The ancient Egyptians held a deep reverence for the natural world, a reverence that led to the adoption of animal imagery as symbols of the divine and of kingship. Egyptian deities, even human-headed ones, often had one or more animal manifestations – animals considered sacred to the deity that were given to the god as votive offerings and represented them in art. In fact, nearly every animal indigenous to Egypt was associated with a deity at some point in Egyptian history.

Animal imagery was also evoked as powerful metaphors: scenes of Hathor in the guise of a cow suckling the king (her calf) illustrated her role as a nurturing goddess. The fiercely maternal representation of Taweret as a hippopotamus protected pregnant women and women in labor by conjuring the image of a mother hippo safeguarding her calf. Anyone could benefit from the power of these animal icons, usually in the form of a worn amulet, even for a creature as unlikely as the common fly.

Fly Amulets as Protection

Amulets were small objects made of various materials and often strung on jewelry that were thought to magically imbue the owner, living or dead, with certain attributes or protections. So-called ‘homopoeic amulets’ were magical objects that relied on the image of a creature (or their parts) to protect or empower the wearer. One can easily imagine how wearing an amulet of a lion might be thought to embolden the wearer, as wrapping an eye amulet into a mummy’s bindings would give them the ability to see after death. An amulet of a hare might be worn to evoke speed, or an amulet of a baboon to grant wisdom through its association with the god Thoth.

Even the humble fly (called aff in Egyptian) was worn as a homopoeic amulet. Fly amulets were distinctly v-shaped, emphasizing the head and wings of the insect. They varied in size but most were 2cm or smaller and could be strung on a single necklace or bracelet, often interspaced by beads. Small fly amulets have been found in Egypt made from gold, silver, bone, lapis lazuli, faience, carnelian, and amethyst. Wearing a fly amulet was probably believed to protect the wearer from insect bites or ward off pesky flying creatures through apotropaic magic.

Fly Pendants as Royal Rewards

The fly also bore the burden of use as a more impressive symbol: during the New Kingdom large fly pendants were given to officials to reward military achievements. As royal awards, these fly pendants were larger than their amuletic counterparts, made exclusively of gold, and given in conjunction with other gold rewards like the ‘Gold of Honour.’ Ahmose Pen-Nekhbet records in his autobiography that Thutmose I awarded him “two bracelets, four necklaces, one armlet, six [golden] flies, three [golden] lions, and two golden axes” for serving him on the battlefield.

A golden fly might surprise you as a military reward, especially beside the more ferocious icon of a lion, until you consider the indefatigable persistence that flies are known to exhibit. Even a single fly can feel like an unrepulsable enemy, swift and persistent, and you won’t soon forget the misfortune of getting caught in a swarm of flies.

Remarkably, the most stunning example of gold fly pendants were found in the tomb of Queen Ahhotep at Dra Abu el-Naga, in the Theban necropolis. Ahhotep’s burial contained three gold flies, large and striking, as well as two silver flies with gold heads. Their presence in a queen’s burial indicates the significant role she played as queen regent during the struggle against the Hyksos, especially when viewed with the other military objects found in her tomb: a dagger and a gold battle-axe. Ahhotep’s gold fly pendants, strung on a gold chain, are now on display in the Luxor Museum along with her ceremonial axe.

The ancient Egyptians likely adopted the fly as a symbol of military prowess from their southern neighbors, the Kerma Culture, whose kingdom encompassed over two hundred miles of modern-day Sudan. Large fly pendants of ivory and bronze have been found at Buhen, Qai, and Kerma belonging to Kerma ‘warrior’ burials – burials in which the owner also possessed a sword, dagger, or other weapon, indicating a soldiering career.

The fly motif existed in Egypt even before the Old Kingdom, but it is not until after the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period (corresponding to the Classic Kerma Period) that fly pendants were instated as royal rewards for military achievements in Egypt. The Nilotic fly, a symbol of undaunted persistence and unwavering resolve in one Nile Valley culture, became a symbolic object of royal favor in another.

Cover Photo Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (Necklace of fly beads, acc no. 1980.167)

Further Reading:

• Cyril Aldred. 1971. Jewels of the Pharaohs: Egyptian Jewelry of the Dynastic Period. Ballantine Books.
• Susanne Binder. 2008. The Gold of Honour in New Kingdom Egypt. The Australian Centre for Egyptology Studies 8.
• Denise M. Doxey, Rita E. Freed, and Lawrence M. Berman. 2018. Arts of Ancient Nubia. MFA Publications.
• Bernard Greenberg. 1973. Flies and Disease. 2 vols. Princeton University Press.