Cast brass figure of the Egyptian god Harpocrates / Horus

Cast brass figure of an Egyptian god Harpocrates, or the child Horus, modelled with right index finger to chin, 20cm high, on oval marble plinth base, 22cm overall

The name Harpocrates was adopted by the Greeks from depictions of the Egyptian child god Horus, being a Greek adaptation of the Egyptian 'Har-pa-khered' or 'Heru-pa-khered', meaning "Horus the Child". Horus is represented as a naked boy with his finger to his mouth (the hieroglyph for 'child'). Misinterpreting this gesture, later Greek and Roman poets made Harpocrates the god of silence and secrecy.