Harpocrates
Egyptian · deity · late period · deity
Harpocrates is a misunderstanding that became a god. Egyptian artists drew children with a finger at the mouth — it is simply the convention for 'this figure is a child' — and Greeks and Romans meeting the image decided it meant hush, and made the infant Horus the god of silence and secrets, which he had never been. Meanwhile in Egypt he was doing something quite specific: the cippi, small stelae showing the child standing on crocodiles with snakes and scorpions in his fists, were poured over with water that was then drunk as a cure for stings and bites. A god of childhood who is also a piece of medical equipment.
Domains
- childhood
Relations
- counterpart of: Horus
Sources
- Reference treatments of Harpocrates, of the finger-to-lips gesture and of the Horus cippi.