Pharaonic Symbols
Being one of the oldest known human civilizations, Ancient Egypt has captured the imaginations of people for centuries. Egypt is known for its great pyramids, pharaohs, and mummies.
It is also littered with many mysteries and a great deal of spirituality; the mythology and culture of ancient Egyptians are surely an important part of the history of civilization. It is rich in pharaonic symbols related to royalty and its religious beliefs.
Ancient Egyptian symbols were used during different periods of Egyptian civilization to represent all kinds of concepts and ideas from their mythology.
Many of these symbols were related to some Egyptian gods. The Egyptians used these symbols to decorate their temples, to represent their gods in their inscriptions, and to make amulets to cope with the difficulties.
For those who have been wondering what these curious symbols represent, here are the most famous ancient Egyptian symbols and their meanings:
Ankh-The Key Of Life
The Ankh is the most popular symbol of ancient Egypt. Its hieroglyphs translated to English reads "the key of life”; this literally means eternal life and has long been associated with rituals performed by priests or royalty meant for everlasting existence on Earth.
Nemyss-The Royal headdress
Nemyss is the Egyptian ritual headdress worn by pharaohs in Egyptian culture. It’s best identified through the images of King Tutankhamen’s sarcophagus. Nemyss has been a symbol for protection and royalty as well as many other reasons that are not fully known yet through time. The nemyss is a folded linen cloth that rises from the forehead and hangs down towards the shoulders.
Sensen-Lotus Flower
Like the sun that sets in the evening and rises in the morning, the lotus flower blooms in the day and closes each night. The lotus thus became a symbol of rebirth, the renewal of life and the promise of everlasting life. Lotus was included in the manufacture of perfumes in ancient Egypt, where the flowers were soaked in an inverted form in a fatty substance to obtain the desired fragrance.
Pharaonic Cat
The cat in Egyptian symbolism was probably derived from that of jungle cats, or cats in the reeds that lived in the delta of the Nile. In the new kingdom, the male cat was seen as an incarnation of the sun god, the female represented the solar eye. The domestic cat was the sacred animal of the goddess Bastet, often depicted as a woman with a feline head.
Scarab-The Flying Beetle
The Egyptian Scarab Beetle was a symbol of death, rebirth, great power, guidance and protection in the afterlife. The scarab beetle was one of the most important and popular amulets for hundreds of years, worn by everyone living and the dead.
Seeing Scarab beetles rolling balls of dung as their source of food, ancient Egyptians believed that these beetles recreated life. This was because they confused the eggs laid and buried in sand by female beetles with the rolls used as a food source. This made them think these beetles “created life out of nothing”.
Wadjet-The Eye of Horus
The Eye of Horus symbol represents protection, healing, good health and royal power. It is also known as the symbol of moon. It was also used as a medical tool to measure the ingredients while preparing medicine.
Seba-The Starfish
In Egyptian mythology, stars were referred as “the followers of Osiris” since they were identified with the souls of the dead in Duat. Duat was symbolic of the underworld or the realm of the dead; these stars were believed to descend there every night to accompany the Sun. The symbol of a star inside a circle was a way of representing the underworld.
Cartouche
The symbol which has the shape of a circle but was originally shaped like an oval with a horizontal bar. The cartouche has an obvious link and symbolism to the sun, it is symbolic of protection against evil spirits both in this life and the afterlife.
The Sun
The sun played a very important role in ancient Egyptian life. It was responsible for life, light, and warmth. Ra the sun god was considered to be the king or father of all gods, and was typically worshiped by pharaohs as the primary deity of Egypt.
Obelisk
The obelisk is an architectural element that takes on a slender, truncated pyramid shape, surmounted by a pyramid-shaped tip. Usually the obelisks were made from a single block of stone.
Obelisk has a fundamental symbolic importance connected to the “energies of the earth”, expression of the active and fecundating principle that penetrates and radiates the passive and fecundated element.
Tree of Life symbol
The Tree of Life was a powerful and significant symbol to the ancient Egyptians. Its presence is linked to water, which according to Egyptian mythology provides eternal life as well as knowledge about time's cycles. The most important tree in this culture is what we know today as sycamore because they believe two would grow at heaven gates where Ra (sun god) passed through every day on his way up from earth into space
Canopic Jars
A canopic jar is a container that was used to deposit the viscera of the dead but not before having undergone a process of washing and embalming in ancient Egypt. The process was intended to keep intact the image of unity that the body should have. It is said that it had its name from the city of Canopus (located near Alexandria); it was the place where Osiris was represented in the form of a vessel, but with a human head.
Papyrus
A water plant, the Papyrus symbolizes the primeval marshes of the creation story. The heraldic plant of lower Egypt was used to decorate columns in temples built by the pharaohs. Papyrus plants were a symbol of Lower Egypt, and they had many uses in ancient times. The plant's leaves are tough enough to be used as paper, while the stems can be woven into mats or basketry. Egyptians also use it for manufacturing clothing items such as sandals due to its inherent durability against water damage from rainstorms.
