Symbolism in Ancient Egyptian Mythology

The sacred symbols of ancient Egypt — the ankh, the Eye of Horus, the scarab, the djed, the was, the tyet, and the sacred animals — are a small repertoire of pictorial signs through which the Egyptians expressed their religious ideas, identified their gods, and protected both the living and the dead. Richard H. Wilkinson’s The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (2003) is the standard catalog of these emblems; I keep my worn copy close at hand. The symbols are examined individually in sacred symbols of ancient Egypt and in the Eye of Horus.

To study Egyptian symbolism is to enter the visual theology that the Egyptian gods and goddesses wore as their attributes and that artists used to identify each member of the Ennead at a glance. The same symbols also entered the wider Egyptian mythology and beliefs system, becoming emblems of cosmic order, royal authority, and the soul’s journey.

The Logic of Egyptian Symbols

Egyptian symbols were not arbitrary decorations. They were conceived as condensed statements about the nature of reality. A symbol could be read literally — as a depiction of a frog, a sun disk, or a column — but it also pointed beyond itself to a divine power or a cosmic principle. The frog evoked fertility and the primordial waters of Nun because frogs appeared in their millions after the Nile flood. The sun disk identified the god Ra because the sun was his visible body.

This way of thinking linked the visible and the invisible, the natural and the divine. The Nile’s inundation, the rising of Sirius, the daily rebirth of the sun — all were signs in the same symbolic language, and the temple was the place where they were read and renewed. Even colors carried meaning: red for chaos and the desert, green for vegetation and rebirth, gold for the flesh of the gods, black for the fertile silt of the Nile and the resin used in mummification.

Sacred Animals: The Body of the God

Of all the forms Egyptian symbolism took, the most distinctive was the use of animals. Many gods were represented in animal form, in part-human part-animal form, or in both forms at once. The falcon identified Horus and Ra. The ibis identified Thoth. The jackal identified Anubis. The cow identified Hathor. The cat identified Bastet. Emily Teeter’s Religion and Ritual in Ancient Egypt (2011) is a good recent account of how seriously to take the animal as a cultic presence, not just a sign.

These identifications were not metaphors. The Egyptians believed that the divine could take animal form and that the animal could be a living image of the god. Bulls, cats, ibises, falcons, and crocodiles were kept in temple precincts, fed by priests, and mummified in their millions when they died. Some of the most striking archaeological finds from Egypt — the vast catacombs of mummified cats and ibises at sites like Bubastis and Saqqara — are direct products of this belief.

The animal was also a clue to the god’s nature. The falcon, soaring above the fields and seeing all beneath, embodied the vigilance of Horus. The ibis, with its long curved beak, embodied the measuring and recording activity of Thoth. The scarab beetle, rolling its ball of dung, embodied the rolling sun and the spontaneous generation of life. Each animal was a small theological treatise.

The Principal Sacred Symbols

A small repertoire of emblems appears again and again on temple walls, on coffins, and on amulets. Together they form a kind of basic vocabulary of Egyptian religious art.

• The Ankh — the cross with a loop at the top — is the hieroglyph for “life.” It is held by gods and kings in countless reliefs, often touching the nose of the deceased to convey the breath of life. The ankh is examined in sacred symbols of ancient Egypt.

• The Eye of Horus — a stylized eye with a curved teardrop and a spiral beneath — is the emblem of healing, protection, and royal power. It is one of the most widespread symbols in Egyptian art, and it is the subject of the Eye of Horus: meaning, myth, and protection.

• The Scarab — a representation of the dung beetle — embodies the rising sun, spontaneous generation, and the soul’s transformation. Scarabs were used as seals and amulets, including the famous heart scarabs placed on the chest of mummies.

• The Djed — a column with crossbars near the top — is the symbol of stability and endurance. It was associated with Osiris and the city of Memphis.

• The Was scepter — a long staff with a forked base and an animal head at the top — is the symbol of dominion. Gods hold it to indicate their authority over the world.

• The Tyet — a knotted cloth or girdle — is the symbol of Isis. It is often paired with the ankh and the djed in a triad of emblems.

The Crowns of the Gods

Symbolism extended to the very crowns the gods wore. The White Crown of Upper Egypt (the Hedjet) and the Red Crown of Lower Egypt (the Deshret) were worn by the king and by gods associated with each region. The Double Crown (Pschent) combined them and was worn by Horus of Edfu and by the king in his role as unifier of the Two Lands. The Atef crown, an elaborate headdress with tall plumes, was worn by Osiris in his role as lord of the dead.

The crowns are not just royal regalia. They are theological statements. Each crown embodied a particular aspect of divine kingship and was associated with a particular myth, city, or ritual. The act of crowning the king in the temple was a symbolic restoration of the original order established at creation.

Amulets and Personal Symbols

The Egyptians wore their symbols. Amulets were produced in enormous numbers and were placed on the body in life, on the mummy in death, and as votive offerings in temples. Some amulets were shaped like gods — a tiny Ptah, a tiny Thoth — but most were shaped like the sacred emblems: the ankh, the scarab, the djed, the Eye of Horus, the tit knot, the papyrus scepter, the plumb line, and many others.

The choice of amulet was not random. Amulets were chosen for the protection they offered the body and the soul: the djed for the spine, the tit for the womb, the Eye of Horus for the brow. They were also chosen to identify the wearer with a particular god or with a particular destiny. A heart scarab, placed over the heart of the mummy, was inscribed with a spell from the Book of the Dead urging the heart not to testify against its owner at the weighing of the heart.

Symbolic Architecture

The temple itself was a three-dimensional symbol. Its alignment, its proportions, its decoration all carried theological meaning. A typical New Kingdom temple, like the Temple of Karnak, was aligned to the sunrise of a particular day of the year, and its procession paths followed the symbolic journey of the sun. The pylons represented the horizon. The hypostyle hall represented the primordial marsh from which creation emerged. The sanctuary at the center housed the god’s statue, the most concentrated symbol of divine presence in the temple.

The pyramid was perhaps the most ambitious symbol of all. Its four sides, aligned to the cardinal directions, expressed the stability of Geb and the eternal renewal of the sun. The interior held the king’s body and the texts that would guide his soul.

Reading Egyptian Symbols

Modern readers must be careful with Egyptian symbolism. Many popular interpretations are modern inventions, and even ancient symbols were not always read the same way in every period. The ankh, for example, has sometimes been explained in modern sources as a sexual symbol, but the ancient Egyptians appear to have understood it primarily as a sign of life in a more general sense.

Nevertheless, the Egyptian symbolic system is internally consistent, and the principal emblems — ankh, djed, was, scarab, Eye of Horus, tyet — can be read with reasonable confidence. They are a remarkable example of a culture that conceived of the world itself as a structure of signs, in which the visible was a comment on the invisible and the invisible was present in every visible thing.

The pages gathered under this section explore individual emblems in detail. They are best read together with the broader Egyptian mythology and beliefs pillar and the Egyptian gods and goddesses pillar that describe the gods whose attributes these symbols are.