HARPOCRATES. - One of the numerous forms under which the Egyptian god Horus was worshipped, and specifically Horus the child: A. is in fact the Hellenized form of the Egyptian name Har-pe-krat, that is, precisely Horus the child. As such, Egyptian monuments, and later Greek and Roman ones, represent him with a finger in his mouth, a gesture interpreted by Plutarch as a symbol of silence and connected with the mysteries. Together with Isis, A. was very popular in the last times of independent Egypt and even more so when the Greek influence made itself felt, because he spoke to the heart, as a symbol of the third constitutive element of the family, far more than the ancient forms of Horus, which had arisen in spiritual and cultural climates by then too distant. For the same reason A. was the only form of Horus whose cult went beyond the limits of Egypt.
BibliographyE. Meyer, s. v. Horos in W.H. Roscher, Lexikon der Mythologie, I, II, Leipzig 1886-90, coll. 2744-48.
BIBL.: E. Meyer, s. v. Horos in W.H. Roscher, Lexikon der Mythologie, I, II, Leipzig 1886-90, coll. 2744-48.
Mingazzini, Paolino. “Arpocrate.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II, coll. 14–15. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949. https://azioneromana.com/article/arpocrate.
MLA
Mingazzini, Paolino. “Arpocrate.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949, coll. 14–15. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/arpocrate.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec2_arpocrate,
author = {Mingazzini, Paolino},
title = {Arpocrate},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {II},
pages = {14--15},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1949},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/arpocrate}
}
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