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| The protective child god Shed depicted grasping serpents and wild animals and standing on crocodiles. Pectoral, 18th/19th Dynasty. Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim. |
Male Anthropomorphic Egyptian Gods: Egyptian Child Gods: Shed
Mythology of Shed
Shed, 'He who rescues' or 'the enchanter', was a protective god venerated mainly from New Kingdom times, though he is attested earlier. He was the master of wild beasts of the desert and river as well as weapons of war so that he was believed to provide protection from dangerous animals and martial harm as well as against illness and inimical magic. Shed was connected with Horus, sometimes appearing in the form Horus-Shed, to the extent that by the Late Period he was largely subsumed by the greater god.Iconography of Shed
Shed was depicted as a child or young man, usually with a shaved head except for the sidelock of youth, wearing a kilt and sometimes with a broad collar and with a quiver slung over his back. He usually grasps serpents and wild, symbolically noxious animals and stands on the back of one or more crocodiles - essentially the same iconographic attributes found on cippi of Horus.Worship of Shed
Shed was primarily a god of popular religion without his own temples and cultic service. He is attested in personal names, and representations of the god on protective plaques, pendants, etc, are known from a variety of contexts. Two stelae dedicated to Shed were found in a chapel in the workmen's village at Amarna showing the god's popularity and persistence in even that restrictive period.
