. (22.6 × 86.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Theodora Wilbour from the collection of her father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 47.218.156a-d. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
The same text in other collections
Linked by shared inventory number
(ORAEC-id oraec90).
Each record below describes this same artifact or text from a different angle.
- 2. Text zum Siebengesichtigen Bes / pBrooklyn 47.218.156 ("Le Papyrus Magique Illustré") ORAEC text(unbestimmt)
- 1. Text zum Neungesichtigen Bes / pBrooklyn 47.218.156 ("Le Papyrus Magique Illustré") ORAEC text(unbestimmt)
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
A machine reading of the photograph made Jul 2026: deities, names, signs and a description as the model saw them. Not curatorial; treat it as the model's best reading, not authority.
Cross-references (4)
- BKM-Accession 47.218.156a-d tier-2
- BKM-Object 60794 tier-2
- ORAEC-id oraec90 tier-2 (inventory-match)
- ORAEC-id oraec127 tier-2 (inventory-match)
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.