Falcon

One of a number of birds which figured among the sacred am. mals of ancient Egypt. The falcon (Egyptian Ink) or hawk was frequently regarded as the BA of IIORUS, the hawkheaded god and son of ostri. s (to whom the bird was also sacred). Excavations at iiiFR-ARONPOUS (‘city of the falcon’), the ancient Egvptian Nekhen, revealed a fine gold falcon head with two plumes and uraeus (Cairo, Egyptian Museum), which was once part of a composite statue. The Morus-falcon was the guardian deitv of the ruler and is frequently depicted with its wings outstretched protectively behind the head of the king, as on the famous statue of the 4th-Dynasty ruler KIIAFRA. It was also the falcon that surmounted the royal sfrf. kii, where it served a similar protective function, an extension of the role it seems to have adopted as early as the beginning of the Pharaonic period, when it was depicted on the palette of nar. mfr. The bird was also. sacred to the gods. montl and. sor., and occasionally also associated with the goddess H. ATHOR. A falcon on a plumed staff was one of the symbols of the west and the necropoleis, and the BA was sometimes represented as a human-headed falcon.

At least as early as the Late Period (747-332 Bc;) at s. AtyciARA there was a catacomb constructed spccificallv for mummified hawks sacred to Horus. Recent examination of a number of these mummies has shown them to comprise a number of different types of birds of prey. Thus, the Horu. s-falcon image may have been regarded as interchangeable with a whole range of other birds of prey.

T-. SrORK and H. Altenml'I. i.i'.k, ‘Falke’, Le. xikon der Agyptologic ii, ed. W. Helck, E. Otto and W. We. sTcndorf (Wiesbaden, 1977), 93-7.

R. Wii. KlNSOx, Reading Egyptian art (London, 1992), 82-3,