The Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt - The Goddess Selket

THE GODDESS SELKET (FROM THE CANOPIC SHRINE)

Tutankhamon, King

Identity: Tutankhamon, King
Material: Painted Wood, Gilded Wood
Period: New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty
Reign: Tutankhamon

Dimensions:
Height: 90 cm

This is one of four goddesses who, with gracefully outstretched arms, protect the gilded wooden shrine set within a baldachin, to house the alabaster chest containing the king's viscera. Selket is the goddess of healing stings and bites. The statuette is made of gilded wood and it's eyes and eyebrows are painted black. Selket turns her head slightly to the side to ward off danger and thus breaks away from the traditional frontal pose of royal statuary. Her costume is that of contemporary queens, and the Amarna influence is still evident in the modeling of the body and the features of the face.

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