Underworld
The Four Sons of Horus
How it changed
Four gods who exist to guard the four organs removed in mummification, the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines, one god to each. Note that their Hapy, the baboon, is a different god from Hapi of the inundation despite the shared name. Their animal heads became the standard canopic set only in the New Kingdom; earlier jar lids had four human heads.
Cult centre
None; present in every furnished burial
Best attested
Old Kingdom onward, standardised in the New Kingdom
Family
- ParentsHorus
Sons of Horus; each watched over in turn by one of the goddesses Isis, Nephthys, Neith and Serqet.
Epithets
- “The children of Horus”
How to recognise the figure
Four figures with the heads of a man (Imsety), a baboon (Hapy), a jackal (Duamutef) and a falcon (Qebehsenuef), best known as the stoppers of the canopic jars.
Others in this group