The scarab beetle was an exceedingly popular symbol in the art of Ancient Egypt, thought to represent the sun god, Ra. The Ancient Egyptians believed that the scarab beetle rolling its ball of dung across the desert mirrored the journey of the sun across the sky from day to night. As the beetle laid its eggs within the dung, it became a symbol of rebirth and regeneration.
The term ‘Hyksos’ can be traced back to the Egyptian expression ‘heka khasewet’, which means, “rulers of foreign lands”. The Hyksos of the fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling during the Second Intermediate Period, were thus of non-Egyptian origin. They were probably Canaanite, and one tends to find the names of rulers on their scarabs. The Hyksos Kingdom was centred in the eastern Nile Delta and Middle Egypt. It was limited in size, never extending south into Upper Egypt, and it had Memphis as its capital.
The god Horus was depicted as two deities; Horus the Elder and Horus the Younger. Horus the Elder was considered god of the sky and the son of Geb, Earth and Nut, Sky. As a god he was associated with both the sun and the moon. Horus the Younger was the son of Osiris and Isis, he too was associated with the sky, sun and the moon. He was the protector of Egypt’s royalty and defender of order, uniter of the two lands (lower and upper Egypt). Over time, both Horus deities were merged with Ra, the sun god, and represented as a falcon headed man bearing the sun disk and the crown of upper and lower Egypt.
To find out more about Ancient Egyptian amulets please see our relevant blog post: Egyptian Amulets and their Meanings.
