Scarab with the Representation of Fecundity Figures (Hapy)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The underside of the scarab shows a pair of fecundity gods, identified by their protruding bellies. They may represent the Nile god Hapy, the personification of the annual inundation and therefore also one of the ancient Egyptian fertility gods. They are placed here on either side of hieroglyphs and within a decorative border of interlocking scrolls and nefer-signs.

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