Among the community of deities generally worshipped in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, Bes played a not insignificant role, equally as regards the rich variety of his iconography, and likewise in his symbolic meaning, rooted deeply in apotropaic meaning, understood in its widest sense. The unusually diverse iconography of this deity referring to his military aspects constitute a mechanism enabling an unusually broad range of contemporary interpretations, not only aimed at the attributes of the deity themselves, but enabling conclusions to be drawn regarding historical changes which took place in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt. The article is not only concerned with the iconographic genesis of the deity, but also presents his military confi guration as one of the key elements in his iconographic development, indicating the diverse traditions present in his iconography of a military character.
