Egyptian Bronze Oxyrhynchus Fish Figure
Late Period, 664-332 B.C. A bronze votive oxyrhynchus fish on a sledge base; the fish with inlaid eyes (now missing), hatched dorsal fin, hatched and engraved usekh collar, disc and horned crown fronted by sacred uraeus; suspension loop behind. Cf. The Metropolitan Museum, New York, accession number 04.2.660, for a comparable example. 163 grams, 85 mm wide (3 3/8 in.). Acquired 1980s.Private collection of L.H., Staffordshire, UK.Property of a Sussex, UK, teacher. The oxyrhynchus fish was sacred to the goddess Hathor, and was often depicted wearing her crown on its head, an image that may have reproduced an actual temple cult statue. It was also connected to the myth of god Osiris, believed to have eaten his penis after god Seth had dismembered and scattered the god's body. The fish was worshipped under the name Medjed.