Eye of Horus

In ancient Egyptian religion, the Eye of Horus has six distinct parts, each corresponding to a fraction of the heqat (a unit of grain measurement) and associated with one of the six senses. The components map to: smell (1/2), sight (1/4), thought (1/8), hearing (1/16), taste (1/32), and touch (1/64) — together adding up to 63/64, with the missing fraction said to have been restored by the god Thoth. The symbol is directly tied to the myth of Horus and Set: Horus lost his eye in battle with Set, and its restoration became the foundational story behind the wedjat's protective power. Egyptian funerary practice used the symbol extensively — painted on coffins, carved into amulets, and placed near the mummy's face to restore sight and health in the afterlife.

The term wedjat (also transliterated udjat) comes from ancient Egyptian wḏȝt, meaning 'the sound one' or 'the whole one' — a direct reference to the restored eye after Horus's battle with Set. The symbol appears as early as the Old Kingdom period (roughly 2686–2181 BCE) in tomb art and funerary texts. By the Middle Kingdom, wedjat amulets were mass-produced in faience, carnelian, and gold. The Pyramid Texts — among the oldest religious writings in the world, dating to the 5th and 6th Dynasties — reference the eye's restoration. The symbol spread beyond Egypt through trade and conquest, appearing in Phoenician and later Hellenistic contexts. It remains one of the most recognized symbols from ancient Egypt in modern popular culture.

If you want to use the Eye of Horus as a protective amulet, look for pieces made in faience or lapis lazuli — materials that match the historical tradition. Wearing it on the left side of the body follows the original Egyptian convention, since the wedjat was associated with the moon and the left eye of Horus. For reading, Richard H. Wilkinson's 'The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt' covers the symbol's mythology in solid detail. If you're interested in the mathematical side — the fractional system tied to each eye component — that's covered well in academic Egyptology sources like John Allen's 'Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs.'