British Museum

Victor Hurowitz points out that iconographic analysis has its limits. For instance, the depiction of Reshef in the stela (on the right)—with both arms lowered, wearing an antelope-headed crown over a heavy wig, with a spear and an ankh in his hands—is atypical, making it difficult to determine his role. Reshef is not known to have an erotic function, yet in this stela he, along with the fertility god Min (on the left), attends the naked goddess Qudshu (center).