Funerary Figure of Hapy

Funerary Figure of Hapy

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This baboon-headed figure represents the god Hapy, who protected the lungs. He is one of the four so-called sons of Horus that are often depicted as mummies, each with a different head (for the other three statuettes belonging to the same set, see 12.182.37a-c). The sons of Horus were deities who protected the internal organs and are probably best known from their representations on the lids of the canopic jars that contained mummified viscera. They were also thought to assist in the process of mummification and to provide nourishment, possibly because they were associated with the internal organs. Thus they had a general protective function for the deceased. On the lower legs is a space for inscriptions; this was left blank, meant to be filled in later (after the set of statuettes sold?) with a short text that would have included the name of the owner. Since no inscription was added, this is unfortunately unknown today.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.