Façonner les dieux. Les figurines d’Harpocrate du Musée L (Louvain-la-Neuve) et la production de terres cuites en Égypte gréco-romaine

 = Paper = 

Harpocrates, the young son of Isis and Osiris (and later Serapis), is one of the most popular deities of Greco-Roman Egypt. His youth made him the protector of children and the guarantor of prosperity and fertility, making him the favourite god of the people of the Egyptian chôra. An important testimony of this popular fervour remains today in the numerous terracotta figurines depicting Harpocrates, discovered all over Egypt and long discredited by researchers. These figurines, precious for the understanding of popular beliefs, are today present in the collections of many museums. The Musée L of Louvain-la-Neuve is no exception and holds four figurines of varied iconographic types that are sometimes poorly represented in other collections. These objects will be presented individually before being placed in the context of the production of Greco-Roman terracotta from Egypt, with particular interest in the craftsmen and workshops that produced them, as well as in the function of these figurines.