Scarab with Vulture Godess Mut

Unknown

ca. 1070–525 B.C. · Faience · Egyptian Art

Even though the goddess Mut is generally represented in her anthropomorphic form, often with the head of a lioness, she can also be embodied in a vulture like on this scarab; her name is written with the vulture holding a flagellum (Mut). Mut is the Egyptian word for mother, as she was considered the mother of the gods and of the king, and a mother goddess in general. Behind the vulture is the sign for good and beautiful (nefer), at the top is a sun disk with two uraei, while Mut’s divine epithet ‘lady of the sky’ is written below. The reference to the sun disk suggests that Mut is associated here with the sun god; like other leonine goddesses, Mut is another goddess called ‘Eye of Re’.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1070–525 B.C.

Medium

Faience

Department

Egyptian Art

Credit line

Gift of Helen Miller Gould, 1910