Kohl Container Decorated with Bes-images

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

As a measure for preventing disease, eye paint was second only to water in ancient Egypt. It was prepared from malachite and galena, ground on slate palettes, mixed with fat, and then applied around the eyes using a small stick, or applicator. Green eye paint, made from malachite, was primarily cosmetic. Galena is black in color, and the paint derived from it helped to reflect the glare of the Egyptian sun. More importantly, its lead content repelled flies and was deadly to the organisms that can cause eye disease and blindness. On this green kohl tube is the image of the god Bes, whose gruesome figure was meant to repel the supernatural forces believed to cause eye disease.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art