page_title: Dwarfs and pygmies in ancient Egypt
section_title: Dwarf deities
hierarchical_section_title: Dwarfs and pygmies in ancient Egypt / Dwarf deities
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Relief des Gottes Bes neben dem römischen Nordtor des Tempelkomplexes von Dendera, Ägypten
context_page_description: In ancient Egypt, especially during the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods, dwarfs and pygmies were seen as people with celestial gifts. They were treated with considerable respect and could enjoy high social positions. During the 1st Dynasty, dwarfs served and worked directly for the king and royal household, and a number have been found buried in subsidiary tombs around those of the kings. In fact, the rather high proportion of dwarfs in the royal cemeteries of the 1st Dynasty suggests some may have been brought into Egypt from elsewhere.
  Later, in the Old Kingdom, dwarfs were employed as jewellers, tailors, cup-bearers and zookeepers, could found families or be brought into one. Pygmies were employed as dancers for special occasions and religious festivals. The social position of dwarfs seems to have declined after the Old Kingdom. By the time of the New Kingdom they were depicted in ridiculing ways, and while the papyrus "The wise doctrine of Amenemope, son of Kanakht" asks people not to treat them badly, this probably shows that they were subject to abuse.
  In Egyptian art, dwarfs and pygmies are depicted realistically which enables their identification as cases of nanism.
context_section_description: In Ancient Egypt, peoples worshipped several dwarf deities, the most important of which was Bes. His cult is archaeologically attested since the 12th Dynasty (c. 1991–1802 BC). The cult is thought to have originated in Nubia, modern day Sudan. Bes was the god of dreams, luck, dancing, and he was the protector of the household and its belongings. He was also a god of birth and was worshipped in birth houses alongside the goddess Heqet. Bes is always depicted with a normal torso and head, shortened legs and arms and with the ears of a lion. His most unmistakable feature is his frontal depiction, rather rare in Ancient Egypt, making Bes particularly recognizable (and probably pointing to a foreign origin for his cult).
  A further deity with nanism, but rarely depicted, was Ptah-Pahtaka ("Ptah, the strong"). He was worshipped as a special form of Ptah, the god of art, crafts and creativity. Another form of Ptah that was also depicted as a dwarf was Ptah-segem-panem ("Ptah, the listener"). The deity Thoth, god of time, knowledge, mathematics and the moon, was sometimes depicted as a baboon with the head of a human. This could have been an allusion to dwarfs.
caption: The dwarf deity Bes as depicted on a relief at Dendera
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon DIGITAL IXUS 980 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Live Photo Gallery14.0.8081.709", "Image DateTime": "2011:07:01 12:27:01", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2368", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "7642", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5264", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "9", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:03:07 10:25:38", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:03:07 10:25:38", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "245/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "203/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "107/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "2393/250", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1760", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2494", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "4416", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "3312", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "7444", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1104000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1104000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "1EF6EB2C50404F939CDD012B3D88920C", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4212"}