The Four Who Stood in the Jars

Funerary tradition gives Horus four sons, and they are among the few Egyptian figures nearly every surviving burial names. Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef and Qebehsenuef guard the organs removed during embalming, and each has a jar, a direction and a protecting goddess. Their heads change over time: all four are human in earlier periods, and only later become the human, baboon, jackal and falcon set that museum cases display. They are named in the Pyramid Texts long before canopic jars take those shapes, which means the gods came first and the lids caught up with them.