One of the most enduring images of the Egyptian eye comes in the form of kohl paint. Kohl is a traditional cosmetic that is used to darken the area around the eyes. Painting the eyes in such a manner is truly a symbol of the Egyptian people, and it was believed to protect the eyes against ailments and the harsh rays of the sun. Unfortunately, a great deal of kohl was made from galena. Galena is another term for lead sulfide, and considering the dangers of lead, it is easy to see why this is a sad condition.
Eye blackening was such a symbol of the Nile civilization that one of the original sensationalized motion picture publicity campaigns involved it. Theda Bara, of silent film fame, was shown with the Egyptian eye style and said to be foreign and exotic. However, that isn’t to say that the Egyptian eye design is purely fiction, and indeed, it has a tradition even outside of the use of kohl as a cosmetic.
The Eye of Horus is often what individuals think of when they hear the term Egyptian eye. The goddess named Wadjet personified the symbol, and this particular deity dates from distant antiquity. Considering that the symbol was said to ward off malevolent forces, numerous Near Eastern sailors of the ancient period painted it on the bows of their vessels.
Horus was usually illustrated as a falcon, and his right eye was generally associated with Ra. With close examination, one might be able to find the teardrop marking that many falcons have present in the Eye of Horus. The teardrop is naturally indicative of this lineage.
Perhaps one of the more interesting connections to the Egyptian eye comes from a particular queen of the twenty-sixth dynasty. The name of Khedebneithirbinet I would translate to Neith Kills the Evil Eye. She was most likely the mother of Psamtik II, and she is assumed to be the wife of Necho II. An assumed child of the thirtieth dynasty Pharaoh Teos was also given the name. Khedebneithirbinet II would have presumably lived around the period that accompanied Teos’ reign around the 360s BC.
Naturally, numerous Egyptian eye amulets were produced that referenced the divine reign of Horus. To illustrate just how important this emblem was to the people of Ancient Egypt, many mathematical concepts stemmed from the fractions used to correctly draw the Eye of Horus. The Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll, which was drawn in approximately 1650 BC, features 26 rational numbers. Of these, ten are numbers from the Eye of Horus. The scroll itself is written in Middle Kingdom hieratic, and it might interest those who would like to engage in further study of the Ancient Egyptian knowledge of arithmetic.