Muscle · Head

Superior rectus

Musculus rectus superior

The straight muscle that runs along the roof of the eye socket and pulls the eye upward. It shares its origin ring at the back of the orbit with the other three recti and attaches to the top of the eyeball in front of its widest point. Because the socket points outward and the eye points forward, its pull is not purely upward — it also draws the eye toward the nose and rolls its top inward. It lies immediately beneath the muscle that lifts the upper eyelid and shares a fascial sheath with it, which is why the upper lid rises when you look up.