Vase Bes, Egypt, New Kingdom, 1500-1000 BC

Globular vase, the belly of which is decorated with a head of Bes in relief.
Egypt, New Kingdom, 1500-1000 BC
Terracotta and pigments
H: 20cm


These types of vases were probably used in a funerary context.
Bès, god of sensual pleasures, he plays the lyre, the tambourine or the flute and dances. There is also in the world of the dead a divinity who, with his large knife, cuts the hearts of demons, while providing fresh water to the dead.
The liquids which in this type of vase came into contact with the effigy of Bes were to be charged with the virtues of this divinity linked to birth, to the fight against evil animals and the forces of evil and to allow prophylactic libations to ward off forever the emissaries of Sekhmet and to assure the deceased a peaceful sleep and his rebirth as Osiris.