If you look at one of the brightly painted Maltese fishing boats (luzzu is the Maltese name for one of these), you will be sure to notice a pair of eyes painted on the front. Now people will tell you that these represent the eye of Osiris, (Egyptian god of the underworld, if you couldn’t place the name), and that they were introduced to the island by the Phoenicians. These Phoenicians were famous sailors and traders, and so they are as likely as anyone to have been painting good luck symbols onto the prow of their boats to protect against evil spirits of the deep.
In truth, there’s not too much hard evidence about what the eyes are and how exactly they came to adorn Maltese fishing vessels. What we can be pretty sure of is that fishermen tend to be a pretty superstitious bunch, and so if dad and grandad painted an pair of eyes onto his boat and the boat didn’t sink, then Jimmy Borg Junior isn’t going to take any chances.
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This should be the Eye of Huros who happened to be the son of Osiris, who was killed by his brother Seth. When Huros heard of the killing he sought and fought his uncle and in the ensuing fight Huros lost an eye. When his mother, the goddess Isis, saw this, she picked it up and place it back in her son’s face and declared that whoever is behind this eye will have her protection. So the legend goes and in most countries in the eastern mediterranean you can buy this glass trinket for your protection. Don’t understand why we in Malta call it the eye of Osiris, Baffling.