Male Birth-God
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. 1539–1425 B.C.E.. Faience, 1 1/4 x 11/16 x 3/16 in. (3.1 x 1.7 x 0.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.912E. (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 amulet depicting the deity Bes.
The image shows a turquoise faience amulet featuring Bes, a dwarf-like deity associated with protection and childbirth. The amulet is skillfully crafted, showcasing characteristic features of Bes such as the lion-like mane, prominent facial features, and squat posture. Faience, a brightly colored glazed non-clay ceramic material, was commonly used for jewelry and small decorative items in ancient Egypt.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 37.912E tier-2
- BKM-Object 4111 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.