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Protective
Bes
bsChildbirthThe householdMusicWarding off evil
How it changed
The other god of the house, and the great exception to the rules of Egyptian art. Everything else is drawn in profile; Bes stares straight out of the wall at the viewer, because his job is to frighten off what is approaching, and a face does that better than a shoulder. He was painted in bedrooms at Deir el-Medina and his image travelled as far as Rome.
Cult centre
None. A god of houses
Best attested
Middle Kingdom onward, and hugely popular in the New Kingdom and later
Family
None fixed.
Epithets
- “Lord of Punt”
How to recognise the figure
A dwarf shown FRONT ON, which almost nothing else in Egyptian art is, with a lion's mane, a protruding tongue, and often a tambourine or a knife.
Others in this group