Female Bes
Middle Kingdom
Not on view
Despite its ruined state, this little statue is a plaintive witness to the role of magic in ancient Egyptian health. It was found in the Middle Kingdom cemetery at Lisht, where it had been placed either in a grave or as an offering above a tomb. The figure's lion mane and ears are those of the god Bes (see 1989.281.94), but its body is quite unlike the round, dwarfish torso with which the god is regularly depicted suggesting that it represents the god's much rarer female counterpart, Beset. Like Bes, this goddess was a guardian of mothers during and after childbirth and of their infants. In the cemetery, Beset's presence would have offered the same protection to the deceased in their daily rebirth to new life as a spirit.
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