Also called Horus the Child, Har-pa-khered, Harpokrates.
Their story
Harpocrates is the Greek form of Har-pa-khered, Horus the Child, son of Isis and Osiris. Egyptian art showed children with a finger to the mouth, and Greeks and Romans later read this as a gesture of secrecy, making him a god of silence. Healing stelae called cippi show him standing on crocodiles and holding snakes and scorpions, and people poured water over them to absorb their magic. Plutarch describes him as born weak in the legs after the death of Osiris.
Best times to give to them
- dawn
- Khoiak
- the birth of a child
What they like being given
- milk
- honey
- bread
- lotus or other flowers
- water poured over a protective image
How to honour them
- Ask him to guard children from harm.
- Keep a small image of the child Horus by a sickbed.
How they can help you
- protection of children
- healing
- hope
- vulnerability
Symbols
- naked child with finger to the mouth
- sidelock of youth
- lotus
- Horus cippi standing on crocodiles
His role as a god of silence and secrets is a Graeco-Roman interpretation.
Sources
- Metternich Stela (Metropolitan Museum of Art 50.85)
- Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 19
- Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
More Egyptian gods
- Osiris Lord of the afterlife and new growth
- Horus The falcon, protector of the rightful king
- Ra The sun who sails the sky
- Thoth Scribe of the gods, lord of wisdom
- Anubis Guardian and guide of the dead
- Khonsu The Traveller, the moon who heals
- Amun The hidden king of the gods at Thebes
- Ptah Creator by word and patron of craftsmen