Scarab with Quadruped

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The underside of this scarab shows a quadruped marching to the right, with a solar symbol above its back. While the animal’s features are not clear enough to identify it with certainty, the long upward curled tail and prominent ears make it most likely to be a lion. This interpretation is supported by the fact that, in ancient Egypt, lions and leonine deities were often associated with the power of the sun (the god Re), who is here referred to in the sun disk placed at the top.

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