Relief panel showing two baboons offering the wedjat eye to the sun god Khepri, who holds the Underworld sign

Relief panel showing two baboons offering the wedjat eye to the sun god Khepri, who holds the Underworld sign

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In this scene, two baboons offer wedjat eyes to Khepri, the newborn sun represented by a beetle. In his front legs Khepri holds a disk with a star, which is the sign for the Duat or Underworld, and beneath him there is a sun with rays. The baboons are similar to the baboons often shown heralding the sunrise by dancing and screeching, but here they seem to be associated with Thoth by the wedjat (eye) signs they hold, and perhaps also by the shen-rings they wear on their heads that resemble the moon disk and horns often worn by the Thoth baboon. The baboons here are depicted with ears (one is worn away) and with fanning fingertips, the latter characteristic of the 30th dynasty. The upper hand of the baboon at the right differs, apparently having been damaged and restored before the relief reached the museum.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Relief panel showing two baboons offering the wedjat eye to the sun god Khepri, who holds the Underworld signRelief panel showing two baboons offering the wedjat eye to the sun god Khepri, who holds the Underworld signRelief panel showing two baboons offering the wedjat eye to the sun god Khepri, who holds the Underworld signRelief panel showing two baboons offering the wedjat eye to the sun god Khepri, who holds the Underworld signRelief panel showing two baboons offering the wedjat eye to the sun god Khepri, who holds the Underworld sign

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.