Magic spells in hieroglyphs, horus

thirteen magical spells written in hieroglyphs. The spells protect against poisonous bites and wounds and to cure the illnesses caused by them. The stela was commissioned by the priest Esatum to be set up in the public part of a temple.

This work depicts Horus emerging from the background; the depiction, in high relief, gives the effect that it is a statue separate to the main stele. He is portrayed in the conventional Egyptian form for youth: that is, he is nude and wearing his hair in a sidelock. The soft, rounded forms of the bodies of Horus and the other deities are typical of the style of the period.

To symbolize his magic powers, Horus holds snakes and scorpions as well as an antelope (by its horns) and a lion (by its tail) in his closed fists. His feet rest on two crocodiles. Above him is the head of Bes, the dwarf deity with leonine features who had traditionally protected households but by this time had become a more general protective deity. 

Horus is flanked by three deities who stand upon coiled snakes. On the right is Thoth, identified by his ibis head, and on the left is Isis. Both protectively hold the walls of a curved reed hut, a primeval chapel, in which the Horus child stands together with a figure of Re-harakhty, god of the rising sun, and two standards in the form of papyrus and lotus columns. The lotus standard supports the two feathers of Osiris's headdress.