Erotic Amulet

This erotic amulet, made of Egyptian faience, depicts a female figure that once belonged to a so-called symplegma couple. The term refers to explicit depictions of sexual intercourse, yet in this case, the male figure was broken off and lost. The nude woman is portrayed in a kneeling position, her toes leaning on the flat base representing a bed, her face is turned to the right and her head rests on the bed. The facial features are meticulously detailed. She stretches both arms back, her hands grasping her bottom on both sides. Of her male partner, nothing more than a piece of the base of his oversized phallus remained. The figurative representations of sexual intercourse became truly widespread in the Late Period, but their popularity was retained during the Graeco-Roman Period. These pieces might have been associated with festivals held in honour of the sacred union between the goddess Isis-Hathor and her god-consort Osiris, and the divine birth of Horus-the-Child (Harpokrates), which are in fact mythical allegories of the fertilization of Egypt’s land by the Nile’s flood. However, for the ancient Egyptians, the sexual act was also inextricably intertwined with the concept of rebirth in the afterlife, thence these objects can also be interpreted in terms of fertility rituals aimed at magically promoting conception.