Heru, Horus

Symbolic Horus/Heru

The primary symbol of Horus is the golden hawk or falcon. The golden color is likened to that of the sun, as are the hawk's aggression, excellent vision, and ability to soar. The sun is aggressive like the hawk in the intense heat it brings to the Nile Valley. The sun has the ability to illuminate all things and therefore “see” all things from a high vantage point like the hawk. Last, the sun, like the hawk, soars high in the sky. The wings of this celestial falcon protect the Earth, and its eyes are considered to be the sun and the moon. Horus is also associated with the east and sunrise, hore-makhet, or Horus in the horizon.

Another solar symbol is Ra-Horakhty, in which Horus is merged with the sun deity Ra. Because of these solar associations, Horus is frequently depicted as the sun disk with the wings of a falcon or disk atop the head of a falcon. The winged disk was used as a royal symbol. The sun disk with wings was also a representation of heaven because Horus's association with the sky, wings, and flight symbolized the journey the soul makes after physical death in Ra's solar boat.

The wedjat eye represents the strength and power of Horus and was derived from the eye that the mythological Horus, in human form, lost in [Page 313]battle; it was later restored by Thoth. The wedjat eye in a disk was also a representation of Horus denoting protection that frequently appeared in tombs and temples. Horus is presented in human form as a male with the head of a hawk crowned with a sun disk. Not all of Horus's symbols consist of disks and birds. He was shown as a suckling child sitting on the lap of Isis. Beginning in the Late Period, Horus could be represented as a statue of a child atop two crocodiles and with various animals. This image, on a stele or amulet, was used for its healing powers and as a form of protection.

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