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The Eye of Horus (Wedjat) (previously Wadjet and the Eye of the Moon; and afterwards as The Eye of Ra) or ("Udjat") is an ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
ian symbol of protection and royal power from deities, in this case from Horus
Horus

Horus is a god of the Ancient Egyptian religion, most commonly known by the Greek language version Horus, of the Egyptian language Heru/Har....
 or Ra
Ra

Ra is an ancient Egyptian Solar deity . By the Fifth dynasty of Egypt he became a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the noon, with other deities representing other positions of the sun....
. The symbol is seen on images of Horus' mother, Hathor
Hathor

In Egyptian mythology, Hathor was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was seen as the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow....
, and on other deities associated with her.

In the Egyptian language
Egyptian language

Egyptian is a branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages language family along with the Chadic languages, Berber languages, Semitic languages, Cushitic languages and possibly Omotic languages languages....
, the word for this symbol was "Wedjat". It was the eye of one of the earliest of Egyptian deities, Wadjet
Wadjet

In Egyptian mythology, Wadjet, or the Green One , was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep, which became part of the city that the Egyptians named Per-Wadjet, House of Wadjet, and the Greeks called Buto, a city that was an important site in the Predynastic era of Ancient Egypt and the cultural developmen...
, who later became associated with Bast, Mut
Mut

Mut, which meant mother in the ancient Egyptian language, was an ancient Egyptian mother goddess with multiple aspects that changed over the thousands of years of the culture....
, and Hathor
Hathor

In Egyptian mythology, Hathor was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was seen as the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow....
 as well.






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The Eye of Horus (Wedjat) (previously Wadjet and the Eye of the Moon; and afterwards as The Eye of Ra) or ("Udjat") is an ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
ian symbol of protection and royal power from deities, in this case from Horus
Horus

Horus is a god of the Ancient Egyptian religion, most commonly known by the Greek language version Horus, of the Egyptian language Heru/Har....
 or Ra
Ra

Ra is an ancient Egyptian Solar deity . By the Fifth dynasty of Egypt he became a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the noon, with other deities representing other positions of the sun....
. The symbol is seen on images of Horus' mother, Hathor
Hathor

In Egyptian mythology, Hathor was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was seen as the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow....
, and on other deities associated with her.

In the Egyptian language
Egyptian language

Egyptian is a branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages language family along with the Chadic languages, Berber languages, Semitic languages, Cushitic languages and possibly Omotic languages languages....
, the word for this symbol was "Wedjat". It was the eye of one of the earliest of Egyptian deities, Wadjet
Wadjet

In Egyptian mythology, Wadjet, or the Green One , was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep, which became part of the city that the Egyptians named Per-Wadjet, House of Wadjet, and the Greeks called Buto, a city that was an important site in the Predynastic era of Ancient Egypt and the cultural developmen...
, who later became associated with Bast, Mut
Mut

Mut, which meant mother in the ancient Egyptian language, was an ancient Egyptian mother goddess with multiple aspects that changed over the thousands of years of the culture....
, and Hathor
Hathor

In Egyptian mythology, Hathor was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was seen as the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow....
 as well. Wedjat was a solar deity and this symbol began as her eye, an all seeing eye. In early artwork, Hathor is also depicted with this eye. Funerary amulets were often made in the shape of the Eye of Horus. The Wedjat or Eye of Horus is "the central element" of seven "gold, faience, carnelian and lapis lazuli" bracelets found on the mummy of Shoshenq II. The Wedjat "was intended to protect the king [here] in the afterlife" and to ward off evil. Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern sailors would frequently paint the symbol on the bow of their vessel to ensure safe sea travel.

Horus

Horus was an ancient Egyptian sky god known as Re or Ra and was pictured in the form of a falcon. The right eye represents a Peregrine Falcon
Peregrine Falcon

The Peregrine Falcon , also known simply as the Peregrine, and historically as the "Duck Hawk" in North America, is a Cosmopolitan distribution bird of prey in the family Falconidae....
's eye and the markings around it, that includes the "teardrop" marking sometimes found below the eye. As the wedjet (also udjat or utchat), it also represented the sun, and was associated with Horus' mother, Isis, and with wedjet another goddess, as well as the sun deity Ra (Re). The mirror image, or left eye, sometimes represented the moon and the god Tehuti (Thoth
Thoth

Thoth, , though variations are accepted , was considered one of the more important god of the Egyptian pantheon, often depicted with the head of an Sacred Ibis....
).

Eye of Horus, a hieroglyph and symbol

Seven different hieroglyph
Egyptian hieroglyphs

Egyptian hieroglyphs was a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that contained a combination of logographic and alphabetic elements....
s are used to represent the "eye"-(human body parts). One is the common usage of the verb: to do, make, or perform. The other frequently used hieroglyph is the Wedjat, a sacred eye symbol that gives a mummy the ability "to see again", called the Eye of Horus after his cult rose to prominence as the son of Hathor.

In arithmetic

In the Ancient Egyptian measurement system, the Eye Of Horus defined an Old Kingdom rounded off number one (1) = 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32 + 1/64, by throwing away 1/64. The Eye of Horus statements created 6-term rounded off numbers. The Old Kingdom definition had dropped a 7th term, a remainder 1/64, that was needed to report exact series. During the Middle Kingdom
Middle Kingdom of Egypt

The middle kingdom is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh dynasty of Egypt to the end of the Fourteenth dynasty of Egypt, roughly between 2040 BC and 1640 BC....
 that included the eleventh through fourteenth dynasties, exact series definitions and applications were written by creating 7-terms, or more, written as Egyptian fraction series, often scaled to 1/320 hekat. For example, the Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll
Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll

The Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll was a 10" x 17" leather roll purchased by Alexander Henry Rhind in 1858. It was sent to the British Museum in 1864, along with the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus but the former was not chemically softened and unrolled until 1927 ....
, the RMP 2/n table and the Akhmim Wooden Tablet
Akhmim wooden tablet

The Akhmim wooden tablet, is an ancient Egyptian artifact that has been dated to 2000 BC, near to the beginning of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. It is currently housed in Cairo's Museum of Egyptian Antiquities....
 wrote quotients and Egyptian fraction remainders that solved the problem. The metaphorical side of this information linked the Old Kingdom six fractions, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, and 1/64 to separate parts of the eye, as noted by:

  • 1/2 was represented by smell, symbolized by the right side of the eye in a form of the nose. The pyramid text says: "Behold [the fire] rises in Abydos and it comes; I cause it to come, the Eye of Horus. It is set in order upon thy brow, O Osiris Khenti-Amenti; it is set in the shrine and rises on thy brow."


  • 1/4 was represented by sight or the sensation of light, symbolized by the pupil. The pyramid text says: "Perfect is the Eye of Horus. I have delivered the Eye of Horus, the shining one, the ornament of the Eye of Ra, the Father of the Gods."


  • 1/8 was represented by thought, symbolized by the eyebrow. The pyramid text says: "...the Eye of Horus hath made me holy...I will hide myself among you, O ye stars which are imperishable. My brow is the brow of Ra."


  • 1/16 was represented by hearing, symbolized by the left side of the eye in the form of an arrow pointing towards the ear. The pyramid text says: "That which has been shut fast/dead hath been opened by the command of the Eye of Horus, which hath delivered me. Established are the beauties on the forehead of Ra."


  • 1/32 was represented by taste, by the sprouting of wheat or grain from the planted stalk, symbolized by a curved tail. The pyramid text says: "Come, the Eye of Horus hath delivered for me my soul, my ornaments are established on the brow of Ra. Light is on the faces of those who are in the members of Osiris."


  • 1/64 was represented by touch, symbolized by a leg touching the ground, or what can also be thought of as a strong plant growing into the surface of the earth. The pyramid text says: "I shall see the Gods and the Eye of Horus burning with fire before my eyes!"


In the Middle Kingdom the 1/64 symbol denoted 'rest' and 'healing' as connected to the hekat, with the word dja being attached.

The 'Eye of Horus' fractions were further discussed in the Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll
Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll

The Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll was a 10" x 17" leather roll purchased by Alexander Henry Rhind in 1858. It was sent to the British Museum in 1864, along with the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus but the former was not chemically softened and unrolled until 1927 ....
 following elementary definitions that built the Egyptian fraction
Egyptian fraction

An Egyptian fraction is the sum of distinct unit fractions, such as . That is, each Fraction in the expression has a numerator equal to 1 and a denominator that is a positive integer, and all the denominators differ from each other....
 system. Weights and measure subunits of a hekat were also connected to Eye of Horus numbers in the quotient, and as an exact remainder, the remainder including an Egyptian fraction and a ro unit, correcting the Eye of Horus 1/64 round off error. The ro unit, 1/320 of a hekat was cited in the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus

The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus , is named after Alexander Henry Rhind, a Scotland antiquarian, who purchased the papyrus in 1858 in Luxor, Egypt; it was apparently found during illegal excavations in or near the Ramesseum....
 and as applied in the medical texts, like the Ebers Papyrus
Ebers papyrus

The Ebers Papyrus of about 16th century BC is among the most important medical papyri of ancient Egypt. It is also commonly called Papyrus Ebers ....
. A precise mathematical derivation of ro is found in the Akhmim Wooden Tablet
Akhmim wooden tablet

The Akhmim wooden tablet, is an ancient Egyptian artifact that has been dated to 2000 BC, near to the beginning of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. It is currently housed in Cairo's Museum of Egyptian Antiquities....
.

See also

  • Eye of Providence
    Eye of Providence

    The Eye of Providence, or the all-seeing eye, is a symbol showing an eye surrounded by Ray of light or a Glory #Glory in Art and usually enclosed by a triangle....
    : a symbol showing an eye surrounded by rays of light or a glory, and usually enclosed by a triangle
  • Evil eye
    Evil eye

    The evil eye is a belief that the envy elicited by the good luck of fortunate people may result in their misfortune. The perception of the nature of the phenomenon, its causes, and possible protective measures, varies between different cultures....
     - a widely distributed element of folklore