Cleveland Museum of Art

Statuette of Harpocrates

Date

c. 50 BCE

Medium

bronze, hollow cast, with silver inlays

Culture

Greece, Greco-Roman Period, late Ptolemaic Dynasty

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Combining Hellenistic naturalism with a finger gesture associated with childhood in Egyptian tradition, this young figure represents Harpocrates, the Greek form of the Egyptian child sun god Horus, or Hor-pa-khred. A hole atop his head likely once held a double crown of Egypt, as on more traditionally Egyptian representations of Harpocrates. The gesture this figure makes refers to the Egyptian hieroglyph for child, nn , 𓀁.

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