SELKET

This graceful figure of the goddess Selket, whose emblem, a scorpion, is placed on her head, is made of wood overlaid with gesso and gilded.

Freestanding figures of four goddesses, including this figure of Selket, were placed outside the gilded wooden shrine that housed Tutankhamun's alabaster Canopic chest. An inscription that refers to similar figures on the sarcophagus of Thutmose IV defines their role in these words: "These four goddesses shall be with you, accompanying you, driving out every evil that is in your flesh, exterminating those who come against you and setting their magic spells against them."