symbol
Eye
The organ of seeing, and the marks people make of it: protection, surveillance, the sun’s disk, the glance that harms.
Egyptian religion
Eye appears in Egyptian religion.
Egyptian funerary equipment and spells use the wedjat-eye as a restoring and protective mark. It is an Egyptian eye, not the folk “evil eye.”
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
appears in · partially sourced · documented
Eye is associated with Sun.
Egyptian theology can treat the sun as an eye of a god. That solar eye is not the Mediterranean charm against envy.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
associated with · partially sourced · culturally specific
Eye is associated with Knowledge.
The restored eye in Egyptian myth is a recovery of order and sight. Knowledge here is restored function, not Hermetic gnosis.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
associated with · partially sourced · documented
Eye is opposed to Death.
The wedjat is among the marks meant to keep a dead person whole. Protection against damage in the tomb is not the folk blighting glance.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972
opposed to · partially sourced · culturally specific
European folklore
Eye is associated with Luck.
Around the Mediterranean and in later Europe, a look can be said to blight luck. The “evil eye” is a folk harm, not the wedjat.
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific
Eye is associated with Divination.
Seeing signs with the eye is ordinary; calling a glance itself a technique of harm is a specific folk claim.
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific
Charm is associated with Eye.
Mediterranean and later European charms against a blighting glance are one local use of a small made thing. They are not the wedjat.
associated with · interpretive · culturally specific
Mirror is associated with Eye.
A mirror returns a likeness to the eye. Truth here is optical before it is moral.
associated with · interpretive · documented
Egyptian religion · Nile valley
Wedjat represents Eye.
The wedjat is a restored eye in Egyptian imagery. It is a specific sign, not every drawing of an eye.
from Raymond O. Faulkner (translation) · Book of the Dead, New Kingdom spells; Faulkner trans. 1972; Plutarch · On Isis and Osiris, c. 100 CE
represents · sourced · documented
sources
- Book of the Dead · Raymond O. Faulkner (translation)
Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.
- On Isis and Osiris · Plutarch
Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris (Moralia).