Also called wedjat, udjat, the sound eye, Eye of Ra (often confused)
An ancient Egyptian symbol of the falcon god Horus's eye, torn out by Seth and restored by Thoth, worn as one of Egypt's most popular amulets for healing, wholeness and protection by the living and the dead.
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Take care: Buy replicas, not unprovenanced antiquities. This is a modern way of honoring an ancient amulet, not a reconstruction of Egyptian temple ritual.
Wedjat amulets were laid among a mummy's wrappings to pass on the power of recovery and regeneration. The Met holds many examples in faience, from a Deir el-Bahri find to Ptolemaic pieces, showing how long the custom lasted.
Rectangular coffins were painted with a pair of wedjat eyes on the side facing east, toward the rising sun. The body was laid on its side so the dead could look out of the coffin through these eyes.
In the myth Horus gives his restored eye to his dead father Osiris to revive him. Because of this, priests could call any offering of food or drink the Eye of Horus, so the symbol stood for every gift given to the gods and the dead.
Horus, the falcon god of kingship, fought his uncle Seth after Seth murdered Osiris. In the myth Seth injured or stole Horus's eye, and Thoth or Hathor restored it; one version has Hathor healing it with gazelle milk. Some texts tie Horus's two eyes to the sun and moon, which helps explain the moon's monthly waning and return. The healed eye, the wedjat, became a sign of wholeness, and Horus gave it to Osiris as the first offering.
Wedjat amulets appear in the late Old Kingdom and stayed popular until Roman times, made of faience, carnelian, lapis lazuli, gold and glass. A theory proposed by Georg Möller in 1911, that parts of the eye stood for fractions used to measure grain, is still repeated online, but Egyptologist Jim Ritter challenged it in 2002. Today the eye is often confused with the separate Eye of Ra and with the Mediterranean evil-eye bead.
An open right hand, often with an eye in the palm, hung in the home or worn to push back the evil eye and bless a household.
The ancient Egyptian hieroglyph for life, a cross with a loop at the top, carried by gods in art and worn by the living and buried with the dead as an amulet for health, safety and rebirth.
A blue glass eye bead hung in the home or worn on the body so that envious or admiring looks are caught and reflected before they can do harm.
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