Few symbols from the ancient world are as instantly recognizable as the Eye of Horus: a stylized human eye with a falcon’s markings — a curving line sweeping down and back from beneath the eye, and a spiral or teardrop below it. For the ancient Egyptians it was the most powerful of all protective symbols. It was worn as an amulet by the living, placed on the bodies of the dead, painted on the prows of ships, and carved on coffins. Its Egyptian name, wedjat (or udjat), means “the sound one” or “the one that is whole.”
The symbol comes from one of the central myths of Egyptian religion: the eye that the god Horus lost in his struggle with Set, and that was healed and restored.
The Myth of the Lost Eye
In the long war between Horus and his uncle Set over the throne of Egypt (see The Contendings of Horus and Set), Set attacked Horus and damaged or tore out his eye. The details vary widely in different sources:
- In some texts, Set tore out the eye and cut it into six pieces, which he scattered across Egypt.
- In others, Set swallowed it, or trampled it.
- In the Contendings, Set tore out both eyes and buried them in the mountains, where they grew into lotus flowers.
The eye was restored by one of the gods. Most often it was Thoth, the wise god of writing and magic, who found the pieces and reassembled them, or who spat on the eye to heal it (see Thoth: The Egyptian God of Wisdom and Writing). In the Contendings, it is Hathor who heals Horus by pouring gazelle’s milk into his empty eye sockets.
The Gift to Osiris
After the eye was restored, Horus did something remarkable. According to the Pyramid Texts — the oldest religious texts of Egypt, carved inside the pyramids of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties (c. 2400–2300 BCE) — Horus offered his healed eye to his dead father Osiris. When Osiris ate it, or received it, he was restored to life in the underworld.
This act made the Eye of Horus the archetype of all offerings. In Egyptian temples and tombs, every offering made to a god or to the dead — bread, beer, oil, linen, incense — could be called “the Eye of Horus.” The priest who presented it was repeating Horus’s gift to his father. The eye thus came to represent the power of offerings to restore and sustain life.
The Moon
In Egyptian thought, Horus’s two eyes were the sun and the moon. His right eye was the sun, and his left eye — the one damaged by Set — was the moon. The waning and waxing of the moon each month was seen as the eye being damaged and restored, over and over again. The full moon was the eye made whole. Thoth, the god who healed the eye, was also a moon god.
The fifteen days of the moon’s waxing were each associated with a deity who filled the eye piece by piece, and the fifteenth day — the full moon — was the day of the “filling of the wedjat.”
The Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra
The Eye of Horus should be distinguished — though the Egyptians themselves often blended them — from the Eye of Ra, the sun god’s eye, which was imagined as a fierce, independent goddess who could go out into the world to punish his enemies (see The Eye of Ra and the Destruction of Mankind). The Eye of Ra was often identified with the lioness Sekhmet, the cobra goddess Wadjet, or Hathor.
Both are “the Eye,” and in Egyptian religion the eye of a god was not merely an organ but a separate, active power. The Egyptian word for eye, irt, is linked to the verb iri, “to do” or “to make.” An eye is something that acts.
The Shape of the Eye
The wedjat symbol combines a human eye and eyebrow with the markings found below the eye of the peregrine falcon — the bird of Horus. The falcon has a dark “malar stripe” that runs down from its eye, and the wedjat preserves this as a vertical line and a spiralling curve.
The Fractions: A Modern Theory
A popular modern idea holds that the six parts of the Eye of Horus each represented a fraction used in Egyptian measurement of grain:
- The right side of the eye = 1/2
- The pupil = 1/4
- The eyebrow = 1/8
- The left side of the eye = 1/16
- The curled tail = 1/32
- The teardrop = 1/64
These add up to 63/64, and the missing 1/64 was said to be supplied by Thoth’s magic. The theory was proposed by the Egyptologist Georg Möller in 1911 and is widely repeated. However, more recent scholars have pointed out that the hieratic signs for these fractions developed independently and only later came to resemble parts of the eye. The idea that the fractions derived from the myth is now considered doubtful, though it remains a beloved story.
Amulets of Protection
The Eye of Horus was among the most common amulets in Egypt from the Old Kingdom onward. Thousands have been found, made of faience, gold, silver, carnelian, lapis lazuli, and other materials. They were worn:
- By the living, to protect against illness, the evil eye, and misfortune.
- By the dead, placed among the wrappings of mummies, especially over the incision in the left side of the body through which the embalmers removed the internal organs. The eye “healed” the wound and protected the body for eternity.
- On coffins, where a pair of wedjat eyes was often painted on the side facing east, so that the dead person could “look out” at the rising sun.
Chapter 167 of the Book of the Dead is a spell “for bringing the wedjat-eye.”
Eyes on Ships
Mediterranean sailors have painted eyes on the prows of their boats since antiquity. In Egypt, ships bore the wedjat to see the way ahead and ward off danger. The custom spread to Greek, Phoenician, and Roman ships and survives today on fishing boats in Malta, Greece, Portugal, and elsewhere. The “Eye of Osiris” on Maltese luzzu boats is a direct descendant.
The Eye of Horus Today
The Eye of Horus has become one of the most popular ancient symbols in the modern world. It appears in jewellery, tattoos, and art. It is widely used as a symbol of protection and spiritual insight. A popular claim holds that the Eye of Horus is the origin of the “Eye of Providence” on the back of the US dollar bill, but the Eye of Providence comes from Christian iconography representing the all-seeing eye of God, and there is no direct evidence of Egyptian influence.
Another modern link sometimes made — that the symbol Rx, used for medical prescriptions, derives from the Eye of Horus — is also a popular story without solid evidence. The Rx symbol comes from the Latin recipe, “take.”
A Symbol of Wholeness
The deepest meaning of the Eye of Horus lies in its story. The eye was damaged, torn, even destroyed — and it was made whole again. It represents healing after injury, restoration after loss, and the triumph of order over chaos. For the ancient Egyptians, who lived in a world where the Nile flood could fail, where illness struck without warning, and where death was ever-present, that promise of restoration was precious.
Last reviewed: September 2026.