Hippopotamus
Faience, pigment
Dynasties 12-17, ca. 1991-1668 B.C.
By exchange with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1950
OIM 10707

Beautifully colored the brilliant blue of the Nile River and painted with images of lotus flowers, small hippopotami like this one have been found in burial chambers. The lotuses painted on the back and sides of the hippo symbolize creation and rebirth, as well as representing its habitat. The ancient Egyptian saw the male hippo as the embodiment of all that was dangerous and wild. These figurines are usually found in tombs, their legs deliberately broken to magically render the animal powerless. In contrast, the Egyptians revered “Taweret” or “opet,” the female hippopotamus, as a goddess of maternity and a protector or women in childbirth.

Animals often held symbolic value for the Egyptians. For example, the ibis, a bird with a curved beak, was considered sacred because its arrival each year coincided with the flooding of the Nile River. The Nile provided irrigation for crops, and the ibis became a symbol for the bounty of the river. The cobra was seen as a symbol of power, and its image was often worn on the headdresses of pharaohs.

The Egyptian believed that the gods created humans and animals. They considered animals to be their interdependent partners on earth, rather than their subjects. Some children in ancient Egypt played with wooden toys shaped like animals – such as hippos and crocodiles – that lived in the nearby Nile River. Some of these toys had hinges that allowed their mouths to move up and down.