Amulet of a Bes-image

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This amulet represents a deity that is referred as the Bes-image because it can be a number of different deities, in particular Bes and Aha. Their responsibilities generally centered on the guarding of children and their mothers during childbirth. In later times, he assisted in protecting the eternal survival of Egypt as recorded in a well-known myth of the Far Away Goddess. From the New Kingdom on, Bes has a close tie to music and is often depicted playing a different instruments. Either the protective nature of this deity or his musical ability could speak to a role at Malqata. In all likelihood, this amulet would have been suspended as an ornament on the body or as decoration in the royal city.

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