Cast of a Magical Stela

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This smaller artifact is likely a replica of the top half of a Magical Stela. The original, located at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (50.85), contains thirteen magical spells inscribed in hieroglyphs that protect against poisonous bites and wounds as well as cure illnesses caused by them. Commissioned by the priest Esatum for public display in a temple, this work depicts Horus emerging from the background with high relief, creating the illusion of a separate statue from the main stele. He is portrayed as a youthful Egyptian male, nude and wearing his hair in a sidelock. The soft, rounded forms of Horus's body and those of other deities are characteristic of the style of this period. Horus holds snakes and scorpions, an antelope by its horns, and a lion by its tail in his closed fists to symbolize his magical powers. His feet rest on two crocodiles. Above him is the head of Bes, the dwarf deity with leonine features who traditionally protected households but had become a more general protective deity by this time. Flanked by three deities standing upon coiled snakes, Horus is accompanied by Thoth, identified by his ibis head, on the right and Isis on the left. Both protectively hold the walls of a curved reed hut, a primeval chapel, in which Horus's child stands with Re-harakhty, god of the rising sun, and two standards in the form of papyrus and lotus columns. The images incised into the stone at the top of the stela portray the perilous nighttime journey of the sun as it passes through the nether world beneath the earth. Its rebirth each morning is shown at the uppermost point of the stela, where Thoth, four baboons, and King Nectanebo II lift their arms in adoration and prayer. Nectanebo II was the last indigenous king of ancient Egypt who valiantly struggled against the Persian empire but ultimately fell short. After his lost battle, he fled to Upper Egypt, leaving behind a legacy of uncertainty about his final days.