Eye of Horus
The Eye of Horus is an Ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and power, which originally had been named as The Eye of Ra.
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The Eye of Horus
Horus was an ancient god in Egyptian mythology who dramatically evolved over the whole of Egyptian history. Early on, he became identified as a sky god, where one of his eyes was the sun, and the other the moon. His weaker eye later became less important in his mythology, and he became more strongly aligned with the Sun, particularly when the cult of Thoth, a moon god, arose. As the sun, or rather, with his eye as the sun, his eye had a special meaning, and became a symbol of power. Originally it had been Ra who held this position, but as Horus gradually became more important, and transformed into a sun god, so Horus became thought of as Ra, or rather Ra-Herakhty (literally Ra, who is Horus of the two horizons).
The Eye became a symbol in its own right, and signified royal power. The Eye of Horus (flanked by Nekhbet and Wadjet) was found under the 12th layer of bandages on Tutankhamun's mummy; the ancients believed this symbol of indestructibility would assist in rebirth, due to their beliefs about the soul. The more recent tradition of freemasonry adopted the symbol and as such it has survived to this day, and appears as the Eye of Providence on the recto of the Great Seal of the United States. The Eye has also become loosely associated with lachrymology, a philosophy and religion widely rumored to have been made up by the band Tool, becoming a significant symbol to the religion as a representation of power through tears.
See also
- Eye of Providence - a symbol showing an eye surrounded by rays of light or a glory, and usually enclosed by a triangle.
- Seeing Eye - guide dog school.
- Evil eye - widely distributed element of folklore or superstition.