Bes, Isis, and I Have a Creative Discussion

Bes is a funny little Egyptian god. Look at a carving of him and his squatty body topped with big round-cheeked face, and you can’t help but laugh. He’s also funny in the hard to figure out sense. Is he good or bad? Helpful or mischievous?

Isis and scarabs always distract me when I look up Egyptian art and artifacts. Bes, I glance at, smile, and continue browsing. Somewhere along the way, I got the idea that he was more of a cute devil than a devilish cutie. . . so I’d leave him alone and go torch a scarab or an Isis or maybe even an ankh.

Yesterday, I stopped and read this caption under Bes’ picture in a children’s book, Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Leon Ashworth:

“Another god who protected women was the cheerful little god of the home, Bes. He watched over women in childbirth and kept the family safe from evil spirits, snakes, scorpions, and other harmful creatures.”

That was enough to convince me that I needed to sculpt a Bes bead. I’ll be putting him in my Etsy shop, but I just might have to make another one just for me. . . who couldn’t use a cheerful little reminder that someone is watching over their household?

AngelinaBeadalina cruises library books and surfs the net, looking for ideas to torch and sculpt with glass, hoping to find interesting themes to jazz up her blog her Etsy shoppers. and entertain