Male Anthropomorphic Egyptian
Gods: Egyptian Child Gods: Shed
Mythology of ShedShed, 'He who rescues' or 'the
enchanter', was a protective god venerated mainly from New
Kingdom times, though he is attested earlier. He was the
master of wild beasts of the desert and river as well as
weapons of war so that he was believed to provide
protection from dangerous animals and martial harm as well
as against illness and inimical magic. Shed was connected
with Horus, sometimes appearing in the form Horus-Shed, to
the extent that by the Late Period he was largely subsumed
by the greater god.
Iconography of ShedShed was depicted as a child or
young man, usually with a shaved head except for the
sidelock of youth, wearing a kilt and sometimes with a
broad collar and with a quiver slung over his back. He
usually grasps serpents and wild, symbolically noxious
animals and stands on the back of one or more crocodiles -
essentially the same iconographic attributes found on
cippi of Horus.
Worship of ShedShed was primarily a god of popular
religion without his own temples and cultic service. He is
attested in personal names, and representations of the god
on protective plaques, pendants, etc, are known from a
variety of contexts. Two stelae dedicated to Shed were
found in a chapel in the workmen's village at Amarna
showing the god's popularity and persistence in
even that restrictive period.
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