Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian) · amulet
Amulet of a Frog
Description
With its brown-and-white spotting and alert eyes, this small frog appears astonishingly lifelike. Though Ancient Egyptians had several terms for small objects like this, we call them “amulets” today. Such charms were believed to bring those who wore them protection, health, and good luck. Worn by both the living and the dead, amulets helped ensure the wearer’s well-being in life and the afterlife. The Egyptians likely linked frogs to fertility because of the animal’s prolific reproduction, and women may have worn amulets like this one to assist in pregnancy and delivery. Heqet, a goddess of childbirth, was one of the deities who appeared as a frog or a frog-headed woman. Frog-shaped amulets could also aid in rebirth to the afterlife.
Cross-references (1)
- ARTIC-id 134582 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian).
- 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.