Barraquer Ophthalmology Centre
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The Udjat Eye
Professor Ignacio Barraquer, founder of the Center in 1941 and a big fan of Egyptian art, chose the Udjat Eye as Barraquer Clinic’s emblem, whose legend is as follows:
According to Egyptian mythology, brothers Osiris and Seth married sisters Isis and Nephthys. Osiris, King of Egypt, and Isis had a son named Horus. Seth, jealous of his brother Osiris, locked him inside a sarcophagus that he plunged into the Nile. When Isis heard what had happened to her husband, she went in search of the sarcophagus and when he found it, she hided it in the middle of papyri while she waited to inform her son Horus about the fact.
Seth, who had the habit of hunting in these parts, found the body of his brother and in order to prevent Isis from resurrecting her husband, he dismembered the body, spreading his remains in different regions. Isis, with the help of Thoth, the god of science, brought together the remains of her husband and had him resurrect; so Osiris was the god of the dead.
Horus, to avenge the death of his father, declared war on Seth. Horus won, but in the battle he lost an eye. Thot put together the different parts of the eye and managed to reconstruct it through the power of magic. This reconstructed eye, has been the symbol of the completely healthy normal eye.
The Udjat eye, that is to say, the healthy eye, is a medallion that was found with other pectoral ornaments hanging from the neck of Pharaoh Tutankhamen On one side it appears Nekhbet, the vulture goddess, and on the other side the snake goddess Oudjit, which both are the symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Udjat eye shaped amulets appear to have been universally used in all times. The Egyptians wore it to get healthy vision and protection against the evil eye. According to this myth, the different parts of the eye have taken a mathematical value, each one is a fraction of the complete unit constituting the Udjat eye. The sum of these fractions gives a total of 63 / 64. It is assumed that 1 / 64 was provided by Thoth’s magic.
