Imagines Hori: Egyptian Idols and the Nursing Isis

This black-and-white woodcut print features a symmetrical arrangement of archaeological findings. On the left and right stand two tall, mummiform figures (A and B) with human faces and torso-level tablets inscribed with pseudo-hieroglyphs. Centered between them is a circular representation of a coin showing a woman seated on a chair, breastfeeding an infant, with a vessel placed on the ground to her left. Below this central circle are two conjoined smaller mummiform figures (E) sharing a single base. The text 'IMAGINES HORI' spans the top, and various Latin labels mark specific components of the illustration.

This image is a plate from Athanasius Kircher’s 'Oedipus Aegyptiacus' (1652-1654), a monumental attempt to decode Egyptian hieroglyphs through the lens of Neoplatonic, Hermetic, and Christian syncretism. It illustrates Kircher's attempt to link Egyptian iconography with classical and Mediterranean traditions, specifically identifying the nursing goddess as a prototype for both Ceres and the nursing Isis.