Eye of Horus- Egyptian ArtifactArtifact"The Healed Eye"
Also known as: Wadjet Eye, Wedjat, and Udjat
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Symbols
Description
Set tore out the left eye of Horus during their eighty-year war for Egypt's throne. Thoth gathered the pieces and restored it to wholeness. That healed eye, the Wedjat, became the sign Egyptians placed on the living and the dead alike, and on the prow of every ship that sailed the Nile.
Mythology & Lore
The Wounded Eye
During the eighty-year war between Horus and Set for the throne of Egypt, Set gouged out Horus's left eye and tore it to pieces. The ibis-headed god Thoth gathered the scattered fragments. The Coffin Texts describe the restoration with the verb wḏꜣ, "to make sound," and from that word the eye takes its name: Wedjat, the Sound One.
Gift to Osiris
Horus did not keep the eye. He carried it down to the underworld and offered it to his dead father. Osiris consumed it and rose, empowered to rule the dead. The Pyramid Texts record the moment with a formula that would echo for three thousand years: "Take the Eye of Horus." When priests later consecrated bread and beer for the dead, they spoke those same words. Every offering became the eye. Every gift to the dead reenacted what Horus had given Osiris.
The Waning Moon
Each month replayed the myth. The waning moon was the eye being torn apart by Set. The waxing moon was Thoth piecing it back together. The full moon was the eye restored. At full moon, temple priests performed rites invoking the Wedjat. The same healing, written across the sky.
The Whole One
Millions of wedjat amulets survive, carved from faience and gold, tucked into the linen wrappings of mummies at precise points on the body. The shape combines a human eye with the curved markings of a falcon's face.
Egyptian texts divided the eye into six parts, each a fraction: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, and 1/64. Added together they fall one-sixty-fourth short of wholeness. That missing piece, according to the magical texts, was supplied by Thoth.
Bread Became the Eye
The Eye of Horus appears on coffin panels and the prows of ships. Paired wedjat eyes were painted on the eastern side of coffins at the level of the deceased's face, so the dead could look out toward the rising sun.
Medical papyri, including the Ebers Papyrus, invoked the Wedjat in healing spells. Physicians recited them while treating wounds, and amulets were laid directly on diseased flesh.
The offering formula inscribed on thousands of stelae and tomb walls gave the eye its longest life. When offerings were consecrated, they were ritually identified with the Wedjat: bread became the eye, beer became the eye, linen became the eye. The formula persisted from the Old Kingdom through the Roman period. For three thousand years, the dead were fed with the eye that Horus gave his father.