God Ihy was a young god, son of goddess HATHOR and god HORUS OF BEHDET. His name meant ‘the sistrum player’. God Ihy is considered the personification of joy and delight associated with the sound of the sistrum. He was represented as a naked child with a side lock of hair and sometimes with a finger in his mouth holding the sistrum in his hand, and sometimes the mnat collar one of the cult objects of goddess HATHOR. Ihy was a sky god because his mother Hathor was a goddess who had association with the sky.
His main cult centre was the Temple of Dendera. In the temple complex, the birth house or "mammisi" was a sanctuary where the mystery of the conception and birth of the divine child Ihy was celebrated. His name was rarely found outside the temple of Dendera, though for example, we occasionally find it in spells of the Coffin Texts or Book of the Dead where he is called "lord of bread… in charge of bear." During the Late Period, he was equated with HORUS THE CHILD then in turn with HARPOCRATES.
Statuette of the God Ihy from Tutankhamun Collection
Among the collection of the gods that were in the treasury, there were two statuettes of god Ihy. They are made out of wood covered with a dark resin and they are identical. This statue is represented completely naked, left leg stepping forward and holding a gilded sistrum in his right hand. His eyebrows are inlaid with gold. He is depicted with the side lock. The colour, symbolizing the fertile soil, may indicate his association with rebirth.