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Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art · jewelry

Male Birth God

Source of record: Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Object Label: The Birth-God Over time, the image of the Egyptian birth-god underwent an evolution. During the Middle Kingdom and at the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the male birth-god appeared as a lion-man: a human man with a feline mane and tail. Around the middle of the dynasty, the Egyptians sought to combat an increase in infant mortality with a new amuletic form. Beginning with Amunhotep II (circa 1426–1400 B.C.E.), the birth-god’s body assumed the characteristics of a dwarf with short, thick limbs, sunken chest, and fleshy buttocks. Because dwarfs rarely survived infancy in antiquity, one who did was considered magical. By combining the attributes of these “charmed” dwarfs with the ancient lion-man, craftsmen produced a new, more powerful protector of women and children. Caption: Male Birth God, ca. 1426–1292 B.C.E.. Faience, 1 5/16 x 5/8 in. (3.4 x 1.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father Charles Edwin Wilbour, 16.580.13. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

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 small, green faience figurine of the god Bes.

This artifact is a faience figurine representing the god Bes, characterized by his dwarf-like appearance, prominent facial features, and feathered headdress. The figure stands with hands on hips, often depicted as a protective deity associated with households and childbirth, indicating both a religious and domestic function.

religious New Kingdom excellent
Deities Bes
Materials faience

Connections

Found at Egypt
Deities Bes
Materials Faience

Cross-references (2)

  • BKM-Accession 16.580.13 tier-2
  • BKM-Object 3175 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.