|
"[when] I became, the becoming became, I have become the becoming [the form] of Khepri who came into being on the First Time... ...when I became, the transformations became, all the metamorphoses coming to pass after I had become." translated Lucy Lamy, Egyptian Mysteries, p.14 |
In hieroglyphic writing kheper represents not only the sacred scarab "but also all the metamorphoses or transformations of which it is the symbol, as wll as the idea of becoming, in general. The word kheper thus means "to become" in all possible verbal forms, while Khepri is the entity embodied in the sun as it rises in the morning, when darkness becomes light." Lucy Lamy, Egyptian Mysteries, p.14 (Art and Imagination series, Thames and Hudson, 1981)
"Khepera was a form of the rising sun, and was both a type of matter which is on the point of passing from innertness into life, and also a dead body which is about to burst forth into a new life in a glorious form. He is depicted in the form of a man having a beetle for a head, and this insect was his type and emblem among ancient nations, because it was believed to be self-begotten and self-produced; to this notion we owe the myriads of beetles or scarabs which are found in tombs of all ages in Egypt, and also the Greek islands and settlements in the Mediterranean, and in Phoenecia, Syria and elsewhere. The seat of Khepera was in the boat of the sun, and the pictures which present us with this fact only illustrate an idea which is as old, at least, as the Pyramid of Unas, for in this monument it is said of the king
"He flieth like a bird, he alighteth like a beetle upon the empty throne in thy boat, O Ra."In the XVIIIth dynasty Queen Hatshepset declared herself to be "the creator of things which come into being like Khepera," and in later times scribes were excedingly fond of playing upon the word used as a noun, adjective, verb, and poper name."E. A. Wallis Budge
The Egyptian Book of the Dead pp.cix-cx
Dover Publications, New York, 1967
 |
some links | |
Beetles
As A Religious Symbol - by Yves Cambefort - an excellent coverage
- looking at the significance of the scarab in the mythology of many different
cultures
There is also 
a
type of robot called Khepera - interesting as it is in itself
it has nothing to do with the sacred scarab ;-)
Kheper |
images not loading? | broken links? | suggestions? | criticism?
contact me
