Lepidotus fish

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The lepidotus fish was sacred to the Egyptians, and was linked in mythology to the story of the god Seth’s dismemberment of Osiris. The esteem afforded this fish is apparent in the care and detail of some of its representations. Here the scales and fins are finely executed, the round eyes large and thickly rimmed. A tang on the underside would have attached the fish to another element, possibly a statuette, plinth, or a mummy box.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art