Statuette of Beset (Besis)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Beset, like her husband Bes, holds a bow-legged stance with hands on thighs and wears a feather crown. She has a less animal-like and less exaggerated face. Here she is nude, although she can be dressed. Beset is a much older figure, but becomes particularly popular in the Ptolemaic Period. She shares Bes's protective and apotropaic functions.

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