Eye Painting Ritual, Bull Sacrifice and the Myth of the Eye of Horus in Ancient Egypt

Abstract

In the predynastic period, the funeral rite included the main rituals: supplying water to the deceased, food in the form of a bull’s front leg and staining the eyelids with green paint. In the protodynastic and early dynastic periods, the idea of ​​a luminous beginning was embodied in the image of a bull. On the ceremonial palettes, the bull and calf act as a sacrificial animal. This gives grounds to analyze the materials on the origins of the convergence and even intersection of the ritual of painting the eyes and the sacrifice of the bull in the written period in the context of their involvement in the myth of the Eye of Horus. The ritualized form of the myth was reflected in the images and motives inherent in a society that was at the stage of state formation − in the scenes of confrontation and battle between the supporters of the supreme ruler — the people of God Horus with enemies. Later, in written sources, this idea, clothed in mythical imagery, was preserved as the core in of the myth about the Eye of deity Horus.