Shed
Egyptian · deity · new kingdom · Recorded classification
Shed arrives in the space Akhenaten left. He is first recorded after the Amarna period, he has no temple and no state cult, and what he has instead is people: stelae and amulets from workmen's villages asking him to get them out of trouble — snakebite, scorpion sting, illness, bad luck. His name simply means 'the one who saves'. Eventually he is absorbed into Horus the Child, whose cippi do the same job, and the two names end up on the same picture.
Domains
- protection
Relations
- counterpart of: HarpocratesMerged with Horus the Child: the youth standing on crocodiles with snakes in his fists is labelled Shed on some stelae and Harpocrates on others, and eventually the two are one figure with two names.Reference treatment of Shed and of his merging with Horus the Child on the protective cippi. (secondary)
Sources
- Shed, 'the Saviour', is an Egyptian god first recorded after the Amarna period, worshipped personally rather than officially as a rescuer from illness, misfortune and venomous animals, later merged with Horus the Child.: Reference treatments of Shed, his name, his post-Amarna appearance and his popular cult. (secondary)