Posted By admin on February 3, 2009

Ancient Egyptian Scarab

What was the importance of the Scarab to the Ancient Egyptians?

There are always scarabs in the depictions of Ancient Egypt, and Hollywood has made them famous with their production of The Mummy. (I know that they were, obviously, not flesh-eating bugs, by the way. They're related to the dung-beetle.) Why were they special?

The best-known scarab beetle rolls a ball of dung away from a dung heap to bury it. "It is generally agreed among egyptologists that the veneration of the scarab beetle in ancient Egypt came originally from the ball-rolling habit of this species (although this ancient worship was eventually extended to all scarab beetles).

According to their ancient texts, the Egyptians believed that the scarab beetle came into being spontaneously from balls of dung and they associated this with their religious ideology of self-creation and resurrection. Thus, the scarab beetle was worshipped under the name Khepri (meaning 'he who has come into being' or 'he who came forth from the earth'). As a self-created deity, Khepri became synonymous with the creator-god, Atum, of earlier times."

http://www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/scarab.htm

"The supposed self-creation of the beetle resembles that of Khepri, who creates himself out of nothing. Moreover, the dung ball rolled by a dung beetle resembles the sun. The ancient Egyptians believed that Khepri renewed the sun every day before rolling it above the horizon, then carried it through the other world after sunset, only to renew it, again, the next day."

http://www.ancient-egypt.co.uk/scarabs/index.htm

http://www.egyptian-scarabs.co.uk/

http://www.egyptianmyths.net/scarab.htm

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/animalgods.htm

Category: Antiques
Tags: ancient egyptian scarab, ancient egyptian scarab beetle, ancient egyptian scarab jewelry, ancient egyptian scarab seals, ancient egyptian scarabs for sale