In Ancient Egyptian culture and mythology Harpocrates, Harpa-Khruti (Horus the Child), was the son of the goddess Isis and her husband Osiris. The deity was often depicted as a small boy, with a sidelock of youth and the index finger held to the lips or the chin, a typical Egyptian gesture symbolising childhood and also the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph for “child”. The deity was later adopted by the Greeks and the misinterpretation of the gesture of the finger to the lips led to the association of Harpocrates with silence, hence making him the god of silence, secrets and confidentiality in Ancient Greek and Roman mythology. This partial statuette is therefore a beautiful example of the cultural and aesthetic syncretism which was common in antiquity across the Mediterranean regions. Functionally, this fragment would have once been part of a larger statuette used as a votive offering given by an individual during prayer, and deposited intact in a temple.
To discover more about religious syncretism in Antiquity, please visit our relevant blog post: Religious Syncretisms in the Ancient Mediterranean Region.
