Eye of Horus and unit fractions in ancient Egypt

Upon visiting various different Egyptian exhibitions, I had always come across the Horus eye symbol but never looked much into the meaning behind it. I had assumed that the eye carried some sort of importance in keeping spirits away similar to the Greek's however, I had never imagined it to carry the importance of such rich history and mathematical properties. 

Interestingly enough, not only does each part of the eye symbolize a different fraction, but it also portrays different senses in which the Egyptians believed there to be six; Hear, Taste, Smell, Touch, See and Thought as seen below. 




The egyptians believed that this eye was considered the 'whole' eye. However, it is important to note that the sum of each of the fractions, which can be seen as a geometric series today, only adds up to 63/64. When researching I found that some academics believed that the 1/64 missing from the 'whole' eye could be intentional as no mortal human being can re-create something so perfect as the God's are able to. Other think that the missing piece could be represented by the magic that the God's used during this time. It is still a mystery to most of us today. 

One number that I think is significant and re-ocurring in numerous stories is the number 40, especially in the bible: 
1. In Genesis: God said that once the world was created it will rain for 40 days and 40 nights 
2. When Noah collected two of each animal on the ark, the flood on the world lastes for 40 days and 40 nights 
3. The promise land was not granted to the Hebrew people for 40 years. 
4. Lent in Catholic households is linked to Jesus when he starved / fasted in the wilderness for 40 days 



Comments

  1. Susan GerofskyNovember 11, 2020 at 12:45 PM

    Good research and interesting commentary, Margot! The Biblical connection to 40 is really interesting. As an aside, when we moved to Vancouver from Toronto in January 1992, it actually did rain for 40 days and 40 nights. We thought that was the way it always was in Vancouver...!

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