Horus Stele
Description
<p>The Horus stele, or cippus, was one of the most important items associated with magic in ancient Egypt. At the center of these stone slabs was the nude figure of the child Horus, or Harpocrates, associated with the newborn sun, with the head of the god Bes above him. Horus-the-Child, the son of Isis, stands on two crocodiles and holds dangerous animals (snake, scorpion, lion, and antelopes) in his hands, demonstrating that with supernatural powers even a child can overcome dangers. Texts and magical scenes occupy most of the empty space. Larger examples of these Horus-steles were placed in temple precincts, where priests poured water over them to absorb the magical power of the spells and images. Drinking the water, it was believed, would protect against the harmful bites of dangerous creatures as well as other dangers and evils. Smaller versions were used at home, and very small ones were worn as amulets.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/22.337' rel='external'>Horus Stele</a></cite>, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.</p>
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A rectangular black stone stele with the face covered in densely carved Egyptian hieroglyphs, arranged in horizontal lines.
The image shows a dark, rectangular Egyptian stele standing upright. The front face is filled with closely spaced incised hieroglyphs in horizontal registers, with some larger emphasis marks near the center-upper portion, suggesting a formal hieroglyphic composition typical of a Horus-themed dedication/inscription. The top edge is slightly rounded/chamfered. No clearly readable cartouche or full deity name is legible at this image resolution. No visible modern markings or non-Egyptian scripts (Greek/Coptic/Arabic) are apparent.
Cross-references (2)
- Walters-AccNum 22.337 tier-2
- Walters-id 24918 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Walters Art Museum (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.